Play Hannah Pezzack , May 18th, 2021 07:41 A re-issue from the 80s synth band Electric Party, Play is a fascinating slice of Amsterdam’s history, finds Hannah Pezzack There’s a certain mythos that lingers in the history of the Dutch squatter’s movement. In the early 1960s, in response to Amsterdam’s housing crisis, local activists began taking over empty buildings which were kept in disarray by landlords in order to artificially increase rent prices. Incentivised by the collective action, the decade that followed was dubbed “Amsterdam Magisch Centrum” (Amsterdam Magical Centre), by the countercultural artist Robert Jasper Grootveld. The city gained traction as the cultural nexus of Europe; a place of creative and social innovation, attracting hordes of young, politically minded emigrates from all over the world.