Like Ian, the other contestants were not greenhorns in mixing and scratching, either. China’s Qu Hongsheng managed a bar in Guangzhou and was exposed to "black record plates, a mix machine and shocking music." India’s Anupam Choraria was introduced to the world of amateur remixing and christened himself "DJ Anoop." Indonesia’s Handika Herdiman Halil dreams of pursuing a career as a music producer. Singapore’s Jeff Tan haunts popular dance nightspots. South Africa’s Brandon David Rogoff is the technical manager for local station RAU Radio. Taiwan’s Joe Ho works as an events promoter in dance clubs. Thailand’s Natha Srirongmuang is a 22-year-old student who dabbles in mixing with DJ friends.
But in the end, just like in The Highlander, there can be only one. The "one" turned out to be Ian Magbanua with his entry titled Ian CC that earned the nod of the panel of superstar DJ judges, which included Sister Bliss of Faithless, Junior Jack and Kid Crème, among others. DJ Ian is all set to go to London to visit the original Ministry of Sound (MoS) Club and have his entry (a dreamy, languid Kitaro-meets-Tricky track – more stellar compared to the others) produced and distributed by the fabled record label.
And if God smiles upon this DJ, he could very well rule… not the galaxy, silly… but the dance clubs of London, Brazil, Ibiza, Libis – wherever the music takes him. And we all know how much of a vagabond music is.
While Ian, his cousin AJ Dimarucot, Tetet Songco (Philips Consumer Electronics marketing manager) and I waited for the Mix Master Search winner to be announced, we lounged around and got entertained by DJ Roger Goode (and his heady grooves), DJ Alan Thompson (and his heady grooves) and a couple of fire-eaters (and their brainless skit that went awry).
If the two turntable wizards were the paragons of cool in doing tricks of the DJ trade, the two fire-eaters got – pardon the pun – burned, uh, figuratively, of course. The other, apparently the chief fireman, even got – pardon this other pun – hot under the collar. Blame it on a slippery stage, lack of experience of his apprentice and fire not following instructions (stupid fire). After that embarrassing digression (what does a circus sideshow have to do with rave parties, anyway?), Dockside got underway for the main event from Philips.
Ian admitted he was nervous before our group embarked on the three-day sojourn to South Africa. He bested other amateur DJs at the national finals held at WhereElse? because of the sheer creativity of his mixes, which he composed by meshing and splicing preprogrammed tracks in his trusty Philips cell phone. Magbanua is part of the electronic duo called Morse (cousin AJ handles the visuals, while Ian comes up with the musical bits), an outfit that belongs to a collective dubbed as Electronica Manila (which also include Squid9, Rubber Inc, Punk Sinatra, Synthman, Makina, Morse and Moon Fear Moon, among others). Ian’s day job is creating original music pieces for Flash-enabled websites, CD presentations and advertisements. In May last year, he produced an original music score for an interpretative dance piece for PETA titled The Truth About Beauty, The Truth About Dance.
"I don’t know how to play the guitar or the piano," confessed Magbanua, who listens to pioneering acts like New Order, DJ Shadow and Unkle. "But there is so much music that I want to create, so it was a good thing I was able to accomplish that with the aid of a computer."
In making Ian CC, the DJ said he listened to the different tracks on the Philips 530 and was charmed by one piece with a strong synthesizer bit. "I wanted to make the synth the main element. I also didn’t like the tempo (120 bpm), so I slowed it down (85 bpm). I don’t go for the dance floor stuff; I go for hard, crunchy, funky beats."
His victory, Ian said, is quite significant for him as a Filipino electronic musician. "That proves we can go head to head with everybody else on the global stage when it comes to electronic music… and music in general."
Angelo Valenton, Philips country manager, remarked that he wasn’t really surprised that the Philippines emerged as winner. "The Filipino can measure up with the world’s best. I’ve always had faith in our talent," he said.
As for future plans, Magbanua intends to hunt down MoS and Ninjatune (the labels) in the UK and show them "what we Filipinos have to offer when it comes to electronic music."
Bob Pillay – senior director/customs operations (PCE)-Region Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa – agreed with Lee that the Mix Master Search has been a great success: "We wanted to reposition the brand to the target segment, which is the youth. So, what we did was to deliver a product that was capable of grabbing their attention. Music, we felt, was the factor to achieve this. We made the association with MTV and MoS to slowly but surely create the image of Philips as a 21st century brand. We’re not looking for overnight results, but I think we’ve started on that road."
Lee added that Philips recently launched a spate of products under the Personal Expression label, since research yielded the fact that there’s a need for the young ones to express their creativity. "The challenge for us is to update the image of the brand in a distinctive way," he said. "The Mix Master Search is all about letting the youth experience the new Philips 530, mingle with DJs, dance in a club – it’s all about doing their own thing."
The two Philips execs revealed that plans are underway to improve the Philips 530 cell phone to provide more avenues for self-expression. "Next year, we plan on incorporating a stylus," said Lee. Thus, users can use the stylus to make scratching effects on the tracks. "The other direction would be to add visuals, since we want to get into that whole music video-making arena."
Pillay seconded, "Who’s in a better position to do all this than Philips? We’re a sound-and-display company."
Why does Philips need to constantly tweak with their technology? Simple. Because the youth market is one fickle-minded creature with a short attention span (like politicians except younger, more intelligent and less sloth-like).
"The youth market is very skeptical, very demanding," said Lee. "The young ones have bullshit detectors just like everyone else. You send the youth a message about the product, and if it doesn’t deliver they’ll throw it back at you. Similarly, if you sell the youth a product and if you don’t tell them its benefits to their lifestyle, they won’t be interested."
"Yes, the development of technology is so fast that it becomes boring to the young consumers and they move on to the next big thing," agreed Pillay. Yes, what is considered the Jetsons hovercraft this moment becomes the Fred Flintstone stone mobile in the next.
So, what’s in store for the Philips 530? A couple of superstar DJs – DJ Mauro Picotto, DJ Carlo Cox, Sander Kleinenberg, Chris Leibing and Cut Killer – have agreed to create new tracks to be uploaded on the Philips 530 (mixes to be made available online and on MoS CD samplers). And there will be more events in the vein of the Mix Master Search.
"We’re in this for the long haul," assured Pillay.
"We want to go out to the people on the streets and tell them, ‘Hey, you can be part of this whole enterprise, too. And at the end of it, you have the chance to go to Ministry of Sound and do something really professional with your music’," concluded Lee.
Shoot us for being irreverent – we poked fun at some of the quirky creatures we saw (and we didn’t even go on a safari, although we toured Table Mountain and Groot Constantia), and had goofy discussions about cork trees and pilots who talk like Elvis, but when it came to winning time, we were dead serious.
Which is so very Filipino.