One of our favorite labels at the moment, Darker The Wax, have just put out this great EP from Hong Kong’s Floyd Cheung. We’ve been liking Floyd’s productions for a while now and this EP sums up exactly why! It features a few of the beats included on his SVBKVLT Beat Tape (which will be on general sale very soon) as well as a bunch of fresh tracks too. I believe its limited to 200 downloads so get on it quick!
Thursday 16th May – Hula Honeys Showcase feat. Bit-Tuner (live), NHK’KOYXEN (live), Feldermelder (live) + Nik! & Soult
Line Up: Bit-Tuner (live), NHK’KOYXEN (live), Feldermelder (live), Nik! (djset), Soult (dj set)
Entrance: 40rmb
Hula Honeys is a label for *emotronic sunshine* based in Zürich, Switzerland. We aim to provide your musical reproduction devices with special, intense, true school, open minded, imaginative and inspired music.
In the past years, the Hula Honeys have focussed on releasing music digitally and on vinyl with loose connections to the electronic spheres. It could be loud, aiming at your peaktime thrills. But it also might be quiet and thoughtful, deep or crackled – the influences go from Electronica, Bass Music, HipHop, Leftfield, IDM and beyond. The Honeys’ artists to date include Feldermelder, Bit-Tuner, Hepp, Buvette, Fell and Somtek / Schnauz, among others.
NHK’KOYXEN (live)
NHK’Koyxen was born in Osaka, a musician and drawing artist. He lives in Osaka and Berlin. He started drawing in his childhood under the influence of his grandfather. He grew up listening to hardcore-techno and hiphop, studied architecture and has been making music since 1992.
His 1st album “Upside Down” was released by Mille Plateaux (Germany) in 1998. Since then, he has collaborated with Merzbow, Sensational, Autechre’s Sean Booth, Mika Vainio, Conrad Schnitzler, Anti Pop Consorium’s High Priest and many more. He is working under many aliases like NHK, Koyxen, etc. Over the last 15 years he has released albums on seminal labels including Raster Noton, SKAM and most recently the amazing PAN label
BIT-TUNER (live)
“Bit-Tuner is the master of booming basswalls and sweeping noises” – 20minuten
A Bit-Tuner live show means heavy beats, blown up bass sounds, gloomy athmospheres, acid-driven melodies and uproaring soundscapes. His musical field of expression reaches from HipHop Beats to Electronica, Noise, theater productions and film soundtracks.
In his energy-driven concerts, Bit-Tuner oscillates between Downbeats, Electronica and Post-Dubstep, while he pulls his tracks together to become a gloomy, but still euphoric bass monster. Live, he has shared the stages with Acts like Kelpe, Jon Hopkins, Ben Frost, Modeselektor, Shackleton, Jimi Tenor, Zomby or Actress.
Bit-Tuner has collaborated with and / or remixed various rappers like Bleubird (Florida), Oddateee (Deadverse Rec.), Sole (Anticon) or Sensational (WordSound/NYC), Filewile (Mouthwatering Rec.), Omega Takeshi (88:Komaflash), Audio88 (Berlin).
FELDERMELDER (live)
„He creates music that was once aptly described as the lost art of keeping a secret“ – Spezialmaterial Records
Feldermelder has been performing on stages all over the world for over ten years – clubs in Switzerland know his music just as well as the museums, forests, raves and festivals all over Europe, Russia, Japan, USA, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. He is also an innovative remixer for Sinner DC, Scrubber Fox, Mochipet, The Sign & the Opposite and many others. Equipped with analogue synthesizers and controlled digital equipment, Feldermelder creates ever evolving sound universes in which rhythm, simplicity and complexity interlock elastically.
With his album “The Echo Circus” on Spezialmaterial, Feldermelder makes clear what he means by this: athmospheric, deconstructed tracks mutate into stomping beat-tracks. His new album “Henriks Fishing Catapult” is scheduled to be released on Everest Records in 2013.
NIK! (dj set)
DJ & producer Nik! has been causing disturbance with his sets, sounds and events for years.
As one half of the DJ-tag-team The Dean Soniks (w/ Soult), as promoter, as a co-founder of the label Hula Honeys or as solo-DJ: his activities are always about the connections between related music and styles, about music between tradition and innovation, about heavy basslines and hymns.
He is known for sets that oscillate between styles – bring things together – opening windows to musical dawn, or doom. His Releases and Remixes on Hula Honeys and Quiet Records develop their grooves based on Dub, HipHop and Electronica.
SOULT (dj set)
Soult has been active as DJ, producer and master of chaos for years. Together with Nik!, he forms the DJ-tag-team The Dean Soniks.
Soult is unpredictable – breaking the limits of styles and rolling over the dancefloors of the world with shining dance tripping hazards. Back in the 90ies, Soult organised excessive nights in clubs and forests as one of the founders of the legendary Jungle Crew Tsunami.
As Soult, he is releasing his own music on his mysterious Tape Label Inner Noise and on Hula Honeys. Since January 2010, he runs the monthly mix series Soultmonth, on which he digs through his record collection and deals with styles or moods of music, one at a time.
