Events – akadjblaze

Once again, Winning is Fun!

August 9, 2015August 9, 2015 by akadjblaze, posted in Events

So, that was a long weekend! As Im sitting on the train heading back up to Seoul after a week in Busan, it allows me a bit of time to reflect over the week that was. Firstly, I love Busan, I would love to live there if the Seoul DJ scene wasn’t so good. The weather while I was there was almost perfect, had plenty of time to relax, catch up with friends and oh yeah, compete! So in case you missed it, on Saturday was the 3rd BeFm DJ comp, after coming second the previous 2 years, this year I finally managed to get that elusive first place that I had narrowly missed out on the years before. Now while the victory did have a small hollow point for me, overall it still felt pretty good and a relief that I managed to clinch first this year. Going into the competition as a pretty strong favourite wasn’t exactly a fun feeling for me, I’ve always preferred the underdog status and have been pretty used to that in the years now since Ive been in Korea, so knowing coming into this comp that I should win was def a bit of added pressure that didn’t really allow me to relax as much as I normally would before such a comp.

Anyways this year was a good group of DJs, we mostly knew each other already so at least before the comp it was easy enough to hang out, joke with each other while hanging around on a hot ass day in Busan. The weather was seriously great thou esp. compared to last year! However we were still waiting and waiting for Pinnacle to show up, which he finally did, just as he was due on stage! Poor bastard, gets on stage and then has a huge equipment fail, yeah that really rounded off his night, so the order got bumped and he got relegated to performing last.

So, quickly thru the DJs.

First up was ColdChillin, I remember his set from the first year where he managed to get 3rd place, this year again he came again with a nice set, struggled to get the crowd into it (an on-going theme all night) but still managed to set a nice medium ish bar.

Next was myself, after making a bit of a meal of my intro… (stupid CDJs, again, another on-going theme all night) I settled into my set well enough, I sold my soul and played Coco… which ended up being a total flop (fml so that pissed me off) but that was where my set abandoned being too technical and went straight to crowd service which worked exactly how I expected it to. With the exception of that stupid coco song, everything went exactly how I planned

After me was the Chinese entrant, DJasce, again he played a nice set with some good tracks and good transitions, but once again struggled to get the crowd into it, for his first outing thou Im sure he will learn from it

Next was Idub, another Seoul DJ and also his first year in the comp, again had some good tracks and nice set, managed to get the crowd a bit at times but again struggled to really keep them but did enough with his set to come in 2nd place

Next another top DJ, in his second year competiting, Kiredmik was up and came with a pretty intense set, something like 28 tracks in 9mins, dude playing like the world was about to end! However that kind of play style was quickly lost on the crowd and the medley style of set fell a bit flat and just never gave himself a chance to impress on the crowd

DJ Rell back again was up and again had some nice tracks and had a set a bit more crowd orientated and managed to pick up a few cheers along the way but once again nothing sustained and failed to maintain it throughout but had a couple of good moments up there which was enough to get him 3rd

And finally Pinnacle got back up this time with little technical difficulties aside got to try and bust out his set. He started out with the Next Episode juggle routine made famous by Jazzy Jeff, while I applaud the effort, it is a difficult routine to pull off and he struggled to make it work leaving the crowd standing there just gawking. The rest of his set didn’t bode much better either and in the end you could tell he just wanted the hell out of there

And so that was it, I was only partly paying attention to everyones sets but the overall theme of the night was poor track selection and an inability to get in the crowds face and really control them from start to finish. Oh and shitty CDJs… seriously, one of these years can we get the proper and reliable equipment, just once?

Anyways, after the winners announcement I was called to play a set on stage.. yeah all the preparation! But still I was in the ‘I don’t give a fuck’ stage of mind, just happy that I won so jumped on, played a heap of bangers, had more fun with the crowd, trolled them a little bit cause I now could! Got the other DJs up on stage with me, took a mean selfie that Rell missed out on and overall just rocked out, should prob have planned a set before hand but it didn’t matter in the end.

After the comp we all went, had a mean feed, then basked in free drinks at a club down the road before heading to another club where a couple of us were playing. Overall it was a dam good night!

