DJ MAG ASEAN ISSUE 007 by DJ MAG ASEAN

KURA IS UNDEFEATABLE

SENNHEISER RESHAPES EXCELLENCE COMPILATIONS OF2015

LOUIS VUITTON’S CHRISTMAS GIFTS FOR ANIMATION LOVERS

CHUCKIE LET’S THE MUSIC PLAY LOOK LIKE A STAR THIS NEW YEARS

NEED FOR SPEED 2015 EXCITES EDM FANS WOOBAR : MORE THAN JUST LUXURY

THE RISE OF THE WOLFPACK

INVERT RECORDINGS ANDREW RAYEL REVEALS NEW YEARS RESOLUTION

PLUS

GET YOUR 2015 RECAP OF WHAT WENT ON THIS YEAR, WHAT’S HOT AT FOUNDRY II, OUR QUICK CHAT WITH FUTURISTIC POLAR BEARS AND MORE….

RM 15.00

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PP 18496/052014 ( 033873)

DJ MAG ASEAN / OCTOBER 2015

OCTOBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

EDITOR’S NOTE EDITORIAL EDITOR

AUDREY RAJ

editor@djmagasean.com MUSIC WRITER

LYDIA LOHSHINI (MALAYSIA) lydia@djmagasean.com WRITER

DERISHA ARYAWAN (INDONESIA) derisha@djmagasean.com

PAT SANTOS (PHILIPPINES) pat@djmagasean.com CONTRIBUTOR

IKHSAN BIMOSENO (SINDHÈN) JUNIOR ART DIRECTOR

IZUAN SOBRI

izuan@djmagasean.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER

WAN IZZATUR ASYRAF asyraf@djmagasean.com EDITORIAL COORDINATOR

JULIEANA

julieana@djmagasean.com CONTENT STRATEGIST

SHAHEILA AZMI

shaheila@djmagasean.com

WHAT A YEAR! It’s been such an incredible journey for us this year. When we launched in June it was clear that the road ahead was always going to be filled with its fair share of hurdles but here we are in December, survived a good seven months of dance music mayhem and another year is just around the corner. Along the way over the past couple of months we have come to experience the excitement for EDM peaking at an unprecedented rate with more and more brands around the world beginning to recognize the importance of engaging and building brand affinity among EDM fans especially in this part of the world. Having said that, DJ MAG ASEAN has certainly given a bigger picture of the EDM industry in different ASEAN countries and in a continuous effort to serve all our fans and readers, given the diverse cultures and languages spread across Southeast Asia, this issue of DJ MAG ASEAN will be the last of its kind. Effective 2016, we wish to proudly announce DJ MAG’s country specific magazines in line with our move to serve you better and we will kick off with the launch of DJ MAG MALAYSIA on the 7th of January 2015. DJ MAG PHILIPPINES and DJ MAG VIETNAM are scheduled to launch in March 2016 and will be followed with DJ MAG SINGAPORE and DJ MAG THAILAND. Exciting times ahead! Before we sign off for the year, on behalf of the team and I we would like to thank you for your support! We couldn’t have made it this far without each and every one of you. Party hard and enjoy the holiday season. Happy New Year!

MANAGERIAL CHAIRMAN

ISKANDAR OTHMAN CO-CHAIRMAN

YAM TENGKU SHAHRAIN DIRECTOR

NORAZILAWATI CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

NICHOLAS DANIEL RAJ EVENT MANAGER

FAIZAL BABA PUBLISHED BY REGAL GATES SDN BHD (1134948-D) A-22-13, MENARA UOA BANGSAR, NO.5 JALA N BANGSAR UTAMA 1, BANGSAR 59000, KL, MALA YSIA. PRINTED BY PERCETAKAN OSACAR SDN BHD LOT 11, JALAN 4/37 A TAMAN BUKIT MALURI, INDUSTRIAL AREA KEPONG, 52100 KUALA LUMPUR. DISTRIBUTED BY MPH DISTRIBUTOR SDN BHD THE VIEWS EXPRESSED HEREIN ARE THOSE OF INDIVIDUALS AND NOT NECESSARILY SHARED BY DJ MAGAZINE

[DECEMBER 2015 ]

CONTENTS

22 THE RISE OF THE WOLFPACK The Belgian duo, Wolfpack seem to be taking the electronic music scene by storm as their music and mayhem spread like wildfire across the globe.

FASHION THE H&M x BALMAIN DRAMA

FEATURES 62 KURA is undefeatable 64 Chuckie let’s the music play

HIGHLIGHTS 08 Zedd Headlining 2015 Victoria’s Secret PINK Nation Game on Bash 12 Interviews with Futuristic Polar Bears 13 Interviews with JoacHiM GarrauD

RAYEL REVEALS HIS NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

2015 RECAP

2015 has been a whirlwind year for the electronic dance music scene. With many highs and partnering lows, the industry still seems to be ending each year with a bang.

At the age of only 23 he is signed under Armada as well as produced some mind-blowing tracks and has worked with a ton of talented people in the industry. 6

DJ MAG ASEAN / OCTOBER 2015

COMPILATIONS OF 2015

The DJ mixes, back-catalogues and collections that made 2015...

74 BENTLEY BENTAYGA: THE MOST EXCLUSIVE SUV IN THE WORLD

The world caught a glimpse of Bentley’s proclaimed fastest, most powerful, most luxurious and most exclusive SUV in the world during this year’s IAA Frankfurt Show back in 15 to 27September.

BEST OF THE REGION 30 32 34 36 38 46 47

DJ Nashd DJ Paka DJ Martin Pulgar DJ David Jaay BEST OF THE FEST Cafe Naya at The Palace Manila Foundry II , Jakarta

REGULARS Editor’s Note Fresh From The Decks Quicktakes Fashion Feature Story Cover Story Best Of The Region 68 Red By DJ MAG ASEAN 79 Compilations of 2015

02 06 08 14 18 22 29

OCTOBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

WOOBAR: MORE THAN JUST LUXURY

Inspired by the ocean, WooBar is designed to symbolize a giant wave in action on the beach, an artistic architecture of curvaceous raw concrete with secret spaces for a more intimate vibe. Marvel down to Woobase for the ultimate dancefloor experience as well as an underground whiskey room.

QUOTES

DECK

FRESH FROM THE

“

“WE KNEW WE WERE DIFFERENT AND THAT OUR INTERESTS IN CREATING MUSIC AND CONNECTING PEOPLE WAS OUR TRUE PASSION AND WANTED TO FOLLOW OUR DREAMS.” SEE PAGE 22

”

DJ MAG ASEAN / JUNE 2015

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[ KURA ] IT WAS MORE OF AN AWAKENING TO ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC THAN A TRUE SONIC INFLUENCE, ON THOSE DAYS TECHNO WAS A STYLE I LOVED AND HEARD... SEE PAGE 62

”

JUNE 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

“

[ ANDREW RAYEL] I THINK THE MOST POWERFUL MUSIC IS WHEN YOU COMBINE EMOTIONS,WHICH IS PRETTY MUCH MELODIES,AND ENERGY WHICH IS PRETTY MUCH BEATS,BASSLINE. SO,COMBINING THESE TWO ELEMENTS PRETTY MUCH MAKES MY MUSIC A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT I BELIEVE. SEE PAGE 60

”

“

[ CHUCKIE ] AT A CERTAIN POINT, DANCE MUSIC EMBRACED SO MANY DIFFERENT STYLES THAT I EMBRACED IT MYSELF. SEE PAGE 64

”

QUICKTAKE

[GAME]

NEED FOR SPEED 2015 EXCITES EDM FANS EDM fans can finally enjoy driving around Need for Speed while listening to EDM bangers as the soundtrack’s electronic catalogue includes music from Avicii, Dirty South, Flosstradamus, Hudson Mohawke, Kill The Noise, Major Lazer, Netsky, Spor, the Chemical Brothers, Wolfgang Gartner, and Zeds Dead just to name a few. With this new update, get ready to elevate your gaming experience.

ZEDD HEADLINING 2015 VICTORIA’S SECRET PINK NATION GAME ON BASH [EVENTS] Headlining for a nightclub is nothing new, but headlining a Victoria Secret bash is something else. Students from The University of Texas San Antonio had a massive treat when they got to party with German DJ/Producer ZEDD along with Victoria Secret PINK models Rachel Hilbert and Jessica Strother on Oct. 28.

[EVENT]

MARTIN GARRIX HEADLINES NYE PARTY IN DUBAI

The talented young superstar and dance music prodigy Martin Garrix has announced that he will be playing a major event at the exclusive 15,000 capacity Meydan Ampitheatre, Dubai this New Year’s Eve. This venue is known for hosting the biggest NYE parties around with an exquisite backdrop of the city skyline and fireworks displays from Burj Khalifa -- the world’s tallest artificial structure in the world, standing at 829.8 m. Julian Jordan, Justin Mylo & Jay Hardway will be joining the 19-year-old Dutch DJ.

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

[TECH] SOMETHING NEW FOR ABLETON FANS The Berlin-based music software company have unveiled their new Push 2 and Live 9.5 software which surely will be a big hit for all those obsessed with Ableton. The new Push 2 on Ableton has a slightly larger appearance that includes a multi-coloured screen, new sampling features, and smoother pads. A new simpler instrument which includes realtime sample slicing and pad assignment is another updated feature to look forward to.

WORLD’S LARGEST [TECH] EDM RECORD LABEL ANNOUNCED ITS FIRST ‘FREE SUBSCRIPTION’ The label recently launched ‘Spinnin’ Premium,’ which oﬀers fans a ‘subscription’ of free downloads as they claim, ‘The focus is shifting from paying for your music to streaming and other freemium models’. Each track is available for a period of two week, ‘exclusive’ window. Prior to this launch, Martin Garrix previously announced at Amsterdam Dance Event that all of his releases would be free to fans.

SUSTAINABLE DJ BOOTH [ECO] CartonLab usually builds environmentally-friendly cardboard furniture and architectural elements, including chairs, desks, tables, shelving, and more but recently they have developed a pretty interesting, all-cardboard design. They made a normal table shape and even a hexagonal DJ booth, which looks pretty cool. The main goal was to build a 100% cardboard DJ booths that would be in use in three clothing stores (H&M) throughout the course of the event.

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

QUICKTAKE

YAHOO SAYS NO TO SIMON COWELL

[MUSIC]

Notorious for being ‘the blunt and controversial judge’ on Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, and the American TV talent competition shows American Idol, The X Factor, and America’s Got Talent, Simon Cowell tries to enter the up and coming world of EDM. Yahoo has just announced that it will not be moving forward with the live EDM DJ competition show it had previously planned with Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment. Perhaps Cowell should stick to being a judge.

WILL SMITH TO TOUR WITH DJ JAZZY JEFF [ENTERTAINMENT] Will Smith recently shocked his fans with his return to music recently, the actor has revealed that he’s also planning to go on a world tour next summer with none other than his partner in crime, DJ Jazzy Jeff! During a truly entertaining interview with Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 radio show, Smith hinted that he’s quite he’ll take on his first world tour in the summer of 2016, and that Jazzy Jeff will be accompanying him on the road if it does take place. Hats off to the guys.

STEVE AOKI WANTS TO SAVE RHINOS FROM POACHING [WELFARE] At the age of only 14, Steve Aoki had a true passion for animal welfare issues. Now, 23 years later he headlines around the world at major music festivals and still proves his concern for the other beings on our planet. He had begun collaborating with The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Humane Society International, starting an ad campaign to help save endangered rhinos from poachers. Now we know Aoki isn’t all about just ‘cake’.

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

[INTERVIEW]

FUTURISTIC POLAR BEARS

Futuristic Polar Bears have had a phenomenal few years as they’re making hits and taking names in the industry. The DJ Trio made up of Luke, Rhys and Fran are well on their way to EDM superstardom, especially with the unique sound and unbeatable energy. DJ Mag ASEAN caught up with the trio recently for a quick chat Hi guys! Talk to us about the origins of Futuristic Polar Bears and the story behind the unique name. (FRAN) The Futuristic Polar Bears are 3 DJ/Producers from the UK featuring myself, Luke and Rhys. We formed in 2010 and released our debut single in 2011 on Erick Morillo’s legendary imprint Subliminal Records alongside Jason Herd. The name is certainly unique and comes from our love for wildlife conservation. We’re all members of the World Wild Life Fund and actually do a lot of campaigning to help preserve the future of the Polar Bears, we’ve even adopted one and his name is Manuel De La Bear after one of our favourite producers Manuel De La Mare! How is it like working as a DJ trio? Do you guys each have specific roles or is it just a combined effort when it comes to DJing and Producing? (LUKE) We all have specific roles in the Polar Bears especially when it comes to production. Rhys and I will usually put the idea together and then Rhys will go away and finish up the idea. Fran is a great engineer so he’ll then mix and master the track to make it sound great. We also divide all the different roles up in the business so we’re maximizing our time in-between touring. Talk to us about Bring Your Own Speaker (BYOS). What’s the story behind the track? (RHYS) Sandro Silva is a good friend of ours and we’ve actually been talking about doing something together for nearly 2 years. Finally at the start of the summer we sat down and wrote something together and then spent a couple of months playing it out at different clubs and festivals before we finalised it and signed it to Armada. What are you guys working on right now in the studio, do you have any projects on the go? (FRAN) We have so many projects on the go and 2016 is looking

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

really exciting. Unfortunately we can’t disclose everything but we’re currently working on projects with Alpharock, Sultan + Shepard, DOD, Maddix, Paris & Simo & Mike Hawkins. There’s plenty to come! 2015 is almost coming to a close; tell us how the year has been treating you so far. (LUKE) 2015 has been amazing and it was important to capitalize on successes of 2014. The important thing was carry on our relationship with Revealed Recordings and we’ve already released 2 tracks this year alongside Henry Fong and Kill The Buzz that were really well received. We’ve also had a great year touring all over the globe taking in new clubs, cities and countries which has been amazing to bring our sound to new audiences. We’re very fortunate in that we’re doing a job we love and that it takes us to so many amazing places. You guys are ascending into the upper echelons of the industry; tell us what your secret to success is? (RHYS) I don’t think there’s any secret to our success really - for us it’s just hard work, dedication and belief in our music! If you work towards these 3 elements then anything is possible! There’s so much talent out there that you really have to be persistent to make sure that you get stand out and get noticed. Things don’t happen overnight – it could take months or years, but if you believe in your music, it’ll happen eventually. You guys hold quite a prominent role in the dance music scene, what would be your advice to up and coming DJ/Producers out there? (FRAN) We give the same advice to all up and coming producers and DJS and that’s the ethos we believe in - to put your heart and soul into your music, believe in what you are producing and never give up the dream!! It’s the way we have approached everything we have done since we started our journey as the Polar Bears, and it seems to have been working so far! Any shoutouts to your Asian fans? We just want to say a massive massive thankyou to all our amazing Asian fans. Your love and support over the past 3 years has been incredible and we couldn’t have done it without you!! See you all on the dancefloor soon #ASIAletsgetpolar

HOOD BY AIR REVEAL AN EMPIRE INSPIRED COLLECTION [FASHION] Empire fans are in for a treat, Hood by Air has recently teamed up with the hit Fox series for an Empire-inspired collection. This hip collection is inspired by the show’s blunt characters and most extraordinary moments which includes newsprint sweatshirts, dresses, shorts and tops featuring popular images and quotes from the series, as well as champagne glasses, keychains and a pillow backpack. It’s time to project your style and obsession with this new range!

CLAPTONE’S NEW CLOTHING COLLABORATION WITH MILLIONHANDS [FASHION] UK Clothing brand Million hands has been killing it since 2009 and they continue to work with some of the most talented artists. The most recent collaboration with Claptone is one of our favorites with their iconic plague mask logo that is equal parts creepy and cool.

