Taipei is synonymous with house music, and arguably has a vibrant house compared with other Asian capitals. A mish-mash of local and foreign talents have come together to fuse a scene that incorporates East and West Coast US and British imported styles, as well as Asian-flavored home-grown stuff. So what happened to the drum'n'bass?
Drum'n'bass seemed to fall through the cracks a bit in Taipei, and it remains on the periphery of the dance music scene. Mainstream promoters tend to stay away from drum'n'bass, with the notable exception of Luxy, which has brought over Bukem and Conrad three times. Smaller gigs such as Caress bring over guys like Capital J, but these forays into drum'n'bass tend to be billed as somehow avant-garde and are mostly attended by a small number of cognoscenti, which doesn't represent the genre's massive popularity elsewhere. The local scene is virtually non-existent, with a handful of DJs and even fewer producers.
"A lot of people have very infrequent encounters with drum'n'bass aside from brief clips in commercials and a lot of the time these are embarrassingly bad examples," Rich Greenland, a promoter at Bassment Productions told the Vinyl Word. "People wrongly form their opinions based on that."
PHOTO COURTESY OF ARTIST
But is the lacklustre response to drum'n'bass just a Taiwanese phenomenon? Japan has a thriving drum'n'bass community, and Shanghai is starting to make inroads with the likes of DJ and promoter Siesta's efforts — Siesta is, ironically, a bit of a Taipei girl herself having spent a decade of her life here.
Greenland, along with co-promotersAndy and Chin have put on around eight parties in the last three years, including booking legendary British female DJ Storm. Bassment Productions previously introduced Taipei to Fresh, the man who, alongside Adam F, fronts the Breakbeat Kaos label. Tonight, they bring Fresh back to the city for Clash of the Titans alongside Shimon, one third of RAM Records' founding trio. These guys are heavyweights, yet they're not that well known outside of the drum'n'bass scene and the scene itself is pretty small. So why take the risk? "We believe that this music is just as good as any other dance music and, with the right impetus, it could be just as big." Greenland says. "And we want to have a kick-ass party."
The action takes place at the Velvet Underground at B1, 50, Zhongxiao W Rd, Sec 1, Taipei (台北市忠孝西路一段50號B1), NT$600 with a drink.
Elsewhere this weekend: also at Velvet Underground, tomorrow, it's the Boom-Bap Wei-Ya. For those not in the know, a weiya is the traditional Chinese end-of-year office bash, and a boom-bap is, like, well, it's like a drum. Marcus Aurelius spins alongside Junior and Megan and an all-you-can-eat buffet make this a celebration worthy of note. Door damage is NT$500 with a drink.
Also tomorrow, over at MoS Scott Bond is set to lay down some trance; Connexions in Taichung gets the city into the groove with its Urban Funk night; Glenn and Syntax Error urge us to Blow It Up at the Roof in Kaohsiung (blow it "off," surely?) and the O-Brothaz Sound System heads on down to the Fusion Lounge in Tainan.
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