The job of a Jamaican sound system, according to Taili of Black Reign International Sound, is to “keep people dancing all night.” The Taipei-based group intends to do just that tomorrow night when it presents Squeeze, an all-night dance party at the Wall (這牆) with Japanese reggae DJs Big H and Yahman.
Black Reign was born out of the O-Brothaz Sound System, which was started five years ago by Oliver Harley, aka Lion, a Jamaica native, and Taili, who grew up in Paris and is of Martiniquan descent. A chance encounter on the streets of Taipei brought the two together, and a mutual passion for mixing Caribbean beats led to their partnership.
O-Brothaz enjoyed reasonable success, filling rooms with as many as 600 people. But Lion and Taili wanted to take things further and look beyond Taiwan, so they recast O-Brothaz as a record label and production studio and created Black Reign, expanding into a collective of four DJs from the Caribbean and Japan.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF BLACK REIGN
The group includes DJs General Young Blood of Jamaica, Fyah B of Belize and Katzu of Japan. Together their sound covers a wide spectrum: dancehall, roots, souk, and Calypso, and even hip-hop and R ’n’ B.
“Everyone adds their own style to the sound system,” Lion says, which “adds to the dynamic” of their shows.
In the Jamaican sound system, there are two main roles: the “selector” or DJ, and the mic-man — who often talks over a record like the MC in hip-hop. The mic-man is “the comedian and the preacher,” Lion says. “He makes [the party] lively.”
Black Reign’s members often switch roles as selector and mic-man, depending on their set and, more importantly, the mood of the room. This is where the art of the sound system comes in: both selector and mic-man have to adapt on the fly to keep the crowd engaged and dancing.
“People react very fast,” Taili says. “The BPM [beats-per-minute], the mix — everything is important…[you have to watch your] technique.”
In Jamaica, the “dancehall” was originally a public space where a sound system played music for the neighborhood. The sound system was often the prime source for new music, Lion says. “It introduces music faster than radio or CDs.” DJs sometimes bring recorded music straight from the studio to the dancehall, and dancehalls are often the first to hear the latest from well-known artists. “We have Sean Paul [a popular reggae and dancehall artist] songs that haven’t even been released,” Lion says.
Black Reign’s shows are designed to lure in audiences, then spark further interest in reggae — “we give them something they know, then something they don’t know,” Lion says.
But despite the positive responses Black Reign receives from its shows, finding a venue cna be an uphill battle. Lion relates a conversation he has over and over again with club owners.
“Do you play hip-hop?”
“No.”
“Do you play techno?”
“No.”
“Do you play deep house?”
“No … we play reggae.”
“Huh? What’s that?”
Fortunately, places like The Wall welcome Black Reign, and the group says it will start tomorrow with “good, heavy dancehall beats” to get people off their feet. Later, DJs Big H and Yahman of Tokyo will take over. Lion says the two are pioneers in Japan, which has seen its own reggae scene explode.
Another reason not to miss the show is the Whoaa Girls, whom Lion and Taili call “the official dancehall queens of Taiwan.” (Dancehall moves are considered a separate art — in Jamaica, a new move is introduced every week, according to Lion.) At the show, the Whoaa Girls will be showing off their latest dancehall moves.
The music has yet catch on in the Taiwanese mainstream, but Lion continues to be inspired by his roots, the “raw” essence of Jamaican reggae and dancehall culture: “At its heart, it’s true to the game … the music — that’s your life, your work.” And the work of Black Reign, Lion says, is summed up by Taili’s motto: “Just put the feeling into the room.”
In 2020, a labor attache from the Philippines in Taipei sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding that a Filipina worker accused of “cyber-libel” against then-president Rodrigo Duterte be deported. A press release from the Philippines office from the attache accused the woman of “using several social media accounts” to “discredit and malign the President and destabilize the government.” The attache also claimed that the woman had broken Taiwan’s laws. The government responded that she had broken no laws, and that all foreign workers were treated the same as Taiwan citizens and that “their rights are protected,
A white horse stark against a black beach. A family pushes a car through floodwaters in Chiayi County. People play on a beach in Pingtung County, as a nuclear power plant looms in the background. These are just some of the powerful images on display as part of Shen Chao-liang’s (沈昭良) Drifting (Overture) exhibition, currently on display at AKI Gallery in Taipei. For the first time in Shen’s decorated career, his photography seeks to speak to broader, multi-layered issues within the fabric of Taiwanese society. The photographs look towards history, national identity, ecological changes and more to create a collection of images
March 16 to March 22 In just a year, Liu Ching-hsiang (劉清香) went from Taiwanese opera performer to arguably Taiwan’s first pop superstar, pumping out hits that captivated the Japanese colony under the moniker Chun-chun (純純). Last week’s Taiwan in Time explored how the Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) theme song for the Chinese silent movie The Peach Girl (桃花泣血記) unexpectedly became the first smash hit after the film’s Taipei premiere in March 1932, in part due to aggressive promotion on the streets. Seeing an opportunity, Columbia Records’ (affiliated with the US entity) Taiwan director Shojiro Kashino asked Liu, who had
At a funeral in rural Changhua County, musicians wearing pleated mini-skirts and go-go boots march around a coffin to the beat of the 1980s hit I Hate Myself for Loving You. The performance in a rural farming community is a modern mash-up of ancient Chinese funeral rites and folk traditions, with saxophones, rock music and daring outfits. Da Zhong (大眾) women’s group is part of a long tradition of funeral marching bands performing in mostly rural areas of Taiwan for families wanting to give their loved ones an upbeat send-off. The band was composed mainly of men when it started 50
RSS