Hong Kong is not known for its slamming, cutting-edge underground house music scene. Commercial dance tracks - often remakes of top 10 hits - abound in most nightclubs and on most house music compilations. One local DJ is trying to change all that, and in the process, revolutionise Hong Kong's dance music scene.
Already a local celebrity, Joel Lai has in recent years come to the forefront as one of Hong Kong's homegrown DJs who can pull in the crowds based on their names alone. Already having featured at international club nights that have been brought to the territory - including the most recent by Ministry of Sound - Lai is also on the bill for two of Hong Kong's biggest handover parties - Unity on June 28 and One Nation Under a Groove on June 30 - where his name will be featured alongside internationally acclaimed DJs Boy George and Graeme Park.
Lai, who started his own mobile disco at the age of 15, has for seven of the past 10 years been resident DJ and music consultant at Club 97. During that time he has become known as one of the few local DJs willing to play non-commercial dance tracks. Lai was one of Hong Kong's first DJs to push garage, trance, techno and acid jazz. This year, to celebrate his years at the club, Lai - in conjunction with PolyGram records - has put together his own dance compilation, Club 1997 The Definitive Music.
Featuring tracks by Nu Yorican Soul, Up Your Ronson and the rather unlikely inclusion of East 17, Lai hopes to improve the quality of locally produced compilations and capture the sounds and trends set by the Lan Kwai Fong nightspot.
'The idea for the compilation was to improve the dance scene and to improve the music of the clubs in Hong Kong,' Lai said.
He was prompted to work on the project after being increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of dance compilations in the territory: 'I looked around in CD stores and I found that the quality club music, the quality CD compilations, were all imported from England or America. I looked at track listings to see if the tracks were available to make one compilation and I saw that it would not be too difficult.' The task was not as easy as he had expected. Choosing the tracks he liked was no great problem; getting permission to have them on the album was a little more tricky.