Marc Romboy

ADE Exclusive Mix

DJ, producer and label head Marc Romboy is one of the staples of Europe’s tech house sound. A native of the nearly unpronounceable Moenchengladbach, Germany, he first discovered electronic music via Kraftwerk’s “The Robots.” The obsession spread upon his hearing early Chicago house and second wave Detroit techno coming from Plus 8 and Underground resistance.

20+ years later, Romboy heads the Systematic label, which has released dozens of his own solo recordings and collaborations with Blake Baxter, Robert Owens, Tommie Sunshine, Stephan Bodzin, Gui Boratto and Booka Shade. Living close to the Dutch-German border meant that Romboy was part of Amsterdam Dance Event from it’s formative years. Which is why we asked him to record this special ADE podcast for URB.

Marc Romboy ADE Mix Tracklist

1.) Omar S & Ignitt “Wayne County Hill Cops” (FXHE)

2.) Makam “What Ya Doin” (Denkmantel)

3.) Marc Romboy “More Muzik” (Systematic Recordings)

4.) Guido Schneider & Florian Schirmacher “In the Toilet” (Moon Harbour)

5.) Maddslinky “Compuphonic” (Broadwalk)

6.) Jovonn “Jump Off” (Objektivity)

7.) Marc Romboy “The Speech” (100% pure)

8.) Eats Everything “Vertigo” (Dirty Bird)

9.) Marc Romboy “The Advent” (Nic Fanciulli Remix) (Systematic Recordings)

10.) Kevin Saunderson “The Sound” (Jay Lumen Remix)

11.) Sian “Canary in the Coalmine” (Bart Skillz Remix) (Octopus)

12.) Vainquer “Lyot” (CS & WHBA Edit)

13.) Max Cooper “Raw” (Marc Romboys Sub Attack) (Traum)

URB: How many years have you been coming to ADE? How has it evolved?

I have been there from the very beginning. I live only two hours away from Amsterdam by car, close to the German/Dutch border. In the beginning, ADE was a little convention, more of a family thing that took mainly place in the pub of the convention building (laughs). It was good fun, although I´m happy it has developed so well.

URB: What’s your fondest memory from the festival, or Amsterdam in general?

Amsterdam is one of the towns where I play the most. It has a very vital House and Techno scene and it´s actually the place where I bought my first dance music records back in the days, around 1990. A period of time when there were no record stores for this kind of music in Germany, believe it or not.

URB: ADE is described by a lot of Americans as the European WMC. Is there a reason why American dance music fans should care about a European conference?

Ha, ha, really? When it comes to the weather, these people would be very disappointed because it´s already getting colder here. I think that it´s really worth to come over as flights are not that expensive anymore and Amsterdam is a really unique town with many great pubs, clubs, museums and record stores, like Rush Hour, which I always love to visit. For me personally, ADE is even more important than WMC because all is about the music and not the beach (smirks).

URB: Besides the Systematic event, what else do you have planned for that week?

I have to admit that I will only visit my own label night, as unhedonistic as it might sound. I´m coming back from my holiday one day before and will be pretty fresh. I will have a couple of business meetings during the afternoon and later on I´m joining a panel with the likes of Loco Dice, Ian Pooley and Steve Lawler! It will be good fun.

URB: What is the one thing you hope to accomplish more than anything else at ADE this year?

The only essential thing is to have a great night with all my friends I have invited to come to our party at Chicago Social Club. It´s maybe our coolest line up ever, with only people closely connected to the Systematic family, like Satoshi Tomiie, Christian Smith, Max Cooper, Sleepy & Boo from Basic NYC, Robert Babicz and KiNK with whom I´ve just finished a new EP. So no more wishes necessary…

Systematic’s ADE party takes place Friday Oct. 19 at Chicago Social Club with Marc Romboy, Christian Smith, Robert Babicz. Full info HERE.