So that is pretty much it, a great week away of chilling and DJn by the beach, catching up with friends, eating some good food and enjoying life! Here is a copy of my final set, its a rough version I just used so I could practice it in my head.

Also waiting on a copy of my interview with Chad on Nightrider on Busan eFM on Monday night. It was nice to finally get in the studio with him and hang out. As for next year, will I enter again… Well we shall see, I was thinking after this year I would like to make way for some other DJs to enter and try their luck but at the same time, the prize money and the chance to come back to Busan again is a pretty good incentive!

BeFM Expat DJ Comp 2014

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014 by akadjblaze, posted in Events

Well that hapened! And now that I am over it, I can start to get to work on my next projects but I guess I should do a recap of the event first, this is trying to run it off while its still kinda in my head, but I am sleep deprived… so bear with me… hope I didn’t forget too much…

Well I arrived in Busan on Sat afternoon, and the weather, straight tropical storm blowing thru, rubbish!! Had a lot of the DJs worried abut the next day since obviously DJ equipment and rain don’t play well together. Anyways Sunday the weather somehow magically decided to hold off and play ball so we were treated to a night rain free! Also note, the photos I borrowed from someone, Im sure better ones will appear soon

Sound check was a crack up, all the other DJs are fun loving easy going guys so we enjoyed joking around and trying to keep our energy levels up as most of us had travelled and were runnning of little to no sleep which is pretty standard for the hard working DJ. After sound check we all parted ways for awhile before coming back together before the start of the evenings prcedings which saw Hanmin kick off the night with Krispy Crunch banging out a fusion of EDM and Hip Hop and finishing off with Hanmins smash hit Bsa Sae. Now with that out of the way, it was time for the 7 DJs to hit the stage and see who will come out on top.

First up was Paul Antoni, I have met him a couple of times and he is a nice dude, has some good tracks that he has produced, I have never heard him play before thou but I know he is a trance based DJ so was interested to see how he would handle a competition like this. He started off with a nice intro then proceded into his set which was nice, but as expected he struggled to really engage the crowd with his style. I did love his end throwback track thou

Next on the decks was last years winner DJ Ferry, a very good producer who has done a lot of dope K pop edm remixes but not what I would call a DJ (he reminds a lot of the top tier DJs, he is like a producer who plays his own music) anyways he started off with a mash up and then proceded into his set playing a lot of his own remixes but his set felt pre recorded, he did however dominate the crowd

Third on the decks having to follow up a good act was DJ Sir, I saw his entry video which was… ok… but he did do a nice little tone play at the end which I liked. Unfortunately he didnt drop any during his set, he tried to get the crowd on his side but came up a little short, painfully obvious when he transitioned into ‘this is how we do it’ he had obviosuly planned a bit of call and response but Koreans just dont know that song… which is a shame cause I love it. He hit the mark a couple of times with a few tracks but just couldnt keep it the whole way thru

4th up was Ecky Thump!, coming from a land down under, otherwise known as the west Island of New Zealand haha! He went into his routine without too much fanfare and proceded to do a nice solid mix of newer tracks, spending most of his set keeping his mixing tight with the occsiaonal crowd shout out, but he was keeping busy most of the time, since I was up next I didnt pay huge attention to details of his set but it sounded solid, not hugely crowd pleasing thou, propbably going over their heads with the music selection a litte but I enjoyed it

5th up was me… So kinda hard to talk about my set from an outside perspective but here is my take. Managed to start off ok then quickly progressed into some crowd bangers to get them going, then dropped it down and actually rapped on stage with the mic to Jay Z PSA, then it was just a mix of crowd calling with popular tracks, a couple of scratch breaks while jumping inbetween mixing and the mic was keeping me really busy, scratching wasnt as tight as I would have liked it and almost screwed up a mix but kept it inline, the 2pm and DJ Doc tracks were crowd killers, all I could see was people waving their hands, and then crooked at the end I had everyone screaming. I had a lot of fun on stage and managed to shake my normal competition seriousness away towards the end and just had fun with it like a normal set, so yeah, shit was mean as! Thou thanks Chad for the awkward question hahaha but all good, that just cracked me up!

