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While no one was looking, a small group of people on an
island in Northern Malaysia were plotting global club
domination. They have played alongside trance cash cow Paul
van Dyk at Gatecrasher London, had a top ten single on the
Hong Kong charts, throw parties all over the world, but have
hardly registered a blip on Kuala Lumpur clubbers’ radars.
And that’s fine by them.
“KL isn’t the centre of the dance music universe,” group
leader BadBoyBen said during an MSN instant messenger
interview.
The group in question is Funkshoppe, a promotion outfit and
record label which began as Penang’s sole house night at the
now-defunct Orange. After building a reputation at the
unassuming Jalan Pulau Tikus club, Funkshoppe started moving
out of their island niche, branching out in ever more
cosmopolitan directions, and haven’t looked back since.
“(Funkshoppe) started as a collective of DJs… and then we also
threw some parties… and now we’re also a record label,” Ben
said. “I never expected anything to come this far, quite
frankly… we just took progressive steps as things evolved.”
Their most high-profile outing in London to date was at
Heaven, which usually hosts John Digweed’s Bedrock nights. Ben
and Funkshoppe’s man in London, Robin Burrowes, shared the
bill with Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, and Ashley Caselle
at Gatecrasher’s monthly do, playing one of the side rooms,
the Dakota Bar.
“M-E-N-T-A-L!” he said of the experience. “But I didn’t even
go to the main room because they were playing like 180 BPM
feng tau music!”
British feng tau aside, Ben also manipulated the decks at
Funkshoppe’s London residency, usually held down by Burrowes,
in Shoreditch. So how did a promoter in Penang end up with a
monthly party in one of the trendiest club districts in
London?
“Well ... Robin got in touch with me ... and said he was
coming this way, and if I could hook him up with a gig. So I
booked him to play at Orange.
“It turned out that 80 percent of his records were the same as
mine ... which was quite weird, so we had an immediate
connection.
“We kept in touch, and he said he wanted to do something with
the Funkshoppe brand in London, so I said why the hell not,”
Ben said.
Besides Ben and Burrowes, the rest of the Funkshoppe crew
(sporting monikers that could put the X-Men to shame) is made
up of Ben’s studio partner Blastique, Funkshoppe Hong Kong’s
Hyperbitch, and DJs on the Funkshoppe roster Li’l Tim Tim and
Odin. There’s also BadBoyBen’s mum.
“My mum’s mental,” said Ben, before revealing the true nature
of her work at Funkshoppe. “She writes the bible for global
domination that we follow to the letter. And she’s also
responsible for dancing on the tables of all my gigs,”
Indeed, the family that clubs together, stays together, or so
someone (actually, me) once said. Ben’s mother, a native of
Penang, now helps the Hong Kong-born DJ/entrepreneur with the
administrative work at his advertising agency and Funkshoppe.
The self-styled Bad Boy, who grew up in Hong Kong, ended up in
Penang when a holiday to visit his mum after graduating from
university in Melbourne turned into a permanent stay because
of a job offer. After that, he started his own advertising
agency, Prolific Creative, and Funkshoppe.
Besides fiddling with turntables in the clubs, Ben has also
been working with KL-based DJ and producer, Blastique, on
original material and remixes. In fact, their first commercial
remix was for The Pancakes, a Hong Kong indie rock singer, on
the track ‘I Want To Fly’. According to Ben and Blastique, it
was pretty well received.
“As soon as we turned it in, it was played every single day on
the radio, which was kinda freaky,” Ben said.
Apparently, the Funkshoppe treatment changed the track so
dramatically that “even The Pancakes was shocked after hearing
it”.
Blastique explains: “I felt lost, confused and a bit nauseated
at first, mainly because I had no idea where to take it
initially… the vocals ended up having a bit of a European
touch to it after some serious processing… but overall, it's
pretty damn funky after all the work,”
They have also been working on more below the surface
projects, like a cheeky bootleg of an Eminem single, which
blew up dancefloors wherever it was played, including the
faux-glam acreage at Nouvo, KL.
“It was a little thing Reuben and I made for fun, but the
response has been pretty phenomenal,” Ben said. “I sent one
MP3 over to London and a week later, everyone was clamouring
for a copy,”
Given their obvious abilities, why haven’t they been doing
more things in KL?
“Penang is definitely my favourite place in the world to
party, but I don’t have much faith in the KL scene,” Ben said.
Blastique added: “I have a bit of faith. For KL, it's more the
independent promoters (non-ciggie linked ones) that hold the
key I feel… and once again, it all comes down to exposure, and
in turn, support from the public to be willing to try new
things,”
Ben replied: “I feel that support from the public is already
there...
it's just support from established promoters and clubs that is
non-existent. At the end of the day, most people feel the need
to fend for their own "territory" which kinda sucks, because
it's the clubbers who lose out,”
This wariness of KL’s clubland politics means that Malaysia
will not be on the list for Funkshoppe’s next project, The
Funkshoppe Sound System.
“mmm ... the obvious city to do it in would be in KL, but I
don't think it's gonna happen because of the narrow-mindedness
of local promoters and companies,” Ben said.
Instead, the crew will set up ‘shoppe’ in Hong Kong, London,
and China for a pumped up, outdoor version of the Funkshoppe
experience. An international tour, coupled with more new
releases from Ben and Blastique plus a flurry of press in the
local dance rags, Funkshoppe look like they have indeed been
following Ben’s mum’s teachings on global domination to the
letter.
-Joon
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