Ministry of Sound keeps 'em coming with The Crystal Method tomorrow night. Famed for its explicit lyrics, fancy Web site and glowing press reviews, "Meth" is the spawn of Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers.
The two-man band, originally from Las Vegas, puts together speaker-shaking bass beats, with some soulful hooklines for the ladies and some dirty language for the boyz. It's hard to say no, when it costs just NT$300 before 11pm, so go with the flow and join the queue.
Scott Kirkland, speaking from Malaysia, said it was his and Ken Jordan's first tour of Asia and they would be asking for a ride to the top of Taipei 101 when they get here.
He said the tour so far had been "road warrior-esque" and though every place had been different, the gigs had been much the same. "That's one of the great things about dance music, people enjoy the music and respond to it in the same way."
For his 60-second interview, Kirkland answered as follows:
Pink? Red.
Dominatrix? Trouble.
Rave? Over.
Drunk? Stupid.
Spicy chicks? Trouble.
Depression: Sucks.
Rice? That dish, rice-aroni!
Kirkland will further reveal himself in the Taipei Times tomorrow.
Luxy, meanwhile, has got it going on with techno demi-god Ferry Corsten tonight, supported by Double Down's DJs Grinch and DMX, with Dro Blak on the mic, and a special appearance from the dominatrix-on-stilts "Orange Boy."
Tomorrow at Luxy, it gets even hotter, with a bikini party (free admission for ladies in their smalls) and DJ Tashi holding the spotlight. DJs Saucy, Trix and Coffee join Akira for the mid-summer special.
The big bash however -- and they're all massive this weekend -- should be at what used to be formerly known as TeXound's new nightspot: X-Direction Dance Club, at B1, 8 Keelung Rd, Sec 1, Taipei. The grand opening is tonight and we are told it could be history in the making. "It's a new era for dance music in Taipei," said DJ Jimmy Chen.
Now that Taipei has a thriving dance music scene all it needs is a few local superstar DJs. But the only way to get a name here, ironically, is to be big elsewhere and that's one of the reasons why DJ Joe Ho has released his first CD.
The double album, Resident*001 is a fine debut and catches the city's zeitgeist with a blend of housified techno that owes a debt to Tiesto and Paul van Dyk. It showcases Ho's fluid mixing, a choice selection of uptempo and downtempo tunes, with the signature wailing midi synth sounds that characterize the local sound.
"It's hard to be a musician in Taiwan," Ho said after he'd settled into the interview with coffee and a couple of cigarettes. Pop stars, he said, have a half-life of about one year and if you don't do commercial music then you have to do something else to pay the rent. "You've got to do two things at the same time: earn a living and then do what you want to do."
Ho should know because he's been in the music game since he left school, playing in a succession of rock 'n' roll bands before gravitating toward electronic music and realizing the DJ was the new dictator of sound. He made the switch and became a resident at 2nd Floor, one of Taipei's first successful mainstream dance venue.
He now plays weekends at Luxy where he serves up the preferred sound of techno, as a counterpoint to the more breakbeat and house oriented expat DJs. He still plays in a band, albeit an electronic outfit that puts together sythesizers, vocals and loops for a sound that tends toward the ambient part of the dance spectrum.
Ho has got plans to integrate his band and his DJing to produce further albums, but in the meantime he's concentrating on getting his music heard outside Taipei and around the world.
With the backing of EMI on his CD and his Luxy residency, superclubs elsewhere may soon be asking for his number. Then, he will be more fully appreciated here. For his 60-second interview, Ho revealed himself as follows:
Green? Tree.
Pink? Maybe.
Depression? Personal.
La mei? Good time.
Dominatrix? Huh?
Rave? Three days and nights.
High? Low. I don't get high.
Drunk? Yes, I do, seriously.
Ho continues his six-date tour of the island tonight at Moonisland in Taichung.
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