Heatwolves : I met Kalakuta Kid in Chongqing in April. He DJed after a Chinese Nirvana cover band at NUTS club, a smallish rock bar that’s like a hybrid of Yuyintang and Dada, with RMB5 beers, Chinese rock kids, and a small group of older Germans with extremely particular taste in metal.
I'd never heard the music Kalakuta played that night. Original 1920s and 1930s music like ragtime, jazz, and swing music, but beefed up with hip hop beats. Really danceable, ballroom breakbeat vibes. I ended up staying out way later than expected and invited him to play in Shanghai. He's here this weekend, DJing at Shelter on Thursday with Cha Cha, Drunk Monk, and myself, and LoGO on Saturday, with the Instigation and DJ Cavia.
Heatwolves: Maybe some readers in Shanghai aren't familiar with the city you’re living in – Chongqing. Tell us a bit about it.
Kalakuta Kid - Where to start? Well, Chongqing is one of the four autonomous municipalities in China besides Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin. It means that this place is now run directly by the central government. In a lot of regards Chongqing belongs to what i would called "the Sichuanese civilisation" although lot of locals would argue about the particular identity of Chongqing. There is actually a kind of entertaining rivalry with the capital of Sichuan Province (Chengdu).
Since it set apart from Sichuan province, in 1997, the city has experienced frenetic development. It's said to be the fastest growing city in the world. Today the municipality has over 30 million inhabitants. Basically, a lot of workers from rural areas converge to Chongqing, mostly working in construction. As a consequence, this is a city of sharp contrasts where the original culture of migrants clashes with the greedy ambitions of the business class. An emblematic situation to illustrate it would be a humble worker puking his hoguo (hotput) in front of an empty Cartier shop, just after he took the automatic stairway for the first time in his life.
Heatwolves: I know this is a really Chinese question to ask, but what's your monthly rent in Chongqing?
That would make you Shanghai people really nervous if I speak the truth. That's why I'll do it - around 600 kuai.
Heatwolves: How did you end up there? There’s so many French in Shanghai, Chongqing too?
I'm still wondering actually. I must have misunderstood something... Just kidding. I got a job here. Of course I met some "chers compatriotes" but the French community is still discrete. You can extend that to the whole foreigner community actually. Walking through the streets of CQ makes you feel like "a legal alien"... I'm sorry to hear you're surrounded by so much frogs there.
Heatwolves: I've been to Chongqing twice, and both times i've found the city much rougher than Shanghai. I saw some fights and generally got the impression that people there are not to be fucked with. Have you notified this? Plus the big mafia crackdown last year. How does this affect the nightlife there? I heard a lot of DJs moved to Guangdong after that.
Welcome to the far west! Make you sure you have your 45 on you if you ever land in Chongqing.
Heatwolves: What's the music scene like in Chongqing? Is the scene mostly foreign? Mostly Chinese? Mixed? Is there much of a market for underground music? What are the main venues?
The music scene is really simple to describe. There is just one regular respectable venue:
It's called NUTS. It s run by "Lao Gui" from the local band "Narrenschiff"; It's mainly dedicated to folk, pop, punk, rock performances but once in a while you can also see interesting alternative acts. Uprooted Sunshine played there twice at least, Liman came by too as few others before and after him. Besides those performances (mostly Chinese bands) Nuts has been trying to develop a DJ scene (mostly foreigners). Among those guys I'd like to mention A-fanti, Good Weed and my partner Spin Doctor.
Beside this place, there is one other place I need to credit. Cici Park Bar (the Chongqing Mecca for electro music) which holds DJ acts once in a while). They also organize their own music festival called Bamboo Festival.
Those are the two main places where you can get your ears some independent (I would not talk about underground which is in my mind a tricky concept) music on a regular basis. Unfortunately most people end up in mainstream clubs, shaking their neck on Lady Caca.
Heatwolves: When we met in Chongqing, you mentioned that you were recording with some local MCs. What's the hip hop scene like over there ?
Actually the hip hop scene is very incomplete. Most of time, when a hip-hop event is promoted you can expect a kind of of cheesy karaoke party filled with cliché attitudes taken straight from mainstream US R'nB-Hip-Hop scene. Out of the various disciplines of hip-hop, I would say that breaking and graffiti are the most convincing expressions in Chongqing. If you ever hanged around in Huanjueping you might know what I'm talking about.
I actually met this cat who was to me a real hip-hop digger (make the test: how many people around you would know about People Under The Stairs ?!) and tried to record him over my own productions. But it has finally led to no real achievement so far...
Heatwolves: Who is Spin Doctor?
Spin Doctor is my musical partner and now a good friend of mine. He's the only turntablist I've met in Chongqing. He has been preparing for the Chinese DMC for a while now. He came to me after a set as he wanted to cooperate with me on stage. Since then he's always in my luggage．
Heatwolves: So you're coming to Shanghai on a 6 - day boat ride. Which snacks will you bring?
Lovely Puff for sure. I will bite it smoothly in a kind of M6 erotic stance...
1. Initial statement 2. Mushroom Burgers- Al Tarba (France) 3. Melody- Nu-Mark & Pomo (US) 4. Et De Clarinette- Palov & Mishkin (Greece) 5. Cheek to Cheek- Fred Astaire- Disse remix (Danemark) 6. What’s That ?- Palov (Greece) 7. Put It On The Ritz- Fred Astaire- Club des Belougas remix (Germany) 8. Honey Licker- Al Tarba (France) 9. Golden- Jurassic Five- Odjbox Remix (UK) 10. Big Bad Trumpet Player- Kormac (Ireland) 11. Figs and Dates- G-Swing (France) 12. About A Trauma Drum- Lyre le Temps (France) 13. Sunny Bunny Blues- Parov Stelar feat Veda 36 (Austria) 14. Hit That Jive- Gramatik (US) 15. Scratch Marchin’- Kormac (Ireland) 16. Hot Club Swing- Sound Nomaden (Germany) 17. Hello Joe- Vono Box (Hungary) 18. Artichaut- Chinese Man (France) 19. Breathe and Swing- Savage Henry (US) 20. Minnie The Moocher- Ginscheller remix (Germany) 21. Quackery- Kormac (Ireland) 22. Armstrong Turntablized- Ginscheller (Germany) 23. Henry’s Record Machine- Kormac (Ireland) 24. Hide and Seek- Al Lindrum- Unkle Hu remix (Australia) 25. Cartoon Tune- Makala (Spain) 26. Final statement
a humble worker puking his hoguo (hotput) in front of an empty Cartier shop, just after he took the automatic stairway for the first time in his life.
Chinese bands) Nuts has been trying to develop a DJ scene (mostly foreigners). Among those guys I'd like to mention A-fanti, Good Weed and my partner Spin Doctor.