FIRST FEMALE SIGNED TO ARMADA’S CHASED MANAGEMENT [LABEL] Marta Martus, better known as Juicy M who is from Kiev, Ukraine is making history as she is now oﬃcially the first female to be signed under Armada’s Chased management. We should expect a whole new sound from this Ukrainian hottie as she joins Andrew Rayel, ANOTR, Dave Winnel, Mark Sixma, Sandro Silva, Years, and a many other artists in agency. She also recently performed at Amsterdam Dance Event in Abe club and killed the crowd at Zouk club KL last month.

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

[INTERVIEW]

JOACHIM GARRAUD

You sparked a music revolution in 1989, threw Russia’s first ever rave, held residencies at major clubs, written, produced and remixed major hits, own a label and a lot of other achievements, and you still don’t seem to be slowing down. What is your secret to success? I think it’s the same word – passion. Passion and love of music. Also I’m always very excited about creating something new, trying to find diﬀerent things that will increase the quality of my shows, increase the quality of the sound, and giving the new generation all the tools they need to produce better music, to have a better life doing what they love. If you’re lucky like I am, if you get to do what you love every day of your life, it makes your life completely diﬀerent. For me the biggest secret to success is to be in love with what you’re doing every single day. Speaking of your label, Space Invader Music, what made you want to start it up? When I started the label, my mission was very clear. I didn’t create it for me, but for the next generation of producers, all those people writing to me through my social networks asking thinks like “Joachim, can you listen to this track?” “Joachim, what do you think about this sound?” “Do you think this synth is better than this plug-in?” “Can you help me remix this one?” Every day a lot of young people were asking me for advice because I think for these new young producers, they saw me as almost a big brother who they could ask for advice. I have always been as accessible as possible to them, to try and help them as much as I can with their questions, so the Space Invader Music label was really dedicated to them, to help new producers. I’m more than happy to help, I think it’s one of the most important things, to be able to transfer what you have learned yourself in order to help the new generation keep the process of music growing. One of your lifelong dreams was to play at Burning Man, and you achieved it last year. Tell us about the experience Actually, to be honest, I’ve played there six times already but you know, this festival which is in the middle of the desert in Nevada at the end of August is one of the craziest places on earth to be so

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

each time feels like it’s a brand new experience for me. And it’s so cool because you can play exactly what you have in your mind in terms of music. The first year I was there I played a DJ set for 16 hours. I was like a dream – people were dancing, dancing non-stop and then when they were tired, more people came and danced. I was so hypnotised and entranced, the whole 16-hour set was one of my best ever because I played a lot of diﬀerent music. At Burning Man you can play back to back classical from Chopin or Mozart and you can play heavy metal like Iron Maiden and then you can play a basic house track from Chicago and incorporate something like the I Have A Dream speech. You can play all this back to back and the people there are really cool about it, which is why I love this festival so much. If you could only load 3 songs into your music player, what would your selection be and why those three particular songs? Number 1 will be South Central “Strings of Life” because this is the song where I discovered the global world of house music. I still play this track when I’m doing gigs, I love it, it’s really one of the masterpieces in contemporary electronic music for me. Number 2 I’m going to choose Daft Punk “Rolling and Scratching”. It’s one of my favourite tracks ever because you can listen to it after 12 years and it’s still fresh and relevant. That’s crazy because normally when you’re making electronic music you’re just afraid that time won’t be your partner, that your music will age and you’ll have to refresh your production if you still want it to be up to date. This track from Daft Punk is non-stop up to date and that’s why I love it. Number 3 is a track from 96/24, something very special for me. The track is “A Message For The World” and I wrote it with Chris Willis. He sings like he is singing on the last day of planet Earth. There are so many emotions in that track, every time I listen to it I’m very close to crying and I’m very happy and very proud to have made this analogue track with real cellos, with real guitar and also a real singer. It’s not a fake vocal, you don’t need any auto-tune on his voice, he’s really unique so I love that track and I’m very happy that it’s going to be released on the 96/24 album.

FASHION

LOOK LIKE A STAR THIS NEW YEARS

hopping and dressing up is way more fun when the New Years is coming up. With Black Friday that just passed by and the annual end of year sales, you surely will be keeping an eye for the most dazzling outfit ideas for all the end of year parties and celebrations. It’s the time of year again to WOW your haters and be looking like a star this New Year’s, here are some of our picks to keep you stunning this festive season. ‘If you can’t be better than your competition, just dress better.’ - Anna Wintour

FOR HER

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1. Bershka Long Sleeve Sequinned Dress, $46.82 2. MANGO Zafiro Nude Sequinned Top, $79.99 3. H&M x Balmain Green Sequin-embroidered Dress, $140 4. Dude & The Duchess Nocturn Peplum Top, $92.56 5. H&M x Balmain Gold Shimmering Jumper, $94 6. Metallic Silver Leather Skirt BY KENDALL + KYLIE at TOPSHOP, $137.28 7. Miss Selfridge Black Striped Organza Midi, $76

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FOR HIM

AU D EC GE UM S TB E2R0 1250 1/ 5D /J DMJA M G AAGS EAAS N EAN

1. ZARA Bow-tie Print Shirt, $35.90 2. Bershka Man Embroidered Bomber, $75.13 3. MANGO Men Slim-fit AppliquĂ¨ Velvet Blazer, $129.99 4. TOPMAN Burgundy Paint Print Short Sleeve Smart Shirt, $42 5. Dude & The Duchess Vinca Tailored Shirt , $62.02 6. H&M x Balmain Knitted Jumper in a Wool Blend $73 7. ZARA Chinos with Belt, $39

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FASHION

! S W E N N O I H S A F

VICTORIA’S SECRET COMMERCIAL FEATURES DIRTY SOUTH TRACK Victoria’s Secret is symbolic as the leading American retailer of women’s lingerie and popularly known world-wide with their original bombshellesque Angels; Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Gisele Bundchen, Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio as well as newcomers Lily Aldridge, Behati Prinsloo, Doutzen Kroes et al (and others). The seductive lingerie line recently revealed a mind-blowing commercial featuring Dirty South’s “Tunnel Vision” as the background track. The deep and erotic vibes of that track go well with the raunchy commercial, which is made up of shots of lingerie-clad models showing oﬀ the company’s legendary “Very Sexy Push-Up.” So, will this move make all the bombshell’s listen to more of Dirty South? We have our fingers crossed for the SerbianAustralian DJ, remixer and record producer who is based in Melbourne.

THE H&M x BALMAIN DRAMA Many would totally agree that the fashion collaboration of year has got BE A WILD CHILD Bring out the inner wild child in you this season. Show oﬀ your true moods with graphic tees and statement couture. Whether you are oﬀ to your favorite music festival or just hitting the city for the weekend, there’s always a layered look you can mimic with your own take of this upcoming fashion trend. We are thrilled to see how much the classic streetwear look has been elevated over the past decade, now you can prove to the world that being wild can be high fashion too! Take hints from Desigual and Marc by Marc Jacobs runway looks for inspiration.

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to be H&M x Balmain, especially generation Y and those fashionistas who have a preference for Champagne but a budget for beer. Having been announced earlier this year, we were teased a little too much as we saw Kendall Jenner and Jourdan Dunn hit the 2015 Billboard Music Awards red carpet in head-to-toe H&M x Balmain – even Kylie Jenner was jealous – then we saw leaks of the look book all over social media and finally Olivier Rousteing posted a sneak peak of the video itself, yes, that was all a bit too much teasing too handle for some. The collection itself was set to launch online and in selected stores world-wide on 5 November and few days before the oﬃcial launch people around the world were already in line to be the first ones to get their hands on this sassy collection. As we expected, drama happened – website crash, chaotic queues and everything sold out within hours (in some cases around the globe, even minutes).

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AUGUST 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

ISSUE FEATURE

2015 RECAP

2015

has been a whirlwind year for the electronic dance music scene. With many highs and partnering lows, the industry still seems to be ending each year with a bang. This year started with the massive announcement that the Ultra Music phenomenon will be expanding their franchise further with a number of new venues spread out through various continents. The venues included Korea, Thailand, Macau, Japan, Bali, Philippines, Singapore, Puerto Rico and a few more locations. The commencement of these events saw legions of dance music fans fill up venues and party to sold out shows. It has most definitely been a good year for the folks at Ultra. We can’t quite wait to see what they have in store for fans next year. The beginning of the year also saw the announcement of the industry’s hottest duo Skrillex & Diplo, who are known as Jack U, release the group’s debut album “Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack U” to much critical acclaim in the dance music scene. To commemorate the release of their debut album, the duo live-streamed their 24-hour DJ set that was later shut down 18 hours into the set. Alongside the release of their album, Jack U also released one of this year’s biggest hits - Justin Bieber’s kick starter to his new sound “Where Are U Now”.

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

Speaking of Jack U, one half of the duo also made massive headlines this year with his super-group Major Lazer. The group, consisting of Diplo, Jillionaire, and Walshy Fire have had nothing less than a cyclonic year as they sent waves through the dance music community. In February, Diplo made the highly anticipated announcement that a third Major Lazer album will be descending upon us. The first single “Lean On” from their album “Peace is The Mission”, which was in collaboration with DJ Snake and MØ, has made dance music history. Not only has the track been a festival mainstay, it also broke streaming records by becoming Spotify’s most streamed song of 2015, while raking over 822 million views. Major Lazer’s “Lean On” is definitely the anthem of 2015. The year also sparked major conversation regarding the dark cloud that hangs over the industry perpetually. Drugs and dance took center stage during festival season, with organizers and authorities attempting to do everything they can to reduce and prevent drug deaths at festivals. And what we can take away from all these controversy and tales, especially Lisa Ling’s is that we as the dance music community need to always be there for one another - never allow someone to make a decision they will one day regret or one that will tarnish the reputation of our beloved genre, like what happened with the Future Music Festival franchise. With the dance music festival franchise name being linked to multiple drug deaths at its venue, it forced the untimely shut down or indefinite postponement of the festival franchise.

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

We still very much agree with the resounding words of Pasquale Rotella: “I see nothing but great opportunity within large gatherings; opportunity to promote health, happiness, individuality, and human connection. If we’re trying to create a safe and secure environment for these passionate fans, sending them back into the unregulated underground isn’t a step in the right direction. We all need to do our part in creating a national dialogue that educates our youth and encourages them to be accountable for their choices— especially when it comes to drugs” This year, we also heard the sad news of the closure of Pacha New York and the end of Carl Cox’s legendary 15 year Space Ibiza residency. SFX and various other festivals also proved to have had a trying year with lawsuits, festival deaths and various other weather disasters. 2015 also saw many highs with Hardwell attempting to set a Guinness World Record for the World’s Biggest Guest List while contributing to charity, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike being crowned #1 DJs and even the announcement that Kygo would be performing at the Nobel Peace Prize Summit. This year also saw Aly & Fila taking their Future Sound of Egypt 400 to the Great Pyramids and the highly anticipated news that Above & Beyond would be producing yet another acoustic tour.

We can end the year on a good note knowing that based on Google Trends, electronic dance music has experienced an unprecedented growth in the mass music market. This is evident with the amount of giant festivals being organized and introduced year round to cater to this genre with some existing festivals like Coachella oﬀering lineups with almost 50% of electronica acts. The research also uprooted the fact that EDM has been the only type music that has shown growth at all over the past 10 years. It clearly has been a great year overall for the electronic music industry and we can only hope that next year will be even better.

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SEPTEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

THE RISE OF THE WOLFPACK

COVER STORY

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

he Belgian duo, Wolfpack seem to be taking the electronic music scene by storm as their music and mayhem spread like wildfire across the globe. Debuting just four years ago, the pair was signed by dance music favorites Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike almost immediately after their Tomorrowland premier in 2011. It is no surprise that Ruben and Steven have amassed a massive following the world over with their unique sound and electric stage presence that in the four years the duo have already found themselves being ranked on the DJ Mag Top 100 list. The talented duo that just so happen to hail from Willebroek, the very same town that dance music giants Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike grew up in, are rapidly ascending into dance music superstardom. Notably coming from a region that is the epicenter of EDM where some of electronica’s biggest dance dynamos are made, Steve and Ruben were most definitely influenced by the sights and sounds of their backyard. It wasn’t long before the two met in their small neighborhood. The duo almost instantly connected once they had realized they shared the same passion for music. The strengthening point of their friendship was when “We discovered that most of our peers from school were interested in becoming lawyers, doctors or financiers but we really connected with the music. We knew we were diﬀerent and that our interest in creating music and connecting people was our true passion and wanted to follow our dreams.” It wasn’t long after that that the duo formed Wolfpack. Described as “diamonds in the rough”, Steve and Ruben quickly polished their skills as they played sets and helmed the decks at various weddings, parties and events around town. 2011 turned out to be the year that kick started their massive careers and catapulted them into upper echelons of the industry. That very year, Wolfpack had their electric and show stopping debut on the Tomorrowland stage that floored Belgian giants Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. According to DJ Mag’s #1 DJ’s, Steve and Ruben’s uplifting bridges, ruthless big-room drops and boundless energy were deal sealers as the famous brotherly duo instantly signed them up to their Smash The House roster. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike have been note to say this about their Belgian brethren’s during their Tomorrowland set” When we caught them live they just blew us away but then when we listened to their productions we were like, wow! We knew if we didn’t sign them up to Smash The House there and then, someone else would and we’d be left kicking ourselves for not being quick enough.” The label bosses and their new talents then rekindled their childhood friendship which has since led to various chart topping hits and unforgettable festival sets. The Belgian duo then found themselves on a fast paced ascension onto charts the world over. Wolfpack’s notable success came with their debut releases on Smash The House with tracks like “Rising Moon” but their remix for Billboard heavyweight and music industry royalty, Timbaland, Missy Elliot and Ginuwine’s “Get Involved” opened the duo up to a global audience that crossed genre borders. The now exclusive artists to Smash The House, Wolfpack have since become mainstage mainstays, Tomorrowland fixes and have gone on to tour India, South America, Europe and beyond.

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

COVER STORY

Fast forward to today, the duo is moving onwards to global domination after recently being crowned DJ Mag’s #52. They have been creating and releasing smashing hits and spectacular sets along the way. Steve and Ruben are driven by their need to unite their music, fans and ultimately themselves to create one entity, one Wolfpack. The Dutch dynamos believe in the ideology of helping each other and living life without conforming to mass society by leading people towards something better. It has become inevitable that their music has the power manifest itself into just that.

old. We all lived in a small town called Willebroek. We discovered that most of our peers from school were interested in becoming lawyers, doctors or financiers but we really connected with the music. We knew we were diﬀerent and that our interests in creating music and connecting people was our true passion and wanted to follow our dreams. It really started to feel like we were lone wolves in this world on a mission to connect people through music with all the craziness going on in this world. The universal language of electronic music connected people from all backgrounds and races, and the Wolfpack was born. United to bring love and happiness to the world through our experiences and artistic styles.

It seems like there really is no limit to what Wolfpack can achieve as the pair are now riding high on a massive wave of success and unbeatable energy. Their hype continues to spread like wildfire the world over as we anticipate what more Steve and Ruben have in store for us. It’s looking like these two are howling their way into a rave-fuelled future of superstardom. DJ Mag ASEAN recently caught up with Steve and Ruben who make up Wolfpack, as we catch us up on their busy scheduels and what they have in store for us in 2016.

