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The Taiwan Correspondent -Episode II

I’d had enough. It had been too long. Things couldn’t go on like this any longer. I was getting close to breaking point, and pretty soon something would have to give. Thankfully, I’m not talking about my growing craving for some decent bread getting the better of me, although if anyone does feel like shipping me a couple of baguettes and a ciabatta then I promise free hummus for life for you and your children’s children once the Global Source Food Co. is up and running. No, I’m referring to the fact that up until this past weekend, I hadn’t yet spent a night outside of Taipei, despite having travelled around to a few nearby villages and the Yangmingshan national park to the north of the city. As I mentioned in my last post, these first couple of months (spent mostly studying and working as a night receptionist) had been great in terms of getting my Chinese back up to speed, but I’d grown more and more frustrated by having travelled so little round the island. I wanted to get away from the big city life, to see some of Taiwan’s famously beautiful nature and to meet some people less used to 外國人 (waiguoren – foreigners) than the cosmopolitan inhabitants of Taipei, people with whom I could get some proper Chinese conversation without recourse to English.

After a couple of friends dropped out of a planned trip to Alishan, a mountain area in the centre of Taiwan due to a pretty shocking weather forecast, I made plans to check out the city of台中(Taichung) with a friend who I’d met on the orientation day at NTU, a soft-spoken Dane named Bjarke. I’d immediately taken a liking to him for his dryly understated sense of humour and I’ve since grown to appreciate his collection of three-quarter-length shorts and radical English vocabulary (think ‘stoked’ and ‘steezy’.) We’d talked earlier in the week about making a hammock-and-hitchhike trip down to either Taichung or 台南(Tainan), even if it meant going into ‘survival mode’ (his words). With this in mind I bought a couple of plastic rain covers to keep us dry in our hammocks, and we caught a bus down to Taichung on Friday night with no real plan other than to get out into the country and see where we ended up. It’s worth noting that the bus ride was a delight – as a veteran passenger / victim of the UK’s most reliably unreliable transport service, the Megabus, this trip felt like a ride on a cruise ship, with comfortable, properly reclining seats, and enough legroom to dance a cancan if necessary.

When we’d checked into our hostel, we headed out to see what Taichung had to offer on a Friday evening. The neighbourhood we were staying in was pretty much empty of human life, so we decided to get in a taxi and ask where the action might be found. The driver, a husky middle-aged guy whose polo shirt had given up trying to restrain his beer gut, suggested a night market and we gladly took him up on the offer. As we drove across town, I asked what he considered the highlights of the city, fishing for something worth doing the next day before heading out into the villages. His response was to ask me whether I liked strippers or dancing – I’m still not sure if this says more about his thoughts on Taichung or foreigners. Anyway, when we got to the market I was feeling happy with having held a conversation in Mandarin for a good fifteen minutes, even if the subject matter had been the relative merits of all-you-can-drink bars and those where you buy drinks separately (apparently the latter have more beautiful girls).

When we’d made the rounds of the market, (I’ll be talking in detail all about Taiwan’s night markets in an upcoming post) we headed down a side street to get some less greasy food than the various deep-fried wares on offer between stalls selling screen protectors and bubble tea. The road was lined with small restaurants whose customers mostly sat outside on plastic stools, laughing and drinking beer. I hadn’t seen much of this kind of night-time atmosphere in Taipei; it reminded me of China, where for ordinary people socialising is something which takes place in the street, not in bars and clubs. As we sat down to eat, we were invited to join a table in front of a fruit stall, by a burly guy with a broad smile who turned out to be the stall’s owner. He insisted on treating us to fresh guava and papaya, as well as beer – he was delighted that I was able to keep up with his rate of drinking, a skill upon which he clearly prided himself. Speaking of pride, he and his friends were eager to talk about their love for Taiwan – we got onto the topic through discussing the merits of Taiwan Beer (the imaginative name for the island’s only major brand), and when they found out I’d lived in China they couldn’t wait to list the reasons why Taiwan was the place to be. I must admit, I could have been more vocal in disputing Taiwan’s absolute superiority, but thought coming to China’s defence would likely achieve little, besides sabotaging my new source of free beer. Anyway, as is often the case, I found that the alcohol greased the moving parts of my brain’s language centre, and before I knew it I had spent a good hour conversing and cracking jokes with the fruit seller and his boys. Unfortunately, Bjarke is a geography student and as such only started learning Chinese when he came to Taiwan a few months ago. As he was clearly getting a little bored of smiling and nodding at a conversation he didn’t understand, and as we wanted to make the most of the next couple of days, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hostel.

