Beatport Seventh Annual Music Awards

Hi Peeps,
You may not be familiar with Beatport. It's an American DJ portal and arguably the most influential electronic dance music site for DJs in the world. 

Although they have a huge catalogue of songs for download, if you go there and look up Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson or Lady Gaga, you'll draw a blank. That's not what they're about.

Beatport specialises in the kind of music I love. Probably 75% of my playlist comes from stuff I've found here. The site is divided into genres and each genre has its own chart. The streaming is really fast and you can get a good two minute sample of any song. What's more, there's a great free Iphone app for Beatport which lets me shop for songs even when I'm on the go. 

You can find the site at

BEATPORT 

And the app is in the Itunes store under Beatport. 

Beatport have just celebrated their Seventh Annual Beatport Music Awards. Top tracks by genre were determined entirely by sales. These were the tunes that Beatport's community singled out as the most important, far-reaching tracks of the year. They also created a new award, Beatport Breakthrough Artist, to recognize the top-selling artist who was new to Beatport in 2010.

I've added their newsletter to this post so you can get a feel of where the worldwide DJ community's head is at. 

For those who are unsure,  Deadmau5 is pronounced Deadmouse! Maybe I'll get a chance to spin One by Swedish House Mafia at the next Freedom party.

I'd like to finish this post with a hats off to Lady Gaga, whose Born This Way single was recently banned on Malaysian Radio. Her dignified and articulate response to this earned my respect. She's a very talented artist and clearly, a very clever and focused woman. I just wish people didn't overplay her in clubs!

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

TRACK OF THE YEAR

Deadmau5

One

TOP TRACK

TOP REMIXER

TOP DJ MIX

Tarantula

Manuel De La Mare

Structures - 2

BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST

Wynter Gordon

TOP TRACKS

Breaks

Chill Out

Deep House

M.A.D. (Elite Force Remix) Stanton Warriors, J... U&A

You Wish Nightmares On Wax Warp Records

The Voice Thyladomid Off

Drum & Bass

Dubstep

Electro House

Incoming... (Taku Remix) Ajapai, Taku Ajapai

Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites Skrillex mau5trap

Animal Rights Deadmau5, Wolfgan... mau5trap

Electronica

Hard Dance

Hardcore/Hard Techno

Wait For Me (Paul Kalkbrenner Remix) Moby, Paul Kalkbr... Little Idiot

We No Speak Americano (Friday N... Yolanda Be Cool, D... Xelon

Magnet The Advent, Industr... CodeWorks

House

Indie Dance/Nu Disco

Minimal

We No Speak Americano Yolanda Be Cool, D... Sweat It Out!

Hello (Club Edit) Martin Solveig, Drag... Mixture

Under Control Roberto Procaccini Empro Music

Progressive

Psy-Trance

Tech House

One Swedish House Mafia Size Records

Leave Me Alone Neelix Spin Twist Records

Tarantula Pleasurekraft Eklektisch

Techno

Trance

The Secret Joris Voorn Cocoon Recordings

Remember Love Armin Van Buurin, Pa... Armada Music

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

TRACK OF THE YEAR

Umek

Without You

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Carl Craig

MGMT LIVE IN KL

Hi Peeps,

For the last few posts I’ve been focused on other gay lifestyle issues. Here's  a music review for today. Last Friday, your intrepid techno deejay found himself, plus husband, at the only live appearance in KL of American indie rock band MGMT.

It wasn’t the best night of my life, I have to say. The gig wasn’t that well organised and the venue was more like an aircraft hangar than an indoor stadium suitable for a rock gig. My first impressions were  ‘No, no, no!’

No 1: no queuing system or crowd control, which worked in my favour because I'm a sneaky old dog but I feel I should complain about it anyway, on behalf of all those people who stood in line but moved backwards in the queue. The only crowd control measure in evidence was to shunt women from one line to another so that they could be frisked by female security staff. All women, not just Malay girls in tudong, of which there were a surprising number. .

No 2: no alcohol. Alcohol is not my thing. I get drunk really easily. Unkindly, one friend has told me that ‘I get pissed on a barman’s fart’. I’ve tried to keep my distance from bars and flatulent barmen ever since. So the lack of alcohol didn’t bother me, but I found myself concerned for al those kids. Don’t they know how bad Coca-Cola is for the body?

No 3: and this was a biggie. No toilet paper. Not even any hoses in the cubicles. To be fair, there was soap and running water in the sinks but at a certain point in the night you could have made me happy by plunging my hand into a vat of boiling bleach. You get the picture.

Enough of these trivial complaints about ambience and amenities. How was the show? We were warmed up by an MC. He  introduced himself by telling  us, quite rightly,  that his name was irrelevant because all we cared about was MGMT. He then did proceed to tell us his name and also the name of his show on Astro  but I forgot, primarily because it was irrelevant.

