Monthly Reviews – akadjblaze

2016 Review

January 23, 2017May 29, 2017 by akadjblaze, posted in Monthly Reviews

The extended version

Seriously 2016 will go down in the history books as the year the world went from semi messed up to straight bat shit crazy and the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it! Yes bring on those doom and gloom prophecies, that shit is fun to imagine and as long as I get my zombie apocalypse or alien invasion, I’ll be happy!

But on a more serious note personally 2016 for me was like any other year, a series of ups and downs, travel, DJn and just doing me. However even the good and bad extremes of this year were def more pronounced than previous years.

Continue reading “2016 Review” →

March Update 2015

March 26, 2015 by akadjblaze, posted in Monthly Reviews

Ok so it has been awhile between posts, so first up here is an update on things over the last few months…

Missed NYE after being stuck at Kalibo (think I already mentioned that, worst NYE ever!)

Told by my job that they are picking a new company for the school, so went on a job hunt, in the end I have a job and now finally settled in, its in Eugnam, so pretty handy to home, pay and hours are about the same

Been DJn at Syndrome in their new hip hop zone, as one of 11 DJs on rotation… yes, 11 DJs… needless to say while its been awesome when I do get to play there, been really enjoying it and hopefully will get to play there again, but really, the whole situation behind it is really just a dam mess

Had 2 and a half week holiday… with little money and no time to plan, I ended up doing the rounds a bit in the clubs and did manage to go to Guam for a few days. Guam was nice, thou ended up taying most of the trip bouncing back and forth between the beach, the pool, the spa and the pool bar/restaurant! However this was the perfect relaxing holiday and just what I needed (basically it was everything that Boracay was meant to be but was not lol)

Enjoyed a great Waiting day chilling with fellow Kiwis and some good wine!

Bar Fly is the same old shit, been a busy few weeks with Uni parties but now back to normal again, still plenty of fuckwits coming late at night, and I swear one of these days someone is going to get more than just thrown out by me (I will post that video up one day)

The big change with Bar Fly thou is he finally moved the DJ booth downstair, no longer stuck up in the rafters, can finally see and interact with the crowd, so at least not only is it going to make DJn more fun, means I can practice my on stage persona more and jump around like an idiot (since it seems thats what people like fml)

Booked my next holiday already and have another one planned (depending on certain factors…) but I am finally going to Hong Kong! Been putting it off for awhile now, but decided to finally head there, basically it will be my shopping trip for the year (instead of Tokyo) so headed there the 1st weekend of May for the long weekeknd

Still looking at moving, a few promising apartments have come up so will be checking those out, hopefully I can move in the next month or so to a bigger place and finally get a dog!

Touch is about to start up, the weather is nice so looking forward to getting outside again!

Have a few DJ projects underway, keep an eye out for those (pretty sure I always have something underway lol)

Ill post more about it for D’s Horizon but the TV season has been good, anime season has been so so but a couple of good shows about to come to an end

AND Ultron is almost upon us!!!

2014 Review

January 14, 2015 by akadjblaze, posted in Monthly Reviews

So, since the FB year in Review this time round completely sucked balls and since I have my own webpage, I feel it’s only natural that I post up my review here 🙂

It’s 2015 already, that came by quickly… In this day and age time really does seem to just fly by, with so much going on in our lives it makes sense So before getting into this year properly, time to reflect on 2014 which was another good year for me and have managed to solidify myself in the DJ scene more and towards the end of the year started working on connections to further myself in 2015. Its all about that ground work! Had plenty of little achievements in 2014 but the main highlights for me were

– 2nd Place BeFM (again)

– DJn for Redbull at UMF

– Looking after my health, dropping 10kg and getting my fitness buzz back on

– Globe Trotting (Bali, Tokyo, Taipei, Shanghai, Boracay)

– Meeting Jazzy Jeff!

– Starting a sport I have always wanted to do (Archery, new bow on its way!)