After a night spent in the hostel’s stairwell, the only refuge from the incredibly loud and consistent snoring of an overweight roommate (sadly, such is the reality of staying in dorms), we headed out to start the day. Unable to sleep, I’d quickly looked up some attractions in Taichung and settled on the Rainbow Village, a quirky art attraction in the west of the city. It consists of a small group of low concrete houses built to accommodate Kuomintang soldiers after they retreated to Taiwan from China (I’m not going to cover the history of the Chinese civil war here, if you want to find out more head to Wikipedia), and which were already gradually being demolished when an elderly resident, Mr Huang, started to paint every available wall with simplistic images of people, animals and characters from legends, all in bright, childlike colours. The painted village eventually became noticed by students from a nearby university, and is now a popular tourist site. This was evident when we arrived to the sight of several tour buses parked up outside, as crowds of visitors milled around photographing every square inch of brightly decorated concrete. The paintings themselves are charming and the overall ambience of the village is pretty beautiful, although the thronging tour groups jostling for selfie spots cheapens the experience a little. Seemingly embracing the commercialisation of his creation, the nonagenarian Mr Huang himself was present at the gift shop, perched on a stool in his sunglasses and paying absolutely no attention to anyone, while a pair of (presumably) relatives sold postcards, fridge magnets and various other Rainbow Village merchandise to a steady stream of customers.

We left the Rainbow Village after not too long and headed to Fengyuan, a suburb to the north of Taichung where we’d decided to rent bikes and head out into the hills to the east of the city. We arrived just after midday, and soon found a place offering a range of bikes for around NT$200 per day – about £5. We booked a pair of mountain bikes for a couple of days, leaving my ID card as collateral, and were soon on our way along the Houli bike trail. As it turned out, this trail was hugely popular, and as Bjarke put it, this meant it was basically a “bicycle highway”, with heavy traffic in both directions. We were comfortably the quickest on the trail, including the many people who’d rented electric bikes, but overtaking was pretty sketchy since there were oncoming bikes most of the time as well. We ended up leaving the trail soon after stopping at a winery, where we tried a couple of local wines which left a lot to be desired – the kind of stuff you might keep in reserve in case someone you really disliked came round for dinner. Once we were able to make our own way, the ride became much more enjoyable. The scenery became more rugged and lush with each corner we turned, and we soon became very aware of the fact that Taiwan’s mountainous terrain means that outside the cities, the landscape quickly gets steep. A long, winding climb, which I made with my eyes fixed on the yellow tiled roof of a temple on a distant hillside, brought us to the top of a ridge from which we could see over the river which we’d passed over on a bridge while still on the bike trail.

Pausing to admire the view, we then descended down an equally winding road, passing by small farms with groves of orange trees. A couple of weeks before, I would have thought they were lime trees – the Taiwanese orange has mostly green skin, something I only discovered when the owner of my local vegetarian restaurant gave me one as a gift. As the afternoon went on, and we followed the path of the river to the south-east, we saw more and more fruit being grown - oranges, grapes, bananas, what I’m pretty sure was dragon fruit and a whole range of other produce which I wouldn’t begin to know the names of. Taiwan produces a huge range of fruit, which means it’s readily available, and cheaply – being able to eat passion fruit for breakfast nearly every day is one of the better reasons I can think of for getting out of bed. At one point we ended up accidentally cycling right through an orange farm, following a path which at points was just a strip of concrete on the edge of an irrigation ditch, which was a lot of fun besides being harassed briefly by a trio of angry (and understandably surprised) dogs.

After several hours riding through villages and past fruit farms, the light was beginning to fade on the damp hillsides. It had been lightly raining on and off for most of the afternoon, and as we started to think about finding a place to spend the night we rounded a corner and were faced with a beautiful and ghostly scene: an old cemetery, overgrown in places, whose tombs were shrouded with mist while in the distance, a ridge of high mountains stood in obscure shadow against the sky. Cloud swirled in the valley below. From the hill on which we stood, it seemed as though we were on a graveyard island in an ocean of white and grey; as clouds churned around the hills, bursts of wind and rain stirred the air. We stood watching the shifting mist, transfixed… this sight was truly breath taking to behold. Needless to say, my phone camera did not come close to capturing the scene. It was several minutes before we picked up our bikes and moved on. As we came to the top of another climb which wound up and to the right, we settled on a wooded hillside in the distance for a place to make camp for the night, far enough from the houses at the foot of the slope that nobody would notice a couple of hammocks among the trees. We had instant noodles and a small gas cooker, we just needed to refill our water bottles and we’d be all set to settle down as darkness fell.

We went to ask for water at a farmhouse, and struck up a conversation with a man and woman who were standing in the open lobby at the front of the house. They invited us to drink some tea and offered some dried fruit, and we happily accepted. They noticed the signs on our rental bikes and asked if we’d come all the way from Fengyuan, nodding and saying “lihai!” (which means something in between excellent and good job) when I answered that we had. The tea was a strong but not unpleasant herbal brew; I asked what it was made of and the smiling lady said proudly that it was a plant which they grew right there on the farm – she offered to show us, and since this kind of offer doesn’t come around every day, we followed her out of the gate and across the road into a huge darkened shed. What was inside was truly impressive; hundreds of shelves of earth covered in all sorts of weird-looking growths of different sizes and shapes. The farm’s owner was inside the shed and our new friend introduced us – I found myself getting along well with our host, introducing myself and Bjarke, and talking for several minutes about what we were doing in Taiwan, where we were from and even a light-hearted discussion of Brexit. We went back to the farmhouse, and after more tea and meeting several members of the family, the boss, whose name was Mr Wu, invited us to stay for dinner. I explained that we needed to find a place to set up our hammocks before it got dark, miming two trees and something slung between them (I’ve since learned the word is diaochuang), and at once several of the family pointed to the trees to the side of the farmhouse.

