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Published: 10 May 2006

It's a relief to escape the virulent outbreaks of "Mad Crowd Disease" that have affected Lamma over the Golden Holiday week as I board a near-empty ferry to Hong Kong for another mini-Rockfest at The Edge. The Academy, who've been touring and playing a lot recently, are supporting Japan's Electric Eel Shock. The Tokyo trio are about to join Sonic Youth and Radiohead on an American tour, according to the SCMP. This is their 3rd gig in HK, following Rock It #1 and a semi-secret stormer at Amnesia in 2003. I arrive at The Edge to find a mini-outbreak of "MCD" (with "Advanced Spontaneous Mania" well in evidence). The bands share a table by the entrance where they're selling CD's, T-shirts and EES badges. There are more people here than for Jaggedy Ann. i spot Manek and Nick W. from HK Clubbing, along with Undina, a Lamma friend and drum-n-bass promoter, killing time before tonight's show with Miss Kitten at Volar. I'm chatting with Murray, the HK 7"s cameraman when Clare She-Ra rushes by to join the rapidly expanding moshpit.

The Academy blast through a seven song set which starts slow and builds up pace. Tom, the singer, modestly admits that "tonight, we're the second best band in HK"..The set list includes "Take It Back", "Never Loved You" and "Long Division". They're all hard-rocking, foot-stomping crowd pleasers,  The music is the usual (to me) gritty mix of Wishbone Ash (the quieter bits) interspersed with classic Stones and Black Crowes grunge riffs, plus a smattering of No Doubt. There's great drum and bass interplay between Paul and Dave. Paul seems to be channeling the late Keith Moon as he leaves no part of his drum kit unhammered. I'm half-expecting to see him emulate Mick Shrimpton (of Spinal Tap) and explode mid-set. Tom swaggers round the stage, playing to the audience and invoking memories of Jim Morrison, the Lizard King himself. Justin S. is tripping out on freak beat guitar, both together and apart from his bandmates, while Justin C. keeps the hooks a-rolling along. All too soon,   they've finished their set and the anticipation meter goes to eleven.

Electric Eel Shock soundcheck/tune-up with a near perfect run through the Sabs "Iron Man" and then play it again at the start of the show. Aki, the guitarist, is pacing the width of the stage, hoisting his red flying vee guitar in the air at every opportunity. He reminds me of Ronaldinho, all happy bug eyes and cheeky grins. The musical maestro to Ronaldinho's soccer supremo. Kazu, the bassist, is equally nimble, climbing on the stacks and running through a gamut of heroic stances. He looks like Ian Brown (ex-Stone Roses) with Johnny Ramones haircut.  Drummer Gian radiates effortless cool like Beat Takeshi. His metronomic drumming is interspersed with furious flurries of paraddidles and crashing rolls round his set, but he's intermittently explosive. Overall, I reckon Paul just takes the skinmeister honours of the night, but that's not a dis to Gian. The sound verges from Black Sabbath to live Blue Oyster Cult (w/out keys) to vintage Scorpions. Aki has the crowd chanting "you bastards' early on before another blast of unhinged guitarnoise erupts and he bellows "I want to vomit and I love you all".  Kazu provides some Link Wray rumble bass before the amps fail and roadies rush around for 5 minutes fixing equipment. Songs after the re-start recall early Queen and Free as a brief outbreak of crowd diving/surfing provokes panic among the security on stage. Nick W. is there, snapping away happily, as EES play on through the madness. The encore is "Scream for me, Baby" and people oblige. Tom comes back on, saying "Isn't that the best fucking shit you ever heard?". Their final show is at Amnesia on Sunday the 7th. It's gonna be a riot. Maybe see you there?

Review by Nick L.

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Published: 10 May 2006

At first, I thought this story would pre-write itself. I'd heard the comments: "He doesn't use headphones". "He can't mix". "His show in Guangdong was crap". "He cleared the dancefloor" "If he's gonna DJ, he should practise. He wouldn't tour with New Order without rehearsing". Sounds like we're in for a wild ride. I get to Tribeca about 0115.

A crowd of at least 120 people are patiently waiting to go inside. Some people, including ligger James from Argentina, have been waiting for two hours. It's steamy hot.  A  small sign reads Full House. The crowd are cut off from the a/c inside. I'm impressed by their restraint.

