Is there anyone who can break Beijing nightlife crowds of their techno habit? France’s DJ Mael gives it a go at one of the biggest parties of the year—Yen Black.

Home—Nanluoguxiang

12:30 p.m. I wake up quite energized. I usually have to crawl out of bed on weekend mornings, but last night was my first Friday night without a DJ gig in months!
12:45 Time for my daily coffee injection: black, three mugs in a row. The phone starts ringing. I am playing the Yen Black party tonight and people want to know about the DJ schedule.

Internet Café

14:00 My computer’s motherboard spontaneously combusted a while ago due to an overdose of downloads.
14:24 I listen to new releases for my next order of records from abroad. There are no record shops in China, so this is a must.
15:05 Chat online with DJ friends around the world. My best mate is coming to play with The Syndicate party on Christmas Eve, so I’m organizing a few gigs for him around China.

Dongsi Shitiao

16:45 Grab a taxi to the shop where we get our flyers printed. Chat on the phone with Young Kin, who is MCing with me tonight. We agree on the vibe we want to set: dark! Hey, it’s the YEN Black party after all.

Sanlitun

16:58 The flyers for the next Syndicate night are looking great. I head to Aperitivo where (Yen organizer) Mickey Zhang left tickets. While I’m there, I drop flyers in the Sanlitun area.
17:25 I bump into my friend Ludo, who was the first DJ to play drum and bass in Naples, Italy.
18:00 Back to my ‘hood in Nanluoguxiang; more flyering.

Home

18:37 Start selecting records for tonight. I’m excited, Yen is Beijing’s biggest dance event and it’s the first time I’ve been invited to play the music I’ve been trying to introduce here over the past two years—dubstep—a hybrid mix of dancehall, garage, techno, dub and drum ‘n’ bass.
18:52 First cold sweat of the day: I can’t find the CD case where I put all my exclusive tracks, arrgghhhh! I’m going have to burn CDs for hours!

Yen Black at Starlive

22:22 All’s quiet for now, so I chat with friends and down a drink or two.
22:55 Young Kin is stuck in traffic and won’t make it on time. DOH! I’ll have to start alone and it kills me—it’s always easier to get a dance floor going with an MC, they really engage the crowd.
23:05 I start spinning my first record smoothly, it’s still early.
23:15 Young Kin finally arrives and in a few minutes he drags a good crowd to the dance floor—plenty of girls! They react really well to the heavy bass lines.
23:30 We’re both warm and at ease now, so I start dropping seriously big tunes and get some sweat going out on the dance.
12:05 a.m. We’re feeling good, nearly finished. Kin announces the last tune of our set, people cheer, they seem to have enjoyed it.
12:10 I chill at the bar. A few friends come up to give me their impressions of the set. A lot of them had never heard that sound before and seem quite impressed. Nice to hear that people enjoyed it. Great that Yen put me on at a good time.
12:40 I head to the VIP area—it’s champagne time! Pop those corks! A lot of friends are here, some of whom I work with, we gather ideas for our next gigs.
2:15 Enjoy a few more drinks and some banter with friends before making my exit. Good party!

Club Obiwan

2:30 Head to Obiwan where my friend Charly, a reggae MC/singer from Shanghai, is performing.

2:45 Good vibe so I pass some out flyers, then play a few tunes for fun.
3:50 A team of drunken mates are heading to Salud (in Nanluoguxiang). Sounds chaotic, which I like, so I join them!

Nanluoguxiang

4:00 Everybody is drinking a lot, we have quite a laugh.
4:40 The party is still going strong, but my bed is calling. Head home ready for tomorrow’s hangover.

Yen audiences didn’t know quite what hit them when Mael started dropping those big dubstep bombs. Lots of people were dancing, but even more were standing around like it was a high school dance. But such is the DJ’s fate sometimes: flyering, downloading, spinning and hoping the crowd gets it.