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‘Part of this big vinyl revival’: DJ new to Hong Kong who helped take city’s party scene up a notch opens a record store to share rare grooves

When Ani Phoebe Hao blew in from Brazil, where she was used to DJs playing vinyl records, she was surprised to find no one in Hong Kong clubs doing so

She formed Bad Times Disco with fellow Hong Kong newbie Yuki Kai, and they did their bit to elevate the city’s party scene. Now she’s opened a record store

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Ani Phoebe Hao, DJ and music producer, poses at Bad Times Records’ new store in Tsim Sha Tsui, which caters to DJs digging for something a little different as well as to collectors. Photo: Sun Yeung

Ashlyn Chak

Published: 7:15am, 23 Jan 2024Updated: 12:08pm, 23 Jan 2024

Corrected [12:07pm, 23 Jan, 2024]

[12:07pm, 23 Jan, 2024]
Yuki Kai was referred to in subheadings as Yuki Hao. The error has been rectified.

Bad Times Records was born from a love for vinyl records and a desire to share the diversity and versatility of music in Hong Kong.

The origin story of the store – newly opened in shopping destination Heath in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon – goes back to 2019, when co-owner Ani Phoebe Hao arrived in Hong Kong as a DJ.

Unable to find the type of musical community she was looking for, she opened a shop that is, she says, “closely tied to the music I like”.

“I’m interested in playing real diggers and stuff that people don’t know – the more obscure and left field side of electronic music and a lot of older music [going back to] the 1970s.”

Hao on the deck with friends in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo: Ani Phoebe Hao

Before beginning her Hong Kong chapter, Hao spent six years in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, where she got into music. “It’s inseparable from Brazilian culture and identity – they use music in socialising, community-building and bonding ways.”

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