Boris Bunnik will release the first Versalife full-length, Vantage Point, on March 4th.

Bunnik is perhaps best known for his robust techno productions as Conforce, but he operates under a multitude of other aliases, including Hexagon, Vernon Felicity and the dub techno-focused Silent Harbour. Versalife is the project the Dutchman reserves for his more electro-inspired material, with several 12-inches already on Clone's West Coast Series offshoot, the same label that will release Vantage Point.

Although this is the debut Versalife album, it's by no means Bunnik's first full-length outing, with two Conforce LPs released in the past four years. Vantage Point's sound was reportedly inspired by "the horizons and emptiness" of Bunnik's homeland in Friesland, northern Holland. (The album will arrive in artwork from fellow Friesland native Robert Zandvliet.) The news arrives amid a prolific spell for Bunnik: he recently announced his own vinyl-only label, Transcendent, and has and four-track EP set to drop on Delsin later this month as Conforce.

Tracklist
01. Subdomain
02. Sonic Signals
03. Recombinant Creations
04. Below The Horizon
05. Further Corrections
06. Normal Behavior
07. Emphasis
08. Implementation
09. Advancing Capabilities
10. Pessimism

Clone West Coast Series will release Vantage Point on March 4th, 2013.

Leading Amsterdam venue Trouw has been granted a 24-hour license by Dutch authorities.

The club, which opened in February 2009, is located in a former newspaper printing factory in the city's east. The two-levelled venue is widely regarded as one of Europe's leading nightclubs, with a stated aim of combining music, art and food (the venue even has its own restaurant). A 24-hour clubbing license is—outside Berlin and London—a rarity in major European cities, and of the three venues granted round-the-clock licenses today, Trouw is the only one currently operating. The new license will come into effect immediately.

Until now, Trouw was only permitted to open until 3:00 AM during the week and 5:00 AM on weekends; under the new legislation it can stay open as late as it wants. Owner and creative director Olaf Boswijk says the club will slowly extend its opening hours, especially when DJs with a knack for long sets come to town. Trouw is also planning a "night museum," with a basement space set aside for late night art exhibitions.

RA's associate editor Will Lynch caught up with Boswijk to discuss the implications of the license:

How did this happen? What prompted the city to consider all this?

Over the last ten years there’s been a strong call from everybody involved in Amsterdam’s club scene for longer opening hours. In Amsterdam we have an official mayor, and then there’s an unofficial night mayor who essentially represents nightlife and clubs at the city council. Every night mayor in the last ten years has lobbied for better opening hours, and every time comparisons were made with Berlin, but the city council never really wanted to change anything. But the new mayor, who came into office just over a year ago, is a bit more pragmatic. He wants to make sure that Amsterdam has a 24-hour economy that can rival Berlin, London and other creative cities. The other main reason is to reduce problems with people leaving clubs at the same time. For years people have been telling the council that when every club closes at 5:00 AM and the streets flood with people, it creates problems.

Needless to say, this doesn't mean Trouw will be open 24/7. How will regular weekend change exactly?

Generally we’ll start stretching things out slowly and see what happens. I think if we have really good nights regularly and often feel like the magic just starts happening at 3:00 or 4:00 am, then we'll stay open an extra couple of hours until 6:00 or 7:00 AM. With people like Ben Klock and Laurent Garnier playing next month, we have a good opportunity. It just depends on the DJs, the clubbers and whether the staff are fit and able to keep working. In April we have some special weekends planned where we might do a Saturday event that goes into Sunday.

Is this something that you’ve wanted for a long time?

It’s been discussed for more than two years. Of course, we’re yet to see what it does to the club and the business. Obviously there will be other concerns as well; we’ll need extra staff and we will have to persuade people to work longer hours, but I think the main thing is that we are getting more creative freedom. It will really help us to be able to offer guest DJs longer sets. We’ll also be able to give our residents even better spots. Now it’s often a case of the resident warming up for the headliner, but now you can have an upcoming local do the opening slot, then the international headliner, and then our main local resident do the last hours, with a three- or four-hour set which could really work well for them. I think that’s going to be really exciting.

