THE INDEPENDENT DANCE MOVEMENT: TECHNO

No, we’re not talking about Avicii, David Guetta or any other EDM DJs who’ve been controlling the airwaves, clubs and general taste of the masses in recent years. Keng Yang Shuen hits the dance floors of the small institutions and pop-up parties championi

ambient and electronic music with his experimental show, “Hip Parade: The Now Sound Of The Future”. Phillips, who was marketing manager of Zouk at the time, adds that clubs like her then-workplace and promoters such as the now-defunct Kinemat helped champion it.

She says: “Zouk’s resident DJ Jonathan Yeo had a weekly techno night and the club would make an effort to book key players in the international scene – from Detroit legends like Jeff Mills and Carl Craig to German acts like Sven Vath and M.A.N.D.Y , who still play here almost every year.”

THE PARTY EVOLUTION

But mainstream clubbing culture these days is a different beast. Blame it perhaps on reality T V shows like Keeping up with the Kardashians and the rise of the super rich in the mid-2000s. “(Wearing) flashy clothes, getting a table, and ordering endless bottles of champagne and vodka eventually became the norm and people started to forget that going to a party could simply mean getting together with friends and losing yourself in the music,” says HQ’s Chan. “It feels as if the younger generation equates going out on weekends with spending lots of money.”

Incidentally, this trend of splashy bottle service has dovetailed with the rise of equally brash EDM – the kind freelance writer Jakob Bouchal of popular Vienna-based music blog Disco Demons describes as “simple, catchy melodies (with) a big drop, lots of bass, gritty synths and white noise”. In short, the kind of music played by The Chainsmokers, Calvin Harris and the like that’s swept the music industry (want a sure-shot way of making the Top 40? Just team up with Harris, Skrillex or Diplo, if the latest hits are anything to go by), and become the go-to soundtrack for just about any event.

The folks behind the independent or small techno clubs here are quick to point out that what they’re pushing isn’t an EDM backlash. Says QH Yeo, head artiste booker at Kilo Lounge: “There are so many ways of looking at this. One could say that EDM is a gateway to dance music for a lot of kids who don’t yet know what (other types) there are out there.

“They start off with accessible, popular dance tracks played on the radio and when they tire of formulaic EDM, there will be a handful who will then dig deeper and discover house, techno, disco and everything else in the spectrum… For a lot of us, dance music is a never-ending process of discovery. Everyone’s just at a different point of the journey.”

JOIN THE TECHNO TRIP

To get on board the same wave as Yeo, Chan and co (quite literally, in my case, with the boat party) calls for a sense of adventure. What these events lack in five-star VIP service and setting, they make up for with a cultural experience.

Besides no-frills permanent spaces (while not as grungy as HQ, Kilo is also largely bare with cement walls and flooring), these techno troopers often hold parties at unexpected locales. Kokilah’s hosted Super 0 gigs at Gillman Barracks; a warehouse at Bukit Merah; and most notably, the former Singapore Airlines Changi Sports Club with its drained swimming pool as the main dance floor. (She’s working on the next, she says.)

Last September, Zaki launched his own series of techno pop-up bashes called Escape 56 that have become an insider must-go for their mix of top DJs, Insta-worthy laser visuals, a dose of art (one edition included film screenings) and unpredictable venues. More recently, an offshoot collaboration with Kilo’s Joshua Adjodha, “Blackout x After Dark presents: Island Escape”, brought the party to St John’s Island and saw revellers dancing till sunset to the beats of Indonesian producer Jonathan Kusuma, Kyo’s EJ Missy, Zaki himself and more.

Says Zaki: “(The idea) is to make people go ‘Wow, I’ve never seen this place like this before’.” Party regular and PR consultant Chua Chin Chin adds that because music forms the heart of these events, the unpretentious venues only add to the party spirit. “You can have a s**t-looking club, but if your music is amazing, everything else doesn’t matter. That’s why the best parties are always the ones held in unlikely locations such as back alleys and warehouses,” she says.

Clearly, it’s not a scene for everybody, but that in turn has created one of its biggest draws: an intimate clubbing community where exclusivity is based not on wealth but on music and creative interests instead. Zaki’s events, for example, are usually limited to just 300 to 400 people. (“I know at least 70 per cent of those who come,” he adds.) HQ’s Chan is even known to hold by-inviteonly parties for regulars and “their closest friends (whom they know) will enjoy the experience.”

Think of it as Fight Club for the tasteful EDM lover. As Kokilah puts it: “If you keep going to the right parties, then you are bound to be invited to the subsequent ones, but you must pay your dues first before you can get onto the guest list.” Now, when’s the next riverboat gig again?