6th on the deck having to follow up me was one of the DJs who I was keeping an eye out for because he has skills similar to me and also a mate of mine, Kiredmik, unfortunately he got off to a bad start not realising one of his channels was on thru mode, but he recovered well and got stuck into his set. He went down the play as many bangers as I can in 9mins route, which in theory wasnt a bad option, but track selection and lack of time to work the crowd or to let some tracks develop hurt his set and didnt really get a chance to show off any of his skills

Finally was DJ Rell, last is often the best time to jump on, if your set is right for it, Rell like a few others were at the disadvantage of not really knowing what to expect, and while being a good DJ in his own right, competition DJn and festival DJn is a lot different to normal club DJn, while he got up there and did his thing, he def fell into his comfort zone I think by playing a club style set, he was def enjoying himself up there and played some cool jams but not the kind to get the crowd really going

And that was that, San E graced the stage with DJ Pandol to a very enthusiastic crowd, and they were a great crowd, they were there wanting to be entertained and they showed the DJs a lot of love, but they did have to be directed and lead most of the time which made it hard on a few of the DJs. As I said before, competition DJn is very different from club DJn, the calibre of expat DJs in Korea is very broad, there are a lot who claim to be DJs but are really just music players and then there are some who are the genuine article, then there is the level where everyone else is floating around, not ready for the big leagues but good enough to be out there in the scene. The other problem is Korean DJs are pretty good, not quite world class good, but the top DJs here are a big jump apart from most expats. Thre3style is an example, out of the DJs who entered in BeFM the last 2 years, I am the only one to have entered and done well, 1 other could have made it and 1 other might have made it depending how many of the good korean DJs decided to enter (there is only a handful of expat DJs in Korea who I think could legitimately enter and compete but if every good DJ in Korea entered, I would say only 1 or 2 might have a chance). So, basically what I am saying is while its great that there is a forum for expat DJs to shine, the calibre of the DJs is lacking (for this type of DJn) which is not surprising when you really think about it however I digress… (and this isnt a dig at expat DJs, just trying to point out some of the reality, most of us are over here teaching so its not like we are all DJn full time etc there are obvious issues we face, not to say Koreans dont have their own issues, it just is what it is)

So in the end, the results looked like this

3rd Place – Ecy Thump

2nd Place – DJ Blaze

1st Place – DJ Ferry

The competition overall was really well run, the hosts were great (except Chad, he sucks lol love you bro) and the crowd and venue were simply awesome… however, the result… while I should be happy with second, Im really not, nothing against Ferry who came first, he did his thing, so props to him and to all the others as well. My anger and frustration goes towards the result which means the poor judges, both friends of mine too, Im confused how a set like his won compared to my set which while showman ship was pretty much similar, I showed more variation in skill and technique. Thou my guess is he has the producer card, the fact that a lot of his tracks were his… but then that begs the question, is this a DJ competition? Do you need to actually show some DJ skills for a DJ competition or not (I had this same problem with last years result as well) Now without talking to the judges and getting reasons behind their decisions all I can do is speculate, which in reality doesnt help anyone and just makes me out to be a sore loser, Im an annoyed loser, ill admit that, Im competitive so of course I want to win, but I dont hold anything against the winner or the judges but this is an issue that I think needs highlighted, at what point does producer credits and showman ship outshine skill and technique. This question however as we all know can be directed at the world of DJn in general… which is sad to say but true. The other problem with a DJ competition is the winner is determined by opinion, its not like a race where there is a clear winner, each person has their own opinion and it may differ to others, its human nature and cant be avoided, but it makes the judges job a lot harder, as I said they are both friends and I have a lot of respect for them, so Im not having a go at them, but would love to sit down with them at some stage and understand how they saw things. But at the end of the day the result is in and there is nothing that can be done about it, just hope at some stage I can get to understand it. (and its not easy being a judge!)

Here is my set, its not what I did on the night but close to it, this was one of my practices that I decided to record

But hey, I did have a lot of fun, met some awesome people and got to rock the shit out of a beach full of party people and walked away 800$ in hand, not a bad days work really 🙂

I made it to UMF!

