Drez, a prominent DJ and producer from LA's thriving underground scene is in Taiwan for a two-week tour that started last weekend with a packed house at Lobby in Taichung on Saturday night and a perfect mixture of world beats, Public Enemy classics and relaxing reggae riddims at the SundayBreeze pool party near Danshui.
Drez's love for hip-hop began when he first saw B-Boys battling in the streets. Hooked on the jams that were blaring out of the boomboxes, Drez started making the kind of mix tapes that he wanted to dance to.
"I didn't like all the songs I was hearing, so I made my own," he said. "I did it the old-fashioned way ... from tape to tape."
PHOTO: MARCUS AURELIUS
Soon, Drez got a pair of turntables and was hooked on that feeling of putting songs together. After a few year of learning the tricks of the trade, he was sharing the stage with legends such as KRS-One and De La Soul. By the mid-90s, reggae was becoming a staple in Drez's musical affairs. "I was really into hip-hop at first, then I began to learn about the roots of hip-hop which is reggae. And I tell ya, reggae feels good."
This is Drez's second time in Taiwan. Last year he headlined one of the Summer Aquarian parties. This time, along for the feel good ride is MC Zaire Black.
When asked why he would bring a friend out on the road instead of hoarding all the ducats in his dreadlocks, Drez replied: "We go way back. At least 10 years. Zaire is a great conscious MC. We just finished an album, Panoramic Utopia, and we have always talked about going on tour. I thought this would be a great place to start."
Tomorrow, Drez and Zaire Black do double duty as the afternoon starts off at Escape 41 (41-2 Chaishan Rd, Kaohsiung) at the Reggae Chill Escape. The DJs begin at 3pm and go till the clock strikes midnight at this restaurant slash party spot overlooking the rocky beach.
Drez and company will hot foot it up to Taichung for the International Urban Funk Festival at the intimate Liquid Lounge (98 Chungming N Rd, Taichung) with the man about town, Chifunk. Be warned: this will not be your average jiggy hip-hop party. Instead, revelers will be treated to old school funk along with sonic masterpieces and intelligent lyrics.
Over at Luxy, Fridays are set to become a little more lighthearted with new night Lollipop. The aim: to land somewhere in the vast gap betwixt underground house party and a rave.
It's been a while in Taipei since "rave" disappeared from clubland's lexicon.
In the UK, so-called New Rave is on the up, despite the grumblings of cynical former ravers who now have mortgages, performance reviews and pension funds to worry about. The likes of the Klaxons and Shitdisco, helped along with blasts of nitrous oxide, are fueling this boom.
It may be time to dust off the glowsticks, white gloves, fluorescent face paint and whistles. Bring it on.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and