Breakbeat and other underground music is not so easy to find here in Macau’s clubbing scene, with most clubs preferring to play more commercial songs. Nonetheless, the market is beginning to mature, and local audiences are starting to appreciate underground music more and more, as the map of night life in Macau gradually evolves.
One of the very best places to enjoy the underground music scene is Kam Pek Bar on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, when the club is taken over by TJ Soulboy and DJ Kensho.
The two talented DJ’s founded Sideshow Kuts, a global alternative club night and DJ network in Bangkok in 2011. The concept is rooted in the UK’s underground club scene, focusing on high quality music and live performances. It has now expanded to numerous cities around Asia, Australia and Europe, and last year it arrived in Macau where the two DJ’s are now based.
TJ Soulboy and DJ Kensho are both from UK, home to the best underground music scene in the world in their opinion. Soulboy used to work in a second-hand record shop and started DJ’ing as a teenager. Now he is one of the key members of V.I.M. Records family and one of the hottest underground Breaks, Downtempo, Chill-Out, Electronica names in the modern electronic scene.
His partner Kensho, started DJ’ing at 13 and did his first show at the age of 16. He has become renowned for incorporating original tracks mixed with homemade edits, remixes and cutting edge sounds, absorbing different music styles and mashing, slicing and cutting them to create a unique sound perfectly tailored to every event.
“We were both guest DJs in Macau, at places like Sky21, and the past two Halloween parties at Hard Rock pool bar, etc. We found we have a strong connection with Macau, so we have tried to push Kam Pek Bar a little bit, and to bring to Macau a little bit of UK club culture,” says Soulboy.
Sideshow Kuts curates events on weekends, with the coolest underground music, from House to Electro, abstract Hip Hop to Rock, Breaks, Bass, Jazz Swing and everything in between.
“We do care for everyone, for all the guests, we do Hiphop, Funk, Soul. Thursday night we get Funky, Friday night is guest night. We always invite local DJs, and we’re looking for more and more, and people keep contacting us. Sometimes we also have international DJs once in awhile.”
Sideshow Kuts has opened it arms to local DJs and always offers the stage to them so they can show their talent.
“We bring a lot of local DJs here on Friday nights, which is like open DJ’s night. We have tried to give them confidence to let them show their skills. Some of them have been here for years, but because of the commercial corruption of the local music scene, they haven’t always had an opportunity to play their music,” notes Soulboy.
“The local talent here is amazing, I am blown away,” adds Kensho. “Actually they are astonishing me, like N1D, Noise 808, Devlar, Rocklee, Benson, Yugo, DJ Kangol & Youth Samone, etc. Most of them are Chinese, some are Macanese.”
“It’s all the about policy in Macau, they’ve never had a place to let people DJ what they want,” says Soulboy.
The pair’s hard work seems to have paid off and now Kam Pek Bar is attracting more and more underground music lovers.
“Before, nobody used to come here apart from on special events, once in a while, or once every few months. Now we have rebuilt the bar and its whole reputation with Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. And it’s getting better and better,” says Soulboy. “Macau has so many big casinos and commercial music, and we could have sold our souls to the devil, but we haven’t. We’ve kept with our good quality underground music.”
In 2013, 2014 and 2015 Sideshow Kuts was nominated in the Top 5 Best Clubs at the Breakspoll International Breakbeat Awards, the world’s most authoritative Breakbeat music organization and selection agency, and finally this year they won the prize for “Best Breaks Club Night”.
Soulboy just recently came back from the UK with the award, and still gets very excited when talking about it.
“I was happy to be in Manchester, with so many of the biggest DJs. It is a massive thing for Macau because now we’ve got lots of international media attention concentrating on what we’re doing. In interviews to magazines and blogs we’ve done in UK, we always mention Macau,” he laughs.
“It’s not just a prize for us, but also a big prize for Macau,” Soulboy agrees.