Results tagged “freethewax”

Shanghaiist lists all the live music performances you might want to check out from now to Sunday this week. For fun things that aren't live music, take a peek at our Pencil This In (out every Monday!)

With everything that's going on tonight, FREE the WAX has got one more gig vying for your attention featuring American electro-cinematic producer maestro Eliot Lipp who is best known for his seamless weaving of 80s electro, 70s jazz-fusion and Bay Area hip hop.

So yesterday we interviewed FREE the WAX, the Shanghai-based music group that brings groundbreaking pioneers from around the globe to our city. And now, in return, they've helped us interview the DJ they're bringing over: Francisco.

In case you don't know, FREE the WAX is a Shanghai-based bastard child production dedicated to presenting only the frontline of groundbreaking musical pioneers from across the globe. In preparation for their big anniversary party on Friday at Shelter, we chatted with Leo Messias, one of the founders of the musical expedition, about their exciting year, the effect of world-class DJ's on the Shanghai scene, and their love of old Chinese ladies who exercise in the park.

Japan's embracement of reggae and dancehall has always been one of those things we've found delightfully peculiar. Luckily, their love for the island sound has actually produced quite a few listenable acts - one of which will be coming to the Shelter tonight.

Maybe you've never heard of Onra or Arnaud Bertrand but you may actually recognize one of his songs, "The Anthem", which was featured in a Coca Cola ad for the Beijing Olympics starring 3D animated versions of Yao Ming and LeBron James.

        

Last Friday at Yuyintang, Nosaj Thing shone in his beat-heavy live set laced with synth sounds and slaps amid an obvious underlying hip hop influence. He worked the Akai Mpd-32 controller, laptop and audio interface and yes the crowd lapped it up.

Nosaj Thing, a.k.a. Jason Cheung, is a L.A.-based music producer whose geeky charm at first sight deceptively conceals his sinister and innovative musical agendas. At the age of 13, he molded his father's rudimentary PC that struggled with even Word documents into a Frankestein Intel Celeron home studio.

Live digital design competition Cut&Paste Shanghai will close with a big bang this Saturday May 23 in a live show co-hosted with Shanghai's very own FREE the WAX featuring LA music producer Chris Alfaro.

Sometimes it feels like Shanghai is getting too cool for even us. Australian record label Modular Records - responsible for unearthing talents like Cut Copy, Wolfmother and The Presets - is launching a division here in this city. Basically, that means we can count on a sudden increase in indie-dance-rock booty shaking in the near future.

                     

We jumped on the chance to hit the first PAUSE party of 2009 this last weekend, a non-profit art event organized by the dedicated music mavens of Shanghai - Phreaktion, Antidote, Uprooted Sunshine, Eklektik, and their friends. We shook our booties to electronica, dubstep, electro-grunge and Tibetan reggae, and got delightfully drunk off one of the best drink specials you'll find on the Bund. Can anyone think of a better way to spend a Sunday, rainy or no?

The Captain's Hostel isn't just a place for enjoying Bund-like views with (relatively) cheap beers or for picking up tourists, oh no. This Sunday they're hosting the always brilliant PAUSE. These free, non-profit collaborative events with the cream of the city's creative talent have been running since 2005 and are always unmissable. This Sunday's is no different.

The man who invented one of the most influential forms of modern music plays Shanghai tonight. Juan Atkins, from Detroit, USA, first started tinkering with synthesizers and drum machines back in the early 80s, and played the leading role in creating a brand new genre of futuristic, forward-thinking and cutting-edge music which would later become known as "Techno".

Up-and-coming electronic hip-hop producer Dorian Concept, otherwise known as Oliver Thomas Johnson, will take to the stage come this Thursday at The Shelter. Having developed his own distinctive twisted sound, the 24-year-old Austrian has just released his debut LP and performed at this year's Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards a few weeks back.

We are pretty sure more than a few people are thankful that Mark Pritchard didn't pursue a culinary career in the end. The pioneering DJ, currently with cutting edge label Warp Records, has since moved on from his critically-acclaimed deep ambient music to the dark synthetic bass bleeps of Detroit-inspired instrumental hip hop.

Cover: RMB 50

Barely two weeks after their successful first event, FREE the WAX will bring in multi-instrumentalist hip hop duo, Hermitude (Elefant Traks) tonight from down under for a show at The Shelter.

                

Last night's gig was much welcomed after a long drought in Shanghai's experimental/ indie electronic music scene (think DJ Krush back in December 2006), judging by the large turnout ready to party on a week night. Daedelus, outlandishly dandy as ever with massive sideburns (that would do well to give Gaz Coombes a run for his money), certainly did not disappoint.

Yeah, that long holiday week is almost here, isn't it? Well if you want to tack on an extra two days, this might be your ticket. On Thursday night, Free the Wax is bringing Daedelus to The Shelter with his brand of hip-hop/synthpop/electronica. What's it sound like?