Luxy's three-roomed mega-bash birthday celebration last Saturday was busier than Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station at rush hour. James Zabiela put on a great show alongside a truckload of locally-based talent.
It must have been an organizational nightmare to schedule the shindig, as constant jiggling around with the line-up meant nobody, not even the DJs, really knew who was playing where, or when, which could only have added to the excitement. Kind of like the clubbing equivalent of a treasure hunt. The party games were equally abundant the night before, with lots of jumping around and shouting and generally being silly at Sabbatical on Friday night. Miguel Migs played a barnstorming set, alongside the Soulutions' Saucey and SL. Oh yes, one of those rare moments when you can pull off playing Sweet Dreams … . Soulutions' Sabbatical swansong is tonight.
Eddie Halliwell graces the tables at Ministry of Sound tonight, and it will be well worth a look. Indeed, three-time DJ Magazine DJ of the year Tiesto has even voted for Halliwell in this year's poll, and urges us to do the same. Tiesto's reasoning? Perhaps it's because the British wunderkind Halliwell has, despite his tender 26 years, notched up residencies at the UK's Gatecrasher and Ibiza's Judgment Sundays and a weekly show on BBC Radio One. Or maybe because he was named Mixmag's DJ of the Year in 2004, and is lauded worldwide for his turntable skills.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TIAN GIONIS
Not exactly. "I have won this award three times," the overpaid Dutch trance-peddler is quoted as saying on Halliwell's Web site. "So if I would win it for a fourth time, it wouldn't make a difference for my career." Umm, right.
Tomorrow, Ministry plays host to Florida's Thomas Penton. He might not have Tiesto's dodgy thumbs-up, but he does have over 60 projects released on labels from Oakenfold's Perfecto to Lexicon Avenue's Forensic Records, including remixes for artists as diverse as Ronski Speed, Lenny Kravitz and Mary J Blige, which is as good a resume as most.
Last week I threw out the call for more collaborative and live electronica in the city: and it seems my prayers have been answered, at least this weekend. KusoJ, Moshang and Viba will be taking over DV8, which for those of you too young to remember, was a legendary after-hours den that has cleaned up its act somewhat. "We're not just a few guys standing behind laptops," Viba says in a press release. I'm not sure exactly what they are planning, but expect some fun grooves and, if nothing else, rock up just to support live knob-twiddling in Taipei. The show starts at 9pm tomorrow.
Outside of the capital: more birthday action with those swanky Swank boys and girls celebrating their fourth anniversary tonight at Taichung's Liquid Rooms. Declan, Gareth Jones, Matty D and Kriz will be busting out their paper hats between 10pm and 4am.
Further down south in Kaohsiung it's the Canadian Invasion (an odd choice of name, since if we had 192 Canadas at the UN, there would be a lot less wars.) The Canucks are scheduled to rock up, Dunkirk-style, on Haizhewan Beach tomorrow. The highly-recommended Deko-Ze — Canada's so-called hardest-working DJ — headlines the electronica stage alongside breaksmaster Czech; hip-hop heads can look forward to DMC Championship finalists Tasc and Kid SL. Be prepared for profuse apologies when people step on your toes while dancing.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su