House, techno and electronic music news, releases and events from across Asia.
As 8110118, Jakarta film composer Hajar Asyura just released Jiwa Krungu, the only Southeast Asian record on Bandcamp Daily's global best electronic list for July.
Beatport will now reject tracks ruled fully or mostly AI-generated before they ever reach the store. The policy is aimed at the flood on Spotify and Deezer, but it also protects shelf space for the small human-run labels this site covers every week.
Phuket's clubbing scene isn't Bangla Road neon. It's four rooms spread across the west coast: a sunset beach club, an Ibiza import with a real booking policy, one underground bar in Rawai, and a 5,000-capacity room if you want the big room instead.
Southeast Asia doesn't really have record shops built for house and techno the way Berlin or London does. What it has instead, city by city, is more interesting: soul, funk and reissue specialists who happen to stock the electronic stuff too.
DJ Love, DJ Danz and DJ Ericnem spent decades getting laughed at for budots. A London label, a Boiler Room comeback and a joint album later, nobody's laughing.
Da Nang Community Radio spent four days in August turning its city into a decentralized festival built from a dozen Asian radio stations, with Ken Ishii and Red Pig Flower playing their first Vietnamese shows.
No DJ booth, no dance floor, just a serious hi-fi rig and a wall of records. A guide to the listening bars and record bars actually worth the taxi fare in Bangkok and Tokyo.
Technics filmed its SL-1200 55th anniversary set 250 metres above Tokyo, with Yousuke Yukimatsu on decks and not a laptop in sight. It premiered free on Resident Advisor's YouTube channel on August 18, and the full set is up there now.
The rural Izu institution that Japanese ravers plan whole years around is finally leaving the country, teaming up with Singapore's Ice Cream Sundays for a two day, three session takeover.
Korner closed in 2018 and took Taipei's underground techno home with it. The same crew reopened one floor under a gym, called it Pawnshop, and Smoke Machine has been playing there almost every week since.
Phnom Penh will not hand you a scene the way Bangkok or Bali will. It has one club that used to be an actual floating boat, one alley that actually pulses after midnight, and a handful of people building the rest from nothing. Here is where to go, what it costs, and how to get home.
Finns, Potato Head's Klymax, Mrs Sippy and Karma Beach: Bali's real house music scene now happens in daylight, feet in the sand, hours before the island's night clubs even open.