How did you guys come up with the name Wolfpack? The idea came after watching The Hangover, which is a great movie we still enjoy. But that’s also how we feel being amongst our friends, fans and family. As a pack united through music

Hi there Wolfpack! Tell us more about yourselves and your journey towards becoming Wolfpack. How did you two meet? We met at a very young age, we were around 13 years

Who or what were your earliest music influences? Was there a specific DJ or Track that made you guys realize that electronic music was the path for you? Steve - One of my first big festivals was at the Antwerp Sportpaleis , the same venue of “Bringing Home The Madness” of Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike Its one of the biggest indoor festival arena of Belgium. Immediately I fell in love with those beats and saw how the crowd connected like one! Ruben - I fell in love with music very early, when I saw artists on TV such as Bob Marley, Bobby Mcferrin, Michael Jackson; I was

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

instantly hooked to music and to everything that came with it! However, I must say my passion for music really took over after living in Ibiza for many years. How did you guys first delve into the EDM industry, are you self-taught DJ’s or did you have a mentor to guide you? In 2011 we won a DJ contest what gave us a spot on the Samsung galaxy stage at Tomorrowland. That’s where we invited our old friends and mentors Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike to come and check some of our new productions and see our style of music with a large crowd. That’s how we got singed to Smash The House label and got to work with the very talented and humble DJ’s DVLM who has been an inspiration through our growth in music. Take us back to your very first gig together. What was that like? That was one of the most exciting days of our lives! It was very nerve-racking before performing, we didn’t know what to expect. It was at a small club here in Belgium and we were paid for 10 entrance tickets for our friends. But Man! we had so much fun, we never looked back! You guys started DJing at a young age at clubs and

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

parties, how do you think the scene has changed from the time you started? Things have changed a lot since the beginning, the parties are getting bigger the decoration, Pyro and light eﬀects are insane these days. The love for the music has really grown and festivals are now so large with such amazing themes. The world has really embraced electronic music and we cant wait to be apart of the next evolution. We hear you guys grew up together with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, what does it feel like knowing that you guys started DJing together and become Top 100 Ranking DJ’s? We cant stress how blessed we all feel to be able to follow our dreams from such a young age. We all lived in a very small town growing up as kids, playing at small parties for maybe 60 people really with no idea if we could actually make this a lifestyle. It’s a leap of faith to put your heart and soul in music, growing in this industry like a pack of wolves with DVLM is amazing. WE are so proud of our Belgium brothers becoming the #1 DJ’s this year and are super excited for the release of their album. So it’s an amazing feeling to see, where we came from and now having a spot in the DJ MAG TOP 100. So yeah we feel blessed! You guys were born and bred in Belgium; do you think that Belgium’s tight connections with electronic music nudged your involvement into the industry? Especially since your ‘backyard’ is home to some of dance music’s biggest festivals.?

COVER STORY

Yes sure does. In the beginning of the 90s electronic music was really popping here in Belgium. So by the time we we’re 12-13 years old house music was everywhere. Steve: My backyard is home to one of the largest music’s festivals in the world Tomorrowland. I feel like Ruben and I are exactly where we are supposed to be and this was all meant to be. Our careers have really been on rocket-fire because of it and we love being a part of all the great festivals out here. Wolfpack have been Tomorrowland mainstage since your debut in 2011. How has that experience been thus far? Tomorrowland for us is like the Olympics of electronic music. Being a part of it has been one of the biggest accomplishments and honors of our lives, we can’t express the feeling every year of performing for such amazing fans from all over the world. Not to mention, every year we get to see all our friends gathered in one place witnessing the industries growth. The vibe that you get walking around at Tomorrowland grounds is the best in the

world with over 200 diﬀerent nationalities having a good time and being respectful of one another. One thing about this style of music is the love that is shared and how people who may not speak the same language every day speak the language of music, beautiful. You guys are globe trotters, playing festivals and shows the world over. Where do you’ll find the time to produce new music? The idea behind our music comes from everywhere. We are inspired not only through the amazing places we visit but just through the sounds we see and feel every day. If you just stay quiet and try to listen sometimes you can connect to the higher place and music just seems to come. We work hard and try to bring our unique experiences together to create new sounds and emotions that people can connect to our music. We appreciate all the support and love traveling to share our music.

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

easily because our arguments are often such small factors in the big picture. We are united on a mission and we know what’s most important. How has the ride been thus far, apart from globe-trotting and playing all the massive gigs, what have been some of the major milestones that you have uncovered? Entering the DJ mag last year at #84 was definitely a milestone for us, and of course being rewarded again this year at #52 is huge. Becoming legends in the world of music was always a dream of ours, when Ocarina made it to the top and people started to know our sound. We truly felt like we reached another level in our careers and were recharged to produce more music. And OBVIOUSLY now being on the cover of DJ MAG ASEAN! What is the Wolfpack experience? What sets your shows apart from all the others? We work hard to stay relevant and mixing new sounds into our music. An example of one of our ways to add relevant topics and sounds into our music was this year’s Tomorrowworld, when we mixed N.W.A.’s “Cruisin down the street in my 64” into our set after the Straight Out of Compton movie was just released and bringing a spark back to original hip hop sounds. The crowd was overwhelmed with excitement we knew we did it again. Bigger things seem to be in store for you guys, what more do you guys have planned for 2015? We have a lot of new music coming up, amazing collaborations with some of the biggest artists out there. We’re still doing the tour coming up in India, Asia and Mexico. What has been some of your most memorable moments of 2015? Definitely our set at Tomorrowland Brazil, we had the honor having the book of wisdom opening during our intro. Our first tour trough Asia was mind-blowing, and I cant forget going back to Mexico was something out of a movie. There’s so many great experiences this year!

What is it like working as a DJ duo? Do you two have separate tasks or always work together? We both come from such diﬀerent backgrounds and experiences; we have always felt advantaged to bring both our unique skill sets to the table together to create something special. And we have been sharing the mixing panel for so many years now, that everything comes natural. Besides its been so many years of working together, it just wouldn’t feel right without having the other there by my side. Ruben: Steve and I are like brothers; we have shared this journey for almost 20 years and have the best memories together! It must be challenging at times working together; do you guys butt heads often? If so, how do you overcome any disagreement you guys have? Like we said we are like brothers, and brothers due butt heads, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We are our own unique people and together are stronger. We know how to move on

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

In three words, how would you describe your year in 2015? Blessed, grateful, & a Dream (come true) What has been your “go to” track this year? The Hum by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike vs Ummet Ozcan is a track that always gets the crowd going in an amazing way but we really love the vibe people are recently experiencing through DVLM & Neyo’s higher place. If you guys were gladiators, what would be your theme song when entering the gladiator arena? Probably Ocarina haha, wouldn’t make us come over really scary though so maybe better the first break of our very first track Rising Moon! And lastly, what would you guys like to say to your Asian fans? Thank you all so much for taking us into your lives, supporting our music, going crazy at our parties and always being very respectful! We truly feel blessed whenever we are in Asia, so we say it again, thank you!!!

BEST OF THE REGION [ PHILIPPINES ] MARTIN PULGAR [ THAILAND] DJ PAKA

[ INDONESIA ] DAVID JAAY [ MALAYSIA/SINGAPORE ] DJ NASHD

BEST OF THE REGION

MALAYSIA/SINGAPORE

DJ NASHD 30

DJ NASHD IS ONE DJ WHO HAS DEFINITELY TAKEN THE MALAYSIAN AND SINGAPOREAN DANCE MUSIC SCENE BY STORM. HE HAS AMASSED QUITE THE CREDENTIALS AT HIS YOUNG AGE AND IS DRIVEN BY A PASSION TO KEEP PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF THE LOCAL SCENE. YOU KNOW YOU’RE UP FOR A GOOD TIME WHEN DJ NASHD HELMS THE DECKS AS HE HURLS YOU INTO A RHYTHMIC FRENZY. DJ MAG ASEAN CAUGHT UP WITH THIS YOUNG DJ TO TALK ABOUT HIS PASSION AND WHAT HE HAS IN STORE FOR US.

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

Hi there! Tell us a little more about yourself and your journey in the industry. I was always into music. My dad put me in a piano class when I was 5 to see if I liked music and I caught the bug then. When I was in high school, I even used to play in a band which was a fun experience for me. When I started my diploma in Music and Audio Technology at Singapore Polythenic, there was this student club that taught us DJing and I thought it was something interesting that I could add to my skillset. Through SPDJ, I started throwing parties in classes of 20. I slowly forged a partnership with DJ LeNerd and DJ Haniff and together we created Sweet Xcape, which was an avenue for us to do parties with open format music. Around the same time, I also met the young rapper ShiGGa Shay and videographer OszKid, and we started something which is now called the Grizzle Grind Crew. It made me want to champion hip hop and introduce it to a larger crowd in Singapore. Through Sweet Xcape, we branched out looking for small clubs to play. Doing these small gigs, I caught the eye of DJ Juice, who was a resident at Indochine Forbidden City. He got me my first full time residency at the club. In my 3 years there, I moved to become the Entertainment Manager when the club rebranded into Bianca Supper Club. In early 2015 the club ceased operations and I went freelance playing at F Club, where we brought back Sweet Xcape. I then was offered to do a night with DJ Matthew at Zouk and through my Hip Hop affiliation with GGC, started playing at Refuge. These two brands are what I’m really pushing right now. When did you first realize that becoming a DJ was something you wanted to do? When I first started playing for crowds. It was the best feeling in the world. Shoutout to DJ Rattle for inspiring me. Your biggest inspirations/muses? When DJ Rattle started teaching me at Poly, I was still underaged. When I got to a legal age, I went to see him play at Ministry of Sound and met DJ Tang, DJ Will and DJ Andrew Chow, who was a resident at Zouk at the time. I was also inspired by Dave Does. His mixtapes were the bomb! Internationally I was inspired by DJ Jazzy

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Jeﬀ, DJ Spryte, DJ Vice and DJ Dynamix. I got something from each and every one of them, which shaped me into who I am today. How would you describe your sound? My sound has been constantly evolving since first delving into the world of DJing, but it’s always been rooted in turntablism and the open format genre. Even where I’m at right now, playing Hip Hop at Refuge and EDM at Zouk, I still try to incorporate turntablism into everything I do. So we hear that you will be the Resident DJ on “The 5 Show” that will air in Singapore. The show hasn’t started yet so I can’t say much, but basically I’m going to be the DJ playing all the samples on the show and will be producing all of the sounds that will play. It’s pretty cool because I’ve never been on TV like that before. You will also be backing up ShiGGa Shay at this year’s ZoukOut. What can fans expect from the show? New ShiGGa Shay music, and maximum TURN UP! For real, ShiGGa’s the biggest hip hop artist in Singapore right now, so fans can expect a real good show.

Spinmaster Season 1. How has that opportunity helped catapult your career to where it is now? Since I started DJing, I’ve always focused my work in Singapore so I saw this as an opportunity to make a name for myself in my home country. It turned out to be one of the best choices of my career because through that I met some of the most elite DJs in Malaysia like Goldfish & Blink, DJ Biggie, Jrryca Misty, DJ Darling Sabrina and D J Faith just to name a few - all of whom I’m still close with to this day. Joining this competition pushed me to be more creative with my sets and also led me to join Red Bull Thr3style. Seeing that 2015 is coming to an end, tell us your most memorable moment as a DJ this year? Definitely becoming a monthly feature for Zouk. Since I first started DJing, it has always been a dream of mine to be able to play at one of the best clubs in the world and in January I started a monthly residency for DropIT at Phuture. Getting the green light to be on board was the best feeling I had in a long time. Having my name alongside the biggest names in the DJ world on the screens at Zouk, it gets me real excited till this day.

You were a contestant on Astro’s

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BEST OF THE REGION

[VIETNAM]

THAILAND

DJ PAKA

DJ PAKA IS TAKING THAILAND’S DANCE MUSIC SCENE BY STORM WITH HER RHYTHMIC AND PIERCING BEATS. AFTER A LITTLE SOUL SEARCHING, THIS FIERCE FEMALE DECIDED THAT DANCE MUSIC WAS HER PASSION AND WENT ON TO WIN THE 2015 PIONEER LADY DJ CHAMPIONSHIPS. SINCE THEN, DJ PAKA HAS BEEN CONQUERING THE THAI NIGHTLIFE SCENE AS SHE STEERS YOU INTO A NIGHT FILLED WITH ERUPTIONS OF SOUND THAT MAKE YOU WHIP YOUR BODY BACK INTO SHAPE. DJ MAG ASEAN CAUGHT UP WITH THIS CHAMP TO TALK ABOUT FEMALES IN THE INDUSTRY AND WHAT SHE HOPES TO ACCOMPLISH IN 2016..

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

Hi DJ Paka! How did you decide to become a DJ? When I was studying in university, I felt out of place and didn’t quite enjoy the experience. So I took time to find myself, and discovered that music is my passion, especially dance music. I decided this was the industry for me and I started working at it, and now I’m a DJ. How would you describe your sound to people who have yet to hear you play? My favorite genres are Progressive house, Electro house, Trap and Twerk, so my sound kind of resembles those. Who have been your biggest inspirations in the industry? Hardwell was the first person who inspired me with his track called “ Spaceman “. I was very interested in that genre of music and felt like producing my own tracks as well. Also there are many other cool producers that I am very fond of like Sick Individuals, Dannic, Matisse&Sadko and Kryder. Many of them have also taught me new techniques while performing such as Laidback Luke, DJ Craze, Eskei83 and DJ Shiftee. I’ve learned a lot from these DJ’s just by watching them. Tell us about your experience winning the 2015 Pioneer Lady DJ Championships? It was a great experience, but it was very unlike me to join. I needed to get my thoughts and habits ready for the competition. I am a shy person but had to change that. I had to concentrate, work hard on my sets, become more patient and learn to admit my mistakes when they occur. The whole experience on its own taught me a lot. What is your opinion when people say that the dance music industry is meant for male DJs? I feel that it’s not something only men can do. The idea of music and working on music is for everyone who enjoys it. It doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a woman or how old you are. If you like it, music can be your everything.

with gender. Everyone is equal and the bottom line is creativity, practice and diligence. These are the things that bring you opportunities regardless of who you are. Tell us about your most memorable set. The final round of the DJ Battle was my most memorable set as most things weren’t as I thought they were. I made mistakes while performing but somehow it finally ended up great. Even with mistakes I still think I gave it my best and that showed overall. Which other DJ would you love to collaborate with if given the chance? Definitely the Sick Individuals. What can fans expect from you in 2016? I have a dream to make my own music and I am going to work on it next year. So fans can look forward to original stuﬀ. Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans? I would like to thank everyone for their great support. There’s still a lot for me to learn and improve but I will always keep you updated and will do my very best.

Do you think it is hard being a female DJ in an industry populated by male DJ’s? I don’t think so. For me DJing is all about working on music and has nothing to do

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

BEST OF THE REGION INDONESIA

PHILIPPINES

MARTIN PULGAR

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

Tell us about how you starting DJing, and your most memorable milestones. Like any other person, I was fascinated with going to clubs. I remember watching Elmer Dado DJ at the legendary Club Mars back in the day. I was so intrigued with what he was doing, mixing with vinyl records– I told myself, “Hey, I wanna do that!” Then I found out my best friend had a mixer and a pair of turntables. I asked him to teach me how to DJ. Little did I know I would end up DJing for a long time. A lot of stuﬀ has happened since then. Most memorable would be my first head DJ residency in Embassy Superclub. That would be, as you would say, my claim to fame. It was the club where I really got recognized as a DJ. Second would be getting to play abroad like Indonesia and Guam – an experience I will never forget.

bounds over the past 15 years. There’s a good balance in the scene now from the rave kids, to house heads, to hip-hop.

Tell us about your music style and your music influences? I have always been known for playing energetic sets - the whole big room thing. But what I play actually depends on where I’m playing and what time my set is. If I’m playing prime time in a club or festival, then I bust out the pumping stuﬀ. But if i’m doing the warmup set for an international act, I stick with tech house.

