Malaysia's VKANG Makes His International DJ Debut at Amsterdam Dance Event

VKANG used to DJ his own parties because he and his partner couldn't afford to hire anyone else. On Friday, October 23, the Johor Bahru selector was booked to play Amsterdam Dance Event's CLUB Lab, his first show outside Malaysia.

He was booked for CLUB Lab, the club night ADE Lab and DJ Mag run together each year inside the festival's 30th-anniversary edition (October 21 to 25, 2026). It is a multidisciplinary showcase: a free audiovisual programme at Het Ketelhuis from 9 to 11PM, followed by a club night at Radio Radio that runs until 6AM. VKANG got his slot through a highly-competitive open call, DJ Mag reported, alongside Leeds UK garage DJ Valentina and Rotterdam's Té de Gember, with the bill anchored by Desi-fusion selector Armana Khan, Dutch-Moluccan artist JAEL and Amsterdam underground mainstay Cinnaman.

From house parties to Radio Radio

VKANG and his partner Prataboi started out hosting social events in Johor Bahru without the budget to book proper DJs, so they played the music themselves. "Day by day, year by year, we slowly invested in better equipment, hosted bigger crowds, and eventually started taking DJing more seriously," VKANG told DJ Mag. "That's how we gradually began to call ourselves DJs."

The pair tried running a listening bar for a while; it didn't work out, VKANG said, because the concept was still new to Malaysia at the time. What stuck was CREATIONOFEDEN, the event platform they built next, and later EDEN & Friends Community Radio, which connects Malaysian selectors with listeners abroad. Behind the decks, VKANG plays UK garage, house and breaks, a sound he traces back to watching Armin van Buuren's live sets on YouTube, before DJs like Dr Dubplate pulled him toward groove over rave.

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"A little piece of Malaysia"

"I never thought I'd actually get the chance to perform at ADE," VKANG said. "I'm genuinely so excited to share my interpretation of house and garage, and how we experience and play these sounds in Malaysia, with people at ADE and across Europe." He called it the biggest performance of his career so far and admitted the nerves openly: "It might be a little raw and unpolished, but maybe that's what makes it different. I'm just looking forward to bringing my sound, my perspective, and a little piece of Malaysia with me to Amsterdam."

CLUB Lab is a small stage next to the rest of ADE's 30th-anniversary programme, which runs past 3,000 artists across more than 200 venues. But an open-call slot at a festival this size is the kind of booking that doesn't happen for a self-taught DJ from Johor Bahru very often. Malaysia got its own stage at SXSW in March, the first-ever Malaysian national showcase at that festival. VKANG's booking puts a Malaysian DJ on ADE's bill too.

Cover photo: Enrique Meesters, courtesy of Amsterdam Dance Event.