 The
promoters behind the Techcircuit party at Atmosphere,
Futurejazz.FM,
have been around for awhile now, a fact that remains unknown
to many of the clubbers who throng the dancefloors today.
Some however, may have come across records with
Futurejazz.FM stickers pasted to the front and back. Read on
to find out more about the oldest new kids on the block and
why they could give the scene some much-needed vitality.
Futurejazz.FM's manager, Poh, explains the origins and
concept behind the outfit: "We must say it's the music which
got us all together in this. We used to meet up a couple of
times weekly, all for exchanging and playing each other music
that we bought.
"From there, we decided to start the site not only for our
leisure but also to introduce and share our music with others
who have the same interest or are interested to explore more
musical styles.
"Thenother reason which drove us to form Futurejazz is
because we don't get to hear our style of music on radio
stations in the country.
"So instead of waiting for the radio to change, we decide
to start our very little radio online...
"It started with strictly jazzy house, nu jazz, trip hop,
breakbeats, downtempo tunes and now we expand to include
techno, tribal and other forms of dance genres."
Does that mean we can expect nu jazz types like Koop, Kyoto
Jazz Massive or Nuspirit Helsinki in our clubs soon?
"There's been a few enquiries on our side, we have access
to these acts but the problem is that its pretty hard to
convince and introduce sponsors here to the above acts as they
are interested in everything commercial and trendy. So only
top 100 acts/DJs tend to be sponsored.
There's improvement lately in terms of knowledge, Donovan
have done a great job on RED104.9 FM by playing and
introducing track after track of gems. With everyone playing
their part in promoting good music, we are sure that in time,
the people here can accept this music and sound. We promise we
will deliver some interesting acts to this country to share
some good vibes with us," Poh explains.
How would one get into the sometimes intimidating world of
jazz then, especially coming from a completely different
musical background like dance music?
 "Just
follow your heart. Music listening or appreciation means
different things to different people. For instance, you find a
certain sound or style you like, go ahead and explore or learn
more about the sound, where and how originated... from there
you will naturally be taken back and expose yourself to some
old music and other styles.
"Lots of people in the younger generation got into jazz by
first hearing it on some mix that they possess. It could be
techno, house, drum n bass or breaks with a Charlie Parker sax
hook.
"With this, the listener may want to know more by checking
out on Charlie Parker and his works... that would naturally
make you investigate the music and progress." he says.
Although Futurejazz has kept a low profile over the years,
they are not a bunch of inexperienced greenhorns. Poh used to
run an outfit called Form Records, which he described as "one
of the first companies in Asia to distribute and explore the
different styles of dance genres".
Through Form, he was exposed to a broad variety of
electronic music genres and eventually, he tried to bring some
of these acts to KL... resulting in an impressive list of acts
that might be puzzling to a generation bred on Sasha, Digweed
and PvD.
"We brought in (hard techno act on the React label) Mrs
Wood and Blu Peter for a React tour hosted by Silhouette KL,
DJ Food (actually Ninjatune/Coldcut's cut-up beats and breaks
duo, J. Moore and M. Black), and (notorious NYC trance
artist)DJ Keoki, who played at the Arena, between 1996 to
1998.
These guest visits prompted Futurejazz to put on a series
of quarterly gigs called Transform at the Backroom featuring
locals and guests from Singapore. Since then, Poh admits, they
have been "hibernating".
However, Poh says Futurejazz has "awakened" and Techcircuit
is just the first of their future projects:
"Our objective is to get Futurejazz.fm broadcasting live in
the future...in order to achieve that we have a few concrete
plans on the move, Techcircuit is one of them... we are
excited about it.."
|
What
are the advantages of using D-Vinyl?
How
do you think the KL club scene can be improved?