It's been quite a year for globetrotting DJ/producer Lee Burridge and the loose collective of artists he's gathered under the banner of All Day I Dream. In 2016 alone, the nomadic party series touched down in Berlin, London, Paris, Ibiza, and Beirut, to name just a few international destinations. This Saturday, ADID will add another notch in its bedpost with a special "secret island" party during Art Basel Miami Beach. That secret location was revealed yesterday: Virginia Key Beach Park. It's technically an island, yes, but perhaps not as exotic a locale as some had hoped. Though, the whole "secret island" ploy could also have been a crafty way to sneak past the environmentalists who had Virginia Key's Float Bash cancelled back in August.
But island or no island — the party is sure to be one of the week's best, as fans of All Day I Dream have come to expect.
"We've been grateful to be invited to a lot of new places this year, and the party's popularity is growing steadily," Burridge says. "I always saw the possibility and intended to export it from its home in New York around the globe."
"The whole thing is a trip, a journey of sorts."
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Though ADID was officially launched in 2011, the intellectual origins of this growing dance-music institution go back a bit further, to the late 2000s. The UK-born Burridge had already been DJing for more than three decades, and a reputation for eclectic genre-bending sets preceded him on dance floors the world over. But eclecticism was not exactly the order of the day in clubland back then, nor was the quality of melody that Burridge came to feel was missing from much club music.
"The sound of that time had been dominated by minimal techno and house, which I started feeling lacked a certain musicality," he explains. "I wanted to bring back a specific feeling to the dance floor that I'd experienced many times in the past, as no one else was creating this kind of atmosphere over a whole night — or daytime, as I decided to start [ADID] as."
In 2008, Burridge contributed a DJ mix for Resident Advisor's esteemed podcast series titled All Day I Dream. It showcased the new melodic direction his sound was heading in and would prove prophetic of where dance music was headed as a whole at the turn of the decade. Emboldened by the podcast's popularity over the course of the next three years, Burridge would throw the very first ADID party on a Williamsburg, Brooklyn, rooftop in the summer of 2011. The brand would begin making considerable ripples across a dance-music scene that, like the DJ himself, was weary of soulless percussive minimal beats and hungry for more emotive and contemplative dance fare.What Burridge set out to do then, and continues to do so well today, goes beyond just the quality of digging particular records, however. It's the way the records are curated and sequenced to create an immersive mind-expanding listening experience that sets ADID's musical programming apart.
"The whole thing is a trip, a journey of sorts," he says. "I like the idea of storytelling through music and experiencing something that makes you feel something — moments that you actually take away with you long after the party ends. I've never really gotten that very often from drum-based tracks, which was why I continue to pursue this particular vibe.
"The thing with this kind of music is that it has the ability to feel like a therapeutic experience," he adds. "It's an escape from the grind or stress of life. I wanted to focus on that idea and create an environment to allow it to happen."
Of course, six years onward, ADID is no longer just a DJ party; it's also a record label with an auspicious catalog that continues to grow thanks to dreamy house and techno offerings from international producers such as Yokoo, Powel, Oona Dahl, and Miami's own Behrouz, plus Burridge himself and his label partner Matthew Dekay.
Ultimately, though, what ADID does is meant to be experienced in the flesh, immersed in all the audio-visual splendor of its exquisitely curated events and the colorful folks they gather. And Miami dance-music lovers couldn't ask for a more unique party experience to close out the year than ADID's secret island event during Miami Art Week.
"I'm very excited," Burridge says. "We will, of course, be bringing our production team to dress the venue, and I guarantee you'll see a lot of beautiful people with broad smiles on their faces all day long."
All Day I Dream with Lee Burridge, Gorje Hewek & Izhevski, and Oona Dahl. 2 p.m. Saturday, December 3, at a secret island location. Tickets cost $20 to $60 via residentadvisor.net.
