Just a few Dutch artists get as much critical acclaim both nationally and off-shore, right up to Brazil. Then again, when you're no stranger to performing at major festival style raves such as Dance Valley, you must have made a lasting impression.
Riches, if you haven't heard him play or DJ, there's an equal chance you've seen his graphic work. It includes designing flyer & websites for well known event-organizations and many cover sleeves for records & cd’s.
As being one of the leading designers for big raves in the early
nineties, Richard worked with dance organizations for their promotional purposes. His employers were often pleasantly surprised with the background music he put on when they worked on a project. As a DJ, Riches received his first invitation in 1996 to mix psychedelic dub & chill-out at the famous Melkweg venue. Multigroove asked him to become a resident DJ for their chill-out zones at their bigger raves as the response grew in enthusiasm. Since then he played chilled music at loads of different events.
From small parties to festivals in Spain and the Swiss alps.
Summer 2002 marked another milestone for DJ Riches.
His appearances at Mysteryland (35.000 people) and at two leading psytrance events in Brazil, Trancendence in the summer and 3 amazing DJ-sets at Universo Paralello the Brazilian new years festival, concludes the distinction with the average DJ. A year later at Dance Valley 2003 (50.000 people) he proved that he got more tricks on his sleeve. He played a glorious live Aerophobia performance, the longest live-set of the whole event.
When he performed at the Legalize street rave (8.000 people), he attracted a major amount of the audience from the 8 stages. On top of that he did a double appearance on the 1st Solstice festival in Amsterdam/Ruigoord. Next to that he also began as programmer and resident DJ for the underground Alien Vibes party series.
Earning him the title as one of the most active and promising trance artists in the Netherlands. (Quote from Earthdance website) This resulted in the honor of playing a rocking live-set for the Earthdance organization.
That same year, and a part of 2004 he was hosting the progressive area for the biggest and most successful club of Amsterdam, the Xtra Large. Together with the well known DJ Lucas (Metalspark / M-Tracks). In the meanwhile he also became the main DJ and programmer of many underground Zirk events (about 25 parties in 2 years). At the end of that year he did a Brazilian tour playing live & Dj-sets at various places in the country, to end on new year again at the 5th edition of Universo Paralello, where he did double live-sets and a DJ-set.
In the spring of 2005 he started Holland’s only weekly progressive/psytrance club night Aknatronix together with his good friends; Liftshift and DJ Zen.
This club night finally made it possible that the captivating progressive tunes got accepted by the psychedelic crowd in Holland, thanks to the great atmosphere they created. As most psy-parties before that only programmed full-on music.
In October 2005 Aknatronix was invited to join the Amsterdam Dance Event, one of the worlds leading international conferences for electronic dance music. For the event that had to be organized they contracted the German G-Plus label (X-Dream, The Delta, Midimiliz) and was completely sold out in advance. By the end of 2005 Riches visited Brazil again. This time together with Liftshift on yet another warm Universo adventure where both of them were doing a live & dj-set. Followed by playing on some small parties afterwards, enjoying the wonderful vibe and the sunny people.
After returning to Holland he appeared primetime on the mainstage of the Digital Overdose indoor festival (5000 people) between techno icons as C.J. Bolland & Billy Nasty. Playing a groovy full-on psytrance set. As most of the visitors never heard these uplifting sounds before, the audience was very surprised, but within a few tracks he rocked the dancefloor completely. After his dj-set he had to run to chill-out area to do his downbeat live-set.
When the organization of the Alien Vibes parties re-entered orbit, he got invited for playing as the main DJ at their opening party and got asked again for their future events. Only a week later his own Aknatronix organization did their first party of this year, and it was sold out completely, within 2 hours after opening the venue. For the end April he will be performing twice on Hollands greatest national celebration; Queensday. Traveling the same day from playing at the far side of thecountry back to Amsterdam’s big Queensday afterparty to play for the Trancemafia organization.
For the coming summer he got invited to host a complete psytrance area together with the Aknatronix crew on Ground Zero, the only nighttime outdoor techno/hard dance festival of Holland. On top of that he played at the mother of all psytrance festivals, Voov Experience in Germany. Where he got a 3hr set on the mainstage. Also at the end of the year 2006 he will be returning to Universo Paralello in brasil for a new Brzilian adventure.
And if you can’t find him at the DJ booth, he is probably roaming the dance floor, as his favorite place is in between the speakers. Enjoying the music and making fun!