Anyway, he warmed us up by getting the right side of a fairly small crowd to chant against the left side and the left side to chant against the middle and we were all supposed to scream ‘yeah-uh’ and ‘oh-yeah-uh’ after him. His crowd warming skills were average and left me lukewarm. Now if we’d been chanting ‘THERE’S NO HOSE IN THE TOILETS. YEAH-UH!’ I might have sung louder.

At fever pitch, he introduced local band  Kymxmygh Prsml  but sadly, his elocution wasn’t very good. I can now reveal, after extensive online research, that their name was, in fact Kyoto Protocol. Apparently they’d been selected by MGMT to be their warm up act out of over 250 candidates.  I’d like to say nice things about them but I really can’t.   I begin to wonder about the real motives for their selection. 

I suppose they had a few quirky tempo changes that caught my interest for a bit and some control of dynamics - they knew how to go  loud and soft and they did.   Visually, they looked truly awful - like an overweight unkempt boy band or a bunch of waiters in white shirts from an upmarket food court. I asked myself if I could ever grow to love them and the answer was no. 

White man in Trilby. You heard it here at Freedom

Strangely, there were lots of white men there. A few vintage wines from my generation and a whole heap of unripened punky, bleached, tattooed yoofs who I’ve never seen in KL before. I didn’t know there were so many of us. What's more, I got quite a  few 'Hi Oran's' from enlightened queens not addicted to MTV and divas. 

Oh, and there were lots of Trilby hats. Please note: Freedom KL is never going to be a blog where you get hot fashion tips about what to wear and what not to wear but just this once, listen up. Trilby’s are ‘in’. You heard it here last!

The big boyz come on...

Finally the big boyz came on. From the first note you could hear the difference in stature between the support band and the main act. Melodious, accomplished, disciplined and confident. MGMT have got some great songs. They were let down by the venue and their sound system, which simply wasn’t right for the cavernous space. Like the crowd, it simply didn’t fill it. 

Not a charismatic band

The lights and back projection were OK but not stunning. I don’t think they’re a charismatic band. In fact, they didn’t bond too much with the crowd. But they played a good set full of highs and lows and sudden surprises – sometimes romantic, sometimes psychedelic, often irresistibly dancey. When they played Kids, we all went wild and jumped up and down. Could I love MGMT? Yeah, I guess I could.

If you haven’t heard them before here’s a song of theirs called Electric Feel

 Electric Feel

But I’m a dance deejay. Here’s a great dance remix of the same song by Hot Natured, called Electric Jones. It's a long teasing mix but bear with it, you’ll hear the original chorus come in half way through.

Electric Jones - Hot Natured

I've been saving the best till last. Here's a glorious video of Time to Pretend, which will have all you boyz blinking at the pretty boy singer shooting his fiery arrows...

MGMT -Time to Pretend

Bored with Pneumonia

Actually, I’m pissed off with pneumonia. It’s carried off at least four people I know. Three of them in Malaysia. The most recent was last week. Not a close friend but someone I saw frequently at his work. He was always delightful and charming. He was off for a few weeks.  Then he was dead.

I’m told by his colleagues that he died of pneumonia but I don’t really buy it. I’m sure they don’t either. How many young men die of pneumonia unless they’re immuno-compromised? Surely he died of HIV related pneumonia? But no one is saying HIV. No one will.

Two years ago one of our best friends died almost alone in a provincial hospital. He’d fallen sick on holiday and waited till the very last minute before allowing his partner to tell his family he was ill.  He made his doctor swear to hide the truth from them and to put pneumonia on the death certificate, not AIDS.

HIV is the new closet. Even in a liberal Western country, it’s hard enough to come out to your family or work and tell them that you’re gay. It’s even harder in Malaysia.  But now some people have to lie not just about their sexuality but also about their health. Or even cause of death.

Quite a few of my friends here are poz. They’ve told me, perhaps because I’m an outsider, but they don’t tell each other. I can understand why people hide it from their families, but it’s a shame they feel they have to hide it from their friends. Perhaps they are afraid we would judge them or even worse, spread gossip.

I wish it were easier for people to be open about this scary disease. If they had the love and support of those around them, people with HIV might stay healthier for longer. Right now, it’s clearly too scary for many to admit they have the virus. How we can make our community more thoughtful and caring in this regard I’m not sure. I think the recent Aids Aware campaign in Malaysia was fantastic because it helped demystify HIV and got people talking about it in practical ways. Making talk about infection and illness ordinary and familiar, may be, paradoxically, the best way forward. 

I’d like to thank each one of my HIV+ friends who has come out and told me what’s going on. Guys, I love you, I respect you and I’m here for you. And for those in Malaysia who think I bang on unnecessarily about barebacking and safer sex, think again…people still die of AIDS here, 13,000 to date, whatever else goes on the record.

To our friend who died last week, thanks for always making us feel so welcome and special. Thanks for always taking the time to say hi. We miss you.

