Fallen Angel Party Announced for September 25 @ Pink SF

I'm finally happy to announce the launch of my new event management entity, Liftoff Productions. Our inaugural event is Fallen Angel to be held at a fun club, Pink (http://www.pinksf.com/), owned by a couple of French guys in San Francisco. Everyone seems to like partying and dancing at Pink. We got a great line-up of DJs performing too.

Here's the blurb in www.nitevibe.com:

Event: Fallen Angel

Venue: Pink

DJs: DJ Ina, DJ RobJob, Torpeto, Miro, DJ Douglas

Music: progressive, electro

Cover: guestlist no cover, otherwise $5

Liftoff Productions presents the all new Fallen Angel party, bringing together an incredible lineup of SF's newest DJ talents, recently transplanted from New York, Europe and Latin America delivering a fresh jolt for the die hard clubber. With high energy progressive and electro house this crew is here to satisfy all your dance floor needs while throwing it down to celebrate DJ Ina's birthday. This is a can't miss event!

Video Clip From Performance at 9 Club in China

Some raw video footage from one of the three nights at The 9 Club in Dongguan, China. I think this from a Monday night performance, around 1am. It was loud in there and my video camera's microphone couldn't handle the bass, hence the cruddy sound. I have lots of video footage taken of my performances on the Asia Tour, and it will take some time to put together a few professionally edited clips, so I quickly post this now.

Big Hit with Fast Beat at D&D Club in Saigon, Vietnam

Flew into Saigon Saturday and performed at the D&D Club on Sunday night along with Tall Sasha.  D&D Club is the biggest and most popular club in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).  The club has an excellent sound and lighting system.  And it was a full house.  The Vietnamese really love a fast beat, 138bpm or higher.  And they love their whiskey too - I kind of liked it too last night and woke up a bad hangover.  One more performance tonight and then I head back home on Tuesday.

Closing Out The 9 Club in Dongguan, China

Last night, we (the DJs on the DJ4LIFE Asia Tour) decided to go with darker/harder sets and we peeled the paint off the walls at The Nine Club to a very receptive (and attractive) Chinese club crowd.  The Chinese generally like a constant, strong beat to their dance music.  We played here 3 nights (Mon - Wed) and each night the club was packed to full capacity.  The resident DJs here are excellent - they are well versed in spinning from scratchin' hip-hop to techno and minimal - and each year of experience is almost 2-3x more than a year in the US because they'll playing to large crowds 7 days a week.

When I open up my own club in San Francisco (someday), I'd like to incorporate some of the elements that seem to work so well in The Nine Club:

- professional dancers and platforms around the club for them to dance on

- break up the DJ sets early in the night with live singers belting out a few popular songs

- inspiring, and very hip interior design

- layout club for dancing, tables for hanging with friends, and couches in dark area for smooching

- and of course, excellent sound and lighting systems

One thing I can definitely do without is all the smoking and smoke - cough, cough!

Leaving for Vietnam this weekend...

Electrifying 1st Night at The 9 Club in Dongguan, China

Arrived in Dongguan, China yesterday to start our 3 night set at The Nine Club.  Much bigger city than Zhuhai and more industrial.  Much more affluent too - the hotel we're staying at is in a neighborhood that if I blinked my eyes, it could be La Jolla, Scottsdale, or such.  This is the "New China" and the twenty somethings want to party with real flair.  The Nine Club is another lavishly decorated club with even more lavish clubbers.  New China has Style with a capital S.  The DJ4LIFE crew of DJK, DJ Torpeto, Tall Sasha, and DJ RobJob simply rocked the house.  We all went with a harder set which the all Chinese crowd responded enthusiastically and pulsating to.  We took a boatload of great video which will get compiled into some YouTube clips down the road.  I attached pic of some of the promotional posters near the entrance of the club.

Two Hot Gigs in Zhuhai, China

Here in Zhuhai China with the DJ4LIFE crew and it's hot both outside and in the clubs.  We did a DJ show at Water Park Bar on Friday night, and then I spun at the Moving Night Club on Saturday.  Zhuhai is in mainland China, about an hour ferry ride from Hong Kong.  It is a resort city mainly for China mainland and doesn't see many Westerners, and in particular DJs from the USA.  The Clubs here are lavishly decorated and so far the sound systems and DJ equipment have been top notch.  The local DJs and dancers have been very receptive of our music - despite the obvious language barrier, the music connects us.  I'm told the clubs we played in were relatively small by China standards and we are lined up for a big club tomorrow night in Dongguan about an hour car ride to north, all in the Guangdong province.

Flyer for 2 Nite Gig at D&D Club, Saigon (Vietnam)

Tour update: event in Saigon, Vietnam has been upgraded to the D&D Club, the biggest and hottest club in Saigon now.  Here is the flyer for my two nights of spinning. I'll be performing at the D&D Club on Aug 10th and Aug 11th with the awesome DJ, Tall Sasha. Should be a blast... heading to the airport now.

Vietnam Officially Added to 2008 Asia Tour

It's confirmed! I'll be in Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon) Vietnam during Aug 9-12, extending my 2008 Asia Tour that opens in Hong Kong on Aug 1 and later in Zhuhai, China. In Sai Gon, I will be headlining with Tall Sasha (www.tallsasha.com) at the Gossip Club. Here's what www.saigonbarsonline.com says about the Gossip Club:

"Gossip Club is a large Singaporean managed 2 level nightclub in the Dai Nam Hotel complex on 79 Tran Hung Dao Street in District 1. The club is very popular with the local, overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu) and expat crowd and is generally packed out on weekends. Gossip Club is also home to DJ Stanley, the 2006 winner of the Heineken Thirst competition playing techno and house tunes."

Thanks again to dj_eminent of http://www.nhacdj.com/ for pulling this off on relative short notice. dj_eminent runs this great social networking web site in Vietnam for DJs and lovers of dance music - I wish such an easily accessible site and community existed in every country!

The image at the top of this post is a snapshot of the banner ad for our visit running on the main page of http://www.nhacdj.com/.

May Add Vietnam to This Summer's Asia Tour

I'm leaving next week for my 2008 Summer Asia Tour. Spinning with some other excellent DJs affliated with the DJ4LIFE Academy, I have 3 gigs scheduled in Hong Kong and Zhuhai, China.

Now thanks to my new friend, dj_eminent, it looks like I’ll also be spinning at one of the top clubs in Sai Gon, Vietnam. Details to follow, but it’s looking like the event will be held on Sunday August 10th. I can’t wait – from what I see on YouTube of other int'l DJs touring Vietnam, the locals pack the clubs and really love the dance beat.

A Brief History Lesson on Disco House

One of the dance music genres I like and often spin is Disco House. It seems that people just keep coming back for Disco, even though it’s more than 30 years old. The Disco House scene started in the late 80's/early 90's by DJ/producers like Dave Lee (better known by his alias Joey Negro) and his colleague Andrew "Doc" Livingstone; also Dimitri from Paris and some others...

What they did was make house kind-of-music but with a distinct Disco influence. The songs sound like a classic Disco tune but use all the latest equipment and software, including samplers. The whole concept behind this music genre is that the songs should sound and breathe DISCO. Dave was one of the first producers to sample from disco music and it is said that the term "Disco House" was first used by the music press to describe Dave's output under his Joey Negro alias. OK, it wasn't "officially" called Disco House until in the mid 90's - but the concept and music was the same all the time and Disco House is really the closest you can get to real classic Disco.