DJ Tayo @ Zouk, Singapore (2001)
Reported by Matt Tuesday, January 8 2002
After scoring free entry to Zouk a week or two before I left Australian shores I had awaited my first global underwhere's clubbing experience with eager anticipation. The glossy techno tabloids (Read: Mixmag, Ministry, Wax etc) had waxed lyrical about Zouk in my readings in the past, and I had heard of a reputation including the No. 1 club in the southern hemisphere and one of the top 3 clubs on the planet, and had considered that Zouk forms a regular pre- or post- Aussie stop on the global DJ/club travel circuit and that they ran small enterprises like Salt in Melbourne. Added to this i assumed singapore's facination with all things technological would ensure killer sound and lighting systems would be spread throughout this.
On arriving in Singapore my anticipation grew as everyone from age 12 to 60 I spoke to 'knew all about Zouk', particularly as it was closed for the bulk of last year due to a drug bust. In a country where capital punishment for chemical crimes is the norm, I was surprised to find a massive positive reputation from all.
We arrived at Zouk at a reasonably early 11ish, but in the end the time wasted sorting out our entry and getting past the 10 security guards at the door made this worthwhile. My suspiscions of technological splendour were confirmed by the laser beams sweeping the entry hallway.
Club Zouk is separated into 3 separate clubs, Velvet Underground, a chill bar for the flashy older crowd, Phuture, a breaks and beats club, and the main room, Zouk where the madness centers.
We skipped the cool crowd at Velvet and headed to Phuture, to grab a few drinkies. We then headed down to Zouk where the Singapore Fashion School was holding its annual prance about to an ambient wierdness soundtrack.
This was (fortunately) short, and we returned to Phuture, where the bar staff had been minding our seats and drinks (service in Singapore is service like nowhere else). The resident breakbeaterer was chopping away, bouncing up and down behind the decks, inch thick gold chain swiinging from ear to ear. The crowd began to build as midnight approached until DJ Tayo hit the decks for a bit of breakbeat pioneerism, showing off a little Y4k progressive elastic beats.
We hit the dancefloor and got swept around in the huge crowd. Jugs full of cocktail mixes were outnumbered only by mobile phones. There was no need for glowsticks with all the multicoloured buttons and screens swinging around.
After an hour or two on the floor we began to get a little wierded out by a group of six or seven Chinese girls dancing around pulling on their tongues. After five or ten minutes we figured out they were in the midst of a dancefloor tongue ring swap meet....and we took our cue to head off the floor.
We bailed down to the main room, to leave Tayo to his funky extravaganza. In Zouk, the crowd was even larger, with the resident Djs lashings of tech-trance ruling the movement of the dancefloor. We headed towards the center of the floor, only to be scared shitless by a six foot high blast of freezing cold dry ice. After getting accustomed to these random relievers from the Singapore heat, we settled into a bit of dancering.
The place continued to live up to the translation of its name, providing plenty of the bazaar, including 7 foot tall Chinese transvestites in leapordskin mini skirts and a central podium filled entirely with gyrating gay boys, most of whom insisted on screaming hello and shaking hands before running madly off into the crowd, to return five minutes later.
The sound system was amazing, surrounding everything, but still there were plenty of clubbers screaming I can't hear you into their mobiles. The laser show in Zouk continually made a mess of my standing up straight, but staring upwards and jumping around like a loon don't mix well at the best of times.
After a couple of hours of madness, we decided to head before the rather early closing time of 3am meant the rush to the carpark would ensue.
Amongst all the wierdness, Zouk provided an amazingly hyper atmosphere, and the smiles of a couple of thousand clubbers, enjoying just another club night in their home towns favourite hangout proved an awesome experience.
One of the best things about clubbing in Singapore is that there are plenty of post club opportunities to partake in Singapore's second favourite past time behind high finance - feasting on every food you can think of.
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