DJ Raymundo

Brainwash, the Saturday at Escape

In Amsterdam's Rembrandtplein, the Saturdays at Escape Venue revolve around the same criteria: a club house that rises steadily, with tech house, classics, and broader beats when the dance floor demands it. That pulse is called Brainwash, the residency that DJ Raymundo maintains as a resident and as the person in charge of programming, in front of about fifteen hundred people every weekend. Few Dutch DJ booths have maintained the same contract with the public for so long: reading the room, building the night, and not limiting themselves to the hits of the moment.

Zandvoort radio and the iT booth

He grew up in Zandvoort, where at twelve years old he snuck into a pirate radio station and, shortly after, took the controls at ZFM. There he met DJ Zki, later half of Chocolate Puma, and DJ Marcello, who in the early nineties opened the booth of the legendary Club iT to him. That baptism on one of the foundational dance floors of Dutch house set his craft: mixing by ear, watching the people, and not planning the set in advance. In 2001 he left behind the name DJ Raymond and began signing as Raymundo. Before Amsterdam, he had already been a resident on the coast, among others at Danceclub Yanks, and started the new century at De Kroon, the café owned by the same owners as Escape.

Framebusters, guests, and musical direction

In the mid-2000s, when the Chemistry cycle was closing, he launched Framebusters, the seed of Brainwash, and took on the booking of headliners: Hardwell, Fedde le Grand, David Guetta, Axwell, or Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano. He has also shaped the rest of the week, with House Rules on Fridays. In 2017 he celebrated twenty-five years as a DJ and twelve and a half years of residency, a rare milestone in the industry. He remains linked to Zandvoort Alive and has taken the Amsterdam sound to Dance Valley, Mysteryland, and the Loveland Festival, as well as clubs in China—with a tour in January 2019—, the United States, Dubai, Germany, Qatar, and Egypt.

From Framebusted to New York

As a producer, he signed Framebusted in 2006 and built a catalog on Spinnin' Records, Sneakerz, Sony Music, NEWS, Area 94, and Armada Music. Highlights include Fortuna with Addy van der Zwan, Perfect World with Gabriel & Castellon and Polina, the remix of Yéké Yéké by Mory Kanté, and, in March 2018, New York together with Dave Leatherman and Soup. In recent years he has continued to release house and old school interpretations, with collaborations and tracks on labels such as Black Lizard Records. Today he combines the weekly Escape booth with that club discography: a DJ with a long career, anchored in Amsterdam house and still at the helm of the Brainwash Saturdays.