We are finally getting things together and SVBKVLT is now online!! Just the cassettes are available at the moment, but in the next week or so our full line of clothing, stickers and slipmats will be up, as well as a few new bits and pieces we’ve been working on including some beautiful art prints, new slipmats and a lot more music!
To celebrate us getting our shit together finally, we have uploaded the whole if side a from Floyd Cheung’s killer beat tape! Enjoy…
Saturday 4th May – Sub-Culture presents: Shackleton (live)
Line Up: Shackleton, Downstate (live), Faded Ghost, Drunk Monk, Steven Lorenz, ChaCha, Didje, Ubec
Entrance: 60rmb
@ The Shelter – 5 YongFu Lu
Co-conspirator of the infamous Skull Disco, along-side Appleblim, Shackleton’s maverick take on big basslines and complex beats doesn’t fit easily in to any category. Thundering bass, tribal rhythms, snaking percussion, hypnotic melodies and dubwise sensibilities, his sound is like no other. Taking influences from the UK’s dubstep sound, Berlin’s techno expertise and drum and percussion rhythms from every corner of the globe, Shackleton produces a sound which is hard to describe but even harder to resist.
2012’s The Draw Bar Organ EP’s/Music For The Quiet Hour was some of his most inspired and groundbreaking work to date, and his new live show has taken his sound to a whole other level. Shackleton rarely travels, but his last 2 shows at The Shelter (2011 & 2010) made such an impact that he has agreed to come back once more with a brand new live show. Special guest support from Downstate (live).
This month’s deadly poster was designed by Shanghai’s Twin Horizon.
Today marks 14 years since the tragic passing of a DJ which made a big impact on me when i was younger, Kemistry. Back in 1997 I attended my first proper dance music festival in London’s Finsbury Park, The Essential Weekender. I had been to music festivals throughout my childhood with my parents (mainly Jazz or Folk stuff), but this was the first festival i was genuinely excited by and was an experience that i would never forget.
The festival was split into 2 days, a ‘dance’ day and a ‘roots’ day. Me and my Dad travelled down to London from Manchester and the deal was that i could choose what we went to see during the dance day and my Dad was in charge of what we went to see the following day. I’d been listening to Jungle for a few years, mainly from Radio 1′s ‘One In The Jungle’ show every Friday, but due to my age ( I was 14 at the time of the festival) I hadn’t been to any proper DnB events, so this festival was the first time I heard the music on a big sound system.
Although I remember going to see Massive Attack, Reprazent, Talvin Singh and Red Snapper, most of the day was spent in the Metalheadz tent. For some reason, even though i must have been there during the majority of the sets, the 2 sets I remember the most are Randall and Kemistry & Storm. I remember the Randall set because my Dad had brought his Sony Walkman Professional (a huge brick-like walkman which was top of the range at the time) and sneakily recorded some of the sets, Randall’s being one of them. I don’t think we actually recorded Kemistry and Storm’s set, but for some reason I can remember it quite vividly, even to the point where I’m pretty sure they opened up with Krust’s Warhead (or some version of it). I think it was during this set when i first ‘got it’. I ‘got’ the sound, I experience the frequencies as they are meant to be experienced and not just at home listening to the radio. It very much changed my outlook on music and my listening habits, and also in turn kick started my vinyl addiction. I also believe it plays an important role in where I am now, and what I am doing.
Kemistry passed away 14 years ago today in a car accident due to a faulty/loose cat’s eye on the road. In remembrance of Kemistry, Metalheadz have uploaded this remastered recording of Kemistry, Storm and Goldie playing in Brighton in 1996.
R.I.P Valerie Olukemi A “Kemi” Olusanya aka DJ Kemistry - October 13, 1963 – April 25, 1999
Massive thanks to everyone who came out to the SVBKVLT Launch & Poster Exhibition last Sunday. It was a great day/night and very inspiring for us. We will be posting up pics and a bit of a review later in the week, but first off here is a deadly track produced by Laura Ingalls using solely a piece of equipment he purchased from MengQi at the event. For those who missed out, MengQi is a producer and mad scientist from Beijing and we brought him down to the SVBKVLT launch to showcase his creations and to give a short talk on sound synthesis. SVBKVLT will be collaborating more with MengQi in the near future so you will be hearing more about him very soon, but check out his site here
DETAILS :
Sunday 21st April – Sub-Culture + Idle Beats present: SVBKVLT Launch + Poster Exhibition
@ On Stage – A2, Lane 570, Huaihai Xi Lu, near Hongqiao Lu
2pm – Late ** Free Entry
**NEWS FLASH** Very very welcome addition to this Sunday’s line-up! The long over return of SIG!! He will be joining Faded Ghost, MengQi, SLV, LON, Redscale + APC and more at the SVBKVLT Launch + Poster Exhibition! 2pm start, free entrance you’d be stupid not to!
