I started DJing in a small bar in my hometown Maastricht around 1991-1992. I also produced my first music together with a friend around that time. My first record is from 1992 as “Amazone”. After that I started doing music as “Break 3000” – mostly trip hop, electro and drum n bass (that’s where the name came from).
So the first Break 3000 things were released in 1999-2000. After doing a lot of electro it slowly changed into more old school house. In 2003 I started Dirt Crew together with James Flavour from Berlin. Since than I have been building up the label, nowadays I only concentrate on the label and my artist.
Your record label is almost ten years old now. How is everything going for Dirt Crew Recordings?
It’s going really well! We always kept true to our own sound and now that’s paying off with the current return of good deep house, we manage to get over the very boring minimal and loopy tech house years pretty well and I am happy that people are more into the true house sound again. So with new artists like Detroit Swindle, Urulu & Steve Huerta, Ben La Desh and soon Waze & Odyssey we will have a killer year in 2013. Furthermore I am planning the first real Tigerskin album and the debut album by Detroit Swindle.
Have you been to Hong Kong or Asia before? Did your Dirt Crew partner, James Flavour, mention anything about DJing in Hong Kong last year?
I have never been to Hong Kong and I’m really looking forward to visit! I have been playing in Asia before, last time I was in Shanghai which was a great experience too! I have also been to Japan twice on tour. It is great to discover a new side of Asia and especially Hong Kong! James Flavour also had a great time, so I am excited!
You vs. James Flavour, who would win in a pillow fight?
Me of course… haha…
Wild Renate, Berlin
Do you notice any new developments with the music and DJs in Berlin?
Like I said, finally some people are returning to the true house sound. We had some really difficult years in Berlin with only shitty minimal stuff going on, but now you have great clubs that play great music. My favorite club is Wilde Renate, that place is just the perfect club!
As I don’t buy vinyl anymore, I just can tell you what is my favorite record right now. That’s the latest Roberto Rodriguez on Freerange Records. [listen below]
You’re in the middle of a long DJ set when suddenly you need to go to the toilet. What long song will you play to keep everyone dancing until you come back?
Humdrum asked nearly 20 of Hong Kong’s house and techno DJs to share their five favorite tracks of 2012. Below are the year’s big tunes, secret weapons and floor-fillers that defined the sound of Hong Kong’s electronic underground in a year that it diversified and accelerated greatly.
Listen and navigate on the embedded YouTube playlist below, or view the full playlist on YouTube.
While browsing, click on the song title or album artwork to listen to any track, starting the playlist at that point.
Matthew Dekay and Lee Burridge Fur Die Liebe
[All Day I Dream] A duo who’ve produced some forward-thinking dancefloor material, and the strings on this track get me every time.
Ry Cumin & Frank Wiedermann Howling (Âme Remix)
[Innervisions] I don’t usually go for big vocal tracks, but there’s something quite stirring about this guy’s singing – plus the track comes to a pretty powerful conclusion.
Barnt Geffen
[Cómeme] It was always fun watching the crowd when dropping this weird little number. Geffen is really nothing more than a beat and a fun little octave-driven synth line, but it drove people crazy every single time.
Maetrik The Poem
[Ellum Audio] I still prefer the stuff Eric Estornel produces as Maetrik over his Maceo Plex guise, and this track really sums up why: rib-shaking beats and simple but devastating basslines. Massive.
Ian Pooley CompuRhythm (Dixon 4/4 Treatment)
[Innervisions] Have such good memories of catching Dixon at Barcelona in Sonar this year, and he’s fast become one of my favourites. This is his best remix yet, maybe after the 2011 Singing rerubs.
打碟Style’s funny and informative interview on DJs and nightlife in Hong Kong, with hosts 索羅B, 無名, Calvin, and guest Ocean Lam. See the details on ragazine.com.hk or listen below. (Cantonese Only)
INTERVIEW WITH HONG KONG’S FINEST DEEP HOUSE COLLECTIVE
TDJL: What is Humdrum Hongkong all about? How did you start? Who are the members?