I've been waiting with James for about 40 minutes. Inside, we see PH being escorted upstairs. Time to play my trump. "I'm from HK Clubb-..." "Go, right on in mate". ("Coming, James?"). DJ Dicky (?) is blasting out hard electro, some subliminals, good long fuzz breaks. The crowd are happy. I position myself back of the DJ booth. There's light to write and the bar by my side. The lady cashier is making change, swiping cards, checking bills with total aplomb. She's unfazed by the noise coming from 10 feet away. Tribeca, you must try better. James has vanished. I'm chatting with Sebastian from Germany who's glad he made it. A sexyy lovetet of ladies wonder what I'm doing. I promise to mention Yippy, Kelly, Karen Chan, Sheila Wan, Pansy and Melissa in the story. It's nearly 0240 and Peter Hook is about to make his second debut in HK (I'll explain later).

The first track is a piano-enhanced mix of "Love Will Keep Us Together" and slows the musical pace right down, but not for long. A string of 80's styled and inspired electro-throbbers, mixed with some digi-dub keep the crowd dancing. A splendid version of "She's Lost Control" is in the mix. (Is it Joy Division meets Martin Hannet?) A chorus of "I don't take drugs, cigarettes or go out at night. I just fuck" features lots of syncussion and vocodervox. It's another highlight after "Control". PH has pulled out a pair of headphones, but hasn't used them yet. His mixing isn't seamless, but that's just one technique. Overlay, Cut-N-Paste, Mix and Match all work. I remember that James Lavelle and DJ Hell can't mix, but they're great producers. From where I am, PH's CD case is 2 feet away. Most of his discs are the equivalent of white label dubplates with 1-2 tunes on them. No need to have a cue anxiety attack. He's certainly enjoying himself. Dancing up and down. Kicking his right leg backwards like a reverse Can-Can-cum-prancing Pony. The crowd is warming to his style which flows along. One tune melds the Blue Monday drum pattern with a chorus of "Fly across the restless sea". A little pre-taste of New Order glories to come.

By this time, PH has signed about 20 autographs, on tickets, bits of paper, the flyerboards surrounding the DJ booth, somebody's shoulder. (Hell, I got 2 myself!).  Notes for requests are proffered, which he reads, smiles, and puts to the left of the DJ mixer. People tell me, he's really caught the mood tonight. Into his second hour and it's getting harder. "Mr. Brightman" by The Killers raises a roar of approval, especially from Jim on my left. The Sex Pistols "Anarchy" flows into  "24 Hour Party People" by Happy Mondays. (Possible Oakie mix?). Some synthi-Bollywood strings over gothbeats and stomping dub bass. Some John Digweed sirens come and go. Blur's "Song 2" as done by Armand Van Helden. Good control of the tension/release dynamics and pacing. He's worn his headphones twice as well - once for 2 minutes, once for 1 minute.

A synaptic spasm of sense-memory ripples through the dancefloor as PH moves into the New Order section of the set. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (nice counterpoint to the opening tune), "Blue Monday" and "Crystal" are extended mixes driving the dancers to possible multiple auralgasms. I've never had so much fun listening to a 50-year old man playing his own records. There's a country-billy version of "Folsom Prison Blues" which fits weirdly-well into the selection. At this point, PH has done about 2.5 hours and the promoter is trying to get him to wrap it up so David Lam can take over. PH promises "one more song" (and plays three) before stepping down. So, what's the message tonight? Don't believe the hypers!. Don't judge a book by its cover!. Don't budge a Hook before it's over, either!

We walk out together. I tell him I'm the only person in the room who saw New Order make their HK debut at Andrew Bull's Canton Disco in mid-1985. (Told you I'd explain later.). He says he's exhausted. His 10-day tour is over and he's glad to be going home. As we part, he calls out "See you in another 25 years, la" "Make it much sooner than that, mate" I reply. I stroll away, into the sunrise, whistling a happy tune. We Fade To Grey. The End.

Review by Nick L.

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Published: 20 April 2006

There's about 40 or so people chilling outside Grappa's this Thursday night (eve of Good Friday) for the John OO Fleming gig. Suv is also playing tonight, so there could be divided loyalties (right Manek!). It's nearly midnight. The place is filling up. Ewan is banging out some hard rocking sounds, like it's already 4 am - there's a nervy, wired sort of feeling to the sonic assault, possible subliminals, lots of drums, space bass etc. He ends about 0015 am.

Jason F is on next, working the room into a frenzy for JOOF, due on about 0130 am. Jason has opened for Paul Van Dyk at HITEC and Lisa Lashes at Grappa's last October, among others. Clearly an up and comer. He handles a midset sound failure without getting too upset. and finishes with some deft scratching as JOOF gets ready.

