The traditionally rock-centric Formoz Festival is for the first time staging "electronica," an umbrella term for musicians who don't play in the now-traditional drum and guitar format -- and DJs.
The label electronica is often used when government officials or promoters want to put on DJs at an event they are sponsoring, but do not want to be associated with the stigma they created: equating dance music with drug use.
The other use of "electronica" is by the musicians and DJs themselves ("artists"), who use the label to distinguish themselves from their more commercial (better paid) club cousins.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SILENT AGREEMENT
Hence, in regard the "Electronic Stage" at this year's festival, organizers are keen to explain that though many of the names that will be appearing are club or rave DJs, they will not be when they play at Formoz Festival. This may sound contradictory.
"It's not really a dance stage, it's indie electronica. In Taiwan there are several kinds of electronica. You've got your dance or techno music and your drugs -- and you've got your independent scene. This stage focuses on the music rather than drugs. It's not a club, it's different from a club," says Formoz Festival founder and Cthonic lead singer Freddy Lin (林旭佐), head of Taiwan Rock Alliance.
It's as if rock musicians, fans and those on the indie scene never took drugs.
So, while Formoz Festival is to be congratulated on the fact that it is putting on dance, ambient, experimental, drum `n' bass and other forms of electronic music -- some of it less commercial than played in most clubs -- it will actually sound and look a lot like a dance party.
Dance music label Silent Agreement is organizing the Electronic Stage and said tonight's show will go on until the early hours. Tomorrow and Sunday will go on late, too. This, translated, means a dance party will take place after the rock bands have finished on the other four stages.
Acts to look forward to tonight include The Album Leaf, Californian Jimmy LaValle's electronic-mood music inspired by Brian Eno and (for his latest album) Iceland. The show is likely to include projection art and live strings. Local heroes Monbaza, 78bpm and popstar-turned-artist DJ Lim Qiong
(
This is the year that the demographic crisis will begin to impact people’s lives. This will create pressures on treatment and hiring of foreigners. Regardless of whatever technological breakthroughs happen, the real value will come from digesting and productively applying existing technologies in new and creative ways. INTRODUCING BASIC SERVICES BREAKDOWNS At some point soon, we will begin to witness a breakdown in basic services. Initially, it will be limited and sporadic, but the frequency and newsworthiness of the incidents will only continue to accelerate dramatically in the coming years. Here in central Taiwan, many basic services are severely understaffed, and
Jan. 5 to Jan. 11 Of the more than 3,000km of sugar railway that once criss-crossed central and southern Taiwan, just 16.1km remain in operation today. By the time Dafydd Fell began photographing the network in earnest in 1994, it was already well past its heyday. The system had been significantly cut back, leaving behind abandoned stations, rusting rolling stock and crumbling facilities. This reduction continued during the five years of his documentation, adding urgency to his task. As passenger services had already ceased by then, Fell had to wait for the sugarcane harvest season each year, which typically ran from
It is a soulful folk song, filled with feeling and history: A love-stricken young man tells God about his hopes and dreams of happiness. Generations of Uighurs, the Turkic ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang region, have played it at parties and weddings. But today, if they download it, play it or share it online, they risk ending up in prison. Besh pede, a popular Uighur folk ballad, is among dozens of Uighur-language songs that have been deemed “problematic” by Xinjiang authorities, according to a recording of a meeting held by police and other local officials in the historic city of Kashgar in
It’s a good thing that 2025 is over. Yes, I fully expect we will look back on the year with nostalgia, once we have experienced this year and 2027. Traditionally at New Years much discourse is devoted to discussing what happened the previous year. Let’s have a look at what didn’t happen. Many bad things did not happen. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) did not attack Taiwan. We didn’t have a massive, destructive earthquake or drought. We didn’t have a major human pandemic. No widespread unemployment or other destructive social events. Nothing serious was done about Taiwan’s swelling birth rate catastrophe.
RSS