The hospitality of the Wu family was incredible. Given the choice between a night spent having dinner and getting to know this kind family of Buddhist farmers, or eating instant noodles by ourselves in the rain, my heart was firmly set on the former option. Bjarke reluctantly agreed, although I could tell he was a bit put out not to be going full ‘survival mode’. We set up the hammocks with the rain covers in the yard, and were soon eating dinner on the patio with Mr Wu while the rest of the family ate upstairs. Since the family was Buddhist, we ate a vegetable stew with fried rice – simple, tasty food. As directed by our host, we ate several portions each, as I talked with Mr Wu and translated for Bjarke, and in order to show our thanks for their generosity, I insisted that Mrs Wu let us do the dishes. After dinner the whole family congregated in an outbuilding which was comfortably decked out with sofas and chairs to watch a documentary about camels in western china. Several family members said that we should sleep in this room; nobody stayed in the building at night and we’d be sure to stay dry. However, this was not what we’d planned, and they had already been kind enough. We were both tired from our early start and the day’s cycling and we soon started to drift off, and went to our hammocks smiling with full stomachs.

For the sake of brevity, I’ll end this post here. Suffice it to say it rained heavily all night, and by 4am we were both getting a bit too wet for comfort despite the rain covers, so we quickly headed in to the outhouse for a few hours more rest, before having breakfast with the family (there was seemingly no end to the kindness they were willing to offer a pair of strangers). We then set out on the bikes, in better weather, through the lush mountain landscape, finally arriving back in Taichung in the late afternoon, where we eventually caught a train back to Taipei for a much needed shower and good night’s sleep.

#travelblogger #taiwan #cycling #adventure

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globalsource-blog · 7 years

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The Taiwan Correspondent - Episode 1

It’s been a while since I’ve written a piece on here about my travels. Since moving to Taiwan I’ve been busy to say the least, but the time is now, and here I present to anyone who cares to read it my attempt to distil into writing some sense of what I’ve been up to in my first two months on this Illa Formosa.

I arrived here, by way of Dubai, on the evening of the 31st of August. When I’d reclaimed my bags and passed through immigration without having to present any of the many documents, photocopies and extra passport photographs which I’d brought like magic charms to ward off evil spirits, I caught the airport train into the city of Taipei. I was headed to a hostel right by the main train station, which was a welcome thought as my bags were weighed down with books, my tent, sleeping bag and camp stove… I’d had a hard time deciding what to bring, and in the end decided on pretty much everything, stopping short of a skateboard. I caught the train at just the right time to watch the last half hour of golden daylight washing over hillsides whose wooded slopes were interspersed with small brick buildings, the occasional temple and gradually more and more concrete as we came closer to Taipei. On arrival, I shouldered my bags and set out to find my hostel.

Unfortunately, the universe had decided that I should first make a brief tour of the neighbourhood with the help of an energetic man who spoke bad English, worse Chinese and claimed to be called Henry. He also claimed to be from Portsmouth despite his strong and distinctly non-English accent, and was evasive when I asked what he was doing in Taipei. Anyway, he was keen to help me find my hostel, and proceeded to do exactly the opposite by leading me in every possible wrong direction, bags and all, in the heat of the Taiwanese evening (around 30 Celsius at the time). Eventually he seemed to lose interest, and with a vigorous handshake, passed me off onto a pair of local girls, insisting that they help me. Bemused and a little relieved, I was not unhappy to see that strange and enigmatic individual stride away into the night. Free to make my own way, I soon came to the hostel, passing by at least five convenience stores, a temple (Taipei’s streets are home to many Taoist and Buddhist places of worship) and many of the small, family-run restaurants open to the street which are characteristic of Asian cities. I had booked into Flip Flop Main Station Hostel, whose slightly strange name, according to their website, reflects the “flip flop philosophy”, which seems to have something to do with a laid-back travelling mentality and also their no-shoes-inside policy. In all honesty I could take or leave the philosophy, what I required was a cold shower and a bed, and after checking in I took full enjoyment in both. After hours of breathing recycled cabin air, trying to escape the Duty Free maze in Dubai and tramping around Taipei like an overladen pack mule, I was ready for a long sleep.

I’d discussed doing a work-exchange program with the hostel management in the weeks prior, with the aim of earning free accommodation in return for some kind of work on my part. I’d billed myself as a kind of human Swiss-army knife – translator, artist, vegan chef, blogger – casting a net wide enough to hopefully catch myself a job and save some money on rent. I managed it, but not quite how I’d imagined… I was signed up as night receptionist at Main Station’s nearby sister hostel Flip Flop Garden, working 10pm ‘til 4am, three times a week, keeping the place ticking over by checking in guests, giving out towels and sending booking confirmation emails, to name only the most exciting aspects of my new profession. Nothing beats free stuff, though, and even if it was just for the first couple of months (I’ve since arranged to only do one shift a week), I wanted to save some money to set aside for travels during the rest of the year. I’d decided against living in university accommodation because I didn’t want to live surrounded by other foreign students, speaking English all the time and inhabiting a self-imposed bubble. I have no regrets about this choice; even despite my slightly vampire-like schedule, I get to practice speaking and listening to Mandarin every day with the other staff here, and being the only staff member on shift at night means often having to use my Chinese under pressure. `