DETAILS :
Sunday 21st April – Sub-Culture + Idle Beats present: SVBKVLT Launch + Poster Exhibition
@ On Stage – A2, Lane 570, Huaihai Xi Lu, near Hongqiao Lu
2pm – Late ** Free Entry
Shackleton (2010) – designed by Zeke Clough
Back in April 2010, Sub-Culture brought Shackleton to China for the first time. This was a big deal for us, we had wanted to book him since the early days of Shelter but as he rarely travels outside of Europe it wasn’t possible until he decided to do his first world tour in 2010. Understandably excited about the event, we wanted to make a special poster for the occasion and so contacted Skull Disco artist Zeke Clough to see if he would be interested in doing the design. To our delight he agreed and the result (above) totally blew us away. It was by far the best poster we had done for any of our events up until then and we felt that simply printing regular posters wasn’t enough. Around the time we had received the poster from Zeke Split Work’s Jue festival was in full swing and one of the events included a workshop from a new screen-printing studio called Idle Beats. I have been a collector of screen-prints for many years and so was excited to have finally found someone doing it in Shanghai and so contacted Nini Sum to see if she would be interested in collaborating and producing a print of Zeke’s poster. Nini was up for it and so for the event we produced a short run of hand-pulled posters.
Clouds and Desto (2010) – designed by Gregor Koerting
We really enjoyed working together and so decided to do it again the following month when we hosted Clouds and Desto from Finland. Gregor Koerting had just joined Idle Beats and had an idea for a poster and so he designed our second screen print. Again, the project was a success and Gregor’s poster sold out pretty fast. And so we did it again the month after. And the month after that. And the month after that. We have now been working together for just over 3 years and have produced over 40 screen-prints designed by artists from all over the world.
Scratcha DVA (2012) designed by HR-FM
This Sunday at On Stage sees the first time we have exhibited all the posters together. All available posters will be for sale at a special price just for the event, and Idle Beats have put together 20 mystery tubes for only 50rmb, containing a random poster from our collection! Get down early and grab a great piece of art for your wall!
2562 (2012) – designed by Nini Sum and Gregor Koerting
DETAILS :
Sunday 21st April – Sub-Culture + Idle Beats present: SVBKVLT Launch + Poster Exhibition
@ On Stage – A2, Lane 570, Huaihai Xi Lu, near Hongqiao Lu
2pm – Late ** Free Entry
Tes La Rok (2012) – designed by Lilly Xiao
Red-I & Soul Flower (2011) – designed by TwoQee
Dubway Vs Sub-Cutlure (2010) – designed by Thun Puchpen
This Sunday at On Stage, to celebrate the launch of SVBKVLT and Idle Beats’ exhibition of all the Sub-Culture posters from the last 3 years, we have invited some of our favorite local live acts to join in on the fun. Here is a run down on who will be performing/showcasing their work on the day.
MENGQI
Producing electronic music since the age of 14, Beijing’s MengQi is one of the most individual and interesting electronic musicians around. As well as his stall selling his own hand-made synths and effect boxes, MengQi will be performing a showcase using only his own DIY instruments to show what his inventions are capable of.
FADED GHOST
Faded Ghost is the new solo project from Sub-Culture’s ChaCha. Dark, brooding synth works, drones, echos and warped vocals, Faded Ghost sounds like little else coming out of China. She will be performing a DJ/FX set, including new, forthcoming SVBKVLT material.
S L V
Hamacide and Downstate’s S L V project is by far one of the best live electronic acts in Shanghai right now. Their debut performance at Sub-Culture a couple of months back was the perfect way to kick off Sub-Culture in 2013, and we are very excited to present their second Shanghai performance for the SVBKVLT launch.
LON
LON has had more leaving parties in Shanghai than we can remember, and he also makes some of the strangest music we’ve heard around these parts too. We aren’t sure what he will play, and probably he isn’t either, but we are sure its going to be something quite special.
The Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde Monster Mash
Following the success of last year’s performance opening for the Devil Music Ensemble & this year’s performance for Jue Festival Acid Pony Club and Tina Sprinkles will expand and create a live cinematic landscape titled “Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde Monster Mash”
Live Cinema can be described as a situationist audiovisual performance. Tina Sprinkles will be re editing and mashing up 3 different versions of the classic film Dr Jekyll& Mr Hyde, produced in 1920,1931 & 1941 creating a new narrative through live layering and video. Acid Pony Club will be generating a unique audio landscape in direct response to the visual manipulation. The result is psychedelic, transcendental and challenges preconceived ideas and expectations of the cinematic experience.
Hiro Ikematsu – Short Movie
Enter the world of John Raster. After he learns of his death during a skeptical job interview, he is forced to choose whether to accept or reject a life after death. This is an experimental film that uses electronic music in replacement of dialogue. Set in an industrial warehouse, It is essentially a modern musical of a man in purgatory coming to terms with his death.
DETAILS :
Sunday 21st April – Sub-Culture + Idle Beats present: SVBKVLT Launch + Poster Exhibition
@ On Stage – A2, Lane 570, Huaihai Xi Lu, near Hongqiao Lu
2pm – Late ** Free Entry