Are you confident that local crowds will be up for longer hours?

I’m quite convinced people will want to party for longer hours—I’ve been hearing that for a long time. But on the other hand the Dutch crowd isn’t like, for example, the Berlin crowd. I would say people are really used to going out between 12:00 and 6:00 AM. There is an after party scene in Amsterdam, but I mean obviously if you’re staying open for a weekend you’ll have to change your habits. If a Saturday night goes into Sunday afternoon, the whole vibe changes too.

Can you say who else is being considered for this license?

Yes. There are two other clubs that are going to get one. One is more like a concert venue set up by Paradiso in the north just outside of Amsterdam, the other club will be in an old Shell building, which will open its doors in 2015. There are also some licenses which will go to hotel lobby bars, gyms; anything that cultivates a 24-hour economy. Of the clubs (that have been granted a license) we are the only one that’s actually open now.

The Click-Clock Clingeling Christmas Special will take place in Amsterdam on December 26th.

The 10-hour Boxing Day party will take over the city's Westerpark complex for the evening and early morning. Much like its parent party Click, the Clingeling Christmas Special is all about house and techno, with 15 acts split across four stages. Detroit veteran Stacey Pullen will headline the "Click" stage, backed up by Spanish techno DJ Reeko and Amsterdam local DJ Remy. The "Clack" stage, meanwhile, will feature live sets from Swedish duo Minilogue and Gabriel Ananda, plus DJ sets from Edu Imbernon and several others. Leeds-based Get Physical signee Hot Since 82 will headline the the "Clock" stage, and finally the local-centric "Clingeling" stage will see sets from ISIS and Zender.

The first names have been announced for 5 Days Off 2013, taking place in Amsterdam from March 6th through the 10th.

As usual, the festival's program is split between two of Amsterdam's most popular clubs: Melkweg and Paradiso. More than 20 names have been announced so far. Modeselektor will headline a 50 Weapons showcase, also featuring A Made Up Sound and Addison Groove. Audio Culture will host a night at Paradiso with Gilles Peterson, Benji B, Midland and Floating Points. Drum & Bass institution Hospital Records will take over Paradiso as well. Other highlights include Shed, Anstam, Phon.o, Bambounou and Benjamin Damage. Expect more acts to be announced over the next few months.

Jamie Jones will headline the Straf_werk closing party on December 30.

The deep house party has had a strong year in 2012, booking artists like Âme and Daniel Bortz to play several venues including Melkweg and a beach club. They'll end their year with a large-scale closing party at the Westerpark complex. Four different stages will be set up around the venue for a marathon 13-hour affair.

Hot Creations co-founder Jamie Jones will head up the star-studded bill, also featuring 2012 UK hotshot and Leftroom associate Laura Jones, Norwegian disco head Todd Terje and his countryman Prins Thomas. Also featured is Danish DJ and producer Noir, the UK's No Artificial Colours, French group Amine Edge + DANCE, Belgian Kolombo, Norwegian Finnebassen and Mancunian Ben Pearce of "What I Might Do" fame. There's a healthy helping of Dutch talent as well, with Homework, Prunk, Sandeep, Bakermat and Pony all lined up to play.

The lineup has been revealed for Time Warp Holland 2012, taking place on December 8th.

This year's Dutch edition of the German festival will deliver exactly the kind of hard-hitting lineup that's long been Time Warp's calling card. Topping the bill are big room heavyweights like Chris Liebing, Umek, John Digweed and the ever-charismatic Sven Väth. Gui Boratto will play live, along with Robert Hood, Extrawelt, Gaiser, Guti, Kollektiv Turmstrasse and Extrawelt. Marcel Dettmann and Marcel Fengler bring the Berghain vibes. Other highlights include Tommy Four Seven, Steve Rachmad, Paco Osuna, Nic Fanciulli, Mathias Kaden and Time Warp regular Karotte. This year's festival will happen at a new venue: Jaarbeurs in Utrecht.