With my accommodation sorted, next on the agenda was exploring Taipei, and getting set up at National Taiwan University, my academic home for the coming year. The first of these was a lot of fun; I spent the first few weeks wandering all around the city whenever I got chance, walking the streets and exploring different neighbourhoods on the public rental bikes. I’ll write more about Taipei itself in another post, as it deserves more than a quick mention to do it justice. However, suffice it to say that it is a thoroughly modern, well-ordered and bustling metropolis, occupying a natural depression in the landscape, meaning it is surrounded by lush, tree-covered hills. One of these in particular became a frequent spot for me to visit in the evenings; with an incredible night-time view over the city’s skyline, close to the one-time tallest building on the planet, Taipei 101, Elephant Mountain is popular with both tourists and locals. While the view isn’t quite as breathtaking as that from Victoria Peak above Hong Kong, it’s still a beautiful cityscape and helped me to build a mental map of Taipei.

As much as I’d have liked to come to Taiwan with nothing to do but take photos, eat dumplings and explore, I had also come to learn Chinese, and after several months off from my studies I was ready to jump in to whatever NTU had to offer. I first went to the campus a few days after I arrived, and was thoroughly impressed by my first sight of it. The day was hot and the air shimmered as I walked through the gates and down the main boulevard, lined with the tallest, straightest palm trees I’ve ever seen. Like seriously, forget those near-horizontal ones you see on holiday brochures, these things look like they’re on military parade. This broad avenue (imaginatively named Palm Boulevard) led straight to the main library, with red-brick faculty buildings off to either side. I was one of the few people walking around campus; since the site is so big (about twenty minutes from end to end), most students and staff get around on two wheels, and with over 30,000 students, that makes for a lot of bikes. My intention had been to not only to check out the campus but to get ahead of the game by completing my registration early. No dice. When I finally managed to find the right office in the right building, my presence caused chaos for a good fifteen minutes while several members of staff talked agitatedly into telephones and everyone appeared thoroughly confused. A consensus eventually emerged from the voices at the end of the phones: I was a week early, I must register on the same day as everyone else, and there was nothing to be done. So much for my attempt to sidestep the honoured Chinese tradition of bureaucracy which had first been exported to Taiwan back in the Qing dynasty.

I won’t go further into the details of registration, class timetables and textbook purchases, as I would like to keep the attention of those readers who have somehow made it this far into this piece. Suffice it to say that all the right forms were filled, all my paperwork checked out, and I even managed to somehow navigate the incomprehensible online student system to download my timetable. Ten hours a week of Chinese class, with no English spoken in the classroom and around twenty new characters to memorise before each class… my wish to return to some serious Chinese study was well and truly granted, no two ways about it. Between the workload and my duties at the hostel, I haven’t been free to do as I liked; to simply take off into the unknown and get acquainted with the furthest corners of Taiwan, whether on two wheels or by thumbing lifts (a Czech friend managed to make the tour of the island by hitchhiking only a few weeks after arriving), and this has admittedly been a little frustrating, not to mention my confused body clock and occasional need to sleep for 6 hours in the library after an 8am class (thankfully this does not seem to bother anyone in the slightest.

However, it hasn’t all been late check-ins and vocab tests; I’ve made the most of being in Taipei, and you don’t have to go far to experience something incredible. One of the highlights so far has to be the Pingxi sky lantern festival, where I stood with a damp crowd in the rain and watched hundreds of giant sky lanterns defy the elements to fly majestically up and away into the sky, a genuinely uplifting sight which took me a little by surprise. A couple of weeks ago I also took the train out to a village in the mountains to the East to go swimming with some friends at a beautiful waterfall – I will be heading back for sure. After buying a decent road bike a couple of weeks in, riding through the parkland along the banks of the Keelung River has also been a pleasure, and I’m signed up to do some serious cycling with the staff team from the shop where I got my new wheels. Maybe the single biggest factor that has made my recent low-key lifestyle much more enjoyable is the amazing food that I’ve been eating, but here again I need to defer to a later post… there’s no way I can describe the wonders I’ve eaten without the attention they deserve.

Anyway, I hope this post has gone some way to illuminating what the past couple of months have been like for me. I have been busy, I have been deeply immersed in a foreign language daily, and I have eaten a lot of 7-11 noodles (actually surprisingly good). It hasn’t exactly been a highlight reel of Tripadvisor’s highest rated tourist hotspots, but my goal in coming here was and is first and foremost to come out of this year having genuinely experienced life in Taiwan, not to treat it as a year-long opportunity to take the same photos in the same places as every other exchange student. To that end, working in the hostel has been a real success, not necessarily a lot of fun but with the constant practice combined with my studies, I have already seen my fluency in Mandarin develop dramatically. Besides that, these two months of rent-free living have let me save a decent chunk of money, and equipped with tips and recommendations from friends as well as a whole lot more free time, come November, I will appreciate my newfound freedom.

