Dance to a different tune

Now that internationally acclaimed DJs and bands are helping attract the masses year-round, nightlife venues and music festivals are no longer a scarcity in Singapore. But you still have to dig a little deeper to find events showcasing niche musical interests. Rest assured, for a flourishing independent scene is doing its best to cater to the small but significant musical communities around the island.

Goth music: The dark alternative

Heart of Darkness is a monthly event that serves as a gathering place for the goth community. This is a night where you can live out your roleplaying needs as mistress or master of the theatre of tragedy. Whether you’re a Victorian goth or a cybergoth, patrons can adorn themselves in black-lace corsets and long black skirts or fuzzy fluorescent pants and spiked collars. This is the most prominent alternative scene in Singapore, with almost 300 members registered on the website of Singapore Dark Alternative Movement (SDAM), the organisation that runs these parties. ‘Part of our mission is to promote the music, culture and art of the Dark Alternative spectrum, and to create an accessible platform for enthusiasts to interact with each other,’ says Saito Nagasaki, the chairman of the SDAM committee.

The event provides a sonic journey through new goth music, which spans electronic body music (EBM), industrial and futurepop – a hybrid of synth-pop vocals evolved from new wave music, crossed with modern trance. The group often explores alternative venues for these nights, holding parties in places such as Mandai Orchid Garden. At Heart of Darkness, not only are you treated to the musical talents of DJs Murderfreak, Saito Nagasaki and Mentor (the DJ alter ego of celebrity/nationalist/blogger X’Ho), you might be lucky enough to catch one of the few industrial or goth bands in Singapore such as Aesgrade (Singapore’s answer to futurepop), Meza Virs (who brought their dark symphonic metal to Baybeats in August) and Dualtone (ambient industrial electro with vocals reminiscent of trip hop).

Psytrance: Share spiritual energy through trance dance

If you need a musical form of escapism from the drudgeries of daily life but PVC is not your thing, another option would be to get your doof on at local psytrance gatherings. The Om Project has been organising monthly nights since 1996, and has now set up a regular base at Home Club. With its mantra of ‘live the life you love, love the life you live’, the emphasis is on sharing a spiritual energy through ‘trance dance’. Psytrancers maintain that the music enables dancers to reach a state of bodily transcendence, similar to ancient shamanic dancing rituals. Through the characteristic 16 beats per measure (BPM), pulsating basslines mimic a frequency that is most active in your brain during periods of deep meditation.

The psytrance community is filled with people who first experienced the genre during full moon parties in Goa or Koh Phangan, but there is now a much more diverse crowd. ‘Our audience includes students, doctors, bank managers, directors, pilots…everybody,’ says Marilyn Tong, one of Om Project’s founders. ‘All you need is to enjoy the energy of what we have to share, the music.’ The place gets an ‘A’ for effort when it comes to decor – Home Club is transformed into a indoor rave temple of sorts, complete with UV paintings depicting fluorescent psychedelic patterns and the ubiquitous OM sign.

Reggae: For the love and sounds of Jamaica

If this is all too fast and too bright, then turn your lights down low at Jammin’, a night dedicated to the sounds of Jamaica, encompassing reggae, dancehall, dub, roots, lovers rock, rocksteady and ska. The night is run by resident DJs Nomsta and Tomo, who claim they are paying tribute to the music that helped inspire the genres they love – ie, house music and rap. ‘Back in the day, DJs in Jamaica started the concept of rhyming over instrumental music, which is the base of rap music. Production techniques pioneered by dub producers like King Tubby are the basics of today’s electronic music,’ Tomo says.

Jammin’ has set up shop at Blu Jaz Café and visitors are often encouraged to add percussion over the beats, as well as ‘beatboxing’ – producing percussive sounds with the mouth. ‘We are possibly the first DJ-led reggae event, which allows us to explore the genre in a wider sense,’ Nomsta says. The night has only been doing monthly events since May, but with a growing crowd gathering in this unpretentious and relaxed atmosphere they’ve been asking for more – Jammin’ is scheduled twice during the month of October.

It doesn’t look like big-name DJs or mainstream styles will be ducking out of the spotlight any time soon, but for now the alternative-sounds scene is doing just fine at attracting crowds to party in the dark little corners.