Any plans on producing music? Producing music has always been in the back of my mind. It’s something I’m considering doing in the near future.

You have been in the industry for 2 decades. Tell us how you sustained your career for so long, and challenges you’ve face.? It’s a very competitive industry– lots of new DJs coming in, a new breed of promoters and event organizers… I guess I stayed long in the industry because I kept evolving, yet kept my signature style. From your observations, how has the local music scene changed over the years? Well back then when you played non-commercial stuﬀ, people would just clear out the floor. Not a lot of people appreciated House music. Everybody just wanted what they would hear on the radio like hip-hop or R&B. But Manila has improved leaps and

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

You have shared the decks with 41 international acts. Who was your favourite and why? I guess my favourite would have to be when I did the warm up set for Swedish House Mafia during their One Last Tour here in Manila. I felt like I was part of history, and it was my first time playing in an arena. What else would you like to achieve further down the line? Right now, I’m a partner at The Palace Manila. Hopefully in the future, I get to invest in another club so I get to learn more about the business from the other side of things.

What are your aspirations for the future, and for the Philippine music scene? More local music producers to come out with tracks that the Pinoy DJs will play in their sets, and that people will be more opened-minded when it comes to dance music Name 3 of your favourite tracks of all time. Plastic Dreams - Jaydee Strings of Life - Soul Central Calling - Sebastian Ingrosso and Alesso If you could swap lives with any person of your choice for one day, who would it be and why? Maybe Hugh Jackman. I wanna know how it feels to act like you’re Wolverine!

BEST OF THE REGION

INDONESIA

DAVID JAAY 3366

ACTIVE IN THE SCENE SINCE 2004, THIS JAKARTA NATIVE HAS BEEN PUSHING HIS HIP-HOP SOUND AT VARIOUS CLUBS IN TOWN ALONGSIDE LOCAL HIP HOP GIANTS SOUL MENACE AND TRIGGER. DAVID FOUND HIS PASSION FOR THE DECKS EARLY ON AND TALKED US THROUGH HIS INFLUENCES AND HOW HE SEES THE SCENE CHANGING UP.

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

Last name Jaay. First name David. Yes. Initials DJ. Is it meant to be? That’s actually going to be the header for this interview. Anyhow, what attracted you to DJing? How did you get pulled into the scene? For me it was Hip Hop. I started watching DMC world championships and I saw A-Trak win in ’97 when he was like 15 or 16 years old? This was way before he started Fool’s Gold. Just watching him cut it up and beat juggling was what sold me. When I was in junior high in Canada, my friends had turntables and records so it was always in my environment but I only really got into it when I came back to Jakarta when I was around 16. My friends in high school went back and forth from the US and UK and would bring back a lot of hip hop along with a lot of house and trance records. This was before Serato and Traktor took over so it was all vinyl. Then the CDJ world came about and I used to play little cafés in Kemang and like house parties on the weekend. Afterwards I started playing more proper nights and venues. I played for drinks and worked my way up. Gotta respect the hustle dude. Haha, yeah I was like “just feed me drinks and I’m good”. How did you get in touch with Soul Menace? I was going to a lot of their parties and this was probably around when I was going to uni and I was coming back to Jakarta every summer. Their rewind series at Parc 19 used to take place at Retro in The Crown Plaza Hotel and that was really happening. The first party of theirs I went to was actually at the Mandarin and DJ D and Cream was playing. The Trigger guys were around too of course, like Stan and that.

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

I came back to Jakarta permanently around late 2004. There was this place called Liquid Room at Cilandak Town Square and on Sundays they had super cheap drinks and the Soul Menace and Trigger guys used to jam there. So they asked me to play on one of those Sundays and then DJ Cream asked me to join Soul Menace right after. Which is funny because 10 minutes after that Stan asked me to join Trigger! But in 2011 I moved to Bali for a year and I wasn’t playing for Soul Menace anymore, but I still played alongside them at Potato Head Garage and at other events. It’s all love man. What was it like for you watching the Hip-Hop scene develop in Jakarta? It seems that more Hip-Hop heads have emerged and that old school sound is being more accepted. It’s definitely coming back man, and I love it. I was getting tired of the popular club music happening around here with the same sounds and structures. I guess for me that boom bap sound was what I always loved. I didn’t want to sound like every other DJ and so just stuck to my roots. From my point of view, venues being more open minded to genres was invaluable to this sort of “hip hop resurgence”. I got an opportunity to play at Yeyo and the guys there pretty much let me play whatever I wanted and around the same time Peaches & Cream, the Hip Hop night at Potato Head Garage started up again along with Soul Menace’s Rewind series playing classic sounds of the old school. It’s been really refreshing. So you actually have a degree in audio production. When can we expect some David J originals? I’ve never really stopped producing music actually! I’ve been making music for some corporate side projects but haven’t released anything under the David Jaay name yet. Definitely expect some tracks out in the near future.

BEST OF THE REGION

TURN UP THE DECIBLES

Get ready party people in Indonesia for Ten Productions is bringing you the Decibels Music Festival! The organizers have set out to throw the folks of Surabaya a party like no other. Decibels seeks to give every reveler what they’re looking for with a spectrum of genres to satisfy everyone, from the hardcore raver to the generic concert goer. So far, they’ve announced the first three phases of the festival lineup with R3hab and MOTi taking the lead as headliners, alongside local talent Yasmin, P. Joanna, Aldee and many more. You wouldn’t want to miss out on this festival because we have a feeling they’re about to raise the bar on Surabaya’s festival scene.

HEADING OUT WITH DAVID GUETTA

Thailand seems to be leading the way for dance music festivals this season as Retox Sessions, AG Productions & Contango, in association with Singha Corporation will be hosting the OUTPUT Festival 2015. Headliners incude none other than DJ Mag’s #6, David Guetta who knows just how to throw a party. The organizers have promised a slew of other international and local acts to grace the lineup, so grab your tickets and head on over to BITEC on December 29th to end your 2015 with a bang!

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

TIME TO PARTY TOGETHER

Together Festival has oﬃcially announced that they will be making their way to Yangon this December 19th. Brought to you by A.G. Productions and Retox Sessions, the one-day festival is heading to Yangon after a successful edition earlier this year at BITEC. Although very little information is available for now, we assure you that these folks know just how to throw down a good lineup for an unforgettable night of music and fun!

WET & WILD IN UTOPIA

Although this isn’t a festival, we highly suggest you hit this summit up and brush shoulders with the who’s who of the industry. The International Music Summit will grace the shores of Singapore this December 11th as an educational, inspirational and motivational thought leadership platform dedicated to creating awareness and appreciation for electronic music and DJ-related artistry. This summit has been dubbed “The Premier Platform for Thought and Leadership in Electronic Music”, so we suggest you go ahead and check out the one-day event and then maybe hit up ZoukOut while you’re there.

ELECTRIFYING RUN!

808 Make You Put Your Hands Up

808 Festival seems to be outdoing themselves year after year and this year’s edition will see revelers in Bangkok party it up with some of dance music’s biggest names. For now, the folks at 808 have announced three headlining acts - Armin van Buuren, Axwell /\ Ingrosso and Oliver Heldens who we’re sure will bring the house down with their unstoppable hits. Taking place on December 9th at the BITEC Convention Center Bangkok, tickets are already on sale so cop them while they’re still available!

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

ELECTRIFYING RUN!

BEST OF THE REGION

WOOBAR: MORE THAN JUST LUXURY

ali is more than just the Island of Gods, it is literally an Ibiza for this part of the globe. Whether the sun is high in the sky or if the full moon is out, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always a happening party waiting for you. While backpackers, schoolies and budget-party-goers prefer to bar-hop around Kuta and Legian, the more flossy party people, expats and socialites like to hustle around the posh area of Seminyak. And located in W Hotels Jl. Petitenget, Seminyak - WooBar is more than just luxury. Inspired by the ocean, WooBar is designed to symbolize a giant wave in action on the beach, an artistic architecture of curvaceous raw concrete with secret spaces for a more intimate vibe. Marvel down to Woobase for the ultimate dancefloor experience as well as an underground whiskey room. With breath-taking views of the Indian Ocean and the blissful Seminyak shore, you get to fulfill your superstar lifestyle dreams with their 5 star Asian-Mediterranean inspired tapas, French AOC cheeses, Spanish Iberico Jamons, thin crust pizzas and a vast selection of perfected refreshing cocktails, beers and wines. The sofas and cabanas at WooBar are so chic, you will feel like a trillion bucks by just casually drinking and dining away to the chill house music that their DJs play from the early hours. This beach club even gives you the freedom to either dance the night away in a more than a spacious venue with a

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killer backdrop of the beach, or relax like a celebrity in their lush cabanas while you try to get your selfie game on. We assure you, you’ll g home with some of the best pictures from Woobar. The DJ deck itself is positioned behind a stunning ‘W’ landmark where the sunset drops, and this spot is quite symbolic for travel junkies and photographers - a good addition to your Instagram gallery too! This fashionable party spot is notorious for hosting some of the trendiest parties on the island featuring world-known acts. They claim to have a rotation of hot international DJs, spinning tunes from the turntable in the club and main bar, to keep the soul-stirring tempo in Bali’s most vibrant and upbeat nightlife destination. Damian Saint - W Bali’s music curator - is responsible for developing Woobar’s musical line-up across an international portfolio of underground house, techno and disco. SPF is short for ‘Sip Play Flirt’ - W Bali’s annual music party that they usually hold every last Sunday in July. French house DJ and producer Sébastien Léger was one of the main headliners this year. Woobar also does Silent Disco and have had Darius and Defected in the house for their regular Sunset Sessions. If you do go to Woobar, we highly recommend that you try to make their legendary Sunset Sessions. And to welcome in the New Year’s, Claptone will be doing their long awaited Charmer Global Album Tour at Woobar. What a treat for New Year’s Eve! Noted as a luxurious beach club, Woobar is one of the people’s go to destinations in Bali. The ambiance itself sets a high note com-

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

BEST OF THE REGION

SILeNT DISCO

pared to its other rivals in the area. House music fans can definitely feel the heavens here and cocktail lovers also have many reasons to stay. From sunshine to sunset, Woobar is the ultimate destination to eat, drink, flirt and play. Sightsee and sip from the sky deck atop the club surrounded by the many contrasts of the W Retreat & Spa Bali. There’s more than you could ever ask for at Woobar, even if you stay all day all night till the morning, it will still leave you wanting more. Be sure to be dressed ‘casual sophistication’ when you hit Woobar, as they have a relatively strict dress code. Who knows, you might even bump into international artists chilling there! So what are you waiting for? Go on, go book your spots!

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SPF 2015

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BEST OF THE REGION WOOBAr

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reLOADeD + reChArGeD

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BEST OF THE REGION

revelry

CAFÉ NAYA AT THE PALACE,MANILA

Café Naya aims to complement the laid back vibe of The Palace Pool Club. Through its coastal cuisine, a shared platform of Mediterranean, Northern African and European island cooking, they want to transport you to a serene sea setting you yearn for in this bustling city. Capitalizing on fresh produce, spices, citrus and herbs, and using straightforward cooking methods, Café Naya brings out bold flavors in all of its dishes by Chef Mikko Reyes. Café Naya has put together a playful menu that can’t be identified through nationality, but rather by flavor. A carefully crafted mix of ingredients that feels familiar yet is interpreted from a unique perspective. Going back and forth, from the kitchen to the palate for several months, they were able to create this menu, its structure ironically based on a typical “beach resort” menu, but then spun around on its head and settled on this distinctive oﬀering. Whether you are looking to have a big night at The Palace followed by midnight eats, a quiet lunch or an after-work happy hour sunset session, Café Naya ensures an ambience where you can lay back and enjoy the tides. Visit www.facebook.com/CafeNayaAtThePalace; Instagram: cafenayaathepalace

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FOUNDRY II,JAKARTA

Located in the ever-bustling Foundry 8 area, this nightlife hub plays host to a collection of cafes, restaurants and little stores with their industrial and urban storage container design. Maintaining a casual air about the area, Foundry 8 remains a staple in Jakarta’s nightlife by bringing in sought after international DJs and playing host to Jakarta hottest parties at their upstairs quarters aptly named LEVEL II. A spacious and open area, Level II is a dynamic venue that features an extended bar towards the rear and an elevated stage for DJs on the far side of the club (not to mention a top of the line sound system). Both a dining destination and a nightlife spot that opens till the early hours of the morning, Level II boasts a variety of local bands and acts during the week, serenading you with covers of the much demanded hits of today along with golden era 90’s classics. The team at Level II have done well to accommodate their varied clientele by keeping Jakarta’s top musicians and DJs very close. Furthermore, Level II knows how to throw a mean party too. “The Joint” for example is a collaboration between two of the biggest Hip Hop crew of MCs and DJs in Jakarta (Trigger & Soul Menace). Their first show together in years took place at Level II, earning the party a nomination by Jakarta’s Nightlife award show, The Paranoia Awards. Outside of building their hard earned reputation in the local scene, they’ve lent their sound systems to the likes of Techno veteran Housemeister of Boys Noize Records, Trap juggernauts Tropkillaz from Mad Decent and they will also play host to the long awaited Jakarta debut of Dirtybird’s Justin Martin in December.

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

BEST OF THE REGION

party

SKELETUNES RISING VENUE: Blowfish ADDRESS: JL Jend Gatot Subrato Kav 42 Jakarta Selatan CITY: Jakarta , Indonesia

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STEVE AOKI @ THE PALACE POOL CLUB VENUE: The Palace Pool Club ADDRESS: 9th Avenue Corner 32nd Street , Uptown Bonifacio BGC CITY: Taguig, Philippines

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BEST OF THE REGION

MATISSE & SADKO VENUE: Blowfish ADDRESS: JL Jend Gatot Subrato Kav 42 Jakarta Selatan CITY: Jakarta , Indonesia

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

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BEST OF THE REGION

party

DADA LIFE@ COLOSSEUM VENUE: Colosseum ADDRESS: Taman Sari , Jakarta Barat CITY: Jakarta , Indonesia

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3LAU@ COLOSSEUM VENUE: Colosseum ADDRESS: Taman Sari , Jakarta Barat CITY: Jakarta , Indonesia

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BEST OF THE REGION

party

ZOUK X BEATSHIP VENUE: KL LIVE ADDRESS: Jalan Sultan Ismail , KL CITY: Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia

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BEST OF THE REGION

LABEL A label with their ear closely to the ground, Invert Recordings have been carefully picking producers to add to their label. Whilst originally pushing a Drum and Bass centric sound, they have shifted their aesthetics to include newly emerging bass genres. No doubt about it, their roster consists of seasoned selectors along with high quality, forward thinking producers who create alternative music that translates onto a club system. Their openness and enthusiasm in pairing their roster of local producers with Indonesian vocalists singing Indonesian lyrics is something that does not happen often enough in this city. We sat down with label creator Arya (DTX) and producers, Iqbal (MSSVKNTRL), Ikki (CVX), Angga (Muztang) and Mardial. What is Invert Records, what is your sound and what do you stand for? Arya (DTX): In the beginning, Invert was a purely drum and bass label and we wanted to deliver a high standard of music and production. We made a label because we wanted to release songs that we thought people should hear. We launched Invert in January 2013 in Jakarta and then I met the roster: Jevin, CVX and Mardial soon after. In 2014, the drum and bass focus of the label broadened to accommodate general bass genres and we made our annual compilation “Inverse” with the Invert roster. The drum and bass scene has been active for a long time in Jakarta. How did you see the whole scene develop from your perspective? A: I joined the Drum and Bass scene in Jakarta around 2006- a while after it started in 2000. I played with the Javabass guys that organize local D&B events and the crowd really goes up and down. Those shows really packed out around 2008-2009 but after the Dubstep thing blew up, the

D&B crowd kind of went down but I’ve always been consistent with my support for D&B and I think after 20112012 it’s starting to pick up again. It’s not the most accessible genre, but it takes consistency to keep a scene alive, so we have to keep pushing. Iqbal (MSSVKNTRL): I think now people have a lot more choice when it comes to bass music and people are starting to be more open minded and new events and new names are popping up around the city with the rise EDM. It’s more dynamic. Mardial: I think the Internet plays a huge part with the growth of the scene - finding talent is so easy and you can create your network so much faster. Do you feel the local crowd is starting to be more open-minded with acts like Goldie, LTJ Bukem and Soulection coming into town? A: When Goldie came down I was amazed how packed it was! He’s an influential producer and his selection is also eclectic, which is good for exposing the local crowd to a diﬀerent sound. I just keep thinking back on why local producers can’t be a catalyst for alternative music the way international talents are. All the talent and creativity we need is right here at home. I can’t put my finger on it either... Maybe it’s a misperception of local talent. What can you tell us about your sister label Depictive Records? A: Iqbal and I got in touch and I loved his tracks. I finally convinced him to make a label for the future bass sound that he was producing because there wasn’t really a voice in Jakarta for that kind of sound. So Depictive records then came about and the first release was the D.E.A.F EP by MSSVKNTRL and Exowla.

