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Interview: Magic Garden

Psytrance in the garden of good and evil - By Morgan Short, Sep 17, 09

Photo by Grant-oh! Buchwald

Psychoactive in the Chinese clubbing scene for eight years, Trance music -- or Psytrance, rather -- begins and ends with locally-based DJ crew/promoters Magic Garden. Based in Shanghai for the majority of that span, Magic Garden has migrated to clubs all over the city, and have managed to consistently throw the most massive and most elaborate parties, attracting thousands and thousands of freakazoids from all over the world.

If you're looking to take "clubbing" to the Nth power, make sure you slot one of their mind-erasers into your itinerary.

Hat's off to Magic Garden for all they've accomplished and eight years of hard work and dedication to their shit. Don't miss their big anniversary party at G+ this Saturday.

SmartShanghai caught up with half of the Garden -- DJs Kodama and Solaris -- to talk about their finest moments, the state of the Trance, the past, the present, the future, and beyond.

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Photo by Grant-oh! Buchwald


Kodama: We are China's premier psytrance outfit, compiled of like-minded souls who share a passion for proper havin' it hi-tech tunes, losing it on the dance floor, throwing parties and generally having a good time. As BOOM representative for China and with friends all over the world we are closely linked to the global psy scene, yet at the same time deeply rooted within Shanghai and China's nightlife scene.


Kodama: The official crew members are: Solaris form France, Kodama from Belgium, Yuta from Japan and Hydrop from France. Our passion for this music made us meet. To make an 8 year story short: Solaris created Magic Garden in BJ in 2001, with the first party at club Trendsetters, (owned by Henry Lee, BJ nightlife legend). Solaris & Kodama meet at club dkd Shanghai. Magic Garden Concept was born... the rest, as they say, is history.


Solaris: Residences at Club Vogue 88 Beijing, Inner Affair Beijing, dkd Shanghai, Last Station After Hours, Club Mao & Club G+ Shanghai. Many gigs around China: Cinderella Jinan, Boiling 100 Degree Wenzhou, Yesterday Zhuhai, SOS Hangzhou etc¡­ Several out door events such as Dino Beach Shanghai & Beijing parties, Illuminate Great Wall Festival in Beijing, Skape party in Bei Pu Tao Beijing movie studios, and many more...

Kodama: Sheeeet, too many. Didn't really play properly in London (where I was for 6 years before coming to Shanghai in 2004), just messing about at friends parties. I played my first proper gig at dkd on Huaihai in... 2005 was it. Nu Party, 20 odd DJ¡¯s, each plays 2 tracks, then the best 4 get asked back for proper sets in the following weekends, I was one of them. At the same time I rode the wave of laowai DJ¡¯s playing at some renowned Chinese clubs like SOS (Hangzhou), Cinderella (Jinan), Tango (Beijing), Yesterday (Zhuhai) as well as playing every town, village, hamlet and city between Harbin and Nanning. Good good times, learned about Chinese language and culture doing that than in 4 years at Uni!

Back to Shanghai, Magic Garden was gathering pace with a year long residency at dkd with our infamous Full Moon parties, then a year stint at G+, a few gigs at MAO, Last Station after parties at Huating Hotel, other Shanghai venues like Boiling 100, the odd random party in art galleries (6 year anniversary) or office spaces (Trancescape)... and now full circle back to G+.


Photo by Grant-oh! Buchwald


Kodama:Well, first of all I'd like to start out by saying that we don't play what people generally think of as "Trance". I'm not a big fan of pigeonholing -- at the end of the day we all play dance fucking dance music, but there definitely is a distinction between the commercial trance scene and what we do.

To properly do this question justice would take too long, but in a nutshell, Goa emerged as a hedonistic destination for spiritual enlightenment as early as the '60s, with the Trance aspect seeing the light end '80s, when hippies from Europe played psychedelic rock (Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, Led Zep, etc) over the early electronic music (Front 242, Kraftwerk) blended with some Indian sounds and rhythms. This, in no small part enhanced by the commercial use of psychoactive substances, created a whole new experience for party-goers, which has now spread worldwide.

Goa, Psy or Hi-Tech trance, in whatever form it is today, still sets itself apart to me in that it is more than the music; it's a whole experience, a lifestyle. Parties create environments for punters to lose themselves within the music with what's around them; immersive UV environments, visuals, people dancing a certain way, stomping about in harmony with others around them. Also the fact that I think it has a wider geographical reach than most musical styles, especially ones considered underground, literally every place on earth has a psy scene. Finally, the true spirit of the scene revolves a lot on outdoor parties; on beaches and mountains, in fields and squats, and generally lasting for several days!

Current trends, like anything in dance music, are the commercialization and appropriation of other styles... and as a result there is an increase in shite releases to sift through!

For a full history of goa/psytrance in more depth with originators, releases, pics and everything else you need to go here. Indispensable reading!!

Here's also a link to a grad student at Berkeley who wrote a thesis on "Psytrance and the Spirituality of Electronics".


Kodama: Trance is seen as the more commercial end of clubbing music, and in a sense rightly so, it's very easy to dance to and enjoy yourself with... that so bad then? We all just dance to a beat, wait for the break, lose oneself and go nuts on the drop...

