T'is the season for goodwill, parties and more parties. The picks of the week include DJ Fergie, who hails from Northern Ireland and was "picked up" by the legendary and lamented hard house DJ Tony de Vit. He has his own show on the UK's Radio 1 and is one of the most respected DJs on the scene there. So, if you like it hard, Fergie won't let you down, tonight at Ministry of Sound (MoS).
Tomorrow at the same club, it'll be the best of Britain's ladies with Lisa Loud, who's been filling dancefloors for 15 years and will likely put down a popular set of house standards. Will she work up a sweat? We suspect not. As the new face of anti-perspirant Impulse she is more likely to glow.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LUXY
At AXD tonight it will be popular residents Tiger, Teddy Dong, Stone and Victor. Downtown at Luxy tonight are what promoters are calling "Taiwan's best Hip-hop crew, Machi!" Make your own mind up after checking out the boyz'
PHOTO COURTESY OF MOS
performances.
For a more relaxed and cheaper (read free) night out on Christmas Day, check out DJ Edmund, who'll be at Eden, backed up by a live performance from a vocalist. For a good time on Christmas, the smart money may be on Eden.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
For some weekday entertainment next Thursday (Dec. 30) it's the last Shag, at Club 70, with six DJs going back to back, including K Fancy vs. @llen, Maxxx vs. 26 and Roufy vs. Perry. The tag-team event will inevitably involve some cheap shots at NT$100 each. Find a copy of Mini 14 and get a free shot.
The biggest bone on the Yuletide menu, however, should be Deep Dish at Winter Love taking place inside Taipei World Trade Center 2, tomorrow. Comprising Iranian-born Ali "Dubfire" Shirazinia and Sharam Tayebi, the duo met in 1991 when they were mistakenly slated to spin the same time at the same party. They subsequently formed Deep Dish Records the year after, establishing a distinctive house sound that typically mixes up big beats and percussion, inserts synth-driven basslines and tripped-out, exotic-sounding vocals.
The Grammy Award-winning group (for best remixed recording in 2002 with Dido's Thank You) was based in Washington, but moved north to Canada for its album Toronto, which was released last year. A favorite with the dance music press, Deep Dish has recorded with the British label Deconstruction, was resident at London's MoS and has even started its own hip hop label.
A genuine superclub outfit, Deep Dish will be backed by lasers, fireworks, dancers and a long list of local DJs who have delivered the goods over the past year, including Joe Ho, Daryl, Racy, Kaoru, Saucey, Victor, Jimmy Chen, Vertigo, J6, Miss Angie, Reason and Farhaan.
Deep Dish will be going on late and should put on a Christmas house party that will be talked about in the same way as Tiesto's triumphant performance earlier in the year at the Word Trade Center.
On a side note, the event is being hyped as a rave, which is a change from a few years ago when the word was banned by most club promoters because it would invite unwelcome attention from the cops. But then again, rave sounds so dated. Perhaps calling it a warehouse party would be more appropriate.
Tickets for Deep Dish can be bought at Fnac, Luxy and Kingstone bookstore. They are NT1,200 in advance, NT$1,500 at the door.
At the newly-opened 6 Moons in Ilan City, which last week had its opening party, DJ Francis will be back behind the platters serving up tribal house tonight. 6 Moons (
In Taichung, Chi Funk's Ant said the new club Bobo, which also had its first night last weekend, "is more than anyone imagined -- an incredible glass dome with lights circling the place like a kaleidescope." Sounds interesting.
Tonight at the club, it's a Chi Funk Christmas Party with, DJs @llen, Timothy and Tom, along with the Chi Funk revevolution featuring vocalist Diva Lindsey. Tomorrow is A Mix Master Merry Christmas with Nina, Kid and Paul Energy. Wear red, white and green and get NT$100 off at the door. Wear a Christmas hat or misletoe and get a free drink.
In other news, the "Taipei Times Top DJ" poll suffered a hack attack when it opened last Sunday and as a result had DJs Rob Solo, DJ Ty and Marcus Aurelius all leading the list by hundreds of votes. Marcus was good enough to let us know with an e-mail saying the poll was "set up for a three-year-old that can't tie his shoes yet to hack into and cheat."
Ouch! That hurt. So we patched up the problem Monday by zeroing out the votes already cast and started the poll over. Normal service has been resumed. So far, foreign DJs are doing well, which probably reflects the demographics of the paper's readership as much as anything else.
There have been some critics of the poll who have written into vinylword@taipeitimes.com to say that it would be better if fellow DJs selected their favorite performers on the decks. But how would that be a popular vote? Another said, "Trance (globally and locally) is the preferred genre so it is obvious that the favorite local trance head DJ will win the vote, we all know that."
Well, if that's true and it represents what the majority of Taipei Times readers think, then what's the problem? The reader's further suggestion was that we should split the vote into genres, like hip-hop, breaks, house, etc. Not a bad idea, maybe next time.
The jury is out at the moment but the results will be released in our New Year's issue and readers will have the final word. Go to www.taipeitimes.com/poll/dj to make your three choices for Taiwan's best DJs.
The Vinyl Word: Three bows to DJ Edmund, whose numerous fans took issue with a description of him in the Nov. 19 issue that said: "when he's good, he's very good, but when he's not he's horrid." To set the record straight, Edmund remains among the Vinyl Word's five favorite DJs, but even the best have their off nights.
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