The holidays turn feverish with techno deejays’ gigs

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The holidays turn feverish with techno deejays’ gigs

Warm up for the holidays with a party. The hot electronic gatherings: BT, Richie Hawtin and Carl Cox. DeepDish would have made four, but they canceled.

BT Laptop Symphony Live With Ministry of Sound Asia Tour
Dec. 20 at Fashion Center 3F Event Hall, Samseong-dong
www.ministryofsound.com/Clubbing/Tours/ Listings/2003/20031220-Seoul.htm or www. subline.co.kr.
Tickets are 40,000 ($34) at the door or 30,000 won in advance
Being a fan of the Mac PowerBook, Brian Transeau, otherwise known as BT, is headlining the Ministry of Sound Asia Tour with his laptops. Instead of spinning on the popular Technics decks, the deejay will be mixing on the Mac. Hence, the “Laptop Symphony” approach. In an interview with Nocturnal Magazine, he says, “In essence, it’s live remixing through the use of two Macintosh G4 laptops. The one laptop is in the place of six turntables while the other contains programs like Reactor and Reason.” So it’s a live mix, with a non-traditional approach.
As a child growing up in the suburbs of Washington D.C., BT studied composers like Chopin, Bach, Debussy, Stravinsky. But it was only after hearing electronic music that he found his passion. The classical training has served him well, though; he’s gone on to compose movie scores with 80-piece orchestras and collaborate with musicians like Sting, Madonna and Sarah McLachlan.
The electronic music industry can thank him for pioneering the trance genre. Even now, whether he’s taking the lead or pitching in on an album, experimentation is the rule. The results have been hard-hitting nu-school breaks and sonic symphonies with angelic vocals. His latest release is “Emotional Technology.”

We Love Techno 3 Richie Hawtin Live
Dec. 27 at Club COD near Hongik University. www.02pro.com
To promote the new iPods in April, Apple Computer chose Richie Hawtin to spin a four-hour set at the Apple computer store in New York’s SoHo. “Naturally, Hawtin spun the tunes from an iPod,” Wired magazine reports.
For Hawtin’s set in Korea, the techno deejay is bringing his modified Allen & Heath mixer, which his father, an electrical engineer, retrofitted.
The techno deejay played to a crowd of 20,000 at the 1995 Glastonbury festival, but at COD, one of Hongdae’s newer clubs, he’ll be giving a much cozier performance. Hawtin formed Plus 8 Records, a label that influenced artists from hardcore to drum and bass to raise the tempo of their music. As his alter ego, Plastikman, Hawtin explores the gentler side of techno, as in his new album, “Closer.” Deejays Andy & Stu and Chulwoo complete the lineup.

Celebration 2004: Carl Cox in Seoul
Dec. 31 at Sheraton Grande Walkerhill www.carlcox.co.kr
Tickets are 70,000 won at the door or 60,000 advance purchase
After a two-year hiatus from Asia, Carl Cox returns to kick off the New Year. “We’ve been trying to book him for four years,” Tommy Kim of 02 Pro says about the globetrotting superstar house music deejay. “He’d be on a lot of people’s top three deejay wish list in Korea.”
Cox, voted No. 1 deejay by Muzik magazine, dishes up more than mixing skills. As the so-called “Ambassador of dance music,” Cox launched the Worldwide Ultimatum Records label in 1996 and Ultimate Music Management, through which he promotes deejays like Josh Wink and Laurent Garnier.
Cox usually plays the big music festivals, then celebrates New Year’s outside his country, the United Kingdom. Last year, he was in Hungary, the year before, in Singapore. He celebrated the millennium twice, in Sydney and Honolulu. This will be his first performance in Seoul, with deejays Devil and Diong. For the Seoul festivities, Mogua and Planet 7 Graphics are creating the visuals.


by Joe Yong-hee
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