Sup!!!

The World Finals are over! Just finished last weekend at the London O2 arena (used to be called the Millenium Dome). Here's a quick low down:

Battle for World Supremacy

This time round, there were about 30 countries competing, so there are a lot of rounds to get through. Basically for each round, A does a minute, then B does a minute. A then does another minute and B does another minute. Then the judges vote for the winner at the end of each round. So it's like a knock-out competition.

My first round was against Australia. To be honest I was a little scared, but I tried to look really confident and I think it worked to my favour. In the middle of my routine, the sound went off, which was one of the many technical difficulties that night. I started again and I pulled it off cleaner. Then I won and went to the next round. I was then up against a France, who is one of the best turntablist nations at the moment. I lost to him, but he went on to win 2nd that night. I'm happy.

Solo

This is the category I am more excited about. 33 countries have 3 minute and the top 12 go to the night show. In the end, I didn't get through the night show. The judges weren't djs, they were organisers of the different national heats. As a result, a lot of good djs also didn't go through to the top 12. A lot of shit djs went through... by that I mean really bad djs. There was a big upset, everyone complained and from now on, there's a new rule that only djs can be judges... about time? In the end, 1st was France (DJ Fly), 2nd was USA (DJ Slyce), 3rd was Japan (DJ Co-ma).

All in all it was a very good experience for me. There were many djs (all but a handful) used the hardcore electro style, which the 2006 and 2007 world champions used. I think I have done myself and Hong Kong justice by having a different style and being technical at the same time. Something original.

Anyway, here's a video of my routine:

 The Hong Kong DMCs are finally over. What a relief. It was a very nerve racking  night for me but I also had lots of fun. The standard was quite good this year and there are some new exciting talent in Hong Kong. The styles as well I think are very diverse, which is rather uncommon.

 

DJ Conquer adopted the fashionable Le Jad/ Ie. merge style, which is kind of electro aggressive. I think he has improved a great deal which is nice to see. DJ Kelvin had a completely different style. He re-did the famous Rob Swift routine with a test tone on one deck and a ½ time beat tap on the other deck.

 

The surprise of the night was DJ Teddy INC, which in my humble opinion is the most talented new comer this year. His set was all round solid. Good scratches and interesting juggle patterns. Also I think the music selection was one of the strongest this year. However the results came to everyone’s surprise when he came 3^rd. I’m not going to mention my suspicions about the judges, but I truly believe he got robbed. Nevertheless, I’m sure it’s a good experience for him.

 

For my 6 minutes, I was very nervous. In general I think I pull it off alright, even though I made some mistakes. In some instances, the crowd over powered the music, which meant that I found it hard to follow the music and keep on beat. It was the first time my parents ever saw me DJ and they were very happy. The DMC Champions from China came down to show support as well, which was a very pleasant surprise.

 

All in all, it was a great night. I felt a lot of love and respect for the culture. In a way, it drives me to do better. My aim is to be the undisputed turntablist in Hong Kong. Still got some way to go, but I rather dream than regret.

 

A video will be posted soon.

 

Literally, for the past 6 months, I haven’t had much of a life. Don’t really go out… well…don’t really do anything apart from preparing for the battle season. Sometimes I think I’m going crazy because of boredom. Nevertheless, I have come near to the end of a long road. I’ve pretty much finished my set for DMC 2008! What’s a little different this time is that, instead of using retail vinyl, I first arranged the set in the computer using Pro Tools, and then practised the techniques and logistics using Serato Scratch Live. After all the fine tuning and mastering, I sent the sound files to the vinyl presser (the Carvery in London) and then booyah!

 

So yea, having learnt to do all the high tech computer things from scratch, I'm happy with the final product. I hope my set will be good this year. I am quite nervous though, but whatever happens, at least I tried.

 

You always hear people say this. But have you ever wondered what does it really mean? Are people saying this for a reason? I mean it can mean A LOT of things, such as: you play the right track (dj); use the right samples (producer/composer); have the right flow and voice (MCs)… etc, etc, etc. But what is right? I guess that is the beauty of music, there is no right or wrong. Whatever your relationship with music is, everybody has a different interpretation of “it’s all about the music”. I don’t really want to waste time talking about areas I know little about and sound like an idiot. So I’ll talk about turntablism explicitly, something I know a little more about.

 

I guess it’s fair to say not a lot of people understand it. In a way, I don’t blame them, because there are so few in Hong Kong and it’s not like you see them performing in public a lot. I think the misunderstanding here is that turntablism mainly focuses on the technical side, i.e. scratching and juggling. Partly true, but that’s not where it stops. To me, turntablism is all about the music, in the following aspects:

 

1. Scratching- To those who don’t scratch or just begun, this probably sounds like noise and gibberish. The concept is just a beat playing on one side and cutting/manipulating the sound on the other side. Doesn’t sound that sexy, does it? But how music (and music theory) applies here is rhythm. The most important thing is to develop a flow and scratch “vocabulary”, which is what all the practising is about. In due time, your understanding of rhythm improves, i.e. difference between off/on beat, single time, double time, triplet time, swing time, etc… All which are equally, if not more important for other arts such as rapping, drumming, beat production, etc. Then when you understand these different rhythms, that is when you can apply it to scratching and develop as a “musician”. Sounds easy, but far from that in reality. That’s why, to me, scratching is a love hate relationship.

 

2. Routine building/battling/juggle- Music in this sense is very different from scratching. In a nutshell, you choose your songs to juggle and apply various juggle/scratching techniques. So a natural assumption will be: stronger + faster = better. Again this is partly true, but misses the point. To build a good routine, you need a few things…

 

Structure- e.g. intro, climax and ending

Consistency in tune- e,g, scales, avoiding major and minor clash

Tempo- ensure single/double time is consistent with original bpm

Bar sense- typically multiplies of 4 bars for Hip Hop and most importantly

Song selection- whatever genre you use

 

These are just some of the considerations of how “all about the music” applies and how a turntablist’s style develops. I mean, that’s why you have a divide in styles that you see in the battle circuit nowadays… French go for the aggressive breakbeat style; Japanese go for the Reggae/DnB/Musical style; USA uses a lot of Hip Hop and disses. This is very broad and subjective, but it is the general trend nowadays nontheless.

 

So yea, if you have some thoughts or ideas to share, leave a message or something. Otherwise, don’t.

 

~M

wawawasup! here's a video of me doing some freestyle scratch using the QFO I bought a while ago. It's like a turntable and mixer in one... as in, there is a crossfader as well as a turntable for happy happy times! um... don't really know what else to say about the video really. The sound is shit, but you get the idea. So yer, that's all folks!

Recorded in one take: