Just Dance: These Asian DJs Are Revolutionising The EDM Scene – Augustman Malaysia

How diverse can electronic dance music (EDM) really be? Four genre-bending asian DJs are shaking up the world of EDM and carving a niche for themselves.

The rhythm of the music was precisely 120 beats per minute, the frequency of the foetal heart rate, and the same beat believed to be used by South American shamans to bring their tribes into a trance state, once said the American writer and worlds sixth-most influential thinker Douglas Rushkoff, in his lecture titled Consciousness.

With EDM and dance music in general embedding itself as a crucial part of popular culture, DJs and music producers assume the roles of artists who define our collective leisure and, with it, dictate the ways in which the new coil of art and culture will turn.

Whod have thought that reggae and dubstep made EDM bedfellows? The co-existence of the two genres inside a single track may sound like the hypothetical union between Aries and Pisces (which,according to astrologists and fortune tellers, is doomed to fail), yet if theres one artist capable of pulling it off its Florida-born HenryFong, who rose to prominence after remixing Dillon Franciss Without You in 2014.

Fongs DJ career began in college after he saved enough money to buy a mixer and two turntables, and then endured countless sleepless nights digging through tutorials and enlisting the help of friends to learn the popular music-productionsoftware Ableton. Unlike many of his peers, Fong wasnt groomed to be a music producer by Hollywood mentors. Instead, he began in Orlando performing weekly, four-day-long residences around local clubs. I started DJing first and then stepped into production, he says.

His ultimate, dare one say, pice de rsistance as a solo artist is Pica a short yet pungent mix of Caribbean and Latin sounds,layered over a colourful electronic confection with characteristicprominent sub-bass features. Think classic music-festival hit summery, fresh, and infectious. A month ago, Fong released, Morena, a new track that plays with Latino music tropes even more than Pica and essentially Fongs love letter to South Florida.

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In 2019, Starry Night soundtracked the undergroundnightclubs, the lofty ballrooms of techno capital Berghainand all the hottest beach raves in Europe. The visual and musical masterpiece 90s house mashed up with 70sdisco combo in a lush, saturated cinematic video marked the transformation of its author, Korean Peggy Gou, from EDM debutante to international club-scene phenom.

Before becoming Berghains DJ-in-residence and a Coachella regular, Gou was a London College of Fashion graduate, whose passions encompassed design,photography and styling. The thing that stayed with me through all of this was music, she later said. TheBerlin-based Gou learned music production and cultivated her signature style which, despite the universalacclaim now surrounding it, took time to resonate within DJ circles, given the proclivity of the predominant playerswithin the space white men to slap on an old T-shirtbefore the set and call it a day.

Gou inhabits club musics feelgood corner. It Makes You Forget, for example, is atropical heatwave that feels as seamless and luscious in itsproduction as its invigorating to the mind. The record issoft yet not mellow, with Gous vocals vibing and grooving with the beat, as if calypso stepped out of Homers poemsand started making music.

Two years prior to Starry Night, Gou met the late Virgil Abloh at the closing party for Stockholm Fashion Week, where both were performing. He introduced her to New Guards Group the Italian luxury conglomerate that owns Off-White, AMBUSH and Opening Ceremony. We see some of Virgil in you, the executives told Gou at their first meeting. Bingo! By 2019, Gous streetwear brand Kirin, backed by New Guards Group, was retailing at Farfetch, HBX, YOOX and Lane Crawford. Beyond starry days and nights, Gous living and sampling the galaxy.

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The concept of darkness pervades electronica, from the works of Skrillex to Swedish House Mafia. However, no DJs meticulously curated gloom could rival that of ZHU in its sex appeal.

Chinese-American DJ Steven Zhu rose to prominence in 2014 with the release of Faded, a dance track with an acidic synth bassline, seductive distorted vocals and a simple keyboard composition that lends an elevated feel; it could be described as what it would feel like if a thick smoke somewhere in Parisian Castel became a record. In 2014, Faded was Grammy Award- nominated for Best Dance Recording.

What many perceived as an overnight success was, in fact, the culmination of years of hard work. Zhu started as an audio engineer at Dim Mak Records (the Steve Aoki-founded label that represents Borgore, Zedd and The Chainsmokers), where hes believed to have ghost written tracks for multiple artists while working occasional gigs at after-hours locations around Hollywood. Unfortunately, his efforts werent recognised, and Dim Mak never allowed him into the ranks of featured artists.

ZHU persevered. In the summer of 2011, he released the 52 to ZHU project, whereby he created a new track from scratch every week for a year. Soon after, he caught the attention of music producer David Dann, who helped him release Faded. Ironically, ZHU chose anonymity as his brand, inspired by a desire to be judged by the music alone. His most recent tracks, while preserving the macabre undertones of earlier compositions, like Moves Like Ms Jackson, developed a luxe polish,which propelled them directly into glamorous nightclubs and the earphones of selected glitteratiaspirants. Think gilt-edged dark avant-guardians.

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As a base for their tracks, jazz is far from the first choice of DJs thats especially true now, with genres such as techno foregroundingthe rave scene. Korean-American DJ, model and photographer Yuka Mizuhara, however, is anything but conventional. For a start, theres that small matter of her older sister, the Japan-based model Kiko Mizuhara. Yuka Mizuhara, or Ashley Yuka, or just Yuka, as she moods her moniker, began mixing music in 2018; later that year and aged just 23 she was already performing at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands.

In her performances, Mizuhara often uses groovy soul hitsfrom the 60s and 70s, with occasional splashes of the 80s, ensuringeach is blithe, joyful and light. Although its hard to imagine Berghain ravers partying to Mizuharas tracks, jamming by the poolside with a margarita to the 46-minute-long mixtape she debuted at Agnes.b Japan could be quite a way to be-leisure a hot summer afternoon.

West Coast is where Mizuhara is making waves currently. In April, she did a set at The Knockout underground bar in San Francisco and, a month later, she performed at the Visions festival at Cliftons Republic, one of the oldest nightclubs in Los Angeles, alongside DJs Acyde and Rodaidh. Much like her tracks, Mizuharas philosophy challenges the conventional perception of the DJ scene. DJing should be about mood, she notes. You cant just bank on having the same tempo thats just too easy.

In 2019 Yuka appeared alongside sister Kiko and her parents in a special celebrity episode ofQueer Eye, whenthe Fab Five travelled to Japan. There, the siblings spoke about how the pandemic forced them to stay in Japan, which both used as an opportunity to reconnect with their family members and each other. Yukan be unicorn, rainbow, the best version of your inclusive self, when youre in the mood for Yuka.

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This story first appeared on PrestigeOnline Hong Kong

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Just Dance: These Asian DJs Are Revolutionising The EDM Scene - Augustman Malaysia