SOUNDCLOUD LINKS: Main Label: https://soundcloud.com/ invert-recordings Sister label: https://soundcloud.com/ depictive-records Arya / DTX: https://soundcloud.com/dtx Iqbal / MSSVKNTROL: https://soundcloud.com/massivekontrol Ikki / CVX: https://soundcloud.com/ cvxoﬃcial Angga / Muztang: https://soundcloud. com/muztang Mardial: https://soundcloud.com/mardial Jevin / JVN: https://soundcloud.com/ jevinjulian

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

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#61

[KURA]

#40 [ANDREW RAYEL]

#77

[CHUCKIE]

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RAYEL REVEALS HIS NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

oldovan producer and DJ better known as Andrew Rayel was in Kuala Lumpur during Zouk x Beatship and we managed to catch up with the future of trance himself. At the age of only 23 he is signed under Armada as well as produced some mind-blowing tracks and has worked with a ton of talented people in the industry. He talked to us about working with Mark Sixma and his main goal for 2016, read the full interview below. Hi Andrew. Firstly, why did you change your name to Andrew Rayel? Hello. Actually I had another name as a DJ, it was ‘Randry’ and it was very hard for other people to pronounce. Even my real name Andrei Rata is very hard to pronounce, it’s a very traditional Moldovan name, so I decided to get a more international name. So Rayel is easier for other people to

pronounce. So that’s basically why. The music industry has frequently named you as the “modern-day Mozart,” “the future of trance,” and also “the new Armin van Buuren,” how do you feel about that? Well, this is basically the biggest honour as an artist, as a DJ, because Armin van Buuren is probably one of the biggest DJ’s of the past, of the moment and probably of the future and to be compared to him means a lot to me. Also Mozart, of one the biggest musicians of all time, so when someone compares you to these legends it’s inspiring and it’s amazing. It’s an hour for me. You often describe your music as ‘energetic’, what do you think really makes your music energetic compared to other EDM tracks? Well I always try to focus on the melody of

the track. I think the most powerful music is when you combine emotions, which is pretty much melodies, and energy which is pretty much beats, bassline. So, combining these two elements pretty much makes my music a little bit diﬀerent I believe. What I wanna do and what I wanna create is to put these element together. So how would you describe ‘the Andrew Rayel sound’? Energetic and emotional. You recently collaborated with Mark Sixma for ‘Chased’, how did it feel working with him and how do you think your fans in Asia will react to the new track? I’m a big fan of Mark, for many, many years, his sound is absolutely amazing and a very unique sound, and I always wanted to collaborate with him. Our collaboration took a very long time, actually not many people know that we started this collaboration

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#40 about a year ago. So in 2014 I wanted to create something with him, and we did create something but then after 2 or 3 months we decided it wasn’t what we wanted. I don’t wanna do a collaboration with people just to say ‘Oh, I did a collaboration with Mark Sixma or Armin.’ I want to have a real amazing result. So we didn’t like the first version then after a couple of months we came up with another idea which ended up being ‘Chased’. So, you can imagine it took us almost a year to finish, it came out in August I think and the music video is coming up. Can’t wait to show it to everybody. There are a lot of talented upcoming acts right now, who would you like to work with in 2016? OMG, there’s so many new talents. For the album I already did a collaboration with a new upcoming talent, his name is Digital X. He’s been doing some tracks for Armada Music. But definitely, I’m a big fan of one of my friends as well MaRLo. He’s very talented and an amazing producer. I did a track with his wife Jano, so maybe it’s time to do one with him. Be honest, who is your celebrity crush? Oh that’s always been Taylor Swift. Well, I’m kinda over it but yeah, she’s cute. In 2014 you played an amazing set during ASOT650 KUL, what do you think was your highlight during the whole ASOT650 experienece? Oh we played so many places, definitely Kuala Lumpur. I think it gained the most people from all the A State of Trance, well except Holland because Holland is the biggest one, but except from that I think Kuala Lumpur was the biggest crowd and it was so energetic. The response was amaaazing on twitter and facebook after that. Yeah, incredible! Will there be another ASOT here soon? I hope so! I mean, it doesn’t depend on me at all. You recently did a remix for Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike feat Neyo which surprised a lot of your fans, can we expect more of this from you or will we hear more trance from you? Definitely I’m going to produce a lot of trance music. I’ve always said I want to try new boundaries and new limits, this is one of the things that goes on top of what I usually do. I really like the song, I really like the vocals and it was one of those tracks that I can’t rebuild completely, so it’s like a didn’t make a remix, it’s like a made a completely new song with putting vocals on top of it and I always said I’d try diﬀerent things and this is one. There’s so many thing I wanna try for next year. If you had to go to a deserted island for a week, what 3 items of food would you take with you? Why? Chocolate, dumplings and something traditional from my country. What’s your new year’s resolution for 2016? Anything big that your fans can look forward to? Well my new year’s resolution is to finish my album next year, so that’s my main focus!

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

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KURA IS UNDEFEATABLE

ura has been on momentous rise to fame as this talented DJ/ Producer who has a remarkable charisma and overflowing energy helms DJ booths the world over. From topping charts with his hits to conquering festival stages and clubs, the only way seems to be up for this dance dynamo. DJ Mag ASEAN recently had a quick chat with Kura to talk all things electronica and how 11 year old Kura decided dance music was his calling. Hi there! Tell us a little more about yourself. How did you start out in the industry? Hi! Well, my name is Rúben Almeida and I was introduced to dance music through Carl Cox’s Fact 2 compilation. I was around 11 when I heard Cox on a classmate’s Walkman. This would become the first dance music CD I bought. In the early 2000s I started going out to clubs and got introduced to a lot of music that I came to love the disco filtered French touch of Martin Solveig, Modjo, Black Legend, and of course, to the big beat of my all-time musical heroes, Daft Punk. I began selecting and playing

records at the high school’s radio station and by 2005 started working on a skate shop that owned a pair of turntables and a mixer, so I started practicing every day. After that I started to play regularly on parties I’d organize and eventually landed a resident DJ place at Bahaus, a very well know club in Lisboa. Having to play regularly before a crowd created the emergency for music production – I needed my own edits. I needed to change what I didn’t like or thought wouldn’t work on a dancefloor. My first bootleg was a version of Sydney Samson’s “Work It” on Hardwell’s remix crossed with Bob Marley and soon after other DJs were asking for the bootleg. After that I upgraded my music production software to Logic Pro 8 and made my first original track, “Russian Guitar” that was picked up by none other than Portugal’s first and finest label, Kaos Records. How big of an influence did Carl Cox’s Fact 2 play in your DJing career? It was more of an awakening to electronic dance music than a true sonic influence, on

those days techno was a style I loved and heard. Of course Cox’s DJing technique is something that was and will be noticeable and a reference to anyone that loves DJing. He was, and still is, an inspiration even if we play diﬀerent styles of music. From playing for your high school radio station to clubs in Portugal to concurring club circuits the world over, how do you think your sound has evolved over the years? I believe it was a natural progression, I don’t love just one style of music, I love many. I’ve always played only the music I love, but as the audience got bigger and bigger, from small clubs to festivals, I also adapted the music to the venues so I believe this was a natural sonic evolution. What was it like playing your first big show? My first big show was opening for the Swedish House Mafia in Lisbon during their One Last Tour. The venue is a reference in Portugal, Meo Arena, for 20 thousand people, and it’s the place where all the big tours go – from

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

#61 Madonna, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga to Dave Matthews Band – regardless of the style if you’re big, you play Meo Arena in Lisbon. I was very nervous before going on stage, it was such a big responsibility and privilege to be able to open for one of the biggest EDM acts ever. When I got on stage everything went perfectly and it was a very good moment for me as I could feel the audience’s response to my music in a dimension that never before had I experienced. It was a very talked about set in social networks and it helped to shape my name in my home country to what it is today. I will never forget it. Tell us about the story behind your breakout track “Brazil”. It was a defining moment in my career as I was a young producer and kept sending tracks to labels and DJs, a struggle anyone in this business is familiar with, and after a while you can get beaten down by it unless someone like Roger Sanchez chooses one of your tracks to be featured as track of the week in, those days, one of the most important radioshows in electronic music, Release Yourself. I was very happy and surprised! Tell us what it’s like collaborating with Hardwell, who’s track was part of the first bootleg you made? Hardwell is my biggest influence ever, on various ways, not only as a DJ and producer – this is something you can hear in most of my work and from the early begging - but also as a person, what he brings of himself to the table and how he helped shape the image of DJs not as unreachable superstars but as normal people and near their fans, unlike the superstar system we have on pop music or rock. He was the one that defined this, and people answered by giving him the 1st place on their hearts for a DJ. For me it is a true privilege to be able to collaborate with him, he’s one of the key figures in the industry and also one of the most loved and rightfully so. We have been in contact for a while, I’ve released two tracks already through his label Revealed Recordings, and started to exchange ideas that would become this track that’s almost finished. Both of us have played it live to good results; it was a track that people responded too without even knowing who was behind it. Hardwell is working on it currently, giving it some finishing touches and

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we’re both very proud because it’s a diﬀerent track, so I believe it will bring something new to the table. Can’t wait for it to come out! Your new collab with Tony Junior called “King Kong” is set to debut on the 5th of October. Tell us more about the track and how the collab came to be. Once Tony reached out to say he was playing one of my tracks and we stayed in contact ever since, I really like his work as a producer so I also play his tracks on my sets. I sent him an idea asking for his feedback and he loved it and had some great ideas to it, so the collaboration was born. He made the vocals and helped shape the melody and the first drop, so it was a true partnership. Being able to release it through Wall Recordings with Afrojack’s blessing is amazing. Both Tony and I have played “King Kong” on our sets to very good results it has also been requested by some top DJs, so it means that people are curious about it and that we just need to wait for October 5th to have it rock dancefloors worldwide! What’s keeping you busy for the rest of 2015? Asia Tour! Going to go back to Asia for six performances, this time I’ll return to China, I’ll go for the first time to Thailand, and then Manila, Philippines, and Taipei. I’m very excited to go back to Asia, I always have a lot of fun

and the crowds are awesome, people really love dance music. You can check venues and dates on my oﬃcial Facebook page: www.facebook.com/KURADJ Also, “King Kong”’s release on October 5th on Beatport and October 19th on all shops. I’m very looking forward to this release, love the track and play it on all my sets so I’m anxious to have it out. Also the release of my collaboration with Hardwell, which should happen by the end of the year. And there’s a lot of music I’m working on, I went to Hardwell’s Circus closing party in Ibiza and got back home inspired and been working on new music. I’ll also play Italy, Amsterdam for ADE where I’ll play alongside Tony Junior, MAKJ, Bingo Players, ADE is always a very important moment, and then I’ll also play alongside Axwell & Ingrosso in Switzerland. So 2015 is shaping up as one of the best years of my career so far! Name three things that Kura can’t live without. Three things I couldn’t live without are my laptop, my phone and my headphones. If you knew you were going deaf tomorrow, what would be the last track you would like to hear? Technotronic’s “Pump Up The Jam”, it’s a party song to keep the energy going!

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CHUCKIE LETS THE MUSIC PLAY

has been an incredible year for Chuckie as he takes over charts and the hearts of legions of fans through his tours and shows. The Dutch DJ continues to prove to us that even after a decade in the industry he is still going strong, as he continues to release crowd favorites and manages to always keep things fresh and fun. We recently caught up with him on the Asian leg of his tour to discover his love for his music and how “Let The Music Play” became a poignant part of his journey through electronica. Hi there! Talk to us about the day you decided that you wanted to become a DJ. Well, I’ll tell you about that day I wanted to be a DJ. My best friend was a DJ and one time I helped him set up the equipment for a party and I also did the sound check. I had accidentally mixed to records together and I was like “What the hell is this?”. This was about 23 years ago and then I was like this amazing, I definitely want to do this. So

I decided that I wanted to become a DJ. I had no equipment and not a lot of records so it was hard to collect them; it cost a lot of money. But eventually I managed to do it and then started DJing in clubs. Was there a specific DJ or track that drove you towards electronica? Actually yes, the first time was actually in 1984 when I was just a young boy. I heard this track on the radio, it was Shannon “Let The Music Play”. And if you listen to it now they would categorize it under electronica but back then it was like urban music. I wouldn’t say underground because it was a famous song as well from a movie. But that song definitely made me love the electronic sounds. And later maybe end of the 80’s or early 90’s, I fell in love with break beats, later they call it drum and bass but I fell in love through a pirate radio station. From the break beats I started getting more into electronica.

So it eventually evolved? It eventually evolved, im also a very into hip hop music. I grew up with hip hop music and all kinds of music. But at certain point dance music embraced so many diﬀerent styles that I embraced it myself. Tell us more about Dirty Dutch and its inception. Dirty Dutch has been going strong for many years now. Since 2003 when I decided to throw a party called Dirty Dutch coz I just wanted to have my own event and my own style of music and entertainment. From there it went from clubs to bigger venues to arenas and nowadays Dirty Dutch is everywhere. And now I have residencies in New York, Vegas and Miami, so that’s really cool. Bigger things seem to be in store for you, what do you have planned for 2016? It’s always bigger things you know. Every year you try to give it your best and try go harder

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#77 than last year. For me as well, I’ve really been on the road lately but the end of this year ive been making a lot of new music so next year I have a lot of new music coming. I have a Chuckie and Friends album coming which is mainly my focus but also in the mean times I’m working on a lot of other projects for other artists. Over the years you’ve turned into a global phenomenon who never fails to win over your legions of fans with your unique sound and high energy sets. What is your secret to success? I think my secret to success in general or everybody’s secret to success is dedication. You have to be dedicated to your job. Like I do a lot of flights in a year, last year I did 452 flights in a year. If you’re not dedicated and you’re not able to handle that, eventually your gigs will do down. But you have to maintain and be strong so dedication is the most important thing. You’ve been working with some amazing artists. So what has been your best collaboration so far? Well it depends on how you look at it. My most fun collaboration must have been working with Lil Jon. He’s a really good friend of mine, I like working with him, and he’s fun in the studio. Like half of the time we do nothing, we just laugh and the other half we’re doing work. But especially when I did a really important remix for Guetta’s “Sexy Bitch” that I did together with Lil Jon. We were recording it in Vegas and it was so fun! You have a web series on Youtube called Chuckie On The Road, that follows you on your tours. Have you ever considered having your own reality show whilst on tour to capture all your tour antics? Yeah I have thought about it but it brings a lot of responsibility. It’s the type of responsibility that I don’t want

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

because you have to be dedicated and the camera’s around but the focus is the music of course. I try record as much as I can but my main focus is still music. I record a weekly radio show that is Dirty Dutch Radio and it’s aired in like 45 countries and I did like 130 episodes already. That’s where I like to dedicate my time to, the music. What is the DJ Chuckie experience? I think in general when I play I like to give it all the energy that I’ve got. For me energy is the most important. You try to give the crowd a good time. It’s not about me being up there, it’s more about the crowd having a good time. We hear you love Asian food, what would be your go to Asian food? Yeah yeah! But it depends on what type of Asian food but in general I love Thai food.