June 17, 2014June 18, 2014 by akadjblaze, posted in Events

So that happened, I got to play at UMF! Well technically speaking I did, in reality I was playing outside UMF next to the entry gate as people were walking in, so they would all walk past me as I was spinning from the Red Bull event jeep/truck, but hey, least I got to play, happy about that but of course it didn’t go completely smoothly, last min things never do…

So, UMF, firstly lets talk about that, it is arguably the biggest EDM festival going around the world, and it is relatively consistent, however the line up and quality of most of the headliners… yeah on the main stage this year they were rubbish! Above and Beyond I left because I was so bored, and Steve Angelo was all over the dam place till he finally found some rhythm towards the end of his set, honestly the smaller stages and gate keeper DJs were a hell of a lot better from what I saw but I think by now most people are starting to realize this trend, big name DJs are shit, they are just producers who play their crap while it seems like its the tier of DJs underneath them that are the real crowd pleasers and the ones that really work on their craft

So as you can see I am not a fan of UMF, the only reason I went was because I got to DJ there, have to give a shout out to Red Bull for hooking it up, being able to hang out and at least say I have been there is definitely something to go down on the winning at life list

So, as for my set, well playing for a big ass line of people constantly moving past you is an interesting DJ dilemma, people aren’t staying in one place long enough for you to properly engage them but at the same time you are their first impression as they are coming thru the gate into the festival, so trying to not play the same music every 5 minutes yet keep the level at pretty much 100% isn’t the easiest thing. I ended up playing a typical club set but just mostly electro based and did manage to keep people entertained as they were coming thru with people cheering etc, dancing around, snapping photos etc but I think the festival staff in the area were more appreciative of the whole thing instead of hearing just the droning bass coming from the stadium. Friday night was definitely the busiest, people coming from work late to try and catch the last few acts kept the line pretty packed up till 9.30-10, sucks for those people because they missed the majority of the day and best acts. Sat started off good, I got to go around, watch a few acts and relax before jumping into my set, it started off really well… until the speakers blew, one was totally gone, the other I managed to keep using but with reduced sound it killed the impact I was having, which was annoying because I was just starting to get into my groove but ah well, shit happens.

So, ill briefly go over what happened with the gear. Red Bull got the event truck delivered to them last week, so they had no time to actually go over it and check all the audio settings etc, the default setting I was using was messed up to say the least, everything was wrong and of course the speakers couldn’t handle it at all and nothing was being redlined either, the sub levels were all over the place and the echo feedback was a pain in the ass not to mention the turntables couldn’t be moved so I had to use them long ways instead of battle style which was annoying. No laptop stand and little room for Serato as well, who ever designed it obviously hadn’t thought it thru very well at all, the basics of what could have been an awesome set up are there but just stupid little things, they really should have consulted with a DJ…

Well that pretty much sums it up, UMF in Seoul 2014… while people might be singing its praises if they were being honest it would be a different story and the headliners just weren’t that great, but personally half a mission accomplished and I got to play so I am happy with that, next time thou I definitely want a stage!!

‘Fuck White Day’ Party

March 31, 2014March 31, 2014 by akadjblaze, posted in Events

So as the tittle suggests a few weeks ago we held a big party at Bar Fly, so time to throw up a quick review since that weekend not only did I have this party here but also did a special performance with Pinnacle at both Bar Fly and also at BrandNu! So was a busy weekend, anyways lets get right to it

So, Bar Fly, well Friday nights are usually pretty busy but because of the party this time we held multiple events during the night and also had a lot of ‘friends’ and regulars come thru so it was extra busy and the crowd was in a very good mood and ready to party. I asked Pinnacle if he wanted to perform again, being a nightclub keeping it short and sharp is always key so we decided to keep it to 4 club ish songs and hit em hard which we did. The good thing about Bar Fly people is they are an appreciative audience and seemed to be loving every minute of it, so the performance part of it went really well. The night started off well with tables full before 11, people kept coming in and by 12ish the place was pretty busy, drink specials kept the bar busy. We jumped on around fish and rocked out, then the girls jumped on stage and danced and gave out free T-shirts, lastly big ass balloons with confetti in them went flying around which was a pretty cool idea! Anyways click the video to watch most of the live performance