– Some crazy parties and nights out (stock standard as a DJ)

– Learning how to record and produce as well as hooking up with some new MC’s

– A pretty good year playing touch

So those are my highlights for the year, not bad but still need to keep building on them, had a couple of failed and missed opportunities last year but that’s just the way it goes. The failed ones are ones I chose to pull out of, the missed ones, well will be looking at changing those this year, so without further ado, my goals for 2015, these are the end goals, things I hope to achieve by the end of the year, there will be plenty of short term goals in-between, but these are what I ultimately want to achieve this year

– Travel to at least 2 countries this year (possibly more, depends if I can do a tour again this year)

– DJ at UMF and WDF again

– DJ on a big stage at a festival this year

– DJ a main set at one of the big clubs

– Gain a new residency

– Drop to 80-82kg

– Release a mixtape (Major Flavours style) using local artists

– Release a track of my own creation

– Perform a DJ/MC set of my own design (details will come later)

– Learn/Try a new sport (there is a couple I want to try again or pick up properly)

At the end of 2015, I will endeavor to revisit this list and see how much of it I can tick off! I might also add a few more goals to this list, but as of now, this is where my sights are set! Let’s go!

Review: June, July & August

September 18, 2014September 18, 2014 by akadjblaze, posted in Monthly Reviews

Ok so it has been a busy last few months, 3 trips overseas, various gigs as well as my usual ones so here is a quick recap of what I have been doing these last few months

June

Well June was a interesting month, I got to do some pretty cool things and also finished my 12 week challenge, 10kg lighter and back up to maybe 75% on the touch field

– Spent my birthday and long weekend running around Japan buying as much stuff as I could! Harajuku for clothes and Akihabara for my anime obsession

– Next weekend was UMF which I got to jam out in the redbull party jeep, pretty cool that I got to go to UMF, wasn’t the greatest of festivals but it is def one of the biggest in Korea and around the world… just a shame the line up was mud

– Spun at venue, nothing but old skool and a bit of a MJ tribute. Also it was a great crowd for early on so made the night even better

Well that was June, short but eventful.

July

July proved to be less busy, was back at venue again but the night ended up being a dud unfortunately. The main thing for July was taking on a new residence at King Club, however that ended up being short lived. Scroll to the bottom for that story…

– I spent most of the time working on my BeFM set.

– I did take a trip to Taipei which was a lot of fun

– Met with Blossom Day which was a kick start to working with JC

– TBT at Venue with Pinnacle and Rich Ben, pitty it was a dud of a night

And that was July

August was a good month

– 2^nd Place at BeFM with a trip down to Busan, rocking it out on Gwangali

– Went to WDJ Festival with DJ Korea, jamming in the tent again, but to less fanfare than last year

– Started to do some proper work with JC, exciting times ahead working with her, but did have a fun night out at Bar Fly

– Started on some other projects including learning to produce music

And some other random things I got up to in August…

Went to the One Piece expo in Seoul, it was cool, mostly based around the Marine Ford Arc which was of course total epicness! (Full review in another post)

Went to my first Baseball game in Korea

And that was August, simple but fun, Sept is halfway done but it is also turning out to be another great month, it’s already coming into Autumn and the end of the year is rapidly approaching… again…

So here goes with the King Club story

My hours at bar fly changed to the late shift, so it opened up a time for me to play somewhere else, I was going to look at a second residency after summer since I am usually busy during summer but King Club offered so I thought why not, they are under new ownership and have a new direction that wanted to go in so at first I was excited about working there, because honestly I never liked the place at all or the people that use to frequent it but the hope that it would change and the possibility of the place had me in… But as I began working there it was quickly apparent that any change was going to be slow if at all. The American soldiers still frequented the place, and they bring their own brand of bullshit with them (for the 4 weeks I was there, there was at least 1 fight each weekend…) as well as wanting to hear all the new shit that you can’t dance too. The music they (the boss etc) wanted me to play wasn’t the kind of music the crowd they want to attract want to hear (I even had the bouncer? stop me at the door and start going on about some shit with the music, I just gave him the yeah whatever, like I’m going to listen to you look and walked on by, I listen to the crowd and the boss, not you) and it was just becoming apparent that the direction they wanted to go in was pretty blurry. Also at Bar Fly, the boss asked me to switch back to my old time, so since they come first, had to talk to king club and see if could switch up the schedule, the problem is all of the DJs there have a second residency that is more important to them than king club so none of them can change, which was fine with me, I was the late comer to the party and also working there was really starting to become an annoyance rather than fun, not to say I didn’t have some fun there thou! The place has a lot of potential, always has, and has some good people working there but as is always the way, direction needs to be decisive, not blurry… and changing styles up between the military and Korean/expat scene… seriously there is a reason why I hate Itaewon and even more so hate those young American soldiers and all their bullshit. I avoid the place like the plague

Update… June is here!