Misconceptions are that it is just stupid nnts nnts nnts music with no feeling. For me it's the contrary, but horses for courses, and we put our heart and soul into what we do and that's what counts. In any case if people have a mindset of "my shit is so much more underground then yours", then fuck you really, what good does that do?

What appeals to us... hmmm, well, just that it's the music that we want to hear when going out. I used to be into all sorts of music, from classical to rock, metal, hip hop, house and techno and then discovered Psytrance nearly a decade ago. I listen to heaps of other stuff, but psy is still what gives me most goose bumps and that felling in your gut when putting on an amazing tune.

And the parties, well, you just can't describe it, one week under the sun and stars with literally a whole village town created by and for these global travelers. It's like an Utopian ideal of what the world would be like if hippies took over, based on sustainability, creativity and most of all heaps of fun!
As one of the best examples, check out this one right here.


Photo by Grant-oh! Buchwald


Kodama: Clubs in China are still too hung up on the Top 100 ranking system, DJ mag is like the bible; music is secondary to placement and that can be only detrimental to the development of the scene. Most of the top ranked DJs are Trance, so people here get exposed to and respond well to it, but perhaps not for the right reasons. Through our events, we try to make people realize than there is no such a thing as "The Best DJ of the World" but instead different electronic music styles represented by artists that all have their proper music selection and mixing style. Each one of us has their own best DJ in the world -- just what you like in terms of music and mixing and what goes with that.

But seeing that we're here now celebrating our eight-year anniversary must mean we're doing something that people like!


Photo by Grant-oh! Buchwald


Kodama: Biggest gig we did was last year's Halloween at G+ (next one coming up October 31st/plug). We rocked the shit out of it and on the whole night had 2800 people; line-up was the original trifecta of Solaris, Kodama and Yuta! To put that in perspective, the biggest crowd ever at G+ was 2,000, with a certain Dutchman who is returning to Shanghai soon.

Why did we rule supreme? A combination of lots of people wanting to have a new party experience till the wee hours, and Magic Garden Concept did just that; play wicked tunes in a cool themed environment and basically have fun.


Kodama: Part of the scene. It creates the atmosphere for people to dance and trance in a fully immersive environment, which just supplements the music. For one special night, you can totally change the appearance of the venue. People appreciate that as well.


Kodama: Dunno, neither of us have been, but I hear it's not what it used to, and the fact that they are advertising Goa on "Discovery Travel and Living" as a family holiday destination, would confirm that statement.

That music was born in Goa but has since spread out to the entire globe: From Canada to Australia, India to Brazil, Japan, Thailand, South Africa, without forgetting Europe: France, England, Germany... Lots of different influences have emerged, from country to country, to obtain a worldwide music production creating different sub genres, from Ambient to Progressive Psytrance, Full-on Trance or Dark Psychedelic, Psytrance...

In any case, it started in '70s there, and you can't expect it to be the same, but it's still a Mecca for anyone in the scene and the spirit is alive in one form or the other.


Photo by Grant-oh! Buchwald


Kodama: We're continuously working on developing the brand, and pushing the name out there, especially in Chinese... lots of Chinese people have no idea who Magic Garden is, but they know ħ·¨¹«Ô°!

Making some cash on the side is cool, but it is not our driving force, we'd be long gone of it were. We love the opportunity to play at big venues like G+ and expose a maximum of people to what we believe constitutes a proper night out with the vanguard of electronic dance music, while still staying true to why we started doing this in the first place; having fun on the dance floor.


Kodama: Halloween last year: just fucking immense; getting behind the decks, dropping the first beat and having the house lights come on with 1500 people in front of you, hands in the air, screaming like it was the last day on earth... still gives me chills.

2002 Illuminate Festival Great Wall: On Badaling Great Wall China! just the setting was out of this world, and it was at a time when this shit just didn't happen. Unique experience!

Trancescape with Udance, last June. Our first proper party where we lugged a 6k system, deco, bar and everything else in an office space, basically first big party we built from scratch and it was extra sweet to see it pay off!


Kodama: Life Extension are a Parisian live act and one of the pioneers of the French psy scene. Following their debut album they got globally recognized and have since been touring every major festival in the world.

Their new album Slave to You is set for release end of this year, so on he night we'll be treated to an exclusive DJ set by DJ Olive, one half of LE, who'll be caning that and more goodness for the Asia release.

We choose them as they have a particular full-on sound, which will be perfectly suited to Magic Garden and China. More info on them here.




Solaris: Keep on doing what we love, simple as that. Let more people enjoy themselves, bring out international artists so people can see what is going on in the global scene, and develop our microcosm of Shanghai and China!

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This Saturday, Magic Garden celebrates eight years of kicking out the jams with a triumphant return to G+. Click here for the event information. More about Magic Garden at their webpage. Congrats to Kodama, Solaris, and the rest of the crew.

All Photos in this article Grant-oh! Buchwald taken from these Magic Garden Party picture galleries: Magic Garden at Club Mao (April 2008), Magic Garden at G-Plus (June 2008), Magic Garden at G-Plus (July 2008), Magic Garden at G-Plus (August 2008), Magic Garden Halloween at G-Plus (August 2008)



Photo by Grant-oh! Buchwald

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