:: FEATURE

Paul Oakenfold:
24 Carat DJ

Found @ thirst - your chance to DJ with superstar Oakenfold

Make no mistake, Paul Oakenfold is a bona-fide DJ superstar.

Starting out spinning soul-jazz in London in the late '70s, then moving to New York, then the UK again (where he displayed his trademark business acumen by turning his hands to the hip-hop he'd heard in the US), he then went on to discover, popularize and define the Balearic 'Ibiza' sound, work with New Order, The Happy Mondays, U2 (where one watershed remix outsold their original), launch the Perfecto label, make what are still Global Underground's biggest selling CDs, help make several superclubs into legends and finally return to the US - ironically to popularise the dance music that had inspired him there in the first place.

Doubtless, he has one eye on a very lucrative prize - being crowned king of what could be the world's biggest dance scene, but he's not one of the world's richest DJs by accident.

Which makes it all the more odd that he has not come to Japan - one of the fastest expanding scenes in the world - more often.

While pretty much every major foreign DJ, and a whole raft of not-so-major ones, has made the trip a regular thing, 'Oakey has only been here twice before and neither time as a headliner.

"I've just been very busy with other projects" he explains.

Adding that he'd "like to be [here] as much as I can" but that his hectic global schedule (this interview was conducted by phone, before a gig in Santiago, Chile) doesn't make it easy.

Whether he can take himself from relatively low-profile DJ to household name here in one week is an open question, but if the success of the rest of the Thirst tour is any guide, sponsors Heineken have no need to worry.

Certainly the local music trends are in his favour.

For while he has at one time or another dabbled in just about every genre there is, he is best known for trance - still ludicrously popular locally.

The man himself isn't saying exactly what he'll play though: "my style is melodic.

It could be house, it could be breaks, it could be trance, it could be technoﾉ"

He did hint that he'd probably be airing "a lot of new stuff" however, including "a new Madonna record" he's been working on and picks from Perfecto, his label.

Whatever the genre, there will be a band on stage to perform tracks from current album Bunkka and "a 40 minute visual, broken down into four parts".

If the cover seems a bit on the high side, it's not without reason.

Accompanied by Japanese trance/progressive house luminary DJ Yoda and performing at Kansai and Tokyo's best venues, expect a show, in every sense of the word.

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Found @ Thirst

"We're trying to find tomorrow's styles, today"
(Paul Oakenfold)

What's most novel about the tour is the Found @ Thirst (unknown) DJ competition tied to it.

Any non-professional DJ resident in Japan, foreign or Japanese can enter, for a chance to play alongside Oakenfold at his gigs in Osaka or Tokyo.

Entrants themselves decide which heat they would prefer to enter.

The finals, where DJs will be judged on their live skills in front of a club full of people, will be held at the gorgeous club Triangle in America-mura (Osaka) and the compact but bijou Fai in Aoyama (Tokyo), with the winner playing alongside Paul the very next night.

Any genre goes - in Oakenfold's own words "we're very open-minded.

It could be drum'n'bass, to breaks, to techno..." - so all that's left for you would-be superstar spinners is to log on to www.heineken.co.jp/web/thirst, read the rules, and enter online.

Thirst tour Osaka:

Apr 24 (Thu), 19:00 start. \7,000 (\6000 adv). Osaka Namba Hatch, 1-3-1 Minato-machi, Naniwa-ku, Osaka.
www.osaka-toshiseibi.or.jp/hatch Info: 06-6233-8888 (Kyodo Osaka).

Thirst tour Tokyo:

Apr 26 (Sat), 22:00 start. \7,000 (\6000 adv). Studio Coast (aka Ageha), 2-2-10 Shin-kiba, Koutou-ku, Tokyo. www.studio-coast.com Info: 03-5446-0777 (Creativeman), www.creativeman.co.jp

You have to be over 20 to enter and should bring ID.