As the Nu Disco trend continues to thrive, a number of outstanding artists have emerged in recent years, among which The KDMS, a producer & diva duo from London, is definitely one to keep your eyes on. Though The KDMS (comprised of British funk/disco/soul singer Kathy Diamond and young talented Polish producer Max Skiba) have only been around for a couple of years, their music is gaining support by disco house big-names like Daniel Wang, Morgan Giest (Metro Area), Soul Clap, and Aeroplane, due to its quality and originality.
“The KDMS recipe has bits of everything. We like to be experimental in a strong, hooky way. So, upbeat and dramatic disco with pop-strong melodies and real storylines. Max is the music maestro and I’m the word girl,” Diamond says about their music. “We want to make people dance and be a completely inclusive party.”
Ever since the pair collaborated on their first hit single Never Stop Believing — a solid, uplifting disco track with a super funky vibe and a catchy melody — they have gone from strength to strength. Having released 3 singles in 2 years, their debut album Kinky Dramas and Magic Stories came out this year and they are now in Taipei after playing in China and South Korea, before heading back to Europe.
Photo courtesy of Pascal Gambarte
“We are absolutely having a ball in Asia. It’s been so interesting and exciting bringing our sounds to new territories. I love the diversity of venues. We have played from Mao Life, a big live concert hall, to a glitzy gay club called 390 in Shanghai. Korea was super crazy. The show was great there because the audience were so up for it. They are like food to us. If the audience is excited, we get more animated which makes everyone dance more. By the end of the show the room is so hot and sweaty, it’s like a disco workout,” Diamond says.
■ The KDMS will be joined by DJ Artur 8, Hi-Life Wedding and Max Savage tonight from 9pm to 2am at Pipe Live House, 1 Siyuan St, Taipei City (台北市思源街1號). Admission: NT$500
And in southern Taiwan, Spunite hosts another massive event: Masago beach party (Tainan). This time it’s promised to be bigger and better. “After stopping for 3 years due to construction, we’re back with a vengeance! Thirty-one DJs from 11 different countries and 3 stages. It’ll be a full-on music festival,” says Brian Tsai (蔡家偉), head of Spunite.
This year, they’re featuring veteran German DJ Alex M.O.R.P.H, vocalist Zara Taylor (Canada), DJ Soha (Canada), DJ 19 (Japan) and a handful of international and Taiwanese DJ’s playing everything from trance, house, d’n’b to hiphop.
■ From Saturday 3pm to 8am at Masago Beach (馬沙溝海水浴場): 140, Pingsha, Jiangjun Dist, Tainan City (台南市將軍區平沙里140號). Admission: NT$1,000
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
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