DJ Dave Seaman delivers sonic therapy to Jakarts

DJ Dave Seaman delivers sonic therapy to Jakarts

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Joseph Mangga
Contributor
Jakarta
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Master DJ Dave Seaman administered a nearly four-hour emotion-
packed mosaic of sonic samplings that absolutely mesmerized the
overcapacity crowd of enthusiastic clubbers at Musro in Hotel
Borobudur, Central Jakarta.

The diminutive and chrome-domed Yorkshireman quietly crept up
to the stage without anyone noticing, gently skimmed his hand
across the mixer and immediately the sound system's right-channel
fell silent throughout the club last week.

Seaman glanced about quizzically, as if something was very,
very wrong, and this certainly got everyone's attention. I'm
still puzzling over whether this was an accident or else a clever
ruse to boldly announce that the mixing booth was now occupied by
unquestionably the most distinguished DJ ever to play that club.

This was the fourth occasion since the millenium that Jakarta
has been fortunate enough to host a Global Underground DJ artist,
but the very first time one of the label's long-established
megastars has been featured.

The other three -- Danny Howells (at Stadium), Sander
Kleinenberg (Manhattan) and Anthony Pappa (Planet/Club 1001) --
were all relatively fresh international DJs featured on Global's
Nubreed label, a label specially created to showcase new up-and-
coming turntable mix-masters. Let us be thankful that promoters
such as DJ Agoose and 91.45 Indika FM are bringing these people
to Indonesia.

Though only rated #17 in the current DJ Magazine reader's
poll, Dave Seaman has a DJ pedigree that reaches back far further
than the tenure of most of those above him (not to mention that
half of the top 16 are also Global Underground artists). This is
a lad who waited until the ripe old age of 11 before deciding he
was destined to be nothing other than a DJ.

Besides being instrumental in the formative days of the UK-
Ibiza dance culture scene, he was also the first editor for
Mixmag magazine, the founder of DMC/Stress records, and the
producer for many famous artists such as Kyle Minouge, Take That
and the Pet Shop Boys. He has also released the Buenos Aries and
Capetown Global Underground remix collections, no less than 3
Renaissance collections, as well as inspired remixes from his
production team -- Brothers In Rhythm -- for Placebo, Garbage,
Sting, Seal, Blur, Michael and Janet Jackson, Bruce Hornsby and
the Eurythmics.

What Dave Seaman may be lacking in hair, he certainly made up
for in sheer balls-out showmanship and DJing virtuosity that
night. One almost had to hang onto something throughout the
roller-coaster ride of diverse musical moods he unleashed,
ranging from short bellows of wicked dark trance, occasional
dollops of pulsing tribal, and even a minor pinch of some good-
old-plain fun and funky R&B.

But more often than not we were treated to euphoric blasts of
some of the most ultra-positive, progressive house and trance
known to man or beast.

And a very happy beast he was at times, wildly pounding his
chest behind the mixer, like some crazed musically-gifted
gorilla. No one thre

Regularly overlapping up to 3 separate tracks at a time,
virtually all the music was new to my ear, with the exception of
Xpress-2's Slot Machine, Superchumbo's Revolution, and the
closer, Chase The Sun by Planet Funk. But alas, there was to be
no interview, for he was whisked-off at 4am to immediately fly to
Hong Kong for a gig the following evening.

What impressed me most was the almost supernatural power that
Mr. Seaman seem to exercise over the audience, carefully
orchestrating every mood and action, including a "breathy-
sounding" mix-effect where everyone stopped to catch their breath
midstream. Save for 3 quick piss-stops, Dave himself slaved-away
the entire performance like a musical Svengal with a mission.

The other feature of the evening I found most intriguing was
the curious visuals provided by L&M cigarettes -- one of the
event's major sponsors -- that were projected onto the massive
wall behind Mr. Seaman.

Juxtaposed were two ying-and-yang-like rotating circles, one
portraying a series of devilishly seductive and subliminal images
-- flashing names of jet-set destinations; frolicking dreadlocked
Rastamen, adventurers and female lovelies; all passing a
forbidden-fruit-like red L&M apple around the world from one
exotic location to another.

The other circle, a fuzzy list of warnings (in Indonesian) of
all the many medical ailments that can accompany cigarette
smoking (lung cancer, heart disease, impotence, etc.). These
images continually swirled and danced to the music, as if engaged
in some sort of bizarre cosmic power struggle or balancing act.
A powerful vice, with it's obvious pleasures, that can never be
totally eliminated; versus the potential price one has to pay for
it's indulgence; both clearly posted for all of free will to
inspect and to choose.

This odd display was somewhat reminiscent of the many tough
choices now confronting Indonesia, as to what path it should now
take in this new and uncharted age. Just as Mr. Seaman's music
covered a whole range of musical possibilities --the dark and the
light, the hard house and the soft trance -- the answer seems to
be not to one extreme or the other, but a direction lying
somewhere within the middle.

And just one final note to the organizers. Dance parties were
meant for dancing, which is somewhat hard to do when the clubbers
are packed in tighter than a flotilla of canned sardines in
overheated chili sauce. A firm policy on maximum venue capacity,
including pre-sale of tickets, would both be most welcomed
improvements in the future. 'nuff said!