New Year’s Eve always starts with grandiose dreams of watching the Taipei 101 fireworks from a romantic spot, kissing that special significant other as the clock strikes midnight, and dancing the night away while great DJs play a selection of the year’s best tunes. While this doesn’t always happen because of traffic congestion or other unforeseen circumstances, Vinyl Word did get an abbreviated lowdown of what went down around the country.
The Xinyi area under the Taipei 101 was packed to the gills and the patrons were in festive moods as the fireworks went off. The roof at Room 18 was extremely full, but since people had no choice but to be squished together, everyone just made a lot of new friends.
At Deja Vu in the Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914文創園區), Frog in a sock’s The Last Minute 2013 went smoothly as the warehouse-like restaurant morphed into a rocket ship heading towards Planet Lazer with thousands of rowdy passengers aboard. The music was top notch all night, but DJs Ray-Ray, D. Hooker, and Mike Lambert played the perfect songs.
Photo courtesy of Steven Vigar
In Tainan, Tin Pan Alley was the place to be. Owner Rock Starkey cleverly disguised himself as DJ Rock the Starkey while playing some old school music to get the night going.
“I mean really old school as in big band swing from the 1940s. Then I moved up a couple of decades and did some sweet funk,” Starkey said.
After Starkey changed from behind the decks to behind the bar, DJ Two Hands was left to finish off the night.
Brickyard in Kaohsiung decided that New Year’s Eve was the perfect time to rev up their new custom bass bin. According to owner Graham Dart, “DJs Pro Res, Shortie, Dub C and Chamber gave the heaviest system in Southern Taiwan a proper workout.”
Almost exactly a year ago, DJ Chamber (Theo Cox) moved to Kaohsiung from England to focus on deejaying and production. He said he’s quite happy with his decision.
“The rewarding thing is getting people interested in and excited about [underground dance music] that they had never heard before. This was one of the reasons I moved to Taiwan in the first place,” Chamber said.
Chamber said he enjoys the camaraderie that the Brickyard DJs share.
“I think we all have a big influence on each other, we help each other get in contact with useful people all over the island to find more gigs and gain more exposure, we learn a lot of technical DJ stuff from each other and we share our experiences.”
With a focus on producing breakbeats and other futuristic bass music, Chamber just finished a Virtual Worldwide Remix Tour.
“Once a week for the last three months, I released a free remix or re-edit of an artist representing a different country,” Chamber said. “The idea behind it was rather than just releasing a free tune whenever I got one done, I wanted to challenge myself with a theme and a real project.” DJ Chamber’s music can be found at soundcloud.com/djchamber.
■ Chamber will be playing tonight at Brickyard, B1, 507 Jhongshan 2nd Rd, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市中山二路507號B1). Admission is NT$300 for gents and NT$150 for ladies. This includes two drinks before 11pm and one drink after. Open bar from 11pm to 1am for VIP cardholders.
Chamber will also be at 4Play next Saturday at Revolver, 1-2, Roosevelt Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路一段1-2號). Admission is NT$300, which includes a drink.
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