Koh Phangan is becoming more well known for its music scene, it’s taking time as most people know it for the Full Moon so only hear commercial tunes but the underground scene is thriving.
Parties like Jungle Experience are committed to the underground House and Techno scene and stay true to their ethos, booking DJs from all around the globe including the ‘cool’ Berlin crew and not bowing to the temptation of sponsors to draw in crowds.
People who remember the Full Moon Party back in the beginning days will also remember that it was in fact Trance and Psychedelic music to grace the sands of the island.
Psytrance then took a bit of a back seat when everyone started to get into House although small Trance parties have always continued in the background. Now however Trance has made a strong comeback with the Goa Tribe choosing to mark their territory here as well. Parties like Shiva Moon have dedicated Trance lovers working full power to bring good quality Psy to the island once more.
The ‘genre’ that took the most time to catch up and arrive would be Bass Music, in general Drum n Bass, Jungle and ‘proper’ Hip Hop could be described as the ‘most underground’ so it’s just natural that it would be longer for fans of this music to arrive and for the island to feel the need for it.
Sunrise Bar on Haad Rin beach were the ones who brought a taste of this once a month for Full Moon and in the days of One Love Bar there were a small group of intelligent DJs bringing Bass Music nights for the followers.
Phanganist Hostel now have WEEKLY Bass Nights with DNB, Jungle, Bassline and Dubstep and it has shown that there is still the need for this music here on Koh Phangan.
It seems as though we are beginning to see a real diverse music scene here now which can only be a good thing, music is important to pretty much every single person on the planet in one way or another so it’s important that Phangan gives everyone a taste of what they want rather than shoving one certain genre onto everyone.
As the island grows in popularity, attracting different kinds of people other than just people to party, the music scene has to grow as well. People are more clever about music now, there is access to the best quality music thanks to the world wide web so if folks are listening to underground music in their homes they are going to expect a ‘Party Island’ to keep up with this knowledge, commerical music can please for a few hours but for people to really enjoy a night they are going to want to be taken on a journey by DJ masters and event organisers know this.
Don’t expect any VIP Culture here though, in the wise words of Marco Loco;
“This is one of the reasons I love Phangan so much. Everyone is here to have a good time and there is no such thing as VIP”.
Koh Phangan is gaining its reputation as a place where Underground and intelligent dedicated DJs from all around the world want to get a chance to play, a lot do it for the love as a stepping stone chance to get into this magical island or because of the different economy here will happily take a smaller fee as they genuinely just love to play out tunes whilst they are here, you never know who you are going to meet!
As well as our talented resident DJs for Phanganist Bass Nights we also have visitors who come to the island, see we do these nights and ask us to play as they have been travelling so not had the chance to play their much loved music.
One example was ‘Tuffist’ who is part of the label Chopstick Dubplate, if you’re into Drum n Bass and Jungle then this will sound familiar. Chopstick Dubplate perform live original soundsystem music for all the subwoofer massive and crew right round the world yet here was one of its members wanting to play his tunes on our humble island of Koh Phangan, what a junglist pleasure it was!
So no matter what kind of dance music you are into nowadays there’s a high chance you will find it here and you will be impressed with the new quality that is coming to our tiny island in the Gulf of Thailand, it must be the magic crystals….
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