After a long hiatus, Stingrays (Eric Woon) is back in business, and seeing his name written on a flyer again brings back memories of the good times when electronic dance music in Taiwan was strictly underground.
Hailing from Singapore, where he had been deejaying since 1989, Stingrays relocated to Taipei in the mid-1990s and became actively involved in the local rave scene.
He’s known for his fast-paced mixing and dark, energetic techno sets. Aside from his deejaying, Stingrays has also been a purveyor of techno music, releasing tracks on international record labels as well as his own imprint Fluid-Mix.
Photo Courtesy of Fluid-Mix
His latest venture is Nclosure, a weekly night in Greater Kaohsiung.
The Vinyl Word: What do your music and DJ sets sound like these days?
Stingrays: Nothing much has been changed between the past and the present in my music production and sounds, or in my deejaying and live performance. Expect only the obscure and uncompromised sounds of the underground.
VW: What do you miss most about the scene back then?
S: The down-to-earth venues, lack of dress code, unique underground vibes, great attitudes, and the open minds of individuals and punters.
VW: What was the last gig you went to and how was it?
S: The last gig I went to was Earworm’s techno event in Kaohsiung. Though it is not an ideal techno event, it’s definitely the best in town with a great bunch of DJs and VJs and event promoters.
VW: When did you start doing Nclosure? And how has it been?
S: Officially, June 25th, 2011 ... the event is still fairly new, but I’m pleased to see a constant following. It’s an underground electronic gig, focusing strictly on the music/sound/vibe and open minds, and nothing else. So it’s kind of an exclusive weekend hideout. I’m not expecting a huge mainstream crowd.
■ Nclosure with Stingrays is tonight from 10pm to 2am at Wombbloc Arts (子宮藝文), 31, Hebei 1st Rd, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市河北一路31號). Admission is free
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
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
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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