Dubbed “the king of digging,” Vicar (real name Yang Chi-chang, 楊奇章) stands out on the ever-crowded DJ scene as a one-of-a-kind DJ who collects and plays vinyl records that most people have never heard before.
Although his name is often associated with hip-hop events, calling Vicar a “hip-hop DJ” is an understatement. With over a decade of record-digging experience under his belt, Vicar is an expert in the art of sampling intensively and prides himself on being a champion of black music.
“I began to collect vinyl when I found this record shop called Soul Juice [in Taipei], which specializes in black music. At the time I was 17. And since then I started to check in there almost every day,” Vicar said. “Through hip-hop, I learned about sampling and many other great artists and musicians. As I slowly digested more and more, I switched my focus to the music legacies from the 1960s to the golden age of the 1990s because I realized that there were very few DJs in Taiwan who actually knew and played this kind of stuff.”
Photo Courtesy Archi Chang
Vicar says The Pharaohs’ The Awakening is his most cherished LP among the 5,000 records in his collection. “It’s a hard-to-find deep funk record. Luckily I found it during a trip to Japan last year,” he said.
Vicar is known for being one of the few Taiwanese DJs who still play vinyl sets. But being a vinyl DJ is not always easy these days.
“I don’t always get to play vinyl sets all the time now,” he said. “A vinyl DJ is not welcome at events when everyone else is playing digital format.”
“Though most people cannot really tell the difference, it all pays off when you meet someone who understands. Being approved by these people is the motivation that keeps me going,” he said.
Vicar has shared the stage with international artists and played in Japan last year. After achieving his goal of deejaying in Japan, Vicar decided to compile his first official mixtape.
“It was like a dream come true for me to play in Japan. Not very many people appreciate the kind of music I play in Taiwan, but it’s a very popular genre in Japan,” he said.
The 42 tracks he put together for the 58-minute long mixtape, titled The Birth, are from the set he played in Japan. The release date is June 15, when Vicar will play at Marquee alongside special guest Shorkut.
Vicar’s official mixtape release party is June 15 from 9:30pm to 3am at Marquee, 16-1, Xinyi Rd Sec 5, Taipei City (台北市信義路五段16之1號). Admission is NT$1,000 for gents and free for ladies.
On the Net: www.facebook.com/deejayvicar
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50