I will be trying to keep on top of these posts a lot more in the coming months, so they won’t be quite so long – I’ll probably write them each with a focus on a particular topic rather than long-winded retrospectives like this one. I hope that anyone who’s still reading has enjoyed this post, and look out for the new Global Source website launching soon!

#Travel Photography #travelblogger #taipei

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globalsource-blog · 7 years

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Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking... very excited to announce that soon we will be taking off on a new journey. Watch this space for updates, very excited for the coming weeks and months!

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globalsource-blog · 7 years

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Global Source meets Pagoda

For the final installment of our current series on Manchester nightlife, it’s our pleasure to introduce Pagoda to the world, an exciting new project run by our good friend Joe Mountain, which aims to showcase the cutting edge sounds of techno and electro music. This Monday, Fallowfield’s Cubo (known until recently as Koh Tao) will play host to Pagoda’s first public event, an intimate evening of live mixing integrated with stunning visual effects, with all profits raised on the night going to Children with Cancer UK. Global Source spoke with Joe to talk about the link between music and architecture, Moscow’s rave culture and most importantly, the good cause for which Monday’s event is raising much-needed funds.

GS: Hey Joe. First of all, for those who don’t know, what is Pagoda? I’ve seen you spinning records at more house parties than I can count, and always with a big smile on your face. It’s clear to anyone that you really love the music you play, but I’m curious, what inspired you to go beyond this and create something new?

JM: Pagoda is a musical project I’ve been working on for the past year or so, with a focus on exploring the relationship between sound and visual aesthetics. In terms of the inspiration… while travelling in Cuba last summer, I took this picture of the Russian embassy in Havana, and it looked surrounded by jungle life. To me, aesthetically that contrast was pretty amazing, the embassy’s constructivist architecture with the tropical greenery. I think in any artwork, contrast is often what we appreciate. In the same way, what I want to do with Pagoda musically is to combine the brutalism of hard-hitting techno and electro with a more euphoric sound, which can create something quite special.

GS: And the name Pagoda… what’s the connection there?

JM: It’s kind of a reference to spirituality – for me, Pagoda is about creating almost a modern-day temple, through a musical aesthetic which mixes the bleak and brutal with the beautiful... for me there’s a real link between the aesthetic of brutalist architecture and the really dark kind of sounds you hear in techno music especially.

GS: This summer you went on a trip to Russia and Eastern Europe – can you tell us a bit about your experience out there?

JM: Going to Moscow in particular really stimulated the process of setting up Pagoda. I was fascinated by the architecture, and the amazing underground culture they have out there. You don’t hear much about their scene, but they’re one hundred percent about the techno. Because it’s so underground, people are a bit more out there, they’re not afraid to show who they are. Saying that, outside the scene they often get a lot of discrimination. For them it’s about more than a night out, it’s a kind of energy release they can’t get otherwise, so they really take full advantage.

GS: So this Monday, you’re going to be raising money for Children with Cancer UK. From what I understand, there’s a personal connection for you with this charity, right?

JM: Yeah of course the main priority of the night is raising money for charity. The story behind it is six or seven months ago, my little nephew who’s three years old was diagnosed with Leukemia. Thankfully, we caught it very early, and about a month ago he completed his second term of intense chemo. He’s still on treatment, but he’s in full remission from the cancer. All the money raised on the night will be going to Children with Cancer UK, in order to help other kids like William and their families.

GS: It’s great to see you raising money for a cause that’s clearly so close to your hear through doing what you love. Just one last question - what can people expect to see and hear on the night?

JM: It’s going to be an audio-visual journey... in terms of visuals the set-up is pretty cool, think projections, lasers, and a lot of greenery... in terms of music, we’ve got Korzi and Loss who play techno with a UK Bass influence, and besides that, listen out for some old-school Detroit electro like Drexciya.

GS: Sounds brilliant, and all for such a great cause... definitely a bit more on offer than your average night at Koh Tao! Joe, thanks for your time, and all the best for Monday night.

Tickets for Pagoda’s fundraising party are available on the door, and only £2 before 11pm, £4 after.

Those unable to attend can still donate at the JustGiving page:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Pagoda

You can check out a recent mix of chilled-out dub techno recorded by Joe under his Shān alias below:

youtube

#architecture #techno #pagoda #Fundraising #charity

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Global Source meets Mayday

Following on from last week’s post, where Global Source caught up with the girls of B.L.O.O.M. ahead of their debut night at Soup Kitchen, this week we continue our series on Manchester nightlife with an interview with Tom from Mayday, a collaborative project between two well-established names on the Manchester scene: CULT and Ossia. This Saturday at Hidden they’re hosting what looks set to be a pretty outstanding showcase of cutting-edge electronic music, with a serious roster of talent from the celebrated R&S Records, and none other than Talaboman (John Talabot and Axel Boman) headlining. Read on to find out about what it takes to throw a rave in a skatepark, the challenges of making high-end bookings as an independent promoter, and what to expect from Mayday in the coming months.

Global Source: First things first, for those unaware of what you guys are up to, can you describe Mayday in your own words? What’s it all about, and what’s the link with Ossia and CULT?