Aids aware

http://aidsaware.ruumz.com/Causes/Default_Ori.aspx

Saying No to Unwanted Sexual Attention

Marcus and Jeff

These two beautiful guys are called Marcus and Jeff. Two reasons to love living in Malaysia. They think of Billy and me as wise elders; we think of them as adorable sons. We’re family: I really love these two guys, and I’m honoured they see us as good role models. 

Last year both our boys got into trouble dealing with unwelcome attention from other guys. Later we chatted and I shared my experiences of this. Apparently this was useful information. They both handle this difficult situation better now. 

So today it’s your turn. I’m going to write about rejection. Not about handling rejection, but about rejecting other people’s sexual attention when it’s not welcome. We all have to do it: men can be so tiresomely persistent…

 How do you deal with this situation nicely? 

In fact, why should you even be nice? 

I think most people like to think of themselves as OK. We all think something like ‘I’m a nice guy, I treat people well and for the most part I act in a decent way.’ 

I think too that most people like to be treated with respect, as if they’re basically OK or good. Don’t you? So how do you treat someone with respect and still reject them?

For a start, here’s something that seems obvious to a Westerner but doesn’t  always seem apparent to all my Asian friends. We all have the right to refuse sexual attention from other guys, even if that means they get disappointed, even if it means they lose face.  Saying ‘no’ doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. In fact, saying ‘no’ clearly and with respect might just mean the opposite.

Effective and ineffective ‘nos’

 So let’s imagine we’re in a sauna: partly because I know saunas well and partly because in a sauna, interactions are seldom verbal; they’re physical and therefore very real. If you can reject someone nicely in a sauna, you can reject him nicely anywhere.

There’s a world of difference between an effective ‘no’ and an ineffective ‘no’. One gets its message across, the other doesn’t. For me, the key to making a ‘no’ effective is not what you say, but what you say without words. Body language. 

There’s also a difference between a soft ‘no’ and a hard ‘no’. Both can be effective. If I’m going to reject someone, at least for the first attempt or two, I’d like to do it in a way that shows him respect and minimises his feelings of rejection. 

After all, if we’re all in a sauna on a Sunday afternoon, we’re all pretty much looking for the same thing. No need to give someone a hard time for liking me. And I certainly don’t want to give myself a hard time if someone doesn’t. 

Getting cruised

An undesirable man starts cruising me. Maybe he’s not my type, or maybe he’s undesirable because I have something else to do, like finish an SMS or make eye contact with someone I like better. Or I’m resting…

Do you want that hand there? You can say no...

 

Meet like with like

My number one rule is to meet like with like. In other words, if a guy makes an advance in a particular way, I respond in a similar way. If he’s verbal, I’m verbal. If he’s physical, I’m physical. If he’s rough, I’m rough. I start where he starts, because that’s his ‘language’. 

More to the point, if someone catches my eye, and especially if he smiles, it really doesn’t make sense for me to start yelling ‘Fuck off, you ugly geek, why can’t you ever leave me alone?’

In fact, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, something  like that happened to me  and I’ve never forgotten it. I'll call that an ‘inappropriate no’. Ouch!

 

Eye contact

So if someone catches my eye with a look or a smile, I might look back briefly to check him out and make up my mind but that’s it. No more. If he smiles, I might reply with a very quick smile or a polite nod but that’s it. After that, no more interaction. 

Sometimes, especially if the guy keeps popping up everywhere I go and staring, it’s hard to avoid more frequent eye contact.  But it’s a bad idea. That’s just going to encourage him. He’ll think I’m trying to cruise him. So if I don’t like him, I make him invisible. If necessary, I can track him out of the side of my eye. My rule is:   no more eye contact, except if he’s blocking my way.

 

Physical contact.

In a steam room, first contact is often physical. That can be true on a dance floor too. Again I meet like with like. If his touch is gentle and slow, I can respond gently and slowly. I gently unpeel his hand and place it back in his lap. Sometimes I just pat his hand or give it a friendly squeeze before removing it. ‘Thanks for the offer, but no thank you.’ But I meet like with like. If someone grabs me roughly, I’ll remove his hand more roughly.

 

Repeat offenders

I use the word ‘offender’ deliberately here. If I’ve said ‘no thank you’ to someone by removing his hand, he should respect it. It’s very clear.

 

Three strikes and you’re out!

This is the trick I shared with Marcus and Jeff that they found so helpful. I call it ‘three strikes and you’re out’. If he touches you then:

• First time: remove hand gently
• Second time: remove more forcibly
• Third time: push away impatiently and forcibly

If there’s a fourth time, the guy is probably drunk or crazy. There’s no point being territorial. Doesn’t matter if you were there first. It’s time to leave that steamroom/podium/corner of the bar. Let the guy figure out that when he persists, you walk away in disgust. I’d rather change location than subject myself to sexual harassment. 

That should really be enough. Anyone who continues to stalk you after four clear consecutive messages like that is not looking for sex, he’s looking for conflict. How you handle that depends on your personality. 

But that’s not the point of this post. Those escalating physical rejections should always be enough. So be true to yourself, be clear and be physical.  

And have fun!