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• life after hongkong

  Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008 9:19AM / Standard Entry

  greetings.
  its been a while since i wrote anything here, and i dont have much to do right now so here goes.
  well, as many of you may know,im not in hk anymore. i retreated inland to beijing to get some weather beaten cheek bones and frostbite finger tips for the winter!
  im currently spinning at richy (formely babyface) beijing, west gate of workers stadium sanlitun as a resident from tuesday to saturday. on a weekly basis..
  basically, hk was getting a bit quiet work wise, and not having that sacred id card didnt help much as alot of the better clubs insist on it.  but i had a great few months there, and met some truly amazing people ! and had some truly amazing gigs, and alot of crazy nights out !
  and i miss the place!  but i dont miss the unbearable summer heat ! jesus.... how do you guys put up with that every year!  i like heat,, but hk slaps u in the face with a heat bomb as soon as u step outside in the summer !
  anyways, richy have been chasing me for months now, and they finally came back with an acceptable offer ! so i thaught why not.
  so far they been treating me good! there were a couple of occasions were guest listed peeps had to battle wits with security,but what ya gonna do.. even if u speak good mandarin, communication with some of bj's club security isnt allways a walk in the park.
  when i first got there in late september, the place wasnt exactly kickin ! in fact, it looked like somewhere where locals go to learn about what a club is, what a dj is, how to act in a club lesson 101 seemed to be the theme of some nights! and it was to say the least,, disheartening!
  and if you tried to find a pretty girl in there,, good luck!
  BUT.... just over 2 months on, and things are definatley looking up for richy beijing !
  for the past 3 weeks we have actually been busy all night on tuesdays which was never the case previously! and wed and thursdays are also blossoming in crowd capacity.
  at weekends we now have a full capacity club, friday and saturday, with whats becoming a much more comfortable mix of locals and foreigners, and hot babes!
  and as time goes by i seem to be getting away with dropping more and more of that old skool hiphop ish that i love too damn much !
  i have also noticed a regular increase in the percentage of customers who normally go to mix on those nights. as i spent 3 years there alot of their faces are familiar to me.
  so all in all, it looks like things are moving forward at richy beijing.
  so next time u are in beijing, or if u are there now. come down and check it out, you should be pleasantly suprised !
  peace !
  

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• DJ'S - COMMON MIS-CONCEPTIONS

  Sunday, Aug 3, 2008 1:51AM / Standard Entry

  HI THERE PEEPS.
  a friend of mine who is currently researching dj culture found this online and sent it to me,, and i just wanted to post it here as i think alot of people suffer from the same stereotypical views of people in our profession, so have a read, and hopefully it will enlighten you ...
  

  
  

  DJs: Common misconceptions

  by Angus Macdonald

  As a DJ I am aware of many common misconceptions of my trade. I am faced with them whenever I get behind a set of decks. So, to save public embarrassment and future argument, I shall dispel these myths one by one.

  1. DJs are not talented.

  I've heard this a million times, mostly by people who have spent years learning to play the guitar only to find they can't get booked for a gig when people who 'only spin some records' or 'only pick tunes' play on a weekly basis. I have spent years learning how to mix records properly, how to construct a set which flows and how to keep it going for hours. It's hard work, and takes a lot of talent to pull it off. Each DJ has their own style, and that's not just what kind of music they play. There are many more things to consider when DJing than merely 'what tune shall I play next'.

  2. DJs are not musicians.

  Granted this may be true of some DJs. However, a good DJ should be a musician on the decks as much as they may be on any other instrument. Consider a scratch DJ, someone who can turn any sound on record into an instrument. This takes considerable skill, and a LOT of practice. This I know from personal experience. If anyone reading this thinks that a DJ is not a musician, go and check out DJ Kentaro or Q-Bert. Then you will see (and hear) how turntables are instruments. I write electronic music as well as DJ, and I put just as much time and effort into both.

  3. Any idiot could do that.

  OK, go and try it. Even simple things like beat matching (making two records go at the same speed) aren't easy.

