Soporific Airs (DJ Bolivia): oasis

Friday, November 11, 2011

Oasis Radio from Osaka

If you're one of those people who is always looking for new DJ's to check out, and new online sources of good EDM, I've got a suggestion for you. Check out this site:

www.Oasis-Radio.net

Basically, Oasis Radio is a free web radio station based in Osaka, Japan, which broadcasts underground electronic music from selected local and international DJ's. It was started by a friend of mine, Dan Elliot, who originally came from New Brunswick. Another key figure at the station is Shawn Young, another New Brunswicker. I was introduced to these guys several years ago by a mutual friend, Ian Warney.

The philosophy and origins of the station can be best summed up by these words from Dan:

"It’s pretty simple, really. Find timeless music that reaches deep down to touch the soul, enlist DJs and producers whose passion and vision shine brighter than any false star, use technology that transcends the tyranny of time and distance, and make a humble aural offering to the city that made you and the people that saved you. It’s an idea built on the legacy of Oasis Lounge - a little bar in an out-of-the-way part of Osaka where a few partiers around town would immerse themselves in the company of warm souls and refreshing music. The bar has since closed, but from June of 2009, the music streams 24/7 globally – free web radio of, by and for Osaka’s vibrant electronic dance music community."

I played at the Oasis Lounge when I was visiting Osaka several years ago. I was a bit overwhelmed by my travel schedule and jet lag at the time, so I didn't bother to record any of what I played (although I was much more awake when I played at Velours in Tokyo the following week, and that set is online here). Dan was my host at the Oasis Lounge, and it was definitely a unique and fun bar that I'll never forget. And Dan's Lychee cocktails may still reign supreme as my favorite drink of all time.

Dan hosts a regular show on Oasis called "Progressions." Shawn hosts a regular show called "Hibiki." And there are also a few dozen other DJ's that have shows, with lots of variety. Check them out if you get a chance. Click here for the direct link to download shows from the most recent month at the station.

Just one last suggestion: there are a couple of different "Oasis Radio" stations around the net, with different URL's. Make sure you go to www.Oasis-Radio.net, so you get the right one!

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia. Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production? If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support! I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia

SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia

Blogger: djbolivia.blogspot.com

Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Osaka, Japan - DJ'ing at Oasis Lounge

I flew to Osaka (Japan) this past weekend for a show. Although I’ve travelled pretty extensively before, this is my first time in Asia, so it’s been a great adventure so far.

I started by trying to fly to San Francisco for a visit on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, I flew through Montreal and then Chicago. I got to Chicago with no problems, but when I arrived there, I found out that there had been a huge snowstorm there the previous day, which had cancelled over a thousand flights. It was really nice outside at the time, with very little snow on the ground, so I didn’t really think that there were going to be any problems. However, when I got onto the plane, the airline eventually said that they couldn’t fly us to San Francisco because there were no pilots left in the airport – the pilots for our flight had been diverted to fly another plane earlier, to help catch up on the backlog of stranded passengers.

This didn’t seem like it would be a problem – they said that they were going to fly in a different crew from New York to take our plane to San Francisco, so the delay would only be a few hours. However, by this time, the storm had moved so it was over New York, which meant that it took a couple hours longer than expected for that crew to get out of LaGuardia. By the time they arrived in Chicago, the airline decided that those pilots couldn’t take our plane to San Francisco, because it would put them over their daily flight time limit. Our entire flight ended up getting cancelled, which was a disaster because that put all of us into the huge pool of people waiting to fly stand-by. I then ended up getting bumped off or passed over for the next four flights to San Francisco, as the airline tried to slowly catch up on the backlog.

In the end, I did get to San Francisco, but not until after midnight (about twelve hours later than expected). I was a little disappointed by that, because that was the stop on the trip that I was looking forward to the most. However, on a positive note, it was the one night on the trip where I could mostly easily deal with not showing up. Hopefully I’ll be able to reschedule for a visit later this spring, or maybe right after the summer ends.

The rest of the trip went smoothly, and the flights to Vancouver and then Japan were uneventful. We crossed the International Date Line, so it suddenly became Friday afternoon instead of Thursday afternoon. I was a bit nervous getting into the airport because my passport was only valid for two more months and Japan requires a foreigner’s passport to be valid for six months from the time of arrival. However, I had the itinerary to prove that I had a flight already booked to leave the country a week later, so that didn’t turn out to be a problem. Dan Elliot from the Oasis Lounge picked me up at the airport, and took me directly to his club, where I started to orient myself to the Japanese culture. A few hours later, a friend of mine (Ian Warney) showed up. Ian is a DJ and is living in Osaka teaching English. We went out for a night on the town, and I met a bunch of people that evening.

On Saturday, I spent the day touring around Osaka, and taking photos. That evening, I played at Oasis, which turned out to be a very fun night. Ian found me again on Sunday night and we went out for more sightseeing, and then we ate at a nice restaurant in a skyscraper overlooking Osaka.

So far, Japan has been great. There are far fewer foreigners here than I had imagined, but that’s about the only real surprise. The only big challenge so far has been trying to figure out the subway system. I’ve been on subways all around the world (London, New York, Paris, Moscow, and a ton of other smaller cities) but the Osaka subway has been the most confusing that I’ve seen, by far. The fare varies depending on how far you are going, and you have to buy a ticket getting on, then electronic gates scan it as you leave your destination station and don’t let you out if you didn’t pay the right fare. If you didn’t pay enough, you have to go back to another machine and do a “fare adjust” on the ticket. The Osaka (and Toyko) subway systems are not one large system, but instead are a whole bunch of separate lines run by different companies, so transfers can get complicated with ticket changes. Finally, there are very few signs in English, to make things even more confusing. However, after a few days, it was starting to make sense to me. Some of the stations are incredibly busy though – there is one station which has an average of three MILLION people per day passing through it. That’s pretty impressive, considering that the subways shut down at 12:30am and don’t start again until 5:30am.

A few other interesting notes so far:
- The cities are very clean compared to North American cities.
- There is apparently very, very little crime in Japan, and people feel completely safe and comfortable walking around anywhere in the cities.
- I have only seen a few children in the entire time I’ve been here – the Japanese must hide them away somewhere.
- I thought that I might get away with not running into anyone I knew during my visit, but on Sunday night a friend who had gone to university (Kyohei) saw me downtown and luckily had the time to spend an hour or so touring with us. That was an interesting coincidence, considering that Osaka is pretty big (nine million people, I think).
- There are far fewer Western chains than I had expected (lots of Starbucks & MacDonald’s and KFC, but that’s about it).
- A small but noticeable percentage of the population wear face masks in public and while working, either to limit the spread of diseases, or to protect them from smog & allergies.
- The amount of seafood is astounding – it is available everywhere, even as snack food in convenience stores.

Needless to say, I’ve been able to take a ton of interesting photos so far. I’ve got two photo pages up on my website now from the Osaka portion of my trip, and I’ve tried to add many more observations about Japan in the captions to the photos. Here is a link to the Osaka photo pages:
http://www.djbolivia.ca/photos_osaka2007a.html

After I left Osaka on Monday morning, I had three days scheduled in Tokyo, so I’ll write more about that part of the trip in a few days.

To download any of my studio mixes or recordings of lives shows, visit:

djbolivia.ca/dropbox

Then go into the folder called "Bolivia's DJ Mixes & Live Shows"

Thanks for your support!

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