Tom from Mayday: Mayday is a collaboration between Ossia and CULT. It’s simply the joined forces of the brands. It’s opened up new possibilities for us in terms of bookings, both financially as well as by combining our roster of residents. We’re taking Mayday in a different direction from the other two brands, which tend to focus on more intimate gigs in medium-sized venues, usually showcasing 1 or 2 artists. Mayday on the other hand is all about collaboration with organisations, labels and collectives, really trying to provide some of Manchester’s most top end nightlife. Our show with Dimensions last year was a lot of fun and an amazing opportunity to bring high-calibre artists the likes of Daniel Avery to Manchester.

GS: Cool – nice to see a full-on long-term collaboration between the two crews. Having more of you involved must make it a little easier on the wallet to make those higher-end bookings… Does it also make it harder to agree on a lineup? What’s the decision-making process like?

TfM: The costing is definitely eased by the number in the group, sure, but it doesn’t detract from the huge risk we put on ourselves for every show! The lineup process is always a tricky one but thankfully we’re all extremely passionate about the music and appreciate artists from across the spectrum of the dance scene. There’s rarely a suggestion that gets completely shut down because ultimately we’d love to have everyone play for us. Most of the time the main restriction is availability and the booking costs of the artists, we may agree on a 5 stage contingency of acts we want and get in touch with them all, only to find out that they’re all booked, taking the month off, or tied up in something else. Finding a solution is one of the fun bits though, trying to work out who would fit with who, whether they played too recently or too near, all these things come into play.

GS: So back in June you guys hosted an event at Manchester’s Projekts skatepark, where you had Mall Grab and Shanti Celeste play. How did that event come about? I saw some pretty funny video of people who’d had a few too many trying to negotiate a quarter pipe – did you have to do a risk assessment?

TfM: We scouted out the skatepark because we saw that UKF had done an event there a couple of years back. It looked like a wicked event so we got in touch and they were fortunately interested in having us in. They have to get a TEN [Temporary Event Notice] to have an event there but even with that we got the council coming over an hour before the licence expired telling us to pull the plug. Luckily we managed to pull a filibuster and sweet talked them for the hour so that we didn’t have to shut down before Mall Grab finished! The venue was covered with a risk assessment already but we had to take out insurance in case anyone did bail on the quarter pipe while trying to backside blunt and split their chin open. Luckily everyone partied *fairly* sensibly and we didn’t have any issues. There’s always an element of mutual trust when holding events like that, and with a crowd who are there for the music not because they’re at “UNAYYY” and love chanting about the most recent footballer caught up in a controversy we were alright.

GS: I’m sure you heard about the recent controversy caused by Jeremy Underground’s agent threatening to bite someone if they didn’t book a 5 star hotel with a gym and sauna for his client. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get your take on it – should top DJs feel entitled to a post-set spa session? Is there anyone you guys rate highly enough that you’d pay for their sauna to get them on the bill?

TfM: To be honest most tier 1 artists require 5* hotels with room service, wifi, leisure facilities, all expenses covered, upmarket dinner, excessive riders etc. It doesn’t come as any surprise to me that JU asked for those extra facilities because as he said, he had a very busy week of shows. That said we’re always careful to read the contract beforehand to know exactly what we’re getting ourselves into. Everything is negotiable, so as long as you don’t blindly sign bits of paper you should know what to expect. Changing agreements last minute on the other hand isn’t okay. It’s a bit of a confusing situation and it seems that the agent and the promoters were both slightly in the wrong - Jeremy offered to pay for it all himself so in my eyes he wasn’t being out of order. Personally I’d let Dixon have my house keys, all of my savings, any current girlfriends, my watch and my best pair of shoes because I think he is an absolute god. Whether I speak for the rest of the Mayday team is another question but he holds a special place in my heart!

GS: While we’re on the subject of big bookings, at this time of year as we all know it’s Warehouse Project season. Obviously they’ve elevated the standing of Manchester’s club scene on the world stage as a heavyweight contender, but some feel they’re unfairly monopolizing the market. As a smaller outfit, what do you feel are the pros and cons of the WHP brand?

TfM: I remember a great piece of convo I had with Toby who was the original Ossia don, saying that he didn't mind WHP before this year because as much as they got most of the huge names they tended to leave a decent gap for more niche artists. This year they've just snapped up so many acts we wanted to book who we thought were a little more under the radar. So, kudos to them for improving the programming but also, rahhhhhhh. It's the exclusivity contracts that grind our gears – it takes away so many options for booking talent we truly love and who would provide a totally different show in a smaller venue that wouldn’t detract from Warehouse Project’s ticket sales. But there you go, they operate like a business whereas a lot of promoters do it for the love of the scene. I can't help but thank them for making the Manchester nightlife so revered, no doubt they're a credit to the city and the scene as well as a pain in the arse. I remember my friends travelling from down south to attend WHP a few years back and it’s always drawn people to Manchester. I’d love to see them find a better venue because I’ve definitely fallen out of love with Store Street, but maybe I take that back because it might make our lives even harder!