May 31, 2014September 16, 2014 by akadjblaze, posted in Monthly Reviews

So, I know I haven’t been updating that frequently, and to be honest there hasn’t been much to tell, that is what tends to happen when you lay low and work on other things rather than focus fully on DJn, in saying that of course I still have my residency every weekend so its not like I’m not doing anything, its just not much worthy of posting up about. But now that summer is here I have a few things that are worth mentioning but ill talk about those fully in future posts, the major one being that BeFM DJ comp is happening again this year, so I thought I would document my experience this year, so I will be keeping notes etc but I won’t post them up till after the comp has finished (for various reasons which you will find out) Other smaller things will be hopefully my lead up towards WDJ Festival and a couple of smaller gigs that are also in the works. Ill also do a start to finish blog on a video mix.

Speaking of blog topics, I am about to undertake a new weekly blog (more details to come) but it has got me thinking of how I can make my blog and page appeal to a wider audience, while DJn in what most people would think of as exciting, I am not exactly touring around the world so my stories are on that level yet, and DJn in the clubs… well stories from there are just your usual typical drunken night out stories, not exactly something that is blog worthy on a regular basis, so, I have been giving it some thought and have decided on a couple of ideas I will try and do…

The first is to once a month post up my set list from my residency, the purpose is to let people get an idea for the kind of music I play, but also for myself to hold to a bit of accountability when selecting my music and to try and not play the same shit over and over (which can be hard when your playing to a club that wants to hear the same shit over and over) Along with this list Ill include a list of 5 tracks that I decided to include in that months sets (either new or old) that I haven’t played before or that I haven’t played in a very long time, again just sharing a sniper into my DJ life but to also try and better myself as well

The second idea was to start doing some sort of reviewing, now there are 2 things that I thought I might try here, one is reviewing music videos, being a DJ who also uses video, this makes sense, so ill try and review a few music videos each month, give a low down of what they are about and if I like them or thing they are shit etc. The second is to review DJ controllers, I always get a few questions regarding these, and I know there is a lot of information out there regarding controllers, but having another DJ giving opinions from my perspective can never hurt (also I will keep them short and precise)

So for now that is it, first playlist will go up tomorrow, first of the month so seems like a fitting place to start, reviews to follow shortly afterwards. Till then have a good Saturday night! Chur!

Mar 2014 Review

April 9, 2014September 16, 2014 by akadjblaze, posted in Monthly Reviews

Well its that time again so here is an update of the last month which was a quieter one (kinda). So first up, the gigs…

1. Double gig weekend at Bar Fly and BrandNu with Pinnacle, see the write up about it but it was a wild ass weekend

2. Stopped by Part Time Cooks gig at Somos, didn’t get to see them perform but it was almost a full house when I left and I heard good reviews overall

3. Normal Bar Fly madness every weekend

4. Special (and early) April fools party at M-Cube in Apugjeong.

So this gig was a little interesting. The venue first, well its in the CGV building, its actually a pretty cool set up, big room and they have all the equipment etc needed to host live acts or shows and pretty decent equipment at that (its the same building as the beats by dre theatre) so as you can see in the photos it works well. Now the party itself, well it was more of a show than a party, having multiple acts and singers come up and perform, so people were sitting and watching. At the end of the show I was meant to come on and the show was to turn into a ‘club’ style party which was a fail. Multiple reasons why, firstly a show turning into a party, so getting people to get in the club mood after sitting down is difficult, location, it is not in a normal club area so people might have wanted to go to other areas, also the bar was kinda small and the drinks were on the normal to high side price wise, the tech crew packing down the main speakers and equipment as well didn’t help (giving the illusion that the night was about to finish) And then I only had a shitty controller (I wasn’t getting paid enough to bring in tables etc lol) so as you can imagine, once the party left people were headed straight for the door, it looked like everyone had already made up their minds to leave after the performances, so yeah, fail! On the bright side I finished early but still go paid the original amount! But yeah, playing music after people are performing live when you are not in a club… doesn’t tend to go down so well (I had similar experiences before)