Now, the next gig was at BrandNu on Saturday night, I was a little worried about this, we were given an hour time slot to fill in, now an hour is a long time to fill in a club set, and it wasn’t till afterwards that I realised the mistake, but anyways, first thing, so we did sound check, all was good, came to the club, jumped on and started to go thru the set, the plan was to do 5 songs, then DJ Break, quick freestyle session then 5 more songs then out, so instead of hitting it hard and fast like Bar Fly, this time we had to set it up properly, the only problem was, BrandNu is a club, a hip hop club, with kids/people who aren’t really there for the ‘music’, meaning they only like the kind of rubbish that is in the top 10 these days, music with no substance, just party music. I have nothing against it in a club however when you try to bring in a live act that does have substance, 2 things happen

1. People don’t like it because they have to listen to it to understand it

2. People don’t know it so they automatically don’t like it

Given the beats we were playing compared to the beats the club normally plays, the 2nd option was more prevalent… and its a tough one because you have to expose people to music somehow yet often they only want to hear what they know regardless of how good the song might be and this is even more so prevalent in a clubbing situation. So of course the music and the performance was not really appreciated by the people there, some people were digging it, but the majority were just like ‘meh’ so yeah, it was a tough night, but lesson learned, next time listen more closely to my doubts lol then again it was pretty last minute.

Anyways, both were good gigs, obviously Bar Fly was a lot better but BrandNu was still good to throw down in. Now that Pinnacle is back in the states it will be a small while till we gig it out again, but maybe during summer…

Chur

Selector Sessions

March 25, 2014 by akadjblaze, posted in Events

Well ignoring the fact that its been a shitty Monday (and I’m now posting this on Tuesday), time to throw up a quick brief on a special selector session at the Hongdae DJ Korea store on Saturday.

So firstly a quick overview of what selector sessions are… Well it was the brainchild of Ingram Jones who use to work here for DJ Korea, he was trying to get different DJs together to use a piece of equipment called the selector, which basically allows you to plug multiple DJ interfaces (e.g. Serato and Traktor)

But it was not only to use this little piece of equipment but it was also to provide a forum for DJs to get together (primarily turntable DJs) which is something that is needed and is something I want to continue and to expand on (but more on that later)

So on Saturday decided to do a special selector session with DJ Mo Beatz since he was over here performing that night at Lucidream thanks to Pinnacle. Kinda messed up on the organisation of it but at least managed to get 2 good DJs to come down and jam out, DJ Tom Slick and DJ Tezz. So to start with it was just a normal jam session in the hongdae store, the interest from other people to come down and listen isn’t very high at the moment, actually it’s non-existent so there is a lot of work needed and unfortunately both their good sets were only for our own ears however we did get to play on the new reloop turntables which are really good (review still to come, need to properly figure out how to use the midi natively on it)

So, obviously bringing Mo Beatz to a meet and greet to no people would be a waste, instead we decided to move the DJ set up outside (something I was eventually wanting to build up to doing esp over the summer) and do some promo and jam out for the hordes of people who walk by on the Hongdae streets, and it worked out pretty well. Will def be doing this again in the future

Mo Beatz himself had a nice little set, its good to see a DJ who DJ’s for famous artists actually have solid skills, he had a couple of nice routines down pretty well so was def enjoying it as well as the people walking by too, thou a lot of them prob didn’t understand the true extent of what he was doing, Korea crowds are still appreciative so thats always refreshing

Have to give a big shout out to DJ Mo Beatz for coming thru and doing his thing, Pinnacle for hooking it up, Tom Slick and Tezz for laying down some beats, DJ Breakson for sliding thru and all who came by

PS I will edit this later on to make it flow a bit better but for now…

Shout Out Time

March 17, 2014March 17, 2014 by akadjblaze, posted in A day in the Life, Events

Well its been a crazy weekend and had a couple of good shows but there was also a lot of other things going on around Seoul as well. I will post up a review etc about them later on once I track down the videos but for now I got a couple of mentions I want to make

First up need to give a shout out to the bro CJ Gardner aka CJ Infinite and for dropping his new tracks, if you want to peep them and you def should check out his sound cloud here

