At his local youth club in South London when Robi Roka was 10 years old, his friend stuck on a drum and bass mixtape and everyone in the room started rapping over the beats.
“I had never heard anything like it. It was almost double the speed of hip-hop,” Roka said. “I was captivated by the deepness of the bass lines. I could feel the energy they were creating and wanted to recreate that.”
Roka hopes to reproduce that magical feeling tomorrow at his I Love Drum and Bass birthday party at Pipe. “My goal is to make the rave scene in Taiwan like it is in England,” Roka said.
Photo courtesy of Robi Roka
By the time he turned 16, Roka was a full-fledged drum and bass MC performing on pirate radio stations and small clubs around London. At the same time, he bought some turntables and started deejaying to take his mind off a bad breakup with a girl. “I got decks and made sure the music was always loud enough to piss off the neighbors,” he said.
A few years later, Roka visited Asia. When he returned to England, he convinced his good friend and fellow promoter, Dave Da Rave (real name David Godoy Cornejo), to move to Thailand with him. They burned through their savings and settled on Taiwan as the next logical destination. “It was both big enough and small enough,” Roka said.
Soon after arriving a little over a year ago, Roka was on the microphone and behind the decks and lighting a fire under the feet of the drum and bass massive in Taiwan. He started RokandRave Productions and has thrown a series of Bass Invaders and I Love Drum and Bass parties at Hook. With it’s cramped environs and cheap drinks, Roka says he likes Hook’s vibe.
For his birthday bash, Roka is moving out of the basement and over to the much more spacious Pipe. To combat Pipe’s infamously tinny acoustics, Roka said: “I’m bringing in a truck load of speakers to get that deep sub bass which seems to be missing from a few clubs here. It’s important that drum and bass be heard how it should be ... you need the low frequencies.”
■ I Love Drum and Bass and Robi Roka Birthday Bash, tomorrow from 10pm to 5am at Pipe, 1 Siyuan St, Taipei City (台北市思源街1號), tel: (02) 2364-8198. On the Net: www.pipemusic.com.tw. Admission is NT$300 with a drink.
Although “dirty Dutch” might sound like a sexual act along the lines of the rusty trombone or the Cleveland steamer, the term describes a style of electronic music that has been dominating airwaves and dance floors this year. With bleep-heavy sounds and huge breakdowns, Steve Angello and his crew, the Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack and Laidback Luke, have been promoting the dirty Dutch sound all over the globe. Another producer at the forefront of the scene, Chuckie will be at Luxy on Wednesday and he’s sure to give people a taste of what the future holds for dance music.
■ Chuckie, Wednesday from 10pm to 4am at Luxy, 5F, 201, Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路四段201號5樓). Call (02) 2772-1000 or 0955-904-600 for reservations (English service available). On the Net: www.luxy-taipei.com. Admission is NT$800 for men all night with two drinks, free for ladies before 11pm and NT$400 after with two drinks.
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