Brace yourselves for an approaching typhoon: a musical one. Next Thursday at The Wall, Steve Aoki, also known as Kid Millionaire, hits town at full strength.
Aoki lives in Los Angeles and is, at the tender age of 30, in the enviable position of owning his own indie-music label, Dim Mak Records, the outfit that broke Bloc Party and which currently has house music monsters MSTRKRFT, Klaxons and Mystery Jets on its list.
He’s honed a reputation for throwing down sick electro-thrash-rock sets with wild abandon and has pulled of feats such as ripping off his T-shirt with headphones on while in the middle of a mix.
Olivia Wycech, an acquaintance of Aoki and new girl to the Taipei scene had this to say about the DJ’s sets: “His eyes never leave the dance floor, unless it’s to climb the highest speaker and crowd-surf his way into his own dancing shoes on the floor …”
At the beginning of the year Aoki released his first mix CD, Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles, to critical acclaim using the work of many of the artists on Dim Mak Records as base tracks. It is a stunning merging of genres from thrash metal to indie-rock to hip-hop overlaid on already remixed electro tunes from the likes of Justice, MSTRKRFT and Erol Alkan.
Aoki doesn’t just remix the remixes: he has employed a bunch of his friends such as Mickey Avalon to drop vocals on top.
Also playing with Aoki is hot female rapper Anna-Catherine Hartley, also known as Uffie, who is signed to top French indie-electro label Ed Banger. Born in the US but now residing in Paris, Uffie, 20, will provide the live vocals in her mellifluous laid back hip-hop style.
The gig is being thrown by one half of Taiwanese Tomodachi duo Spykee (小胖). Aoki will be backed up on the decks by the group’s other half, F Dragon (水果龍).
“This time I’m throwing the party in the name of Dance Rock Taipei, which is also the first event of Dance Rock Taipei. I hope to make DRTP a new model of indie dance in Taipei, so I thought Steve Aoki and Uffie, the super big hits right now, would be the perfect artists to bring in, instead of the outdated cast that big clubs would prefer,” Spykee said.
Steve Aoki and Uffie play The Wall (這牆), B1, 200, Roosevelt Road Sec 4, Taipei City (北市羅斯福路四段200號B1) on Thursday. The show begins at 11pm. Tickets are NT$1,000 at the door with a drink.
Advance tickets also cost NT$1,000, and can be purchased from the following locations in Taipei City: M@M Boutique, 4F-3, 112, Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 4 (台北市忠孝東路四段112號4F-3), tel: (02) 8771-5688; NEU Store, 17, Ln 177, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1 (台北市敦化南路一段177巷17號), tel: (02) 8771-8170; Species Records, 2F, 20, Ln 96, Kunming Street (台北市昆明街96巷20號2F), tel: (02) 2375-5518.On the Net: www.the-wall.com.tw,
www.myspace.com/steveaoki, www.myspace.com/uffie.
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