Unfortunately, I was stuck far from Central on Saturday night, and it looked like I was going to miss catching Danny Krivit, one of the top d.j.s and producers from New York, as he made his first appearance in Hong Kong. The club Dragon-i has been going into overdrive recently, booking many of the top, most influential d.j.s in the world. They have been bringing the biggest names in both House and Hip Hop music. On that note, I’m excited to catch pioneer M.C. Melle Mel from Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five at the end of the month.

Luckily, I was able to get back to Central earlier than expected, so I decided to jump around the neighborhood. I started off attending a party at the new Armani Bar in Central. There’s a building on Chater Road that houses around six separate Armani entities. I’m not talking just clothing. They range from a florist and book store, to a furniture shop and now a restaurant/bar. The same space used to be a cafe several years ago, and it recently reopened in this new format.

When I got there they had an Italian House music d.j. spinning and dancers on two podiums grooving to the music. I only stayed about thirty minutes since it wasn’t that crowded. I decided to stop by Dragon-i before heading to Volar. I wanted to catch a little of Danny Krivit’s performance if possible.

Luckily for me, when I stopped by D.I. he was already on. The place was still filling up, but just by looking at him you could see that he loved his music. Despite it being early in the night, he was enthusiastically working the equalizers (bass, and treble) for different segments of the song. Clearly, he was going to be giving a big performance at peak time.

Volar was packed when I got there. The d.j. started off with some old-school Hip Hop, and went into a long Brasilian Funk set. Later he played a mixture of Hip Hop and Dancehall music.

Volar is divided into two rooms, with two different d.j.s playing at once. If Volar was a boat, last night it would have capsized, because the whole club rockin’ on one side! The d.j. killed it until 4:30 am, when they asked him to stop the music because there was no one on the other side of the club!

Afterwords I decided to head back to Dragon-i to see if Danny Krivit was still spinning. I got there at nearly 5 am, and sure enough he was still tweaking the e.q.s. There were less than ten people there, but they were feeling his vibe and he continued to kick it. That’s a real d.j.!

Last night Japan’s D.J. Krush made an appearance in H.K. I’ve been hearing about this guy for at least ten years, and I was excited to check him out live. Krush just came out with a new album, so he must be touring to promote it. I got to the club about 30 minutes after he started. The place was crowded, and the turnout of Krush fans was large. Members of the club, Volar, got free entry, others had to pay $250 HKD (about $32 USD) to get in.

Normally, the better clubs in Hong Kong don’t charge for entry, except on nights with special guest d.j.s. On regular nights, door policies vary, and some require some sort of “membership” to get in. Dragon-i and Volar are the top two clubs at bringing international d.j.s. If you’re a club regular however, even on special d.j. nights, you will get in free.

Getting back to the music, Krush played exactly as I expected: sophisticated, experimental – yet soulful Hip Hop. His turntable skills were sharp. The crowd was trying to groove, however some of the songs were just not meant for dancing. At several points he brought them back with some uptempo, soulful beats. It was fun to hear a d.j. who has a particular, distinct sound do his thing. He didn’t try to win everyone over, or compromise his music.

The photo below shows fans crushing the stage to get a look.

Here’s Krush in the mix – note that he was playing records!

As a follow up to my previous entry about D.J. Premier coming to H.K., here’s a quick rundown of his performance. There was a large turnout and lots of anticipation on the night he performed. The place was packed and many people in the local Hip Hop community turned up. It was a Wednesday night, which is one of the big party nights at Dragon-i. Premier came on at 12:30. He started off on the mic giving a brief intro to get the crowd hyped. Then he began his set with some medium tempo Hip Hop.

Unlike other touring d.j.s who use CDs or laptops, Premier used real records and he brought five crates of vinyl! Throughout his set he didn’t play any commercial Pop music, and stuck to mostly underground, New York style Hip Hop. It was cool to see the usually conservative crowd rocking to real Hip Hop for once. It just proves that you don’t need to sell out – by playing all familiar Pop/Hip Hop in order to get people dancing. Premier played many of the hits he produced including Gangstarr, M.O.P. and K.R.S. cuts. The show lasted til after 3am.

True Hip Hop fans wishes have come true because this Wednesday, D.J. Premier of Gangstarr fame will be playing at Dragon-i. Wednesday night at Dragon-i is already one of the busiest and best parties in town. Occasionally big name d.j.s also make their appearance on Wednesdays, such as when D.J. Cash Money played, but D.J. Premier is on a totally different level. Premier is one of the top Hip Hop producers ever. His music has given birth to literally dozens of top songs. I’m hoping that he doesn’t dilute his music for his Hong Kong performance.

It seems that many more top d.j.s and music acts have been hitting Hong Kong recently. Over the last month we’ve had Ultra Nate and Joe Caussell performing at Dragon-i, James Lavelle at Tribeca, and Franz Ferdinand played a concert here. The quality of life is going up!

For the second year in a row I attended Dragon-i’s Chinese New Year celebration. This year they also featured a lion dance and music by the d.j. Paul “Trouble” Anderson. The lion dance is always a special treat. It featured two lions – a silver one and a gold one. At the height of the performance the lions fetched something from the ceiling using their mouths. It is then unfurled and opens to be a banner with good new years wishes.

On Saturday, January 7th, D.J. Gregory from Paris is going to return to Dragon-i. He played here last year at Kee Club on the weekend and then played another set at Dragon-i on a Monday or Tuesday night. Despite it being early in the week, he had the place jumping. D.J. Gregory played all sorts of classics, and was really into it, even though it was a smaller crowd than his weekend gig. With all the positive word-of-mouth from last year, it should be crowded this time!

I was looking forward to catching Jazzy Jeff at Dragon-I for the third time. Although he doesn’t play that much of my favorite Hip Hop, he does play a good classics set, in addition to mixing in the latest R&B. His mixing is extremely precise and he always cuts beats up nice. I don’t know why he doesn’t work in more underground Hip Hop. Once you have the crowd going, they’re going to respond to solid beats – especially on the strength of his rep. I wish more international d.j.s would play a greater variety of music, and expose people to more interesting stuff than simply the MTV pop standards. Anyway, he’s got skills, and he was the inventor of the transformer scratch, which IS STILL THE BEST SCRATCH – all you West Coast turntablist nerds! Ha. So I cut him some slack on the song selection.

Before I went to Dragon-I, I met up with a friend and went to the grand opening party for Sugar, a club that actually soft-opened about three weeks ago. It’s located in the same building as Hei Hei (also in Central). Everyone keeps talking about how big it is, but it doesn’t seem big to me. It’s divided into 2 rooms, and has lots of seating – maybe that’s why I don’t think it’s big. In Hong Kong, people flock to the newest thing. It could be a store, a restaurant or a club, but you gain face by going to the newest place. There is a local definition of the word ‘trendy’ that is without the negative connotations, and used in a positive sense that means something like ‘up-to-date’. People like to be considered trendy. The crowd at Sugar is higher class than Hei Hei, and I like going there so far as a new edition to my normal rounds. You’ll see people that would rarely go to Dragon-I and Volar at Sugar. I find it far more well run than Hei Hei, and I like that their door policy is better. At the opening I ran into my friend Sarika who told me she’s acting in a new local horror film! Wow! I’m really happy for her, and I’m excited to see it. I ran into a few other people before heading back up to D.I. (Dragon-I) to check out Jazzy Jeff.