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The Revolution will be Digitized

Antidote's Coup d'Etat @ ??? - By Morgan, Jul 02, 07

This Thursday the righteous wraith of the proletariat will be mobilized in the form of the spry and stalwart Antidote DJs (their names are being withheld), as they mount a devastating offensive on one of "Shanghai's top nightclubs." It's billed as a "Coup d'Etat," and the revolutionary fervor is already running strong in Antidote organizer Commander Ozone as he outlines the rules of engagement: "We'll storm their posh surroundings and depose the resident DJ with sounds from the underground. A squad of six masked DJs from the collective will force their way in to the yet-to-be named venue and abduct the resident spinners, before taking to the wheels of steel to exorcise the venue of commercial music."

Perhaps to avoid a counter attack from The Man (one can only imagine the casualties should the resident DJs from, say, Attica or Bar Rouge assail the decks at C's), Ozone has kept the "victim venue" a well-guarded secret, even from the Antidote junta themselves.

The location will be released on SmartShanghai.com on Thursday at 7pm. Conversely, you can join the task force by sending an sms phone text message to 159-0174-1452 or by emailing your phone number to antidote8@gmail.com a day before the insurrection.

Ozone's been pushing Antidote, the best drug in town, since the summer of 2005 and the parties have consistently served as one of the few outlets for young, locally-based electronic DJs. Nearly two years later, the Antidote events have become a cross-demographic favorite and the crew has remained consistent in reinventing the concept of Antidote while remaining true to its DIY origins. In the following interview, Ozone discusses two years of Antidote, Thursday's Coup d'Etat and the future of the collective.

True one of our goals has been to make an event that is more accessible for local, young music fans, and we'd had a bit of success that way. But we're even more interested in encouraging local talents, which is important in a scene like Shanghai, where everyone -- locals and expats -- expect good DJs to be foreign.


Hahah, that would be awesome ... but its a long way off, maybe next generation. As it is, I can see why most locals here would ask "what are you complaining about?" -- they're not yet cynical about commercial music, blatantly commercial events, etc.


Good question. Here's what i'm thinking: 1. These independent parties are continuing to succeed, and people are starting to take note of this. 2. The whole circus of the "Top 100" DJs is finally getting old here, and it's not going to continue to work that way. But also, these events are mostly organized by expats, and with more expats moving here (I especially see a trend of recent expats who are working in creative fields, design, media, marketing, etc.), these people are familiar with indie parties like these ... and they are already cynical about the whole "Top 100" DJ thing. So, yeah, I think we're going to see more creative, independent events like this.


Antidote has a "publish or perish" policy. You have to be a producer to play. There have been a few guest DJs that are essentially not producers, but our core members are producers first, DJs by default. And priority goes to local talents. Unfortunately there just haven't been enough local producers stepping up.

But we've certainly made an impact. There are several local producers that have been inspired by Antidote and are doing new stuff where you can hear our "sound" ... they're just not taking it public quickly enough.

Granted, it's really tough here -- there just isn't much hope for indie musicians. No chance of selling their recordings, or getting paid much to perform.


Well the first one was just such a surprise success, that's always what comes to mind first. But the theme trilogy we did -- Destroy, Recycle, Build -- was great creatively -- all of us pushed ourselves to really make new music, do something new, make a real "art" of our sets. amnjk's sets were so completely mad and fascinating --- electronic, punk, hip hop -- unprecendented. mhp's were beautifully crafted and like a history lesson -- mixing classic pre-electronic minimal, with the newest releases -- a bold move and it worked. And B6 has just matured so much, and trademarked a unique sound.

The Antidote Live series have also been great, cause we managed to bring really uncommon live electronic music to a larger stage, a larger audience.


Hahah, no idea...just hope people get it --- it's all about having fun. Despite the antics, we urge people to respect the venue. But we thrive on chaos, and hope there are some genuinelly confused people there.


Hahahah. You'll find out soon enough


Hopefully, if this one goes ok, we'll have a chance to launch our love on those places too.


Next ... we'll always continue doing the last thursday of the month at C's bar ... But we're setting up a national tour, and releasing some products -- a compilation CD, T-shirts, etc.


The best place to find out about the coup is on www.smartshanghai.com -- we'll exclusively publish the location here at 7pm on Thursday, July 5. After that, please spread the word, phone text messages to your friends. We'd like to have a lot of "friends of friends" know about it first.

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