A2 “Young Pretty Boy”

Young Marco: "Psychotic Particles" (via SoundCloud)

“You're standing at the apex of Amsterdam right there,” says babyfaced DJ Marco Sterk, aka Young Marco, gesturing to the field and forest. I ask him if the country’s EDM superstars inform what’s happening out here at the Bos. “Amsterdam’s music scene is stronger than ever now, but that whole world is not attached to it at all,” he says. “Because those guys are playing Vegas casino shows and they don't give anything back to Amsterdam culture at all.”

Born in the north of Holland, Young Marco moved to Amsterdam at the age of 18 and started working at the shop/distributor/label Rush Hour, where he helped kick off a vital reissue series highlighting producers ranging from Anthony “Shake” Shakir to Danny Wang and his Balihu label. He says that his DJ name came from Wang’s frequent calls to the Rush Hour office, looking for “young pretty boy Marco.”

Young Marco: "Trippy Isolator" (via SoundCloud)

Marco has played Dekmantel Festival every year so far and likes that they aren’t expanding too fast. “A lot of people in Amsterdam don't get ahead of themselves because they like how this thing is going right now,” he says. It’s a relaxed, humble manner of working that runs through Dekmantel as well as a stable of Dutch producers including Young Marco, Tom Trago, San Proper, Juju & Jordash, and Hunee, to name but a few.

Not that they’re not industrious. Marco is now too busy DJing, producing, and remixing to do label work. He’s just back from a spate of shows opening up for Jamie xx on his U.S. tour and playing twice during the festival before heading off to San Sebastian and Frankfurt. Recently, he recorded an album in Bali with a gamelan orchestra. Under a canopy of trees, his Boiler Room set breezes from Harlequin Fours’ version of “Set It Off” to an obscure Caribbean boogie take on “The Sweetest Taboo” that gets the crowd roaring. His productions tread a similar ground: drum-heavy yet light on their feet, taking cues from soulful house as well as synthetic island grooves.

During a visit to Red Light Records, situated just downstairs from Marco’s studio, I notice tons of rare reggae, Surinamese, and Cape Verdean records on the racks, suggesting that this Dutch dance music is open to many other rhythms. It makes sense that Marco’s former employer, Rush Hour, just reissued a killer Surinamese boogie record, Tryin to Survive, by a leather-vested Prince wannabe named Sumy.

Sumy: "Tryin to Survive" (via SoundCloud)

“It'd be kind of cheesy to say it comes from import culture—like this seafaring and tradesman thing—but that's a real factor here in Amsterdam,” Marco says. “There's a lot of guys doing very different stuff, but it's a small city, so there's no getting around being close-knit.”