- Every year more and more Moscovites tend to spend their New Year vacations abroad, often on some sunny island. Perhaps as a consequence of this trend, ARMA17 didn't invite a massive headliner for their most recent New Year's Eve celebrations. Unlike 2010's, which were graced with Ricardo Villalobos, and 2011's, which saw the full a:rpia:r team behind the decks, NYE 2012 was headlined by the relatively lesser known Rhadoo. The Romanian appears at ARMA17 pretty regularly and even celebrated his latest birthday here, so he was quite a safe bet for the 24-hour marathon.
At midnight, Nastia, the night's opener, stopped her set to let the chimes in. Then ARMA17 listened to the customary Russian hymn, and fortunately did so without the president's speech (up until a couple of years ago they used to project the president's face on the brick wall). Audio Werner's ensuing live set seemed too crispy and perhaps too harsh for the New Year mood, so I moved to the Bar17 room. Bar17's deep, sweet and a bit upbeat sound presented a nice alternative to the uncompromising main room—the music being provided by Stephan Bodzin (also a safe bet, by the way—he has already played at Bar17 alongside Marc Romboy) and then Mike Spirit.
The true rave started at 7 AM with Piticu and then Rhadoo on the decks. Piticu could be called ARMA17's blue-eyed boy. He played his debut set there for free, but almost in a twinkling of an eye worked his way up to headliner status. On this night, though, Rhadoo seemed unbeatable. Being familiar with his audience, the Romanian caught the mood and built up a balanced set which I find difficult to characterize—you could call it a predictably good one (because it could be easily foreseen that Rhadoo would cope with his mission at a club he regularly spins at) or a delightfully unpredictable one (because the music selection was rather exciting). Either way, it was an undeniably intense performance, perfectly matching guaranteed party tracks and unknown treasures. For this New Year's Eve, it turned out that bigger isn't always better in Moscow.