GS: Yeah it’s definitely a tough one, hard to argue with the lineups they put together but seeing the corporatisation of the “underground” music scene does leave a sour taste in the mouth. Anyway, enough party politics for now. Let’s get to the matter at hand – this Saturday! You guys are bringing the legendary R&S Records to Hidden. It’s a hell of a lineup, with Talaboman headlining, and you’ve even arranged an in-store pre-party with Space Dimension Controller at Eastern Bloc Records. How are you guys feeling about it? Looks set to be a night to remember…

TfM: Safe to say we’ve all been absolutely buzzing for this show ever since we got the go ahead from R&S. They’re a household name in the dance music scene and have proved time and time again that venturing into the unknown and embracing diversity in your taste creates a successful following. Their roster of artists is so impressive and we’re blessed to have Paula Temple, SDC and Renaat. Paula especially has been on our watchlist for a while, and ever since Ossia had SDC do a DJ set a couple of year back we’ve been gagging to see him perform live! Talaboman as the special guest was a no brainer for us - since the two heavyweights joined forces we’ve all been drooling over the prospect of seeing them play together. The fact we’ve got them on a line up is a dream come true. Excitement in the Mayday camp is second to none and we just hope that everyone who plans on joining us brings immense energy and we have a proper party!

GS: I have no doubt that’s what it’ll be. Tom, thanks for your time, and all the best for Saturday night and the year to come – can’t wait to hear what’s next on the Mayday Agenda. Any clues as to what that might be?

TfM: I can't give too much away yet but we've got something special lined up for next may… think Bongos Bingo and Schloss!

There are still a few tickets available for Saturday night, go cop right here.

Check out the videos below for a hint of what you can expect music-wise on the night:

Talaboman - Loser’s Hymn

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Space Dimension Controller @ Dekmantel 2017

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Paula Temple - Ful (R&S)

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#nightlife #r&s records #r&s #manchester #electronicmusic #underground #independent

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globalsource-blog · 7 years

Text

Global Source meets B.L.O.O.M.

Artist - Ellis Lewin-Turner for B.L.O.O.M.

Some things never change. Night follows day, winter turns to spring, and when it comes to the arts, mediocrity is rewarded while true brilliance often goes unrecognised. Having spent the last two years as a student in Manchester, I can attest that this is nowhere more evident than on that city’s thriving nightlife scene. Year in, year out, venues like Factory, Tiger Tiger and the infamous Fifth have punters queuing around the block for the chance to hear the same ten commercial house tracks mixed badly with whatever Capital FM were playing that day. It’s not just Manchester – head to any city centre in the country on a Friday night and most of the music you hear coming out of clubs and bars is dull at best and painful at worst. In our Spotify-Soundcloud era, where there is so much incredible music so readily available, and almost everything ever recorded is available in some dusty corner of the internet, it is a crying shame to see people settling for such crap.

However, there are lights in the darkness. One such flame of joy goes by the name of B.L.O.O.M., an up-and-coming all-female crew of DJs and promoters based in Manchester aiming to deliver a healthy dose of musical originality, as well as promoting the many talented acts who don’t conform to the white-heterosexual-male-with-a-dodgy-haircut norm which is so ubiquitous in dance music. Ahead of their debut night at Soup Kitchen this Thursday, where they’ll be blessing everyone’s favourite basement with some hypnotic rhythms (and a set by Boiler Room alumnus Courtesy), Global Source caught up with two of the group’s members, Sofia and Phoebe, to talk about their upcoming night, representation within dance music, and what to look out for next from the B.L.O.O.M. girls.

Global Source: Hey guys. Great to have you here on Global Source! First things first, for those unaware, how would you describe B.L.O.O.M. in your own words?

B.L.O.O.M: Thanks for having us! B.L.O.O.M. is an all-female DJ collective based in South Manchester. We aim to promote gender equality in music through increasing the visibility of women and gender-non-conforming people! It actually stands for "Beautiful Ladies Organising Orgasmic Music" so we tend not to take ourselves too seriously and just have fun with what we play. Virtually anyone who gets involved can be a "beautiful lady" in our eyes.

GS: What made you form a collective, besides a shared love of great tunes?

B: There was a shared feeling of frustration among us all. We just felt we were surrounded by great nights in Manchester but they were all quite male-dominated. We wanted to create a space which would provide women with a platform to perform and create a community of lots of different types of people that could come together and party!

GS: That's cool. Do you feel like the number of different nights being put on in Manchester is a bit of a double edged sword, or do you consider it a positive thing overall?

B: We think it's really nice to be in such a diverse and creative city. There's so much opportunity for collaboration which is exciting, but then when the market is so over-saturated it makes it pretty difficult for new groups to be heard amongst the noise.

GS: Do you feel confident that B.L.O.O.M. can stand out from the crowd? Your shows on Limbo Radio and Reform Radio span an impressive range of styles and genres that should set you apart from the cookie-cutter tech-house and D&B crowd...

B: Yeah, apart from promoting gender equality, we think that's what distinguishes us from a lot of other nights. Everyone in B.L.O.O.M. plays such different stuff to one another, so we can put on a really diverse range of events. Phoebe is really into techno, breaks and world music, so her sets alone cover a lot of ground! Sofia’s been buying dusty old records since she was 13 so her sets tend to have a more nostalgic feel.

