Darker rendition

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Published: 12:00am, 3 Jul 2008

Plenty of people have left Hong Kong to pursue a career in music but few come the other way. Dan Findlay did and has never looked back. In the nine years since the former geologist rocked up on Hong Kong's shores he has become a leading electronic music producer, ironically better known overseas than here.

'I like living in big cities but not the hassles that come with it: commuting, crime,' says Findlay, better known as Dan F. 'Hong Kong is safe and efficient, albeit more of a cultural outpost than a hub.'

Despite his international acclaim, Findlay rarely leaves Hong Kong, preferring to spend his time at Yumla, the club he runs in Central, and in his Chai Wan studio, where he has just put the finishing touches to his second album, Rendition.

The disc, to be released on Monday through his website - www.rendition.disuye.com - is probably his most complex and ambitious undertaking to date, a rocky, industrial landscape of beats and rhythms that transport the listener to a darker world, with glimpses of light offered by his genius for a compelling hook. While the frenetic energy of his adopted hometown is evident in the music, its theme couldn't be further removed. As the title suggests, Findlay weaves a glum tale of the post-9/11 world. 'It's about the freedoms that people in the west have taken for granted and are now giving up so easily,' says Findlay. 'The CIA can lock people up in foreign prisons with no regard for international law. You can't even get on a plane with nail clippers.'

Constantly making his own music or producing for other people, Findlay only decided to make the album when the theme came to him. 'It's like a soundtrack for a film,' he says, sliding into a booth early one evening at Yumla. Such is the album's atmospheric quality, music buyers may well license the tracks once he has unleashed it on the public, though he expects to sell only a handful in Hong Kong - most of his followers are in Europe and the US.

Offers to play overseas come regularly, but Findlay finds it hard to see his music as a stage act. 'It will just be me and a computer,' he says of the launch event he has planned for his album on July 19. Even as a DJ he never plays gigs outside his beloved Yumla, the groundbreaking club he has run for five years. A small space located in a lane off Pottinger Street, Yumla has long punched above its weight by playing music no commercial club dares. While its initial niche was Findlay's foremost musical style - breakbeat - the club has a roster of more than 30 DJs who spin sounds as diverse as electro, dub and house to punk and ska.

It's a labour of love for Findlay, who says music production is his main earner. 'Other clubs were crap when I came here,' he says, sipping a bottle of beer and lighting a cigarette in a corner booth at the venue. 'We wanted to provide somewhere for talented DJs to play and for people who love music to come and have a good time.'