yumla knows:club music

I promise to have a proper blog entry soon ... What with flu, redecorating the new studio,

mixing music for (what feels like) everyone in HK, arguing with the idiots at my distribution company, running the bar, writing music, test-driving our new XD camera, playing too much Halo  3 and trying to find time for my friends in amongst all that ... I've got nothing done this year. And someone told me January's over already?! No! What, wait...!!!

Anyway. Quick heads-up. One of the main problems I have with living in Hong Kong is a lack of inspiration as a producer. Lots of great bands, lots of great designers, lots of great people, but to be honest, not exactly a whole lot of techno & house music! When it comes to electronic club music there is very little happening here - that's one of the reasons why I opened Yumla four years ago - but apart from DJs, there is still a massive local void for this particular style of music.  Hardly anyone makes it. And after 8 years, I understand why.

If you were a producer living in Berlin or Paris or London you would hear dozens of people playing brand new music (literally, fresh out of the studio on CDR) every single weekend. But while we can get access to fresh new records & releases in HK ... the actual music on those records may already be a year old. In some cases even older. Then when it comes time for me to produce my own music, I'm creating inspired by something made 18 months ago for a scene which is not my own. Does that even make sense? In my head it does and I'm too tired to re-write it. So ... when I eventually get my own records out, they immediately sound wrong back in Europe ... and when they are played alongside this week's fresh new CDR ... well, forget about it. It's a miracle I got any reviews in DJ Mag in the first place. Mainly by trying to out-weird everyone else.

So! To try and rectify that situation, both for myself and anyone else trying to write club music in HK, we've kicked off a new series of club nights at Yumla called yumla knows:

   The concept for the night is simple - we invite a different DJ/producer from Germany, France, the UK, the Moon, where-ever, to come & play at the bar every month alongside our resident DJs. And we're booking the DJs based on how much we play their records. A simple plan really. Not because they are hyped-up or flavor of the month or trendy shit because they got PR'd up to the top of some wack DJ chart. Yumla is showcasing club nights by the following pro ducers because we dig their music. It'll never work.

yumla knows: Frank Monoroom• Friday 1st february 2008

Dean Muhsin• Saturday 1st march 2008

Danton Eeprom • Saturday 5th april 2008

Martin Eyerer• Saturday 10th may 2008

Many, many, many more events to be announced throughout the year. Check www.yumla.com for the rest of the info, links, plus updates on future events. By the way, these events are free entry and totally not sponsored. It's drinks over the bar which cover the air-fares, hotels and fees for these guys and I actually expect to make a loss on these nights. F*ck it. It's cheaper than flying everyone in the bar over to Berlin for the weekend. Buy drinks, get music in return. Yumla knows that sounds fair.

edit: Frank just landed in Hong Kong ... we'll be out for a few drinks later.