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URBERRY LAUNCHES FESTIVE CAMPAIGN FEATURING AN ALL-STAR RITISH CAST British luxury fashion house Burberry distributes outerwear, fashion accessories, fragrances, sunglasses, and cosmetics. Their

unique tartan pattern – which we all adore – is recognized throughout the world and has become one of its most widely copied characteristics. Coming towards the end of year we know that the holiday season is just around the corner, Burberry invites us to celebrate the festive spirit with their all-new campaign for 2015 shot by Mario Testino. To accompany the campaign, the luxury label celebrates the 15th anniversary of the iconic British film Billy Elliot with the launch of their Burberry Festive Film which is based on the much-loved opening sequence of the film and features original footage as well as the original soundtrack, ‘Cosmic Dancer’ by T Rex. “Billy Elliot is an incredible film full of so much joy and energy, so it was a real thrill and a great honour to be able to celebrate its 15 year anniversary through our Festive campaign. It was also a huge privilege to work with such amazing and iconic British talent – the cast are quite simply some of the biggest names in film, music and fashion and it was so much fun working with them all to make this special film,” explained Christopher Bailey, Burberry Chief Creative and Chief Executive Oﬃcer. The line-up features some of our of most-loved British icons from film, TV, music and fashion such as; Sir Elton John, James Corden, Julie Walters, Romeo Beckham, Naomi Campbell, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Michelle Dockery, James Bay, George Ezra and Toby Huntington-Whiteley. A full range of Burberry festive gifts are now available in stores and on Burberry.com which includes the iconic pieces in the campaign itself - the made in England heritage trench coat, the made in Scotland cashmere scarf, Burberry tailoring, limited edition embellished gowns and The Baby Bucket Bag, as well as a new Burberry Beauty make-up look created by Burberry Make-up Artistic Consultant Wendy Rowe. These luxurious items are definitely something to consider if you are on the hunt for a high-end look this holiday season, we know it’s surely on our Christmas wish list!

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

LOUIS VUITTON’S CHRISTMAS GIFTS FOR ANIMATION LOVERS Fans of the French fashion house have something to look forward to

this holiday collection, a limited edition collection which is part of the brand’s fall/winter line, a 1920s inspired Christmas animation as part of the Louis Vuitton Evasion Collection. This festive collection ranges from $365 – $905, and guess what? You can even get the must-have accessories and other items under its umbrella. There’s nothing not to love – you get to stay classy with the timeless staple monogramed LV print and still feel fun and ready for the festive season with cute animations to put the icing on the cake. The Evasion Collection comprises of a few of Louis Vuitton’s favorites like a Zippy Wallet, Zippy Coin Purse, Sarah Wallet, Small Ring Agenda Cover and Mini Pochette Accessoires. So if you are in need of elegance but choose to keep it playful, do let Santa know in advancede that this is the collection you really want because after all, it is limited edition.

BE A MODERN DAY CINDERELLA WITH JIMMY CHOO The end of the year seems to have many festivities

and celebrations, to look dazzling is not an option, it’s an absolute must. This masterpiece by Jimmy Choo is a modern day take of the iconic glass slipper Cinderella accidentally leaves behind when the clock strikes midnight – perfect for any lady who adores a fairy-tale touch to dressing up. Sandra Choi who is the legendary Creative Director at Jimmy Choo created and developed this elegant piece of art “I think every girl desires a Cinderella moment in their lives. This story ignites a love aﬀair and fascination with shoes that never dies. The power they have to transform is instilled from a young age and the fantasy remains alive forever. I wanted to create a shoe that felt magical, with alluring sparkle and a feminine, timeless silhouette evoking those childhood emotions,” she explains. It is part of an intrigue collecting that celebrated the release of Disney’s live action film inspired by the classic fairy tale “Cinderella”. Disney Consumer Products (DCP) teamed up with nine high end shoe designers; Paul Andrew, Alexandre Birman, René Caovilla, Jimmy Choo, Salvatore Ferragamo, Nicholas Kirkwood, Charlotte Olympia, Jerome C. Rousseau, and Stuart Weitzman.

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

[INSPI

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SHOW SOME LOVE TO DUDLEY

ow did you feel about the recent Ultra expansion in Asia? Loved it as much as we did? Even if you weren’t there in person we reckon you must have been obsessed that the fact Ultra actually made it to this corner of the globe, not to mention the killer line-ups. If you read our previous issue you would have seen the madness during Ultra Beach Bali and Road to Ultra Philippines, for that, we give many thanks to Dudley Chou. He is part of Ultra Worldwide’s rapid expansion throughout Asia and produced the Ultra Korea, Ultra Japan, Ultra Beach Bali and Road to Ultra Singapore events, as well as Ultra Asia’s Regional Manager, Dudley also serves as Ultra’s regional business director that oversees expansion in the region.

diﬀerences are vast, and as an American brand, a deep level of understanding is necessary in each territory. Then on top of that understanding, a winning combination of the right local promoters, venue, marketing strategies and timing is the magic formula. From the Ultra Worldwide expansion this year, what do you think was your favourite (regional) line-up? Why? From Korea, I would have to mention Raiden and Justin Oh. They are very talented DJs and producers. From Japan, Ksuke has been killing it!

Hi Dudley, how did it feel being part of Ultra Worldwide’s rapid expansion throughout Asia? It doesn’t really hit you until you’re at the show and witness the pure excitement of the showgoers. It’s an amazing feeling knowing you played a part of bringing that happiness to them.

After eight shows in eight diﬀerent countries, how do you feel about the amazing response from fans around Asia? The response has been unbelievable. It’s more obvious than ever that Asia embraces electronic dance music. Ultra is a household name now among promoters, clubs, fans and even non-fans in Asia. The work now is to maintain this level of response as fan expectations grow and we will need to provide the right content to fill their appetites.

What do you think has been your biggest achievement as Ultra Asia’s Regional Manager? The biggest achievement by far has been bridging the gap between East and West. It sounds cliché, but the cultural

What can Ultra Asia fans expect in 2016? Anything big? Of course! I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but we have a massive festival level show in SEA planned in 2016. Japan, Korea and Bali will continue to evolve. And finally we will be taking a

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

step into a new territory. You studied in the States, what is the Asian dance music scene lacking the most and what do you think can be done? I don’t believe you can group all the countries in Asia together and call it an Asian dance scene. Each country in Asia is different and has its own dance scene that is lacking or not lacking in different areas. For example, Japan has probably the most evolved dance scene in Asia. In addition to the mainstream, there is a strong following of the underground in Japan, where popular music can be considered uncool and obnoxious. Then you have countries like China, where the majority of club/festival goers are only familiar with popular music. In China, electronic dance music is relatively new and the inaccessibility of western social media makes the scene very different. These are 2 extremes and obviously I’m generalizing, but the point is that each country has a very different scene. The scene in Thailand is very different from the scene in the Philippines and the same goes for Indonesia and Korea. Not much can be done outside of exposing the fans in each country to the music and the worldwide standard of production of our shows. The fans can take it from there and create and evolve their own unique dance scene. Hopefully we can inspire local DJs, promoters and fans to make each scene more and more modern and exciting for years to come. If you could live forever in one music festival, what festival would it be and why? Ultra Music Festival in Miami to party until my body gives up, then retire in Coachella with the LA weather, musical variety, art and food. I know, I cheated! How does your ideal weekend look like? Any weekend that I am in a different country diving into the local scene, culture and food is a great weekend for me. Name 3 luxury items you can’t live without. My iPhone for staying connected to friends and family. My Tumi backpack for handling all other gear. And I don’t own one but a Boeing 777-300ER or 787-8 for

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

[STIR

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HENNESSY COLLABORATES WITH TOM DIXON The French cognac house Hennessy h,as recently announced its latest Hennessy X.O Exclusive Collection 2015, the EC9. It maintains its original shape but still absolutely an eye-catcher. A pioneer and a true original, Tom Dixon’s commitment to innovative design, manufacture and vision of “illuminating and furnishing the future” has produced numerous iconic pieces: Mirror Ball, Copper Shade, Beat Light and Wingback Chair. Hennessy X.O Exclusive Collection by Tom Dixon honours the celebrated Cognac’s history while moving its aesthetic into new territory. A unique, contemporary rendition of the house’s traditional carafe,

Hennessy X.O Exclusive Collection by Tom Dixon is a distinctive and harmonious study in light and materiality, shape and finish. “The Hennessy X.O carafe is a timeless object that I wanted to treat in an original, modern way,” explains Dixon. “I was inspired by the way precious objects are mounted, specifically the crystals in the geological museum in London,” explains Dixon. “For me, great design is about progressing within an experience. The layers of that experience should come together in one seamless object.” In the designer’s hands, the Hennessy X.O bottle remains immediately recognizable, yet feels completely new. A

collectible in it’s own right, Hennessy X.O Exclusive Collection by Tom Dixon stands out like a vivid copper gem encased in a faceted gift box. The Exclusive Collection X.O carafeby Tom Dixon nods to tradition while showcasing state-ofthe-art technique. Through the process of tessellation, the designer has created a striking visual tribute to the more than 100 eaux de vie composing the Hennessy X.O blend. Like a modern mosaic, multiple reflections of light on faceted copper reference the luxury of cut crystal and recall the rich materiality and generosity of the Cognac itself. moet-hennessy-collection.com.

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

MORTLACH WHISKY FINALLY IN KL

Guests attended the premier of the Mortlach experience at an excellent and impressive venue, The Glasshouse – a spacious urban architectural marvel nestled amidst the raw hilltop surroundings of Seputeh, right in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Founded in 1823, this Scottish whisky finally came to Kuala Lumpur. It is known as “best kept secret in the scotch whisky industry”, Mortlach distillery is a distiller of Scotch whisky in Duﬀtown, Moray, Scotland and is popularly recognized as “The Beast of Duﬀtown”. The three new expressions are aimed at global travel and the luxury connoisseurs: Rare Old, 18-YearOld and 25-Year-Old, which were awarded the best malts in its category at the recent International Spirits Award 2015.

THE PERRIERJOUËT GRAND BRUT GIFT SET Usher in the holiday season with this exceptional Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut Gift Set which consists of Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut and a pair of Champagne flutes that mirrors the floral, stylish and diamond-cut of the House of Perrier-Jouët, the hallmark of the House. Elegance, finesse and extraordinary craftsmanship are all associated with this champagne house. Feel the lively persistent bubbles in your mouth with soft and creamy fruit flavours. Elegant and beautifully balanced this is a must for any occasion. Floral and fruity fragrances fill up the bubbles delicately. Wine spectator also describes these bubbles as a crowd-pleaser, open-knit and lightly juicy, with a lively, frothy bead. Mixes white cherry, ripe apricot, pickled ginger and mineral notes, with a fresh, spiced finish. So, if you fancy a posh sip with your loved ones this festive season, this little baby could just be the right stocking filler.

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

[ENGINEE

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BENTLEY BENTAYGA: THE MOST EXCLUSIVE SUV IN THE WORLD For over a year now, we have all been anticipating the first ever SUV from Bentley, which they have been raving about. The world caught a glimpse of Bentley’s proclaimed fastest, most powerful, most luxurious and most exclusive SUV in the world during this year’s IAA Frankfurt Show back in 15 to 27September. The Bentley Bentayga also promises to have unparalleled luxury with eﬀortless performance and everyday usability which oﬀers a true Bentley driving experience and showcases innovative technology features. At launch, the Bentayga was available with an exquisite integrated Mullier Hamper Set, complete with a refrigerator, bespoke fine Linley china cutlery, crockery and crystal glass, and storage area for dry goods. For comfort in the great outdoors, sections of the hamper can be removed and used as seats. Be proud as you ride around in genuine luxury with the ability to go anywhere – literally, anywhere. We bet you have never seen a vehicle so coherently combined genuine luxury with go-anywhere driving ability that you have the entire ability to perform on any surface and even in the most extreme conditions. To achieve this ‘giant step’, the development programme for the Bentayga has been the most exhaustive in the Bentley brand’s history, ranging across five continents. From the dirt and gravel of South Africa and the dunes of Dubai, to the muddy fields of Cheshire, and from -30°C in the frozen North Cape to searing 50°C desert heat. Yes, we weren’t kidding when we stated ‘anywhere’. Now this is really a hot pick for all the bad boys who want to boast of their luxurious side. On top of all that, this sexy beast also introduces Bentley Dynamic Ride which is the world’s first electric active roll control technology that utilises an unrivalled 48V system. Inherent in larger vehicles with a higher centre of gravity, this system instantly counteracts

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

ENGINE Engine: 6-litre twin-turbocharged W12 TSI Max power: 608 PS / 600 bhp / 447 kW @ 5000-6000 rpm Max torque: 900 Nm / 664 lb.ft @13504500 rpm Fuel tank: 85 litres Top speed: 187 mph / 301 km/h

DIMENSIONS Vehicle length: 5140 mm / 202.4” Vehicle width: 1998 mm / 78.7” Vehicle height: 1742 mm / 68.6” Kerb weight: 2440 kg / 5379 lb Turning circle: 12.7m / 41.7ft Boot Volume (DIN): 430 litres Weight: 3250 kg / 7165 lb

lateral rolling forces when cornering and ensures maximum tyre contact to deliver class-leading cabin stability, ride comfort and exceptional handling. With the all-New W12 that the Bentley shows oﬀ, it proves to combine eﬃciency with unrivalled power and torque. The new W12 uses both direct and indirect fuel injection. Switching seamlessly between the two technologies, the combination of these systems maximises refinement, delivers low particulate emissions and maximises power and torque delivery. Sounds more than great, yeah? Your eyes are in for a special treat as you find the finest automotive interior in the world upon the Bentley Bentayga, with handcrafted wood and leather throughout this beaut and engineered

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

with precision to deliver absolute perfection this is truly one of a kind. If you eye has a soft spot for detail then do indulge yourself for their detail in metal, wood and leather is the epitome of modern British luxury, and is only achievable thanks to the exceptional skill of the workforce in Crewe. The standard is brought to another level for the Bentayga’s cockpit, with meticulous tolerances between the exquisite veneered woods and metal elements. The dashboard takes the iconic Bentley ‘wing’ design as its inspiration, with the beautifully finished surfaces flowing gracefully from door to door over the top of the instrument binnacles, down under the centre console and back up around the passenger side fascia and foot well.

Highly polished, handcrafted metal elements adorn the dashboard, centre console and doors. Trademark Bentley knurling on the drive mode selector, gear knob, and organ pulls adds sophistication and tactile refinement. Last but not least, a bespoke mechanical Mulliner Tourbillon by Breitling clock can also be specified. The most complex of watch mechanisms, the Mulliner Tourbillon is automatically wound periodically by a dedicated high-precision winding mechanism within the car. This masterpiece is machined in solid gold where you can select from either rose or white gold, with a choice of either a mother-of-pearl or black ebony face and decorated with eight diamond indexes.

