Birthday breakout

Founded in a hole-in-the-wall on Samsen Road by American-music loving British DJ Steve Moss (aka Manow) and Daryl Lloyd, UB Radio burst onto the mundane Bangkok scene to become the city’s only space where local and foreign DJs can broadcast their work online 24-hours a day. The mission is to discover new talents, introduce quality, rare music to the audience, and organise monthly parties at Glow and Tapas with seriously good tunes from their DJs plus the occasional famous guest. 

Free membership gets music fans live feeds of sets and visuals by their favourite DJs, updates on the Bangkok scene and discounts on tickets to UB’s parties. The website is also home to an expanding community of music junkies from around the world, who communicate freely via the “shoutbox”. 

Membership is fast approaching 10,000 and UB’s DJ roster is bursting at the seams with around 100 contributors. 

“It’s all about hard work, dedication and passion,” Lloyd, enthuses. 

“A project like UB has to be really worked on to keep going. We are privately funded and have many overheads to keep the studio and website running. It’s a real balance to keep the dynamic moving, but we are determined to make a recognised underground scene here in Thailand, and four years in, we are now starting to see big changes. 

“When we first started the project, the city was awash with cheesy hip-hop and pop. We’ve since been through an era of electro and dubstep flavours, to what we have now, which is an exciting house scene, be it tech, electro or deep. There are still many clubs sticking to their staple generic billboard-influenced mix of sounds, but many Thai clubs have adopted a much more interesting music policy. … This has always been the key to the start of any underground scene in any country. Bangkok is finally getting there, slowly.”

If you can’t quite picture what it’s like, come down to the party on Sunday. The fourth anniversary sees four DJs playing both rooms at Bed Supperclub. The White Room offers drum and bass vibes, with local DJs and guest DJ Sabre from Goldie’s Metalheadz Label. 

In the Bar Room, UK legend Lee Coombs is manning the deck with his unique style of breakbeat, house and tech funk. 

Coombs gave us a few words before the big party. 

 

What are you up to now?

Running my label Thrust Recordings and, in the studio, writing new music. I’m writing a new artist album for my other pseudonym “The Freakazoids” and making new music for the new Lee Coombs album.

 

Do you enjoy the electronic music scene these days? 

It is very different in the way the music is delivered to the fans but essentially people still want to dance to great underground music. People will always like music that has an edge which suits me, as that is my speciality.

 

What about the breakbeat scene? 

It is has always been there for me, I have never stopped playing breaks. It seemed to have a dip in popularity a few years ago but things always go in cycles and we now seem to be creating a lot of interest around the world again.

 

Any collaborations in mind? 

I have collaborated with lots of great producers over the years but recently I chatted to Scratch D from Dynamix II and he expressed an interest in making some electro-funk with me.

 

You have relocated to the US. How do you like it there?

Great! I live where the sun shines every day. Music-wise we have everything right here, dance music in the US is bigger than ever! 

I think Uberzone is great and an amazing producer. 

 

What’s the plan for Bangkok this time?

A lot of new music plus some classics thrown in there. Expect a great party vibe with underground music that has been tried and tested with great results recently!

 

 

>> Lee Combs performs at UB Radio’s Fourth Anniversary on Sunday at Bed Supperclub on Sukhumvit Soi 11. Entry is Bt600 inclusive of two drinks and an open bar from 9-10pm. 

>> Call (02) 651 3537; www.BedSupperclub.com

>> Check out www.UBRadio.Net