CJ’s Sound Cloud

The beats are really nice (I’m a big fan of old school sounding beats or beats with an older more natural sound to them) and CJs flow over them has its own uniqueness about it that makes the tracks nice to listen to and a nice break from a lot of the rubbish thats gets constant airplay these days. There is a lot of really good hip hop out there, you just need to go and find it but you should always support local artists as they always need plenty of support and most of them really deserve

Speaking of supporting local artists, the Seoul expat scene has been getting a much needed injection of support recently. Its a hard scene thou because expats are usually only here short term, very rarely long term so it makes maintaing a community very difficulty. So when artists start thinking of strengthening the community then they deserve mention and support. There are a lot of people here who have been putting in hard work who deserve mention but will save that for another time, for now this post shout out goes to Part Time Cooks, a group of 3 dope expat MC’s who have come together to form what should be an exciting crew. Now I don’t know much of their back ground but I have heard some of their stuff and it is def worth checking out, but the reason for the shout out is their willingness to get out and support other artists and also what will hopefully be a weekly or very regular web series from them interviewing and showcasing the local expat talent in and around Korea. Its this support and giving back to the community that will help keep it strong here in Korea and I applaud their efforts to do so. Check out the video below for their first instalment video. The editing could use a little work but as far as content goes and being the first instalment, its very good and has me looking forward to more! A scene is only as good as its support so again I urge you to get out there and support local artists

Also make sure you go check out their show coming up in conjunction with Show Kings on the 29th of March

Click here for the event page

See you there! Chur!

Move2

December 5, 2012December 5, 2012 by akadjblaze, posted in Events

Dam, its December already?!! Well at least I started this month with a bang. So Friday night I got added last min ish to the line-up for the Show Kings party Move2, an event that usually tries to bring the different elements of hip hop together, DJ’s, MC’s and B-Boys. The venue was Bar Fly in Sinchon. This is a nice bar, its well set up, open, decent sound system and had the makings for a good night! Now my set was 10-12 and also included DJ’n for the MC’s which was cool and then DJ Keyz was to get the party popping after me, so I played a warm up set as people were still walking into the building, mostly upbeat old skool tracks, Hip Hop and RnB joints, a few bangers but mostly just on the level stuff, nothing worse than getting everything all riled up to early!

By the time the performers came on, the buzz seemed relatively good and they all hit their groove relatively well, a few mic probs here and there but to be expected. All in all the performances were well done, a few cut down their sets, its always hard at shows like this esp in this kinda of club that is catered for the younger Hongdae university crowd which of course is all about their electro music and shuffling, so having some real hip hop (as compared to the bullshit we are constantly bombarded with) was always going to be a hard sell. But overall people seemed to be digging it.

So that pretty much concluded my night on the scene. During the course of the night I did met the local resident DJ Knuckles (cool dude) and his other DJ friend from Ellui DJ June, so was def good to network with those guys as well as the other artists performing that night. All in all, a win win for me! Its good when these people actually get to see me DJ before meeting me, its always a I guess strange thing when you meet other DJ’s or performers for the first time or just people in general too, I usually don’t tell people when I met them first up that I’m a DJ, because these days, everyone’s a god dam DJ, so Id rather people see me DJ first, then they can form their own opinion about me. Rather than, oh, cool, just another DJ, prob another wannabe like the million others, then have other people say, oh na he is good etc etc, most people take that at face value but never actually believe it till they see for themselves and I have always been the type of DJ to let my playing speak for itself.

Anyways, so there was a lil bit of drama throughout the night, mostly to do with the club owner and his expectations vs the Show kings crew and what they were saying will happen. Anyways, I’m not going to go into that because its not my place to, but during the night the club owner wasn’t happy with the music we were playing (myself and Keyz) while it didn’t affect my set at all, for Keyz it was a different story, to the point where the club owner actually cut his set short and got his own DJ to play instead. Now there is a few lines of thinking when it comes to things like this, thou end of the day, its his club so the owner does have the over riding call, however sometimes owners do need to step back, stop looking at the $$ and look at the overall picture, different is not always a bad thing… but that’s another story. As I said, I’m not going to get into the other happenings during the night, just that I felt sorry for the bro getting the cut halfway through, that’s always a shitty feeling and as a DJ, its among the worst things that can happen to you while playing. But overall the event was enjoyed by everyone who went and the feedback has been positive, so its good that those blemishes on the night stay only with the organizers and people involved, because as with any show, its all about the people who come and making sure that their night is the best you can make it, and if people walk away having had an amazing night, then it’s a job well done!