This month I also started doing recordings for people as well, here is the final production from one of my first recordings (I just helped him record the vocals, mastering and beat were done by others)

Next month I will try to start on another project I have been messing with as well, so keep an eye out for that

Lastly, I have been a little quieter this month because I have taken on a 12 week challenge with some friends, its a loose challenge thou, more on your own accountability, anyways for me its a chance to focus on myself and wellbeing a little bit more since its been a long time since I have done that and with DJn hours its always a difficult thing (esp mixing that up with normal jobs) but finally this year I have a bit of normality within my weekly routine, the change from weekday to weekend isn’t as drastic, and now I’m finally getting back into regular training and also tidying up my eating habits, so this month has been a lot of adjusting to this, its not a diet I’m doing but a full on change/adjustment to what I have been doing which Im happy to say I am making good progress on and should hopefully be ready to hit summer at full speed!

Thats all for now, have a good week!

Feb 2014 Review

March 2, 2014September 16, 2014 by akadjblaze, posted in Monthly Reviews

God dam its March already?! What the hell… Anyways, time for a quick review of the last month….

Highlights/Points of note

– Finally got a website up and running

– Set up my home studio

– Watched ‘What difference does it make: A film about making music’ at the Beats by Dre Theatre thanks to Redbull

– Managed to successful revive ‘Selector Sessions’ for 2014

– Finally managed to check out Octagon

– New students arriving at Bar Fly

– Had a great night DJn at Dojo for an Old Skool night

So February is usually a very quiet month here in Korea except towards the last week when the students finally arrive back, the good thing this year is it has been a very mild winter but still word around is that a lot of clubs have had a struggling winter which isn’t surprising given the amount of new places that keep opening, Korea has a huge population but the number of people who actually frequent night clubs isn’t enough to sustain the amount of clubs there are now, however thats another story.

So the revival of selector sessions, I will post more about this in another post but in short it was a success given I had 2 DJs pull out on the day, but I managed to get the lifestream up and running and also go to have my first test of the new Reloop 8000 midi turntables (review also on its way) so it was a good start and will hopefully build more on it as the year goes on

So, finally managed to check out Octagon, one of the I guess elite VIP styled clubs in Gangnam (basically big ass club, bottom of a hotel, shit load of expensive ass VIP tables, rooms, expensive drinks centred around a DJ up on a stage and a dance floor) Now like the other clubs it is really nice, bit of a maze but the decor is usually really modern, the sound systems are awesome and in general they are awesome places. In a future post ill also talk more about how people act in clubs like this but for now it was just good to finally get there, see it and most importantly, listen and observe.

Bar Fly was slow most of this month but the last week saw a couple of big parties, lots of new students in town so the universities do their usual orientation etc, but of course students don’t tend to spend much money and parties start early which means they end early… again more about this in another post 🙂

So lastly I have to mention ‘Back in the Day’ 80’s and 90’s party at Dojo. Now normally I am against DJs only playing an hour etc but for parties like this, it works great, having 6 different DJ’s express their take on a couple of exciting decades of music is always something to see, unfortunately I couldn’t stay long but from what I understand, it was a great night and I am looking forward to doing it again! But it is also good because it is the start of a local initiative to strengthen the local DJ and local brand scene in the Dojo area. The article about not bitching about a scene and go out and create it yourself was really good and this will hopefully lead to good things and I’m very happy to be part of it and help build up not only the scene here but also in my own venture to build up a stronger DJ scene with DJ Korea

Right, thats it for now, there is a lot that I will expand on but for now, month over… on to the next one

Chur!