  4. DJs have, and are willing to play, anything you ask them for.

  If I'm playing at a party or a private function or something like that, then I'll put on any requests if I have the record. Chances are, however, I won't. In a club, however, I will generally have prepared the full set beforehand, working out every detail to make sure it sounds perfect. So in a club, all requests become null and void. It's the equivalent of being at an Oasis gig and asking them to play a Blur song you really like halfway through their set. It's not going to happen I'm afraid. Also, any DJ playing from vinyl will only have a select few records with them for the event. Vinyl weighs a ton, anyone who has a DJing friend will appreciate the weight of record bags after offering to carry one after a gig. To have any tune that anyone is likely to ask would would be back-breaking.

  5. DJs are only in it for the money, and they make a lot of it.

  Again, this may be true of some DJs. However, most DJs play because they love the music, and love playing it to people. I personally find only one thing more enjoyable than making people dance when I'm DJing, and that's making people dance when I'm playing my own music live. I currently organize a monthly night-club event from which I take no money at all, and it takes up a lot of my time and energy. This I do because I love doing it. I, like most DJs I know, have a day job. Granted, the top DJs in the business live in the lap of luxury, but the majority of us work in the same rubbish jobs as everyone else.

  I hope this has cleared up a few things for some people reading it. DJ culture is something to be truly admired, as much as any music scene. If you take the time to look beyond the common misconceptions, you will find something you enjoy greatly. Guaranteed.

  
  

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• dj bravo heads home!

  Sunday, Jul 20, 2008 8:11AM / Standard Entry

  i just wanted to say a big farewell to ma boy dj bravo. who is leaving hongkong tonight, bound for his home town, newyork!
  to those of you who know him, he needs no introduction. to those of you who dont, dj bravo has been hk's most wanted dj in club land (lan kwai fong) for many months now!
  he has held down regular slots at halo, volar, cliq, sugar, PI ! and a few others along the way!
  definatley one of the most solid party rockers ive ever had the pleasure to work with!
  and we all gonna gonna miss him!
  so to all hongkong club djs, please raise a glass to my man dj bravo!
  

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• who is DJ J-Cue ?

  Monday, Jul 14, 2008 1:17AM / Standard Entry

  whats up folks!
  DJ J-Cue at your service.
  i going to briefly introduce myself here and tell y'all a little about what ive been up to on my party rockin travels in asia.
  i started learning to dj around 12 odd years ago in london. it began with watching friends who were djs doing their thing in clubs, and i decided it was the thing for me!
  i had been spinning in london for around 8 years plus, at various venues in the city. ministry of sound, hanover grand,sound,glasshouse,emporium etc etc...
  my style of djing in the begining, and throughout much of my dj career has been pretty much hiphop based. i found myself leaning towards 90's hiphop whenever possible at parties, club events etc while allways trying to find ways to mix it up with whats hot and new in ways the crowds would apreciate. this was a long learning experience for me, .and one i consider to be on going,as many of my peers still inspire me when i hear them play, so i try to take that feeling and give it my own lil touch ! later in my career, having become influenced by many other djs, i started learning how to mash up different genres of music in and entertaining way, but still keeping with that hiphop based turntablistic style
  im also heavily influenced by the whole turntablism movement.
  from day one having been exposed to a couple of very skilled london djs, i relentlessly pushed myself to learn as much as i could about the art, the history, the skills, the pioneers, the innovators, the djs!
  in 2004 i was presented with an oportunity to go to beijing china to dj.
  having arrived in china, as a total unknown, it was a bit nerve wrecking trying to find my way into the then developing hiphop urban music scene in beijing.
  but i soldiered on, and started making connections,, and landed a few residencies here and there.
  it was then that i realised i had to forget everything i thaught i knew about rocking parties, what music to play,, how to work the crowd..... and go right back to the drawing board.
  which is exactly what i did.
  the next 3 years of my life were to be spent sweating in dj booths by night, practicing my craft every waking hour that god would give me, traveling the lenght and breath of china and asia rocking parties and tearing up the phatest clubs ,
  while doing my thing in asia, i have had the god given oprtunity to work alongside and support some of the biggest and best in the world of turntablism, and still learn how to rock a party and drive crowds crazy!
  just a few of the people i have worked with include people like dj kool, big ali, dj rectangle, dj shortkut, dj woody, the skratch pervertz, mr thing and youngun, the x-ecutionerz, total eclipse, boogie blind, dj i-dee, dj cashmoney, dj revolution, jin tha mc,,,, and countless others
   i just hope i will be able to keep doing this for many more years to come!
  without music our lives would be pointless and empty !
  
  
  

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