[GEA

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ENNHEISER RESHAPES EXCELLENCE

Are these $55,000 headphones the best in the world? Tech freaks may re-call back in 1991 when the original Sennheiser Orpheus first came out – they took the audio world by storm with an engineering masterpiece that exceeded all previous ideas about the performance limitations of headphones – Sennheiser now attempts to reshape the original with their new Orpheus. This masterpiece made a team of Sennheiser experts spent almost a decade continuously working against the limits of what is technically possible, and indeed did they achieve.

The private German audio company claims that the electrostatic headphone system combines to perfection the most innovative technology with carefully selected, luxurious materials and highest quality craftsmanship hand-crafted in Germany. “It is able to deceive our senses in a completely unique way, creating the perfect illusion of being directly immersed in the sound,” explained Daniel Sennheiser. So, you can really be dazzled with a unique sound experience based on technical excellence that the powerful new Orpheus has to oﬀer headphoneobsessed-heads. It surpasses every other headphone system ever made by oﬀering the finest in reproduction precision, exceptional spatiality and a frequency response that extends far beyond the range of human hearing ability. Sounds

pretty epic, isn’t it? When the system is inactive, the components are all retracted and the Orpheus has the serene beauty of a sculpture. Gently pushing the on/oﬀvolume control brings the sculpture to life: the control elements, each of which are crafted from a single piece of brass and then plated with chrome, slowly extend from the marble housing, before the vacuum tubes enclosed in quartz glass bulbs rise from the base and start to glow. Finally, a glass cover is raised, allowing the headphones with ear cups finished in genuine leather to be removed. “Due to its technical superiority, the Orpheus has no need for an exaggerated design. Its beauty lies in its reduction to what is essential,” explained Oliver Berger, Head of Global Design Management at Sennheiser.

“With the new Orpheus, we once again push the boundaries and show that we can repeatedly set new benchmarks in excellence and with that shape the future of the audio world,” - Sennheiser CEO Daniel Sennheiser.

DJ MAG ASEAN / DECEMBER 2015

ANG & OLUFSEN’S FUTURE OF SOUNDSSPEAKERS

The Danish consumer electronics company, Bang & Olufsen have revealed an impeccable new state of the art speaker set, the BeoLab 90. These stunning speakers allow you to position them literally anywhere as they have a 360 degree design, no front and no back which also offers you the option of moving the direction of the sound beam in five different directions. Its pentagonal shape combined with the rhombus shape of its black fabric covers, which like sails hover above the driver units give BeoLab 90 a unique and impressive appearance. A treat for your eyes from any perspective, and your ears will feel a whole new experience. You have the possibility to carry out a number of adjustments according to your own liking e.g. sound tuning for e.g. a specific genre of music, or your own preference. BeoLab 90 offers an extensive array of adjustments divided into a basic adjustment section and a more advanced adjustment, which includes creating and sharing preset sound tunings. The Beam Width Control enables you to alter the width of the sound beam, while the Beam Direction Control allows you to steer the audio where

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

you want it to go. How the Tesla is the future of automobiles, this BeoLab 90 is the future of sound. “Think of this speaker as a Tesla. It represents not only what’s possible via the latest technology, but delivers it in an unparalleled user experience. Its form, like a sports car, is derived from its function; in the speaker world, that means a speaker designed to realize a truly 360 immersive experience mixed to a listener’s exact standards. No front or back, and speaker drivers aligned in a variety of directions,” Marie Kristine Schmidt, Corporate Vice President and Head of Brand, Design & Marketing at Bang & Olufsen recently told JustLuxe. In the age of modern living, we reckon these stunners will edgeup any space while bringing you exceptional sound experience. A great investment also if you are keen on bringing the party celebrations to your own place this holiday season.

DJ MAG ASEAN /DECEMBER 2015

2015

COMPILATIONS OF Vintage collection

The DJ mixes, back-catalogues and collections that made 2015... Words: ADAM B

n a era where the back catalogues of most labels and artists are just a search away, you would think that compilations would have outlived their purpose by now. Although music streaming services now offer curated playlists that cover a wide

selection of genres and scenes, they are yet to match the quality of the compilation releases on this year’s list. That’s partly down to care the curators and selectors behind the compilations on our top 10 have taken in putting together their mixes and anthologies.

01. DJ Koze ‘DJ Kicks’ !K7 DJ Koze had the honour of mixing the landmark 50th instalment of !K7’s DJ Kicks series earlier this year and he did not disappoint. Far from just mixing a selection of tracks, the Hamburg native and Pampa Records boss wholly edits, rebuilds and reconstructs tracks from the ground up so as to make them fit perfectly with the next.

02. Various ‘12345’ Meda Fury Since having launched in 2013, London-based label Meda Fury has built up a global-spanning stable of artists with releases coming from Japan, Italy, the US and Russia. Highlights on this first compilation from the R&S-affiliated imprint include the hugely talented Takuya Matsumoto and the mutant disco of New York producer D-Riberio.

03. Bill Brewster ‘Late Night Tales presents After Dark Nocturne’ Late Night Tales

The Lowlife resident and dance music writer turned in one of our favourite Late Night Tales to date earlier this year. Brewster runs through some of the selections that are closest to his heart, with each accompanied by detailed sleeve notes. His ability to dig through an archive is one matched by his ear for a timeless new tune.

04. Various ‘Deep Love 15’ Dirt Crew

Each is testament to the fact that crafting a good compilation is an art-form and not just content aggregation. Here are the year’s best...

05. Melanie De Biasio ‘No Deal Remixed’ PIAS Gilles Peterson brought together a diverse cast of producers to remix Belgian jazz singer Melanie De Biasio’s work with contributions coming from Seven David Jr, Simbad and Cinematic Orchestra. A considered compilation arranged to tell a seamless narrative rather than a jumble of disparate ideas, ‘No Deal Remixed’ is a rare example of a remix album that stands on its own as well as a well-conceived piece of work.

06. Various ‘Scuba Presents Hotflush Vol. 2: Dub Pressure (2005-2008)’ Hotflush Label founder Paul Rose never liked Hotflush being called a dubstep label, but this second volume of the label’s history suggests that there was no reason to object — dubstep was always a broad church. The compilation covers a period just before the label shifted towards house and techno with highlights such as Loefah’s remix of Candyfloss’s ‘Search & Destroy’.

07. Monki ‘Fabric Live 81’ Fabric Monki’s contribution to Fabric’s mix series is one of the most downright fun compilations we’ve listened to all year. The Radio 1 DJ delivers a high-energy, funky and unabashedly booty-shaking selection that weaves between the past and present effortless.

Recordings

The prolific Dirt Crew — the German-Dutch axis that is Break 3000 (aka Peter Gijselaers) and James Flavour (aka Felix Eder) — weren’t exactly lacking for releases to put together ‘Deep Love 15’. That old adage about quality not being compatible with quantity does not apply here: there’s not a single duffer on this excellent showcase of the label’s talents.

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

08. Various ‘Sherwood At The Controls Vol. 1 1979-1984’ On-U Sound Adrian Sherwood is best known for his idiosyncratic take on dub reggae with acts Dub Syndicate, Tackhead and many more on his On-U Sound label. This compilation gathers together his lesser-known but equally impressive work as a producer for post-punk acts like The Slits and The Fall.

NEWS OF

2015

That was the year that was We take a look back at the news of 2015 through the prism of the international dance music scene. It’s been quite a year! Words: FELICITY MARTIN

anuary is a notoriously slow month in club-land — a time when gym memberships take priority over all-nighters and pennies are scraped together. Many top flight DJs disappear off to warmer climes (Mexico etc) for the month. Lucky bastards. Initially, 2015 was a big year for label anniversaries, with Kompakt and Planet Mu turning 20, and Tri Angle five — all putting out standout compilation releases. While in the US, vinyl sales reached a 26-year high, reflecting the increasing desire to own wax. The new year kicked off with Jackmaster flying the flag on our cover, having just won Best DJ at our Best Of British awards the previous month. February saw Aphex Twin scoop a Grammy for ‘Syro’ (in typical Aphex fashion, he neglected to collect it) and that month the elusive producer began an exhaustive dump of tracks from his personal archive onto SoundCloud for free download. RDJ geeks everywhere rejoiced. We were stationed in Miami in March for WMC (five days of partying in tropical heat... someone’s gotta do it!) for the DJ Mag party at the Surfcomber Hotel on South Beach, where Seth Troxler delighted a sandy crowd with Phats & Small’s stone-cold classic ‘Turn Around’. The Detroit renaissance man covered that month’s issue in typical colourful fashion — plus flamingo — inviting us into his home for a chat and some fried sausage (not a euphemism). Another stop on our Miami voyage was Damian Lazarus’s Get Lost, a 24-hour party that boasted a who’s-who of underground house and techno stars. In April, our publicly-voted Top 100 Clubs poll

decided that the mega venues of Ibiza were no match for Brazil’s Green Valley, a 25-year-old arena in the heart of the rainforest. While the legendary DJ-Kicks series reached its 50th edition, and lined up German techno legend DJ Koze for the task, who predictably smashed it out the park. Our new favourite Internet phenomenon emerged in May: ‘90s Boiler Room, the YouTube channel that overlaid Vengaboys and Eurotrash songs onto clips of Richie Hawtin and Solomun — to hilarious effect. That month, Chuka Umunna hit the headlines as (probably) the only ever Labour leader candidate to also be a parttime dance DJ, and we sat down for a chat with the UKG lover. Meanwhile, The Forum played host to Fabio & Grooverider’s 25th anniversary, putting on a special show from the drum & bass heavyweights. Dance music news took a turn for the worse in June, when February DJ Mag cover star Ten Walls made some horrendous homophobic comments on his Facebook page. It was a relief to see the music industry’s reaction to this, with Creamfields, Sónar and PITCH all cancelling his appearances at their events immediately with zero attempt to defend his words. The dance music industry shut him down, basically. Around the same time, a couple of other electronic artists experienced foot in mouth syndrome (or should that be Tweet in mouth?) with Boddika thinking that people who can’t speak English in the UK can “fuck off” and PC Music’s GFOTY making racist jibes. Meanwhile, festival season kicked off, and The Chemical Brothers pulled out all the stops for their light show at Glastonbury, topping

the bill alongside Kanye who professed to be the “greatest living rock star on the planet”, ascending a cherry-picker for ‘Touch The Sky’. It was good news for Japan in June as the country’s ‘no-dancing’ legislation, dating back to 1948, was scrapped. While it wasn’t such a good month for SoundCloud, as the streaming site was accused of massive copyright infringement by UMG, Sony and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and many accounts — including DJ Mag’s — were limited as a result. July saw the launch of the DJ Mag Save Our Clubs campaign. News of the much-loved Plastic People shutting its doors came in January, and an alarming number of London spaces seemed to be joining the birthplace of dubstep. At least ten over the last two years have shut. Then came news that Glasgow’s The Arches was to close, and The Coronet announced it would be closing in 2017. And the borough of Hackney was threatened by proposed licensing changes that would hit venues hard. We launched our campaign to bring greater awareness not only to the plight of the capital’s nightlife, but to clubs all around the world too (and you can support by liking the page on Facebook!). Though it’s not all loss: the capital got two brand new clubs — Moth and Phonox — where rising DJ Jasper James was made resident. On July 3rd, electronic pioneer Charanjit Singh passed away aged 75. The cult figure has been credited with accidentally inventing acid house — the 1982 record ‘Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat’ featured the acid bass synth wobbles before the

DJ MAG ASEAN /DECEMBER 2015

IBIZA

Our party at Space Ibiza at the beginning of June celebrated 20 years of DJ Mag Ibiza at Space, bringing out Bicep, Midland and Octave One. We also hit Space for the Closing Fiesta with John Talabot, Luciano and Carl Cox, who revealed exclusively to DJ Mag that next year would be his last at the Ibizan megaclub (oh no oh no!), while it was also announced that the people behind Ushuaïa will take control of the land Space Ibiza stands on in 2017.

CROATIA genre’s explosion. The music world lost two other well-loved figures towards the end of the year — Kiss FM DJ and house and techno vanguard Colin Faver in September, and ‘Inner City Life’ singer Diane Charlemagne in October who sadly passed away aged 51 after a long battle with cancer. RIP. Goldie was one of several artists pushing the orchestral-club crossover this year, premiering his landmark album ‘Timeless’ with full Heritage Orchestra backing in July. The Metalheadz boss took to the Royal Festival Hall for the show’s first run, while 1Xtra brought a grime symphony to the Proms, Jeff Mills performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Juan Atkins took to XOYO with Gabriel Prokofiev, and Graeme Park announced ‘Haçienda Classical’ next year — a string of Haç classics to get live instrumentation. As a response to Ten Walls’ hateful views, we took the opportunity to make our August issue a ‘Gay DNA Of House Music’ special, celebrating how much the scene owes to gay culture and the Lithuanian producer’s embarrassing lack of historical perspective. We then spent much of the month cringing over the Zac Efron-starring flick We Are Your Friends, which posited the theory that all you need to be a successful DJ is “a laptop, some talent, and one track” — it (unsurprisingly) bombed at the box office. Good luck headlining Space with that one track, Efron. Other — better — music industry films to hit the big screen explored the ‘90s: Mia Hansen-Løve’s Eden and Kill Your Friends, based on the John Niven novel. Entertainment conglomerate SFX seemed to be in deep trouble when its share prices plummeted and Beatport began freezing its payments to labels (strangely enough, only independents). The issue was soon resolved, though. Meanwhile, Native Instruments was busy rolling out its new Stems format, letting DJs remix on the fly. In the US, two teenagers died at Los Angeles’s Hard Summer festival of apparent drug overdoses, and LA government officials considered outlawing

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

With festivals in the Adriatic Sea increasing year on year, there were over ten you could’ve gone to this summer — with latest boutique techno-fest Love International to kick off next year. This summer DJ Mag was getting our Hessle Audio on at Dimensions, producing a special Croatia magazine, and getting weighty to dubstep at Outlook. It’s looking to be even bigger and better than ever in 2016...

TUNES OF

2015

Dance reaction

It’s been another bumper year for top quality dancefloor tracks. Here’s our discerning pick of the best... Words: ADAM SAVILLE

icep, Koze and Woolford are just a few names that have become reassuringly prevalent in our end-of-year pages in recent times — and, yes, there’s some new names too. While naturally we’ve focused on tunes that have made the biggest splash, there is, of course,

extra points for ongoing consistency. Just because a track by an artist included in the top 10 isn’t your personal favourite, it doesn’t mean the others haven’t been taken into account and considered. Once again, it’s been an incredible year for

01. Bicep ‘Just’ Aus Bicep completely owned 2015. Teaming up with Hammer to drop ‘Dahlia’ and ‘I Believe’, and on their own, the Belfast-born duo have basically been enjoying the dance music equivalent of the Midas touch in 2015. Of all their output — two or three were in contention for this Top 10 — it’s ‘Just’ that takes the crown. Built of breaks slowed to a canter, irresistible bleeps and a sultry robo-vocal, it’s the stuff of future dancefloors and sure-fire party dynamite.

02. DJ Koze ‘XTC’ Pampa Records Psychoactive alchemist DJ Koze is more than just a producer, he’s a wizard. ‘XTC’, with its retro public service announcement sample (“many people are experimenting with a drug called ecstasy”), is as hypnotic as they come, but it’s the subtlety at play that’s so effective. Airy and gravity-defying, this anthem-in-the-making has been getting smashed at (peak) times that belie its seemingly downbeat dancefloor demeanour, and that’s simply because it’s so special.

