What’s up, SeoulGrid? Ok, before we start, I have to get something off my chest — Gui Boratto’s show at Eden on Saturday was unbelievable. This wasn’t a club night; it was an experience.
Around 3am, the slow build of the night reached its climax, and something transformed inside of me. Intoxicated by the music, I forgot the fact that I was stone-sober. The hot girls surrounding me on the dancefloor likewise became irrelevant. And my friend texting me that there was a crazy after-party going on at Sinsa Mansion was worlds away. The music was so good that nothing else mattered.
Near the end of his set he even dropped his signature track, “Beautiful Life” — a track that he has professed in interviews he doesn’t like to play at every show, only when he’s truly enjoying the crowd. Club Eden (and show attendees), consider yourself blessed. I dare say that in terms of music, this was the best performance I’ve ever seen. Truly a legendary night.
Ok, I feel better. Now we can get started with this week! We’ve got the amazingly talented French duo Beat Torrent, the tech-house precision of James Zabiela, and the soothing orchestral sounds of Daishi Dance, among other things. I’m going to try a different format this week: one that minimizes the amount of formatting I have to do to get this thing posted, and saves me a lot of time. So sorry if it doesn’t look as pretty, but if it really irks you, feel free to volunteer a few hours every week to help me out ;) Here we go…
Friday, May 28th:
On Friday night, my top pick would be French duo Beat Torrent, who are coming to Mansion in Hongdae.
[Beat Torrent @ Club Mansion, Hongdae]
Most big-name DJs build their names on the tracks they produce. Live performance, however, is almost a completely different skillset — a good live DJ is one who chooses the right tracks and expertly mixes them to match and manipulate the energy of the crowd. Hence, a lot of people who go to see big-name DJs are disappointed to find that while they may produce some great music, a lot of them are not actually fun to see live. (I won’t name names!)
French duo Beat Torrent, on the other hand, has built their name on one thing alone — amazing live performance.
This is party music, plain and simple. Is it electro? Hip-hop? Pop? Alternative or classic rock? None of the above, all of the above. With high-energy mashups of hit songs ranging many genres, Beat Torrent’s track selection is engineered specifically to fire up a crowd. That combined with some insanely technical scratching skills, this is a live performance designed to make you move. Check out more on Beat Torrent’s MySpace to see what I mean.
Last week I recommended the beautiful but chill music of Gui Boratto — this week let’s rock out to some high-energy party music:
If party music isn’t your thing, then consider James Zabiela at Club Eden for some progressive / tech-house:
Club Function is bringing in a deep house DJ from Belgium, Raoul Belmans a.k.a. Swirl People:
Other parties:
- Psytemple Vol. 4: Bio Mechanix, Moon5150, Oracle, Zodiac @ Volume
- Flexible Night: Shut Da Mouth, House Rulez, ASOBI Connection, Maximal Duo @ Heaven
Saturday, May 29th:
On the last Saturday of every month, Club Heaven hosts “Daishi Day:”
[Daishi Dance @ Club Heaven]
This video was filmed last month when Heaven brought Daishi in for the first time, and it looks like it was filmed by Mr. Dance himself.
His style is hard to describe. It’s jazzy, it’s funky, it’s got lots of instrumentals, it’s a bit mellow, and well, it’s good. Here’s one of my favorite tracks of his: Daishi Dance – Romance for Journey. Check out Daishi Dance’s MySpace for more examples of his style.
I missed his show last month since I was (somewhat ironically) in Tokyo, so I’ll be sure to catch him this time around.
Eden’s bringing in a line-up of Korean DJ duos to play in pairs: Todd & Dylan, Ziro & E-You, Yeonjun & Sundance, Jinmoo & Andow:
And Club Volume is bringing in a pair of trance DJs from the Netherlands:
Closing Comments:
I’m still looking for some people to help me out with these weekly club updates — I can’t cover all of Seoul’s club scene by myself! So if you’re involved in the party scene and might be interested in helping out with SeoulGrid, shoot me an email at james@seoulgrid.com for more details.
Party hard, SeoulGrid clubbers. Maybe I’ll see you on the dancefloor.
- James
Attn: Promoters: Want to make sure your party gets included in a weekly update? Send an email to parties@seoulgrid.com with the information and flyer. We’ll check it out, and if it meets our standards we’ll include it. Thanks!
