Jakartans enjoy Friday night of the DJs

Joseph Mangga, Contributor, Jakarta

It's not unusual to head-out for an evening in Jakarta without a specific venue or destination in mind, but that certainly wasn't what happened the last Friday in August (8/30), when no less than four major Jakarta clubs sponsored special DJ events the very same night, and in most cases, featuring some serious imported talent.

The evening was an important signal that the Jakarta club scene is finally maturing out of adolescence; and - similar to Singapore, Hong Kong and KL - the city maybe finally becoming a major destination on the international DJ circuit. The club- goers, club-owners, promoters and local DJ's alike all deserve huge kudos for helping develop and nurture Jakarta's club culture; and the reward will be even bigger and more exciting future events, some hopefully hosting a few of the legendary DJ mega-stars that everybody's been itching to see live here for ages (could there be a Sasha, Digweed, Tenaglia or Van Dyk event lurking in the not too distant future?).

Just short of cloning oneself, or else hopping aboard a turbo- charged ojek (motorcycle taxi) with warp-drive capabilities, I honestly didn't know how one person was ever going to cover this much spin action in a single evening. But anyway, here goes an attempt to do just that.

The first stop was 91.45 FM Indika radio's monthly Club- Hoppers night, this time at Embassy, and featuring Japanese DJ sensation Ko Kimura. Dangling over the dancefloor from the upstairs DJ booth, Kimura managed to get everyone's blood circulating with a careful beat-driven selection of wasabe-fired vinyl.

Kimura has one of those diverse DJ styles that's hard to pin- down, covering almost everything from hard European techno to funky underground American house, mixed with the occasional dash of the Hiroshima hip-hop that first got Kimura hooked on DJing and dance music.

Kimura was celebrating the August launch of his second KO-HEAR-ENCY remix assemblage, not to mention the release earlier this year of a mix compilation on John Digweed's prestigious Bedrock label. Also to his credit, Kimura produced the late 1990's hit Don't Stop, in collaboration with Japanese DJ legend Satoshi Tomile, under the name Level 9.

On Embassy's second level, I quaffed my last vodka tonic, then set sail for Musro to catch UK DJ Darren Pierce, who was opening- up for famed Italian techno-producer, Mario Piu. After negotiating a path through the maze of vehicles overflowing from Borobudur's parking lot, I got to chat briefly with Pierce just before his two-hour set. Pierce is one of those rock-solid performing DJ's who's been around for ages, and that you hear more about through word-of-mouth than from the dance music press.

Pierce started-off DJing in 1988 by organizing his own underground house parties in West London. As he tells it, "We'd break into warehouses then spread the word at the last minute, so the police didn't know what was going on. You'd get a thousand people turn'in up. It was mad mad back in them days!" He now regularly globe-trots the planet, and releases his own mixes through Rhythm Syndicate records. Pierce described the high- powered set he later played as, "house music with beats, with a slight progressive edge, and a bit of acid in there as well".

The next stop was Stadium, where local Indonesian DJ Erfan and programmer/arranger Dicky D unleashed Future Sound; a special multi-media dance music extravaganza featuring Eugene on saxophone, live percussion by Rejoz the Groove, and Indonesia's own version of Vanessa Mae, the lovely Ms. Maylaffayza on electric violin.

Erfan cued-up the first track of progressive tribal trance, as the nearly 2500 clubbers pressed forward to get a closer look at the four scantily-clad dancers on stage. This was followed by throbbing remixes of Io's Rapture, Sting's Desert Rose (isn't anyone getting tired of hearing this song yet?), and finally a sizzling rendition of Kosheen's Hide You that got all the ladies seriously grinding.

Erfan and Dicky later explained Future Sound as the prelude for an album of all-new material that the duo hope to release later this year on the new Hot Mix label EARS.

I checked my watch and bearings, then hurled next door to check-out Ibiza DJ Carlos Diaz, who was about to kick-off at Club 1001. I was glad I got there early, for I almost missed the 12 drop-dead gorgeous dancers who had temporarily rolled-down all their upper body-garments, just as I strolled in. Carlos is a rough- and tough-looking Uruguayan spin-doctor who specializes in the diverse and fun-loving Balearic style of Ibiza. There'll be more about Carlos in a future interview-article.

Beaming back to Musro, there was no way I was going to miss Mario Piu -- by far the most well-known DJ to be spinning in Jakarta that evening. Ranked #54 in the current DJ-Mag reader's poll, a few of Mario's more famous dance hits include The Vision (locally available on the Best of Trance 2001 CD) and Communication, the massive club hit that everybody remembers as Will Somebody Answer the Phone. Judging from his physique, I can see why some people refer to Mario as the "Italian Fat-Boy Slim", for he sure looks like one DJ who knows how to seriously pack away his pasta.

Mario later described his Musro set as a "mixing of techno, trance and electro" that included his latest release I Believe, as well as "many new productions not yet out" on his dance label BXR. He originally started DJing because of his huge love for electronic music by artists such as "Mike Oldfield, Depeche Mode and Giorgio Moroder". This was Mario's first trip to Indonesia, and his next spin-stops include Hong Kong, then more carbo- loading in Italy, followed by a low-fat Colombian tour.

There you have it! One night, four venues, five DJ's, and one thoroughly spun-out dance-journalist. Not recommended for pregnant women, those with a pacemaker, or children over forty.