Humdrum Hongkong started in August 2011 after realizing the three of us shared a love of deep house. We are OCEAN LAM (HK), CASEY ANDERSON (USA) and MIKO VAN CHONG (HK). In Hong Kong’s house and techno spectrum, our music is probably on the deepest and most dubby side, with the lowest BPMs and lots of room for weird tracks – but always fun!
TDJL: What parties have you done?
We do a monthly party called LOCO at this bar called Bassment. Most of the Hong Kong DJs that play dance music have always played really dark, intense tech house – we support those DJs too, but the Humdrum group came together over house music that’s subtler, deeper, more melodic – we play dark tracks too but we balance it out with pretty songs here and there. Until we started doing our monthlyLOCO night there weren’t many options for that kind of house. Luckily several other organizers started their own parties around the same time – people finally have a few options for house and techno in Hong Kong.
We hear from plenty of Europeans that our music and parties have more in common with little bars in Germany than the glitzy Hong Kong clubs, which has a lot to do with Ocean getting inspiration from touring there a couple times. For example, the room is dark except for a projector showing weird old films on the wall, there’s no bouncer checking out your clothes at the door and entrance to LOCO is free so we can try to bring fresh faces into our scene. We’ve brought DEETRON and I-ROBOTS to Bassment too and have some more international guests on the horizon. And oh, we have SATOSHI FUMI in November.
Ocean Lam & Casey Anderson played a special DJ set for the Hong Kong opening of Karl Lagerfeld’s photography exhibition, The Little Black Jacket. The duo played their signature deep house while Casey performed on the Chinese guzheng (古箏). Choi Sai-Ho (蔡世豪) and William Lane also performed a set of live electronics and violin, as heard in Chanel’s video below. Actors, artists and tastemakers made up the audience, including Elisa Sednaoui, Cecile Cassel, Yi Zhou, Wyman Wong, Winifred Lai, Hilary Tsui and Tang Wei. The photo exhibition is open until July 16 at The Space, 210 Hollywood Road.
Do you see yourself as a technician, an entertainer, an artist or something else entirely?
I’d say a musician really as I consider DJing to be an art form or musical skill – but, of course, there is the entertainment element as well, which is very important obviously.
Where do you see house music pushing in years to come?
I believe the key is that the various genres in electronic music will merge continuously and people will no longer restrain themselves to a certain style only. You can see it happening now more than ever. There’s a lot of exciting house and techno out there right now.
Why are you so much into the technical side of DJing, such as using up to five turntables?
The set-up allows me to be much more creative, musical and faster when I’m playing live. Obviously there are never five tracks playing at the same time – but almost constantly two or three tracks.
What kind of hard choices do you make between a crowd-pleasing move that you know is going to work and trying something more experimental?
I believe it’s important to keep the balance and I think you can please a crowd with a track, which would normally not really be seen as functional. It’s just the way you mix it or play it and that’s what makes a good DJ, I think.
You recently played again in your hometown of Bern. How was that? How often do you get back?
It was really great to see so many people dance to our music in my relatively small hometown of Bern and the setting was quite cosmopolitan with Seth Troxler, Magda and Tiefschwarz behind the decks, and Robert Owens, who happened to be in town as well, dancing on stage.
So, what brings you to Hong Kong, aside from a paycheque and a plane ticket?
I’m very interested in discovering new places and finding out how people react to the music, plus I’m obsessed with Asian food. We do food trips to Southeast Asia at least once a year but we’ve never made it to Hong Kong so far. But I’ve heard only great things!
If you could design your own club from the ground up what would it be like?
A very sparse building, square and made of concrete with oak floors and a huge rooftop terrace.
If you had to make one thing illegal what would it be?
Making requests when a DJ is at work. Ha!
