Melodic 14th Birthday – Alex O’Rion @ Yamamori Tengu, Dublin (Dec 12 2025)

Fourteen years in and Melodic are still doing things the right way. This wasn’t a nostalgia night, but it also wasn’t afraid of the past. The classics landed because they were earned, not because they were wheeled out for cheap reactions. That balance is hard to pull off. It’s also why this night worked.

Words By Mel Donnellan

It was also my brother’s birthday gig; something I’ve made a habit of every year. One night out, one proper club, no compromises. This felt like the right choice.

Yamamori Tengu is a big part of that. A 300-cap room hidden at the back of a Japanese restaurant. Great sound, no dead spots, no bad place to stand. You can move around the floor without losing the mix. It feels intentionally designed to take focus off the DJ and put it back on the room; which is how clubbing was meant to work in the first place.

Local selector Souzac opened from 11–12 and did exactly what a warm-up should do. Chuggy, organic house. Patient, groovy, never rushed. One track that stuck was Peace on Earth. It set the tone without trying to steal the night.

Dutch DJ Alex O’Rion stepped up bang on midnight. He opened with some lovely melodic moments and then moved straight into deeper chuggers. Very much in that Sebastian Leger or Lee Burridge lane; rolling, hypnotic, emotional without being overcooked. Progressive music played with confidence.

A few tracks really stood out. Two Sins – Modular and The Purpose by Trilucid & Brett Gould sat beautifully in the room. Later on, two classics lifted the place. A remix of Gat Decor – Passion got a proper reaction, and then Gregor Tresher – A Thousand Nights. That one hit on two levels; the track itself, and the memory of that mid-2000s period when progressive music was absolutely flying.

Worth noting too: Alex O’Rion is the brother of Richard Durand, the In Search of Sunrise compiler and trance DJ. You can hear the shared DNA in the pacing and emotional control, even though Alex’s sound sits firmly in the progressive camp.

The crowd was spot on. Young and old, Irish and international. No messing, no posing. People there for the music. Nights like that are rarer than they should be.

Shout-out to the IL MODO crew who were in for their Christmas night out. A Dublin-based progressive community who’ve just passed their 300th mix Progcast release; serious consistency.

And then there’s Melodic themselves. An Irish promoter team who’ve been championing this sound for over a decade. From small rooms to major festivals and international showcases in Berlin and Ibiza, they’ve done it properly. Guests over the years include Nick Warren, Hernan Cattaneo, Patrice Bäumel, Matthias Meyer, Cristoph, Peter Schumann, Sébastien Léger, Vaal, Trikk, Lee Burridge, Danny Howells, The Drifter, GRL, Eclair Fifi, Âme (Live) and Ian O’Donovan. Their resident roster is just as strong, Mulljoy, Ste Flynn, Eve and Gavin Rochford. I’ve played at some of their nights myself and the standards are always there.

It’s mad to think it all started as a launch party in the now-defunct Lost Society basement, with Mulljoy and DJ-turned-artist-manager Dave De Valera. From that room to here, it’s been slow, organic growth. No shortcuts.

I’ve been reliably informed that year 15 is going to be very special, starting in January. If this birthday night was anything to go by, that tracks.

Fair play to Shane, Simon and Ste for keeping us Lost in the Melody all these years. Long may it continue.