Reviews - Events
ZoukOut 2008
Venue: Siloso Beach, Sentosa, Singapore
What We Think: ZoukOut 2009? Yes please!
by Tomo Koike
For every partygoer and electronic music lover in Singapore, the one beach party of the year everyone looks forward to is ZoukOut on Sentosa Island. With boys and gals exhibiting their bodies in bikinis and speedos, VIPs strutting their stuff, young and old hardcore party freaks dancing away, it’s a gathering of all kinds of people from across Southeast Asia coming together to celebrate the love of electronic music. The music festival organized by Zouk Club in Singapore originally began in 2000 with a turnout of about 9000 but 8 years later has grown to become the biggest music festival in South East Asia bringing in over 26000 people this year. Zouk Club brings in some of the biggest acts in the world for this event and has a track record of being THE night to remember annually.
The line up this year-
Sasha
Above and Beyond
Dirty South
Henrik Schwarz
Nouvelle Vague
Vicarious Bliss
The Teenagers
Erol Alkan
Dimitri From Paris
DJ PIPPI
DJ Yoda
Bloco Singapura
Novobloco
Electrico
Moods
Andrew Chow
Tony Tay
djB
Jeremy Boon
Brendon P
Hong
Nervous
Aldrin
Mambo Jambo
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with last year's ZoukOut as headliners like Carl Cox played a very boring set during the peak hours and really crushed the vibe following a great set by Booka Shade. Seeing superstar DJs on a line up has always brought me worries as they have disappointed many times in the past.
After seeing the line up for this year's event, I went to the festival with rather low expectations and feared that it will be disappointing once again. With the headliners being Sasha, Above and Beyond, Dirty South, etc., it seemed to be a rather plain and unexciting line up with all my hopes of good and unique music coming from the earlier acts of the evening like Nouvelle Vague and Henrik Schwarz. Combining that with the usually not so reactive crowd commonly seen during most nights at various clubs in Singapore, to be frank, I expected this year to be one of the worst ZoukOuts I've attended over the years.....And what can I say, I was bitch slapped in the face silly and proven very wrong. In fact, everything I expected turned out to be the polar opposite.
Though Nouvelle Vague's set was rather interesting, it didn't tickle my senses in too many ways. The highlight of their set was when the entire crowd was revved up to scream FUCK at the same time followed by their song 'Too Drunk to Fuck,' which was kind of appropriate at the time after observing how many young teenagers were making out, passing out, puking out, letting it all hang out, just drunk as hell everywhere, especially by the Mambo Jambo tent- the retro and top 40s tent where most of the younger crowd was concentrated. Henrik Schwarz's live set was also quite boring. No one seemed to be able to understand his twisted latino/tribal house beats and throughout most of his set, failed to win over the crowd.
Things seemed to be getting very grim by that point so hopped over to the Velvet Tent where the electro/nu-rave acts were playing. The Teenagers were playing at the time and they failed to really impress as well. Fearing it was just me who was acting like a pessimist, I asked my friends but they all concurred. So, we decided to look around the beach and check out the various tents and stalls placed around the venue. Though they did have the usual stalls like sling shots and massage stands seen in other festivals around the world, there were some rather unique ones as well, such as fortune telling, kite flying, and game corners, which seemed…well…a bit out of place. I can imagine a wasted partygoer being told that their life is going to end in ten days by a fortune teller and absolutely losing it.
After a few chuckles, it was back to the main tent for more music. Up to this point, not much has impressed but everything changed when Dirty South took over the decks. The crowd was locked into their beats and grooves by the second track and ended up being an amazing build up set. The beats got harder and faster and the music just kept building. Fire works began shooting into the sky 30 minutes into their set and one can feel the night is really about to take off. We ran over to the Velvet Tent again after hearing Erol Alkan was playing a monster set as well and wow. A very exciting weaving of dark electro and nu-rave got the crowd going wild. A friend came running out of the crowd with a huge grin on his face and what a contagious one. Within seconds, we join him jumping around with big smiles on our faces. Seeing that it was almost 3am, we ran back to the main tent to watch Dirty South’s set come to a close. Then Sasha comes on.
Sasha.... what can I say... I was once a huge fan of Sasha during the Twilo days but over the years have moved on to other artists after he seemed to have lost his way. I have seen him at Zouk twice in the past and left me very disappointed each time. But his set at ZoukOut this year has proven why he is the stuff of legends. It is one set that will remain etched in my mind for years to come. Seamless mixing, thundering beats, tripped out melodies, perfect track selection and timing, an incredible reading of the crowd, simply perfect. From start to finish, I was screaming, air punching, and jumping around like never before and the crowd was without a doubt feeling the insane magic as well. Every track change and breakdown, hands were flying in the air everywhere. Combining that with colorful confetti painting the air and beautiful lasers piercing the sky, the atmosphere was absolutely incredible. So incredible in fact that it was tear-jerking. EUPHOOORIAAAA!! Thank you Sasha and Zouk, I'm not worthy! I’m not worthy!
Following Sasha’s bombshell set was the sunrise set of Above and Beyond. I'm not really a big fan of trance and have never appreciated the sounds of Above and Beyond when I've caught them in the past, but the set they played for ZoukOut this year was surprisingly very good. Once again, everyone including myself spent the whole set endlessly jumping around with hands reaching for the skies at every breakdown. Trance tends to be the music of choice for Singaporeans and they absorbed the music like a sponge. With euphoric melodies and crunching bass lines filling the air, the sun crept up over the horizon setting up an epic ending. Simply beautiful.
Zouk resident and arguably the most famous Singaporean export DJ Aldrin took the decks for the closing set. But with the sun beaming in our eyes and after 5 hrs of endless dancing and education about quality electronic music, it was time to call it a night/morning.
So to sum up ZoukOut 2008, the night started slow and had its rather odd moments. But the night got better and better as time progressed, leaving me on my knees hailing Zouk, the organizers, and the DJs/artists by the end for an absolutely fantastic night that will never be forgotten. ZoukOut 2009? I really hope so because I’ll be there!