Our friends at Etui Records in Desden, Germany asked Ocean Lam to do an exclusive mix for their podcast, in addition to an interview. The interview and mix are below, but please visit their site to read the full text with more on Ocean and Hong Kong’s electronic music scene.
Tracklist
1. Dauwd – Acireams – Pictures Music
2. Dub Taylor – Urban Silence III (ETRauh14) – Eintakt
3. Matthias Springer – Feierabend – Eintakt
4. Dapayk & Padberg – Deva (Matthias Tanzmann Remix) – Mo`s Ferry
5. Francesco Bonora & Marcello Arletti – Abstraction – Abstract Theory
6. Yooj – Mademoiselle (Martin Buttrich Remix) – Monique Musique
7. Federico Molinari – La Divina Comedia – Osla
8. Knopf & Seferyn – Blank Tape 1 feat. Polymax – Clap Your Hands
9. Andras Toth – Curious Feeling Of Calling – Alphahouse
10. Skudge – Man On Wire – Skudge Records
11. Elting_Lieb – Roll – Resopal Schallware
12. Autumn Park – Flowing – Space Breaks Records
Many people in China love karaoke. Have you ever tried it?
Not for a long time. Cantonese karaoke is the opposite to music I like – too many predictable melodies and stupid lyrics.
How did you come in contact with electronic music?
I used to listen mainly to trip hop. My friend Wendy Wenn, who’s also a DJ, brought me to my first rave, but it was cheesy trance. Afterwards I found a website from Hamburg called betalounge.com. Through their radio show I heard lots more deep, dubby, dark sounds. After finding some artists like Efdemin, Pantha du Prince, Wighnomy Brothers, I immediately knew this was my music and that I needed to share it with my friends. Most of them didn’t get it though, so I was lucky to find Yumla, where there was already a crowd waiting for it every weekend.
Hong Kong is one of the biggest metropolises in Asia. What about the electronic music scene in Hong Kong?
The number of supporters is low compared to Europe, but since most are really dedicated and all of the clubs here are small we can have good parties with a full house every weekend. More fans have become DJs and promoters in the last couple years, so there’s more variety now. Recently the crowds at our Loco parties have been mostly new faces, and everyone’s just excited to prove it can be done in Hong Kong. This is a stressful city, so we love to see people relaxing and having fun to our favorite music.
It seems to be only a small scene but a lot of international artists such as M.A.N.D.Y., Damian Lazarus or Marko Furstenberg played during the last years.
I think all of the promoters are still friends and don’t really see each other as competition, so when one brings an international DJ everyone else gets behind them. Nobody is trying to get rich, the promoters just want to see the DJs they like and share the experience. And you can tell these huge names love to play in our tiny clubs like Bassment!
And can you compare it to the scene structures of Shanghai or Beijing?
I haven’t played in Shanghai or Beijing… yet!
In 2010 you played in Berlin for the first time. How did you feel and how did you experience the German music scene?
Berlin totally changed my direction. At the time I was playing lots of tech house, just beats and minimal sounds. Afterwards I was into deeper music again like the beginning, tracks with more personality.
With Dan F. and Basil Tam you released two singles in Yumla records. Are there some new releases or remixes planned for the future?
They helped me a lot with the production. Casey is trying to teach me Ableton Live so I can make tracks by myself.
Where do you buy your music? Are there any recordstores in Hong Kong and how do you think about the whole digital vs. vinyl discussion?
Online. I play on CD-Js. I like the sound of vinyl but it’s almost impossible to do here. There are no record stores and apartments are too tiny to keep it. Digital DJ controllers look like a toy but I don’t really care.
What is you all time favourite track or record and why?
My long time favorite track is “Crystal Rain” from Matthias Meyer. It´s good for warm up and cool down the crowd during a peak set. It is also very touching my heart.
What is the idea of your podcast? Is there a certain message behind it and how does it correspond to your deejay sets at a party?
The idea of my mix is to make something to be listened to at home more than the club, more soothing and deep. Also a bit trippy and happy!
Humdrum 