I don't know too much about John's style. I figured he's sort of Sasha-Digweed spacy daze - perhaps some of PVD Politics of Dancing Vol 1. He starts with some Giorgio Moroder inspired electro mixed with Chemical Brothers style breakdowns and mutates into some Eddie Halliwell hard noise (the mid-section of EH's HITEC debut last Xmas Eve. He also sounds like Israeli progtrancer Moshic channeling airport tannoy messages. Overall, JOOF sounds harded than I thought, more like PVD's new direction, but I promise, I didn't yawn once during his 2 and a half hour workout.

DJ Tynee, a young lady and possible friend/protege of Jason F? takes over from John at 0400 and plays the midnight set. Tunes with vocals, some wierdgood breaks and a happyface, keeps the slowly dwindling crowd satisfied and sorta dancing. My approximate headcount is about 600 or so people, but it was dark and i may have counted some twice. Good to catch up with regular fellow clubbers, Karina, DY and PK (tho' you all left rather early). Grappa's is looking like a good choice for a late nite venue. It's hosted Lisa Lashes HK debut, the return of the Plump DJ's, JOOF, and breakbeat duo, Hybrid, the next night. Drinks are strong and my ferry pier is a short stagger and hop away. Top night and many thanx to Nick Willsher and Manek for all their help. See you at the next gig.

Review By Nick L.

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Published: 20 April 2006

Terry Jones, founder, creative director and editor-in-chief of i-D magazine, arrived in Hong Kong from London to officially kick off i-DENTITY, an exhibition celebrating the magazine’s past 25 years this April. The exhibition is the Hong Kong cultural centre showed covers and impressive articles covering the magazines history on a variety of walls with celebrities and fashion industry guests joining the party.

Supported by Diesel the event was a success with djs, music, drinks and networking over a weekend evening.

Review by Nick W.

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Published: 17 April 2006

When I arrived Jason F was spinning already (about 1am) and the venue was already rammed up, but you could still move around and it was not to hot as the aircon was working well.

The layout had the stage in the middle and jason played some excellent remixes of well known tunes in electro and breaks versions which got the crowd very warmed up and with their arms in the air. About 2.30 ish the Hybrid duo on tour came on and played back to back having time to chat to us and sign some posters for our site giveaway.

Review Nick W.

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Published: 28 March 2006

Arrived quite early at Tribeca as I knew the que would be quite long, two rooms one hip hip and the other more breaks and a bit of Electro. jason F just came on and mixed both music styles in the main room together.

 It was full but comfortable and the hip hop room at the front seemed to be solid, making quite a seperate venue of people interested in two different kinds of music in their own areas.

james came on when there were still quite a lot of people waiting down stairs but from what I heard those people where able to get in and enjoy James great tune selection. Would have liked toe booth to be overlooking the whole club, I am sure James would have liked that too, but that is how the clubs new design was that night.

Great vibe and crowd with a busy bar, hopefully more bigger venues can be found for such a music combination event.

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Published: 06 February 2006

To have a 20 year old DJ fly in from overseas to entertain a crowd which is demographically on the senior edge is already quite a hard stunt to pull.  But then to see the same 20 year old DJ make the crowd lose control in the club, that is phenomenal.  From 1.30 am onwards, DJ NYK, India’s youngest # 1 DJ, was rocking the exclusive Champagne Room at Sugar to celebrate Year of the Dog on Chinese New Year.

After taking a short tour of Lan Kwai Fong and the adjacent SOHO area, NYK walked into Sugar to a packed house of anticipation and a lot of whisky being poured on ice.  With support from the infamous 3 Phat DJs, host and organiser MC-G stepped up to the stage to welcome to the young superstar to Hong Kong.  He sure made his presence with a dramatic audio intro that bewildered most of the crowd with excitement, for them to then hear the faint vocals of ‘JHALAK’ (from the movie Aksar) humming over deep house grooves through the massive sound-system.

DJ NYK kept it pumping for hours, and even party-whores like myself couldn’t last!  We hope to welcome back DJ NYK and hopefully have more DJs like him touch down in HK.  Special credit and thanks goes to the sponsor Sunny Lakhwani, support DJs, promoters and organisers – the 3 Phat DJs, MC-G and Asian Flava.

Don’t forget to check out the all the cheesy smiles in the Photo Section.

Review by DJ Guru

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Published: 19 November 2005

Heading back into the marquee, the sounds switched from a heavy-thrashed up set to something much more to my taste, nothing but funk!  The Uptown Rockers had the crowd in a booty-shaking mood, and that’s what the funk is all about. 

They delivered a respectable set, mixing up some raw and jazzy beats with all sorts of classic and new funk elements.  Without a doubt, their performance was a good touch for a Hong Kong music festival. 

Review by Guru