3.
The Domino effect
By JEFF OGRISSEG
Staff writer
Friday nights are not as popular as Saturday nights for trance parties in Tokyo. Yet by 11:45 p.m. one Friday last month -- a full hour before most regulars would think it's cool to show up -- Cube326 was filling fast.
Domino
This wasn't any ordinary night at Cube326, a club hidden in Tokyo's Shibaura district. For starters, there was a film crew in the house, shooting club scenes for an upcoming movie. But more importantly, it was a Domino night, and the world's leading female trance DJ was up first -- meaning it was up to her to get the party going.
Domino needed only about 20 minutes of short two- to three-minute beat changes to get the crowd revved up and primed for her mix of chunky-beat floor-killers. And she did it all off the cuff.
"A lot of DJs will go to a party with all their stuff written down -- BPMs [beats per minute of the tracks], what they're going to start with, what they're going to finish with," Domino said in a recent interview. "I don't do any of that . . . I just go up there and I start with something. I don't even know what I'm going to put on. And then I just take it from there."
The resulting thermoelectricity she gets back from the dance floor could power all of Tokyo for several hours. When she cuts off the last track after her relentless three-hour set, a combination of euphoria and exhaustion hits like a 3-meter wave, swallowing you and carrying you along, leaving you with a craving for more. You still want to move, but you can't. Domino has read you and the other 500 people like a book, as she has done at dance venues all over the world.
Since her 1995 international debut as the opening act for Juno Reactor, Domino has played more than 80 events in 15 countries, including Japan, where she debuted in 1996. She has two mix CDs out (on the Equinox label), but success in the world of trance is measured less by releases and more by what happens on the dance floor. And without a doubt, Domino makes it happen.
She recalls going to her first trance party at about age 14. Before that, her musical interests were primarily in pop music: "One of my idols was Michael Jackson. But I was brought up on a lot of reggae, and my mom was into Otis Redding and things like that."
When electronic music began to take off in the early '80s, she started listening to groups like Front 242, Yello and Kraftwerk. But she took her love of this music a step further by mixing together music with a Walkman recorder and giving the tapes to her friends.
"I was doing it for fun. I liked it and I found it really interesting. And a lot of my friends were like, 'Oh, this tape's really good! You should do something with it,' " she says. "I was thinking that if the chance comes, it comes. And it did. And then it all happened so quickly."
Domino played at her first party in Goa when she was about 15. "It wasn't anything professional. They just gave me a chance to play in the beginning. That's where Mike Maguire [of Juno Reactor] heard me."
Around this time, she also gave modeling a shot. It was a natural step: Tall with long, wavy hair, Domino has an exotic appearance thanks to her West Indian, Chinese and British ancestry. But luckily for trance fans, she saw more potential for success in doing "something else."
By age 18, she was well on her way to that something else. What Domino learned and mastered while DJing on the beaches of Goa is ingrained in her current style. Unlike most DJs today, she still uses tape. And although she's moved on to DATs (digital audiotape), which eases the cueing and manipulation of tracks, her technique isn't the easiest approach and relies a lot on instinct.
"In Goa, there was never really much equipment anyway. Basically how a DJ would mix was with two either professional Walkmans or stereo players, and pressing 'pause' and 'play' . . . all night," she explains. "All my music was on tape. The only way I knew how to play was on professional Walkmans."
In April 1995, after exploring Europe and a stint as a dance performer with Eat Static at the legendary Brixton Academy in south London, she took Maguire up on his offer and was soon making her major debut as Juno Reactor's opening DJ.
When Domino showed up for the event with her tapes and professional Walkmans, "they were actually laughing at me a bit," she recalls. "So, I was a bit embarrassed. But I did it, and they loved it."
Domino has been dazzling her counterparts in the very male-dominated world of trance for several years now, having overcome "quite a lot of jealousy" from the male DJs. "I guess they couldn't handle that a woman can be as good as them -- I don't want to say 'better' -- but as good as them."
Now, seven years on since her professional debut, Domino isn't exactly alone among women in trance. But the ranks of female trance DJs are still slim, especially in Japan, she says. To give female artists a better chance, Domino, along with her manager, Fumi Itoh, came up with a perfect solution: a party totally created by women, from the organizing to the DJs and lighting.
And so SMILE (Sun & Moon Into the Laughter of the Extravaganza) was born, christened with a big party, the Sun & Moon Project, in Tokyo in July 1999. According to Domino, the party was such a hit that it was revived in 2001 in Gifu Prefecture, which will also be the site of this year's event (May 17-19).
Domino has long had a yearning: to move beyond working with other artists' music and to create her own. Realization of that dream will begin with "Moon," a Domino mix CD to be released May 25 that will include a track she is creating with Uni, a two-man live act from Kyoto.
thats true...im a little away from msn cuz im into a big project that ends the end of this month....so im at the studio everyday and i can't connect. So are u coming to barcelona after all to play?? hope to hear from u soon...Big kiss 4 u
