ELVIS.T's New Album: Win a Copy!
Acupuncture Records are still best known in Beijing for putting on some of the city's most memorable parties of the last few years - the INTRO festivals (this year's INTRO will be on May 21 and May 22 at Tongzhou Canal Park, with a few electronic music legends already lined up to headline - follow theBeijinger.com for more details as they are revealed), huge Halloween parties and most recently their resident nights at The House, the club they co-operate with Mix. However, as the name suggests, they're also supposed to be a label, and over the past year they've begun to live up to the promise with more regular releases, the latest of which is ELVIS.T's second album, Pathway.
The follow-up to 2009's Nil sees the Taiwan-born DJ - not only Acupuncture's most prolific, but one of the few Beijing DJs putting out their own tunes - developing his trademark minimal techno with more complex layers of sound. Nil's tracks sound like early sketches compared to Pathway's more fleshed-out textures and variety of sounds - chiming synth, yelping vocal snippets, piano refrains and choppy beats. There are nostalgic references to home on "Formosa Love," and to highlights from Acupuncture's past on "Last Night at Lantern" (a decent track, if far more sedate than the actual last night at Lantern) and "INTRO 2010." Best tracks? I liked "Morning Run" and "INTRO 2010" - have a listen to the sampler at Beatport.com - the album can also be downloaded from there - and see what you think.
ELVIS is doing a bunch of dates around China over the next month to promote the new album, but he's at The House both Friday and Saturday this weekend. Friday is a party to celebrate the launch of Acupuncture's new weekly podcast, available from their website (www.acupuncture-records.com). Like the internationally minded folks they are, they're also looking for an international partner to help spread the word overseas. On Saturday, Acupuncture hook up with DJs from Wasabi Sound, 33 45 and other crews for Beijing Underground Union, a night aimed at bringing the scene together in perfect harmony. Or something approaching that at least. Both nights are free before 11pm, with entry RMB 50 afterwards.
On a side note, look out for the entrance at The House being moved in the near future to create space for a bigger cloakroom, and the excellent rooftop opening on April 15 - they're looking to do champagne parties and serve cheese plates and strawberries for the summer evenings.
Competition time. We've got a copy of ELVIS.T's Pathway to give away to a reader who answers the following question ...
Which Acupuncture DJ is named after a type of food?
a) Edison Flapjack
b) Waffle Zhang
c) Crepe Leung
d) Muffin Ma
e) Dropscone X
f) Pancake Lee
Email your answers to win@thebeijinger.com or post as a comment below.
