Bureaucracy and phat beats

Who doesn’t love the EU? For 50 glorious years they’ve kept the Russians at bay, rivaled the United States in financial might and currently ensure that China doesn’t dominate the world in international bra sales. Also, many of the world’s favorite DJs come from Europe, and clubs the world over are measured against standards set in Ibiza, London and Paris. To help the filthy 50-year-old celebrate in style, the girls over at BOA Productions (Beijing’s Other Attractions) have organized a mini-music festival featuring artists from five member nations at Tango on March 30.

Some will remember DJ Ipek from Germany performing at Top Club back in 2005. “Eclectic” gets bandied about way too much, and usually just translates as disjointed or weird, but Ipek is definitely eclectic (as well as weird). Her last time in Beijing she played a Turkish version of “I Will Survive” in between thundering techno tracks. From Poland we have Vein Cat, who always travels with his own VJ (even if he’s just going to the shop to buy cigarettes). He’ll be performing his electroclash concoctions. From Sweden, vegan electro band Synthetical, another live act doing electro tunes using everything from vintage synths to old Nintendo consoles. The remaining acts are Italian duo Ninfa and Supabeatz, a fusion of drum n bass, electro, hip hop and punk; Tambour Battant, from France, doing live drum n bass; Makossa and Megablast, Austrian dub specialists and representing the Brits there is Beijing’s own flame-haired Syndicate wunderkind, DJ Blackie, spinning his inimitably fast jump up drum n bass.

We owe all this to Mikaela Pollock and Katie Pomerantz of BOA. You’ll recognize their feathery logo, since it adorned fliers for practically every big DJ who came through Beijing last year. They also put on regular nights at Alfa as well as organizing charity events. “We specialize in organizing events that are unusual, fresh and unique,” says Pomerantz. “We like to provide our clients and audiences with something distinctive, something they’ll remember.” And so the American twosome created a coalition of the willing to spice up Beijing’s nightlife and celebrate Europe’s ruby anniversary. “We’ve had great help from the embassies and really appreciate being given the opportunity to put this night together,” adds Pollock, as most of the acts were paid for by their respective embassies.

Lack of variety in the club scene is an oft-heard complaint. Sure, it’s drowned out by a multitude of other complaints (spitting/staring/pollution/traffic) but this is unique in that we can actually do something here. Going to events like this one and showing they can be successful convinces club owners that Beijingers are open to original, fresh ideas and, more importantly, are willing to pay for them. It will be a real shame if no one turns up because everyone spent their money seeing Paul Van Dyk for the fourth year in a row.