PKDC – Pioneer Korea DJ Compitition

September 17, 2012September 18, 2012 by akadjblaze, posted in Events

Its a bit of a mouthful trying to say Pioneer Korea DJ Competition or PKDC, anyways, last thurs 13 Sept, I went along to check out the finals of the PKDC held at Club Holic, Sinsa, in Seoul. (and yes I know the English in the poster is terrible, you would think they would get someone to help them out with this huh, thou not that my English is any better at times…)

Now as far as DJ comps go, Korea doesn’t really have many that I know of, there is no DMC or the now defunct ITF, they have had one of the Heineken Comps here I think 2 years ago as a one off type of thing. Obviously my lack of Korean and not being Korean doesn’t really help when it comes to researching about this kind of thing. I have come across a couple of what seem to be smaller online comps run from some of the DJ Korea member sites, but these don’t seem to hold any real weight except the Beat 4 Battle, which seems to basically be a jam session for the scratch DJs which is cool.

But at least Korea does finally have 2 comps worthy of note and both are international ones as well. Firstly (and this was the first year for it in Korea) is the Redbull Thre3style Comp (which I myself entered) which is fastly become a world recognized and legit comp and the PKDC (which I didn’t know how to enter lol) which seems to be still more of an up and coming comp and centered in the asia region and I think this is either the 3rd or 4th year its been running.

So anyways, I know a couple of the DJs who are performing (since I met them at the Rebull comp, shout out to Enduke and Pandol and also DJ DD who was also in the house watching) so was glad to be able to go along and support some people I know. So here is a low down on the night…

Starting time, well of course it was late, these things always are, so chilled out while they did the soundcheck, caught up with the DJs and some other people, then finally first up was DJ Enduke, he had a really solid set, had some nice cuts and some cool mixes and music selection, def felt he deserved 2nd place (Check out his set here)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwmMK9jONyU

The format for the comp was 3 Hip Hop Style DJs who each had around 5-8mins to perform and 3 House style DJs who had around 13mins. Only equipment they could use was 4 Pioneer CDJs and a Pioneer Mixer (so no serato etc)

Second on was DJ Minor Flava, he was also pretty tight, again with some cool track selections but I felt it lacked variety which is prob why he came in 3rd (Check out his set here)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqNH9sFUaaA

Final DJ for the Hip Hop section was DJ Pandol, fresh off of winning the Redbull Comp and also taking out the PKDC last year he was def the favorite to win and overall he didn’t disappoint. His usual custom intro was pretty nice, I did think his cuts sounded a little messy thou, and also some of his juggles fell off a bit but the overall sound and feel of the set and use of a wide ranger of techniques is what most likely won him 1st place (Check out his set here)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUYRjiHs6jo

Next up was the house section, now Im not much of a house DJ also not overly into the music so I wont give an extensive review on them but you can check them out for yourself once I get the vids uploaded to youtube. However I will say the 3 of them did a good job, they had some nice remixes and song selection, they weren’t overly creative with their mixing thou but their transitions were mostly good and they controlled the energy nicely (thou at times it was a little off). My favorite set from the house section would have to be DJ Heroin Juices, I liked his intro tracks which created a nice buzz for his set.

At the end of the day from a DJ’s perspective, I think the results were pretty right given I don’t know what the judging criteria was (maybe in both sections 1st and 2nd places could be debatable as I think there were both pretty close) So shout outs to all the DJs who competed, and ill def be competing next year!

HIPHOP

1st DJ Pandol, 2nd DJ ENDUKE, 3rd DJ MinorFlava

HOUSE
1st DJ INI-K, 2nd DJ Heroinjuice, 3rd DJ KAY-SEOB