Tag
DJ Culture
18 articles on DJ Culture from Loopliner, the English-language voice of Asian electronic music: news, releases, club nights and festival coverage across Southeast Asia and beyond.
18 articles
Di Linh Has Lost Two Home Clubs in One Year, and She's Still DJing in Hanoi
Savage shut down on New Year's Day. The Observatory in Saigon closes at the end of this month. Hanoi's Di Linh built her whole career inside those two rooms, and she's still booked.
Thailand Arrested a DJ for Working Without a Permit, and Singapore Stopped Issuing Them at All
Thailand arrested an American DJ in Chiang Mai in June 2026, Singapore quietly stopped issuing its performer work pass, and Indonesia raided a Canggu nightclub over the same paperwork. This is the visa and work permit law for foreign DJs, country by country.
Brooklyn's Jadalareign and Tokyo's FU Bring Their Soul Night to Manila's Nokal Tonight
Before flying to headline Circus Tokyo on October 16, Nowadays booker Jadalareign and Tokyo selector FU make a Friday stop in a Makati mall basement that used to be a cinema.
MI/EN Took a Sold-Out London Techno Night and Brought It Home to Kuala Lumpur
Justine Mei Ern built her name on London dancefloors and a Pioneer DJ training programme. Mixmag Asia just named her one of 2026's artists to watch, and she's back in Kuala Lumpur running a sold-out psychedelic techno night and teaching the next generation on open decks nights.
Singapore's Electronic Music Scene, Explained: Zouk's Rise and Thugshop's Shrinking Underground
Zouk got evicted by its own neighbors and came back as a DJ Mag top-20 club. Thugshop's HQ closed on its own terms after a decade. Singapore's house and techno scene actually splits in two.
DJ WAAI's Người Nhà Collective Built Saigon's House Music Home on a Rooftop
Twenty-six floors above District 3, DJ WAAI, Dekay and Fanglanx turned a sky bar called HỢP 合 into Ho Chi Minh City's steadiest house music residency, and WAAI is already running a second room.
Moni-Moni's Crate-Digging Turned Cebu Into a Philippine Underground Hub, and Mixmag Asia Noticed
Mikelis Yu grew up in California, came home to Cebu to run a family hotel, and started a radio project instead. Mixmag Asia's September watchlist is the first time the outside world put a name to what Cradio Radio built.
Manila's Siangyoo Plays Zouk Singapore on October 8 to Fund Nepal Flood Relief
Manila turntablist Siangyoo has sold out two Singapore shows already. On October 8, he tries for a third at Zouk, with 10% of every ticket funding flood relief in Nepal through a new charity rave format from Beamco Foundation.
What Is a Boiler Room Set, and How Do You Actually Get Booked for One?
Boiler Room turned a webcam in a London basement into a global stamp of approval, and getting picked for one still isn't a matter of sending a good mix to an inbox. This explains what the platform is actually looking for, and the two real routes artists have used to get on it.
Vinyl vs Digital DJing: What Southeast Asia's Clubs Actually Expect
Nearly every working club in Southeast Asia runs the same Pioneer CDJs found everywhere else. Vinyl hasn't disappeared, it just moved to a different kind of room.
What B2B Means in a DJ Lineup, and Why Bangkok's 808 Festival Booked Three of Them
B2B stands for back-to-back: two DJs sharing one set instead of two solo hours. Bangkok's 808 Festival has booked three exclusive pairings for October, and one of them already produced a Wu-Tang-sampling single.
House Music vs. Techno: What Sunju Hargun and Dipha Barus Actually Sound Like
House and techno get used interchangeably by people who should know better. This piece breaks down what separates Chicago's groove from Detroit's machine, and where to hear the split done right in Southeast Asia.
Miko Naiko Learned to DJ From YouTube Tutorials in Ipoh. ALIGN.ONLINE Got Her to Pestapora Jakarta.
Miko Naiko taught herself to DJ off YouTube tutorials in Ipoh, Malaysia's 'City of Music.' A Southeast Asian women's network got her onto the bill at Pestapora, Jakarta's biggest festival.
Idris Elba's House Music Alias IDRIS Made Its Bangkok Debut at Cloud 11
Idris Elba's house music alias IDRIS played a one-off set at Bangkok's Cloud 11 Theatre on September 26, sharing the booth with two of the city's own DJs, Wildealer and Elaheh, as his label Sound International made its Thailand debut.
Three-Time DMC World Champion DJ Craze Plays Phnom Penh's Pontoon Club on October 2
DJ Craze, the only DJ to win three straight DMC World titles until 2020 and once Kanye West's tour DJ, plays Phnom Penh's Pontoon Club on October 2, a rare marquee booking for Cambodia's still-rebuilding scene.
How to Learn to DJ in Southeast Asia, Starting at Bangkok's InEarBeat
You don't need a residency to start, or famous friends. You need about eight hours, a laptop and, in Bangkok, 10,000 baht. Here's where Southeast Asia actually teaches people to DJ.
The Best Record Stores for DJs in Southeast Asia
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.
Starting Earlier: The Rise of Teenage DJs and Producers
The unprecedented rise of teenage and even pre-teen DJs and producers is dominating headlines in 2026. A new wave of teenage DJs and producers is entering the house music ecosystem through digital platforms, home studios and online communities. Their entry routes differ significantly from previous generations shaped by clubs and record stores.