GS: While we’re on the subject of musical tastes, what would a B.L.O.O.M. radio show have sounded like if your 15-year-old selves were on the decks?

B: Sofia was actually already on the decks at 15 years old! She started playing northern soul in East London pubs and bars at that age and dabbled a bit in some of the psychedelic nights so hers probably would sound very similar to what she does now…with some shakier transitions, mind! Phoebe was obsessed with jungle and dub back when we were at school together so it would be more that sound.

GS: As I mentioned guys have a fair bit of experience spinning records on the modern miracle that is internet radio. Was the plan always to move on from radio to putting on your own nights?

B: Hmm… we wouldn’t say ‘moving on’, but the plan was always to run nights and radio shows alongside each other. Doing radio is great because there’s a lot more leeway to play more chilled out stuff that you just wouldn’t in a club. For example, Sofia did a bit of a 60s psychedelic special on Reform Radio but you’d rarely play that out in a club because it’s not exactly the easiest genre to mix into dance music! At the moment we rotate among ourselves between the shows so there’s always different styles to hear. Both Limbo and Reform have been so supportive of what we’re doing so we love getting to play with everyone there, too.

GS: Listening to the radio shows, it’s clear that you guys have really varied taste – the mix that you mentioned also included tracks from the Jackson 5 and afrobeat legend William Onyeabor. Not quite the same vibe as Courtesy, but can we expect future events to reflect the diverse musical tastes of the B.L.O.O.M. crew?

B: We actually have a show planned for February which we hope will fuse all of our styles together into a kind of big B.L.O.O.M. lovechild.

GS: Definitely one for the diaries - you heard it here first! So, this Thursday, Soup Kitchen will play host to B.L.O.O.M.’s debut appearance on the Manchester nightlife scene. And of course, you’ve booked the talented Courtesy to play as well. How are you feeling about it?

B: Eeek! We’d say we’re sitting somewhere between nervous anticipation and excitement. We’ve had a really amazing response so far which we are very thankful for but there is still a lot of work to do. Phoebe and Kitty have had a fair amount of experience running nights in other groups though, so we’re in good hands!

GS: Let’s talk about Courtesy. She seems to be doing pretty well for herself, and while doing some research on her I discovered she seems to be a big fan of flowered garments. Very apt for the B.L.O.O.M. theme – although I assume it was her mixing as well as her wardrobe that led you guys to book her for Friday night?

B: We can comfortably say it's nothing to do with her wardrobe! We booked her because we all think she's one of the most exciting women in electronic music right now. If you check out her Boiler Room or Resident Advisor mixes, she goes through all these really interesting breaks with melodic techno with dark, fuzzy stuff - there's so much more to it than a standard tech house set. We also booked her partially for selfish reasons of just all wanting to see her play!

GS: That seems fair enough - I'm sure nobody will hold it against you. Based on what I've heard from her, she should bring the perfect vibe for that Soup Kitchen basement - great venue to kick off your debut event! Given that you're intending to continue to promote diverse talent and draw attention to those who deserve more acclaim, have you got any ideas about acts you might like to book in future?

B: Gosh, there are so many we wouldn’t know where to start. We've some ideas floating around but we don’t want to give anything away. Guess you’ll just have to watch this space to find out! What we can tell you though is our next event will take place on the 23rd of November at Soup Kitchen with a very special guest...

GS: Exciting stuff... it's clear you guys have a lot going on behind the scenes. So on the show you guys did for Reform back in August, you played a really nice new track from the band Kala, called Wide Eyed To The Sun. How did that come about? Is showcasing up-and-coming acts like this something that you aim to continue, given that musical diversity the radio allows?

B: Yeah that's a great track! Kala are a London based jazz-electronic two-piece that we have mutual friends with, and we've been huge fans of them for a while. We strive for diversity in lineups and we want to showcase the incredible talent that’s out there but often goes unrecognised so supporting smaller acts is very much in line with our ethos. We also are proud that all our artwork and visuals has been created by up-and-coming women or gender-non-conforming hands! It’s pretty integral to our ethos that we don’t just appear to promote gender equality and local artists on the surface, but actually all behind the scenes work will be done by the kinds of people that we’re promoting.

GS: So, promoting diversity, great tunes and collaboration is the name of the game... I for one am on board. As you throw more events, will the B.L.O.O.M. residents be rotating in a similar way to the radio shows?

B: Yes, absolutely. We definitely plan on utilising our different musical tastes and as we grow we would love our roster of residents to grow with us so we can keep putting on some really exciting stuff.

GS: There's certainly a lot of potential there, and on behalf of Global Source I want to wish you guys every success, it's great to see like-minded people working together on such a cool project. Here's to a more diverse, authentic and stimulating scene for everyone!

You can get tickets for what is sure to be an enjoyable night for one and all right here.

Check out some of B.L.O.O.M.’s mixes for Reform Radio and Limbo Radio here and here.

And finally, check out the video below to see Courtesy tearing it up for the Boiler Room in Helsinki:

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#nightlife #manchester #diversity #interview #courtesy #independent #equal representation #femaledj #soupkitchen #helsinki #boiler room

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