Sander Van Doorn Review
Sound Bar - 04/09/10
Review By: Eric Hill
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It was what I imagined most Friday’s were like at Sound-Bar. The DJ’s were spinning their best stuff to a very enthusiastic crowd. Beautiful women and handsome men all congregated to dance the night away. It was all pretty standard fare. That is until about 1:30 am.
At 1:30 am you learned the difference between really good DJ’s and Premiere, World Renowned DJ’s. At 1:30 am, Sander Van Doorn took over the main dance room. You learned what a DJ that was ranked at #10 in the world sounds like. Even if you didn’t happen to be looking, you would have realized that someone else was manning the mixer. Sander Van Doorn is a powerhouse DJ, and he let everyone know it.
Sander has many aliases (Sandler, Sam Sharp, Purple Haze to name a few), and he is a DJ as well as a Producer and Re-mixer. His production skills definitely show while he’s performing a live set. His mixes showed more originality, more clarity, and more structure than a typical DJ mix. There were accents, changes in dynamics and other things that you would normally attribute to other forms of music. He structures things in a way that keeps everything fresh and moving, which is probably the most important thing when you want to keep the crowd jumping. A little more than midway into his set, he put a relatively quiet section in his mix, mainly synthesizers. It seemed like he wanted to give everyone a breather because he had been relentless up to that point. But he wasted little time getting back to the crushing beats that literally shook the walls. I know, I was leaning on one.
The dance crowd loved him, and he loved them back. His confidence in what he was doing really shined through. The thing that struck me the most was that he SMILED….A LOT! He was having just as much fun as we were. Being able to connect like that is a gift. The DJ’s before him were great, but they didn’t really connect with the crowd. They spun their music and people danced. When Sander came out, the vibe changed. The energy level picked up and he was not going to let it come back down. It was like this for about 2 hours straight. The beats were so strong and well crafted that you just knew you were hearing something special.
On this night Sander was king, reaching out with both arms while people on the dance floor reached back towards him. With his mixing and production skills, matched with his stage presence and persona, there is nothing to hold him back from being one of the most unique DJ’s of this era.
Sander Van Doorn Biography
Thought to be a technical genius by many, Sander van Doorn is without a doubt one of the worlds most essential, influential and populist DJ/Producers in dance music today. In very short order, Sander has become a brand synonymous with excellence – both production wise and in front of the thousands he plays to nightly. Recently awarded the “Top 10 DJ” honor by DJ Mag (Oct 28, 09), Sander’s rise has been nothing short of phenomenal.
Those with an ear for music have known of Sander for some time now, but 2008 really ramped the producer’s popularity and tour diary into overdrive. Headlining the most prestigious institutions dance music has ever known {Mysterland (NL), Dance Valley (NL), Global Gathering (UK), Godskitchen, Garudas, Sankeys, Pacha (NY) Cream (Ibiza Residency), Sensation, Trance Energy and EDC (LA)} to name but a few, Sander has become what Armin van Buuren describes as “A DJ’s DJ.”
Hailing from a small town in The Netherlands called Eindhoven, Sander van Doorn today is electronic music royalty. But of course, this wasn’t always so.
“I started going out to parties when I was 14. We had parties in Holland called ‘Tunnel Raves’ which are like free parties. It was from going to these that I knew I wanted to be a DJ.”- SvD
Early in 2004, Sander was beginning his DJ career, playing locally and producing one offs that he could play out. It wasn’t until he produced a bootleg of the Polices’ ‘Message in a Bottle’ that industry began to take notice. Within two short years, Sander was named Mixmags ‘Future Hero’, with no one really knowing how truly prophetic that title would become. Massive productions followed and garnered Sander the coveted Breakthrough Artist Award at the 2008 IDMA’s in Miami, and a nomination for Best Breakthrough Track for “Riff.” 2008 also saw the release of Supernaturalistic, Sanders first artist album. The album immediately connected with fans and industry alike, charting prominently and cemented Sanders standing within the EDM community.
Sanders alter egos have allowed the superstar to weave seamlessly between genres, furthering his massive popularity among a diverse cross section of fans. Recording under such aliases as; Sam Sharp, Sandler, Purple Haze and Filterfunk, Sander van Doorn has amassed a legacy of recordings (originals, remixes and bootlegs) that are not only anthems, but songs that define a generation. Not bad for a lad from Eindhoven.
It’s no surprise then that 2009 has been Sanders best year to date. Remixes for Robbie Williams, The Killers and Depeche Mode have all escalated the stock of this uber talented artist and made him one the most in demand DJ’s in the world. He continues to awe fans and peers alike with his flawless DJ sets and his genius in the studio.