- Line UP
Paul Van Dyk, Timo Mass, Seb Fontaine, Satoshi Tomiie, Joe Claussell, Miguel Migs + Lisa Shaw (Live PA), Rainer Truby, Pippi, Jazzy Jeff, Aldrin, Andrew Chow, Brendon P, DJ B, Jeremy Boon, Sonny. Tony Tay and Maniam the Tabla Man.
RA stands in line impatiently for the toilet and wonders why the rest of the cubicles are locked up. After what seems like hours, we relieve ourselves and sprint back to the main arena just in time to catch Seb Fontaine hand the reigns over to Satoshi Tomiie.
It's after midnight and ZoukOut 2004 is in full swing on the white sandy beach of Sentosa Island in Singapore. Earlier on we manage to hear Rainer Truby at the Velvet Underground area and we are duly impressed with his versatility at adapting his sounds to an open-air environment. Satoshi launches into what we think is the best set of the night. He seamlessly moves from one sound to another to create a wonderful mix for the audience. We don’t leave our spot until Timo Mass comes on.
We decide to have a wander about and see buskers in colourful outfits and stilt-walkers in outlandish garbs. We catch a belly dancing show and curiously stop at a numerology reading stall. There are stalls serving a plethora of local dishes. And there's even a massage parlour to help those with aching muscles. There's no doubt about that. ZoukOut has been planned and organised carefully to include everything for just about everyone.
We then find ourselves at the Mambo Jambo arena where cheesy top 40s to classic 80s are churned out. We watch in morbid fascination as the entire dance floor dances with synchronised movements to almost every tune. We head back to hear Joe Claussell and realises we've missed Miguel Migs and Lisa Shaw. The thing about dance festival such as ZoukOut is that although there's usually a fantastic line-up, we can hardly catch every act without getting tired of running from one arena to another. We listen to Joe Claussell for a bit but he does like his tweaking a bit too much and it grates on our nerves after a while.
RA takes a breather for things get blurry for a moment. We're not sure how it happened but we're then back at the main tent listening to Paul Van Dyk's epic trance set. Yes, everyone everywhere loves trance. That's why the top three DJs are trance DJs. It seems as though almost everybody has gathered to hear him play. There are rousing cheers from the bopping crowd. He soon has the audience in a frenzied state. After that killer performance, he gracefully surrenders the decks over to Aldrin.
And Aldrin moves to prove why he's gaining popularity in the world of dance music. With his latest release on Renaissance, he puts on the instrumental and melodic bit of Robert Miles' Children. RA silently applauds that thoughtful-chosen tune as a beautiful sun rise track. Milk and Sugar's Let The Sunshine In comes on not long after. We prance about on the beach to his tough tribal beats. We didn't fail to notice the shrinking dance floor though. It's after all 7am and several must've been ready to fall over after almost 12 hours of crazy partying. RA decides to call it quits after realising we're going to pass out too if we don't! We try not to trip on the bodies scattered on the sand as we drag ourselves out. It has been a great night and RA shouts THANKS to Tracy Philips and Harry Ng.