Food aside, Friday nights at PS Underground just got better. If this were Oliver Twist, begging, he would be saying, “Please sir, I want some more … soul music.” One of Taipei’s best hip-hop, soul and funk DJs, Carl Mitchell, aka Cap, is bringing his beloved soul to this establishment every weekday number five for PS patrons.
“When I started Soul Food, I was looking to fill a void,” says Cap. “I hadn’t seen any soul music-related events and I also wanted to be able to play some good music without the pressure of keeping a dance floor moving.”
“The reason people don’t listen to soul out here is beyond me,” says Cap. “Maybe it’s too real for some people. Maybe the language barrier distances people from connecting to it. But there are so many reasons to listen to soul, it’s feel-good music.”
It’s called soul for obvious reasons — “music about love and sometimes about lost love, but mostly about being happy, feeling good, enjoying your life, enjoying your love and enjoying the love of your life,” says Cap. “Look at some of the most popular song titles, Love and Happiness, Let’s Stay Together, Baby Love, Dancing in the Streets, Stop in the Name of Love.”
Cap will also be playing some sample breaks to educate hip-hop lovers who are unfamiliar with the genre’s history. “A lot of people don’t realize that hip-hop is sample-based music,” says Cap, “and a lot of the artists that were sampled for many hip-hop songs are soul artists from this era.”
“I’m playing Motown-era soul, artists like The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and other artists that are not so well-known from that era,” says Cap.
“At the end of the day, after the iPod, computer, cell phone and TV is off, we really just want to feel good.”
“When music today becomes ‘old school,’ how many timeless artists will come out of this era of music? How many will last? Music today is disposable. Soul is timeless.”
Catch Cap and get some Soul Food every Friday night from 8pm until 10:30pm. PS Underground is located at B1, 37, Ln 187, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段187巷37號B1).
“There is hardly any drum ’n’ bass being pushed here,” says Richard Greenland, aka DJ Rich, promoter of Don’t Believe the Hype, “and even though most people here aren’t diehard followers, they all like to hear it loud and bassy from time to time.”
Come tomorrow night, that is exactly what is to be expected at VU Live House as Tranquility Bass Productions presents an all-you-can-drink drum ’n’ bass night. “In six years that I’ve been here, the d ’n’ b scene hasn’t really changed,” says Rich. “It’s always been relatively two-factioned — the foreigners and the Taiwanese. We all put on parties … we get some of them to play from time to time and vice versa, but there’s never been long-term cooperation.”
With a sweet laser show from Freeform1 and MC Shamen from THC on the mic, DJs Elemence, Rich, C-Type and Gil T Azell are in excellent company.
Don’t Believe the Hype at VU Live House (地下絲絨), B1, 77, Wuchang St Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市武昌街二段77號B1). Tomorrow from 11pm until 4am. NT$500 for the boys and NT$400 for the girls gets you five hours of tunes and drinks galore.
PS. Supercool duo Supermilkmen, who rocked Taipei a few weeks back at Rise, VU, Bliss and then Light Lounge in Taichung, took a little treat back with them to England in the form of Mickey Avalon’s track My Dick and remixed the hell out of it. Check it out at www.myspace.com/supermilkmen. These boys got dicks like Jesus.
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