Penang party girl Joanne Suraya gives Transmit the lowdown on Gatecrasher's recent visit and talks to some movers and shakers in the island's growing club scene.   

Gatecrasher's gig at Penang hotspot Lush in May saw the club packing out by 9:30pm with all kinds of punters. Surprisingly the mixed crowd worked well together, with the usual bar flies, ravers and the Mat Sallehs all working their way around the dance floor and the champagne bar area.

DJ Desire kicked off the night at 9pm with her usual hard trancey set. Despite a high fever, she managed to keep the dancefloor packed throughout her set. Nick Riley took over two hours later, and was greeted with roaring cheers from the Penang crowd, which was starving for a good dose of trance. His set stirred up the sweat from every corner of the dancefloor, with smiles blooming and the usual ‘I love you's!’  traded.

However, people who preferred their music without soaring synth breakdowns were calling it ‘feng’-crasher, and weren’t pleased with the seemingly aged music that they thought was painfully monotonous. ‘Don’t be fooled’ one of the kids said, ‘we know our shit and this isn’t all that’.

As the night wound up, many punters were shouting for the traditional encore, but Riley's manager Chris plugged in his mic and declared:  ‘Go home everyone, we have a plane to catch in a few hours, cause we’re playing in Singapore tomorrow night! Go Home and sleep!’ Although he  may have been joking, many of the clubbers didn’t seem too amused. Not a very cool end to the night for many of the trance starved islanders.

Gatecrasher's Nick Riley is supine while Desire and the Nuphorik and Lush crew look on, bemused.

What’s the Penang scene like?
The dance scene here is growing. It’s still in its infancy. People here are slowly beginning to understand what dance music is all about.

What are the clubbers like?
Friendly, they’re young and are willing to open themselves to house music.

How do you think islanders will react to Gatecrasher?
I’m sure many of them are excited about Gatecrasher as this is the first time an internationally recognized DJ is spinning on our island. (ed: some may beg to differ on that point!)

How do you see yourselves expanding the Penang scene?
We have many more events lined up for the year. We’ve also had many of our local talents, like Gabriel Chong and Jungle Jerry, spin at Lush, and the clubbers have responded positively to them. We feel the scene will only get better at this point of time.

What made you guys open Lush in Penang?
We felt Penang should have a taste of what’s happening in cities all over the world.

Nuphorik

Why the name Nuphorik?
It represents euphoria, the new and evolved, and the general sense of happiness.

What is Nuphoriks’ favourite sound?
Trance, because it’s emotional and it makes people happy. Take deep house for instance, it doesn’t give people the same buzz. It’s darker and it creates a different vibe altogether, whereas trance keeps people in the happy, loved-up mode for hours on end.

Where is Nuphorik going?
We want to take the entertainment industry to the next level, entertainment and technology fused. Our team specializes in conceptualising, designing, building and running a full range of professional services in the hospitality and entertainment industry.

What made you choose Lush?
Lush has the right vibe, and from what we can see, the people of Penang are ready for such and event.

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