Valhalla, a new wintertime festival in Amsterdam, will have its first edition on December 22nd.

Held at the Amsterdam RAI convention center, Valhalla is something like a collection of special club nights all held within the same complex, with big players in the local dance music community holding down a multitude of stages. Local deep house promoters Plainvrees will showcase Agoria, Dominik Eulberg and live sets from Einmusik and Rodriguez Jr.. FORMAT, Juan Sanchez's monthly at AIR, has put together a lineup that includes Ben Sims, Sandwell District and Alex Under. John Talabot, Deetron, Cosmin TRG, Tom Trago and more have signed on for the Dekmantel stage, and the club night Colors will pair Mosca with Gerd. GirlsLoveDJs, Apenkooi, Bar27, and Paardenkracht will also have stages, with Chicago Social Club parties Backstage and Nachtdivisie joining forces for a single showcase.

The promoters have put together a teaser trailer for the festival, which you can check out right here.

Beatport and Native Instruments have teamed up for a series of ADE events called Traktor Cookery School.

Traktor Cookery School will ask influential artists and industry figures to prepare their favorite dish for a small group of conference delegates. The guest chef will say a few words about his or her dish, and also share some insights on music and digital DJing. Guest chefs won't be announced until the day of the event (via a notice board outside the building), but those locked in for the week include Francois K, Loco Dice, Blond:ish, Daniel Miller, Ann and Tony Andrews of Funktion One, Native Instruments CEO Daniel Haver and Elliot Shaw from DC-10. Each event will also have a variety of Native Instruments products on display and product specialists on hand to explain them.

The sessions will take place next door to The Dylan, where much of ADE's other events will take place. Entrance is free to conference attendees but capacity is very limited. If you're not about for the event, RA will be providing regular updates via Twitter and Facebook.

Clone, Delsin and Rush Hour will join forces this Friday for an ADE showcase at Trouw.

Together the three labels form a sort of Dutch house and techno triumvirate, with at least as much influence abroad as they have at home. Clone and Rush Hour both follow the same complex business model from their respective home cities (Rotterdam and Amsterdam): record label (with numerous sub-labels), record shop (both online and brick-and-mortar) and international distributor. Delsin, meanwhile, has been one of Holland's most esteemed techno labels for over a decade, with a catalog that includes dubby classics like Newworldaquarium's "Trespassers."

The showcase this Friday will be a rare chance to see all three labels coming together under one roof. Representing Clone are A Made Up Sound, Dexter (playing live), Gerd, label founder Serge and electro luminary Danny Wolfers, AKA Legowelt, who will play live with Xosar. From the Delsin camp there's Delta Funktionen, Conforce (playing live) and Aroy Dee. San Proper and Tom Trago will fly the flag for Rush Hour, with the latter DJing solo and playing live with Awanto 3 as Alfabet.

The party will take over both floors of the club. Tickets are available here on RA.

Conforce will launch a new label called Transcendent later this month.

Born Boris Bunnik, the Dutch producer known primarily as Conforce is a man of many aliases, including Versalife, Silent Harbour and Vernon Felicity. He'll kick off his and partner Julius de Wal's label—described on Delsin's website as an imprint focused on "deep and abstract mental sound excursions"—with an EP as Hexagon, a new guise that surfaced on a bonus 12-inch bundled with his last Conforce LP, Escapism. The Red Shift EP finds Bunnik at his most diverse and futuristic, traversing styles as diverse as Autonomic-style drum & bass, buzzing ambience and pulsing techno. This first release from the vinyl-only label will be available only through Delsin's online shop (future EPs will see wider release), and only 150 copies will be pressed. You can listen to clips of all four tracks over at Conforce's SoundCloud page.

Tracklist
A1 Red Shift
A2 Interference
B1 Fractional Wavelength
B2 Permutation

Transcendent will release the Red Shift EP on October 31st, 2012.