03. Paul Woolford ‘MDMA’ Hotflush It wouldn’t be an end-of-year list without Paul Woolford’s name cropping up somewhere. His Special Request moniker gets a mention overleaf on our Albums Of The Year page for his long EP on XL, but it’s his piano-laden techno beast under his own name that gets a shout amongst the singles. Yet another winning track named as an ecstasyreferencing acronym, you could possibly argue that 2015 was the year that clubbers rediscovered the little rave drug that changed it all.

dance music — as house, techno and disco artists, especially, have continued to embrace melody, tried new things and pushed their creative limits even further to keep dancefloors lively and abandoned, but most of all classy...

04. Steve Lawler ‘House Record’ Hot Creations Smashed to high heaven by any house DJ worth his or her salt this summer, DJ Mag lost count of the amount of times we heard ‘House Record’ in 2015. First emerging to dominate WMC, its clattering 909s and snipped vocal samples became a ubiquitous fixture of many house events at a time when the house revolution was reaching its peak, from one of the UK scene’s longest leaders. The ViVA boss’ debut on Jamie Jones’ world famous label was undoubtedly one of the year’s defining tunes.

05. Fatima Yamaha ‘What’s A Girl To Do’ Dekmantel Spoken about in hushed tones since 2004, this was the year — following its re-release on Dekmantel — that Bras Bron’s cult hit went truly viral. The original pressing is still going for £100+ on Discogs, and its return also helped remove the veil of mystery around a female-sounding moniker in fact owned by a male Dutch musician who’s enjoyed minor success in his native chart, only for the track to be picked up by Hudson Mohawke on ‘Resistance’ — with r&b voice Jhene Aiko on it too. The track’s unusual journey aside, its seductive little electro hook is what makes it utterly addictive, and one of the most crucial moments of 2015.

06. Omar S ‘I Wanna Know’ FXHE Records

Without doubt the poppiest of the Detroit don’s output, there’s a touch of Storm Queen about ‘I Wanna Know’. Sharing the raw, electro sensibility of Morgan Geist’s more saccharine

DJ MAG ASEAN /DECEMBER 2015

side-project, the FXHE man is heard at his most unashamedly heartfelt. With its thick and infectious deep-slung bassline offset by reedy synths and James Garcia’s silken soul vocals, ‘I Wanna Know’ is a joyful singalong classic that — effective as it is — doesn’t take itself too seriously at all, and is all the better off for it.

07. Morgan Geist ‘Darkstar’ Environ

RE-WORK IT OUT! Top 10 remixes of 2015... 01. Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas

Is it house, disco, electro? No, it’s just Morgan Geist... again. 2015 was the year the New Jersey man appeared as the dazzling The Galleria with help from Jessy Lanza, but it was under his own name that one-half of Metro Area really re-affirmed his position as one of the coveted producers of our time. ‘Darkstar’ is a viscous, sinewy collage of analogue tones and textures that balances shades of light and dark magnificently — in a way that no-one other than Mr Geist quite can.

08. Kiwi ‘Short Tail’ Blasé Boy Club

‘Eye Nyam Nam ‘A’ Mensuro (Henrik Schwarz Blend)’ !K7

02. Eats Everything feat Tiga vs Audion ‘Dancing (Again!)’ Method White

03. Tensnake

Kiwi has been bubbling under for a few years now, but 2015 was the year he really broke though, thanks in no small part to this inspired big-room spanker. A tumbling barrage of hollowed-out techno on Duke Dumont’s Blasé Boys Club, ‘Short Tail’ on the ‘Animal EP’ in June is still tearing up dancefloors now, and it’s easy to see why. Primitive, bold and cavernous, this acidic bomb from Kiwi is nothing short of a dancefloor masterpiece.

‘Holding Back Your Love (Tiger & Woods Remix)’ Running Back

04. Seven Davis Jr ‘Friends (Detroit Swindle Remix)’ Classic

05. The Juan Mclean ‘A Simple Design (Deetron Remix)’

09. Tim Green ‘Eclipse’ Cocoon

Defected

An exquisite balance of extremes, Tim Green’s return to Sven Väth’s Cocoon saw Kent’s finest export make a hugely impressive comeback. Stripped back and minimal, ‘Eclipse’ — with its deep, steely chords — is defined by its gristly, brain-fizzing drop midway through. It’s a moody banger that typifies the dramatic prog-techno sound that ruled so many dancefloors in 2015, and not going away anytime soon.

06. Howling ‘Signs (Røhåd Remix)’ Counter/Monkeytown

07. PBR Streetgang ‘Return To Page One (TCK Remix)’ 2020 Vision

08. Afrohead ‘Grown Man Cryy (Carl Craig’s ‘Brainy Grimlin’ Remix)’ Crosstown Rebels

THE NEXT 30 Adesse Versions ‘Pride’ Numbers

Mr Beatnick ‘Obsidian Morning’ Don’t Be Afraid

Palace ‘Perception’ Troupe

Stormzy ‘Shut Up’ Self-released

Boof ‘Just On The Swings’ Running Back

Detroit Swindle ‘Alright (We’ll Be)’ Heist

Gabe Gurnsey ‘Falling Phase’ Drone Out

Sparky ‘Signals’ Numbers

Shanti Celeste ‘Moods’ BSTL

Tuff City Kids ‘Lambsgame’ Permanent Vacation

Homeboy ‘Kaprije’ House Is OK

Lady Blacktronika ‘Oh So Cold’ Meda Fury

Dan Shake & Medlar ‘Walk’ Delusions Of Grandeur

Henry Wu ‘Midtour’ Odd Socks

Brahme & Hamo ‘Parish Rumours’ Heist

Cassio Kohl ‘Come Together’ Futureboogie

Breach & Cinnamon ‘Avocado’ Naked Naked

Kate Simko & Tevo Howard ‘Bring It’ Last Night On Earth

MF Hercules ‘Raindance’ Classic

Big Miz ‘Electrolites’ Dixon Avenue Basement

Mumdance & Pinch ‘Big Slug (feat. Rico Dan)’ Tectonic

The Prodigy ‘Ibiza’ Take Me To The Hospital

Jimmy Edgar ‘Shine’ Ultramajic

Takuya Matsumoto ‘Souvenir’ Fina

Danny Daze ‘Ready2Go’ Ultramajic

The Mekanism ‘Acid Love’ Play It Say It

Palms Trax ‘In Gold’ Dekmantel

Dusky ‘Parakeet Feet’ 17 Steps

Fernando ‘Mid-Decade’ Futureboogie

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

Jams

The Galleria ‘Mezzanine’ Environ

2015 Pieces of work ALBUM OF

The dance world does the full-length once again this year... Words: ADAM SAVILLE

ould 2015 be officially declared the year of the debut LP? The Revenge, Romare, Hunee and Nocturnal Sunshine are just a few of the acts who’ve taken the plunge into the dance long-player format for the first time this year and, as a result, made our Top 10; who’ve

stuck up a middle finger to those with the gall to (still) argue that dance albums don’t work as a concept. Rather than lazily selecting a few random tracks from their hard drives (save those for EPs!), they’ve proved the opposite once again;

01. Romare ‘Projections’ Ninja Tune Bristol’s Romare proved to be arguably the UK’s most exciting new talent when ‘Projections’ dropped onto Ninja Tune earlier this year. Clearly a master of the album format, even on his debut, he’s unwilling to settle on a single idea, never losing focus or trying too hard to break the mould along the way. Clearly influenced by the tough polyrhythms of Afrobeat, New Orleans railroad jazz/blues and the joyously gay house of the ‘90s within a techno format, ‘Projections’ takes vintage modes and spins them with a modern, futuristic cutting edge in a way that’s utterly unique. Hands-down the most inspired album of the year, a crystal-clear vision, and one destined to stand the test of time.

02. Special Request ‘Modern Warfare’ XL We waited too long for the return of Special Request — the junglist/warehouse rave alter ego of producer Paul Woolford — to return. But what a comeback! This time he dropped it to house speed, chucked in some 4/4 kicks and made it more playable for a host of dancefloors. So did Wooly sell-out? Did he fuck! The breakbeats and crazy drum-edits are still present and correct; synapse-scrambling bass warps our skulls; euphoric rave pianos enter the fray — simply put, it’s the most entirely dance-focused record of the year.

03. LHF ‘For The Thrown’ Keysound Recordings

The LHF collective hail from all over the world, but their cult-defining sound design on ‘For The Thrown’ could be of another planet. Full of reflective synths, long-tailed pads and

that house, techno, garage, disco, d&b, bass and breaks (and all that’s in between) are the scenes producing the most challenging albums there are. These are the ones that defined our year...

pixelated melody, ‘For The Thrown’ is a candied fusion of the most tender moments from acts like Aphex Twin and Boards Of Canada that ultimately suspends you in the most lush and joyous musical realms imaginable. Moods drift from insular and late-night to sun-bathed and al fresco, with instruments — harps, trumpets, finger-clicks and analogue machines — all elegantly reflecting that.

04. Fort Romeau ‘Insides’ Ghostly International

It didn’t take long for London’s Mike Greene to become one of most talked-about new talents in disco. Two years, in fact. After a handful of EPs, an album for 100% Silk and a Beats In Space mix, he was already tipped for big things, but it was his LP for Ghostly in March that really got the mill turning. Why is simple. Greene’s textured, breezy Balearic take on the house formula is a sound that lends itself particularly well to an album, and ‘Insides’ is an absorbing collection of heady cosmic techno that segues along effortlessly — hypnotising and dense with thick, syrupy substance throughout.

05. Crazy P ‘Walk Dance Talk Sing’ !K7 Records

Nestled somewhere between disco, pop and house, Crazy P have built their own runaway on which to walk. Or rather, strut. With this in mind, their seventh studio LP this summer at times gave a firm high-five to the sort of sound that Nile Rodgers would wish he’d have written, while at others pulling on the heartstrings in a way that only Crazy P can. Singer Danielle Moore’s cigarette-soaked vocals slide alongside good quality musicality from Ron Basejam and Hot Toddy, which harks back to a bygone era viewed with all the modern slickness of 21st Century studio production. An undisputed triumph.

DJ MAG ASEAN /DECEMBER 2015

06. The Revenge ‘Love That Will Not Die’ Roar Groove After 15 years of making some of the most defined nu-disco the UK has had to offer — both as The Revenge and as one half of 6th Borough Project (alongside Craig Smith) — Glasgow’s Graeme Clark finally delivered his debut solo album of tunes from scratch in April of this year. And thankfully, it was well worth the wait. Built of characteristically hypnotic grooves throughout, there’s a more deliberate focus to Clark’s approach on the album which fleshes out an impressive range of styles within a sleek, stylish world that borrows from Chicago, New York, Detroit and Berlin without losing his thread. An album that still continues to give months after its release. As the title suggests — ‘Love That Will Not Die’ will last a long, long time.

07. Lauer ‘Borndom’ Permanent Vacation What a year it’s been for Phillip Lauer! As well as teaming up with Gerd Janson to produce some of the most memorable dancefloor moments as Tuff City Kids, his LP as Lauer for Permanent Vacation was an example of how a house album can be illustrious, decorative and danceable all at the same time. ‘Borndom’ is a breathtaking journey through twinkling Nordic disco, lumbering analogue house, euphoric pianos and unashamedly heartful Italo, proving once again that absolutely nobody does it quite like Lauer.

08. Catz N’ Dogz ‘Basic Colour Theory’ Pets Recordings Grzegorz Demia czuk and Wojciech Tara czuk’s third album is a homecoming of sorts — their first long-player unleashed through their own Pets Recordings imprint (their first and second both came out on Claude VonStroke’s Mothership). It’s for the best, because it deserves to be all theirs. Well,

theirs and various collaborators’, of which there are many including Peter Bjorn & John and Javeon. Created from a library of self-generated samples, ‘Basic Colour Theory’ is a kaleidoscopic collage made with thought, care, passion and, most of all, joy. Shimmering with Balearic bliss all over, it helped define the summer and remained lodged in our brains ever since.

09. Nocturnal Sunshine ‘Nocturnal Sunshine’ I/AM/ ME

The debut, self-titled LP from Maya Jane Coles’ garage-inflected side-project fairly eclipsed the one she made in her own name last year. It reflected her love of the bassier side of dance: the pirate radio flavours of dubstep, two-step, and their myriad mutations. Full credit to Maya for sticking to her guns with ‘Nocturnal Sunshine’, when she could easily have reverted to the more famous — and accessible — sounds of her DJ sets. And ‘bass music’ suits her to a tee, a sound which powered some of her earliest releases before she diverted into a more linear tech-house direction. Incredible production, plenty of ideas and tracks that move feet and heads. Dope to the bone!

10. Hunee ‘Hunch Music’

Rush Hour

Amsterdam-based Korean-German producer Hunee is the kind of house head that the most discerning DJs dig, mainly for his dancefloor EPs, but his debut album ‘Hunch Music’ in the summer proved he could expertly handle the intrepid dance LP too. His Rush Hour fulllength is Hunee all over. Playful, experimental and packed with plenty of funk, his beats rarely neglect the ‘floor. Colourful synths leap from the speaker in a riot of synaesthetic splendour, while house is loaded with ambiguous emotion, pregnant with tension and pendulous bass. There’s acid, Detroitian pads, swells of bass and percussive wiggles, and the vibe is of Chicago veteran producer dipped in vivid tones of Dulux. When in the house, Hunee is sweet!

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St Germain ‘St Germain’ Parlophone Auntie Flo ‘Theory Of Flo’ Huntleys & Palmers

Jori Hulkkonen ‘Oh But I Am’ My Favorite Robot

Kerrier District ‘4’ Hypercolour

Synkro ‘Changes’ Apollo

Ashworth ‘Grain’ Needwant

Brawther ‘Endless’ Balance

FLako ‘Natureboy’ Five Easy Pieces

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Spor ‘Caligo’ BitTorrent Bundle

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LV ‘Ancient Mechanisms’ Brownswood

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Seven Davis Jr ‘Universes’ Ninja Tune

Deep Space Orchestra ‘Memory’ Use Of Weapons

Roisin Murphy ‘Hairless Toys’ PIAS

Mbongwana Star ‘From Kinshasa’ World Circuit

Mr G ‘Night On The Town’ Phoenix G

The Chemical Brothers ‘Born In The Echoes’ Virgin EMI

Marky ‘My Heroes’ Innerground

Glenn Astro ‘Throwback’ Tartelet

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

Levon Vincent ‘Levon Vincent’ Novel Sound Theo Parrish ‘American Parrish’ Sound Signature John Tejada ‘Signs Under Test’ Kompakt Benjamin Damage ‘Obsidian’ 50 Weapons

Hospital

Wbeeza ‘Expressions Of Love’ Third Ear Maribou State ‘Portraits’ Counter Records ALSO ‘ALSO’ R&S Damiano Von Erckert A’lso Known As Good’ ava. Records

THROUGH THE LENS

Just snapped a cool picture? Send it to info@djmagasean.com with ‘Picture Perfect’ in the subject line Originally from Lithuania, Paulius Staniunas fell in love with Asia through his study travels. He then started “All is Amazing”, which is a nightlife photography project that covers Asia. For the past three years, Paul has found himself living in and around the region, mainly in Malaysia. This art director took on photography as a hobby but now sees himself taking on more and more photography projects. It all started when he spent one year in Indonesia, while living there among local people and discovering the joys and sorrows of daily Indonesian life. Surrounded by a completely diﬀerent culture, religion and social environment than the one from which he originated, he started depicting portraits of those he had met along the way to tell their stories. After Indonesia, he moved to China to continue his Asian adventure and develop his photography skills. He is currently continuing to develop his photography and visual story telling talents.

TO SEE MORE OF ALL IS AMAZING WORK INSTAGRAM:@allisamazing FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/ allisamazing TWITTER: @allisamazing WEBSITE : www.allisamazing.com

DJ MAG ASEAN /DECEMBER 2015

DECEMBER 2015 / DJ MAG ASEAN

DJ MAG ASEAN / JUNE 2015