In Taipei, small clubs come and go faster than foreigners. But tonight, Korner celebrates survival with a one-year anniversary party featuring German underground techno house phenomenon Steve Bug. Resident Advisor casts a dazzling limelight on him, calling him Berlin’s best tastemaker, trendsetter and mover-shaker extraordinaire. With three ongoing record labels, a mile-long production catalog and a DJ career dating back two decades, the description is fitting.
This is a party for underground music heads, as Korner’s dark and dingy vibe might scare off your typical club goer. This is a good thing; it only attracts the cool cats. Over the last year, Korner has come to define itself as the one place capable of generating an eclectic and eccentric atmosphere that cannot be found in a 1000+ capacity club. It’s worth every penny of the taxi ride.
“I think what defines Korner is the vibe,” said James Ho (賀捷明), booking manager for Korner and The Wall, on why he thinks the place does well.
Photo Courtesy of Get In PR
“The consistency of good underground music and the absolute freedom for DJs to play what they want. It is a good gathering spot for DJs, musicians and artists. I remember Brian Eno wrote about the key to keeping a good scene is to create a common ground for musician and artist, and to make sure they get a free drink to keep them happy. After all, these are the people that make the underground scene vibrant. So I would say it is the community of creatives that keeps Korner going.”
■ Steve Bug plays tonight at Korner inside The Wall (這牆) from 11:30pm to 5am, B1, 200, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1). Tickets are NT$900 at the door.
It was a chance encounter that put John Digweed in the same club as Sasha (real-name Alexander Coe) in 1993, but 20 years later it’s more about sheer talent than any sort of lucky break. It’s only lucky for us in Taipei, as we get to experience what had sparked the New York City underground rave scene, and what is responsible for the plethora of electronic music movements thriving today.
Digweed’s set tomorrow night at Neo Studio may be reminiscent of the energy and the passion that went into 10-hour sets at New York City’s legendary club Twilo, but it won’t be a throwback set of old-school house music. Digweed says that even since those days, his sets have been 80 to 90 percent new music.
“It’s so much more rewarding to get amazing reactions from the crowd when you are playing tracks that they have not heard before rather than playing the same 20 tracks that everybody else is,” said Digweed in an interview with the Taipei Times.
“I very rarely play the same tracks after a month or so,” he continued. “I don`t really fit into that group of DJs playing all the big hits to get a reaction. I find it very lazy to just churn out the same set week after week, for me each gig is different and you should be presenting each crowd a set that you are performing just for them. Not something you worked out a month ago.”
In a small world oversaturated with too many DJs and only one sound, this is why Digweed stands out even after two decades. Deejaying is not just about going through the motions, he says, but it’s more like a two-way street where the crowd should also see a DJ passionately get behind every track he plays.
Following this formula is how Digweed stays current and far away from the EDM scene, which other DJs have felt pressure to join. He doesn’t have hard feelings for the scene, however. He’s just happy that people have so much choice within the electronic dance music scene, and thinks that EDM has a place within it, just like techno, house and dubstep.
“EDM has managed to get a lot of new people into electronic music. [Those people’s] tastes might change over time and [they may start searching for] different styles of music.”
Fans can look forward to a lengthy set from Digweed tomorrow night. Maybe not 10 hours like he’s done in the past, but definitely something extended if the crowd is up for it.
“For me playing long sets is no problem if you have the right crowd that wants to party. I get my energy from the crowd’s reactions.”
■ John Digweed plays Saturday night from 9pm to 4am at Neo Studio, 5F, 22 Songshou Rd, Taipei (台北市松壽路22號5樓). Tickets are NT$1,300 at the door; advance tickets are sold out.
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
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