Trommel Music followed Julian Perez during a weekend visit to Rotterdam, Netherlands — a city with a complex relationship with electronic music, having been the birthplace of gabber-house and hardcore in the early 90s, yet historically less supportive of club culture than Amsterdam.
The feature documents his itinerary: a gym session, a tour of M4H — a repurposed industrial factory space at the forefront of Rotterdam's new cultural development — and a visit to a landmark record shop owned by Michel Steinbach, a key figure from the city's formative rave era. The piece contrasts the city's industrial past with its present resurgence as a hub for electronic music.
Perez was in Rotterdam for a four-hour set at BAR, known for its intimate atmosphere and Void soundsystem. The format suited his approach to long sets: building a full narrative arc across genres, from rolling deep house through to late-night dub techno, never locking into a single tempo or mood.
The article presented Perez as an artist who carefully selects his performances, remaining studio-focused between bookings and avoiding the saturation trap that affects many touring DJs. His labels — Fathers & Sons Productions and the newer Girada Unlimited — were highlighted as expressions of that same discipline: releasing only when something is genuinely ready, never to fill a schedule.
Rotterdam's promoters noted that "their city was not to be underestimated" — a sentiment that resonated with Perez's own approach to discovering new audiences: arriving without assumptions, reading the room from the first record.