By Rhae Schulz-O’Neil

Takao Drums event flyer, Kaohsiung Taiwan, 2024

Drum and Bass, the beloved electronic dance subgenre is one of the most popular electronic genres to come out of the United Kingdom 90’s breakbeat/rave scene. Having spanned into a multitude of DnB sub-genres, Drum and Bass (sometimes referred to as jungle beats) can be recognized by its fast pace (150-185 bpm), full synths, and emphasis on the Drum and Bass beats, with a healthy amount of purposefully off-beat rhythmic riffs (also known as syncopation… That little riff accent that makes you want to dance). For you auditory learners you can think of songs such as A Festa by Trüby Trio, 18 & Over by Nia Archives, or Jamaican Boy by Serial Killers to get a good grasp of some of the basic elements. 

But the thing I love about music is that you can travel 6,069 miles away from the origin point of a sound, and still find people who are drawn to it and creating from it. And that would be a very quick rundown of how I ended up in Kaohsiung, the southern city of Taiwan, listening to some of the best new breakbeat/jungle DnB mixes I’ve heard in a while.

This is where I introduce you to LOMU the Taiwanese DJ from Kaohsiung who is livening up the Taiwanese DnB scene. In the DJ era of 2024, when someone tells you they are throwing a gig and you should stop by, it can be a hit or miss of an evening. But let me tell you, the 3 artist Jungle ,Drum and Bass, and Breakbeat set that LOMU, his German mentor SAIBA, and Irish DJ NIENNA put on was a massive hit. They each brought a unique flare to their respective sets, with LOMU’s set feeling very explosive, almost leaning into Trance-step with a wide use of synths and ambient hums backtracking the breakbeats. When asked about the DJing scene in south Taiwan, LOMU commented that it is very new. Most gigs in Kaohsiung are small as a majority of the larger venues are up north in Taipei, so places to play or paid gigs can be scarce. It’s really LOMU and his friends trying to carve out a space for larger events in Kaohsiung, a pressure that is daunting and frustrating at times but rewarding. Despite the difficulties of booking, the show I was able to see was fairly well attended. In the basement of Rocks, a small venue in downtown Kaohsiung, people of a variety of ages packed in to see the show, with LOMU as the headliner.

Spending most of his time refining his sound and working on new mixes, LOMU has 4 tracks available on his Soundcloud. He is, what I would call, a craftsman when it comes to his tracks, often reworking, uploading and deleting tracks as he listens and finds things he feels aren’t perfect enough yet– a great indication that the limited tracks available have been refined and worked on more than you can imagine. While not all of his listed tracks fall under Drum and Bass, you can see the seeping influence in each. My personal favorite track of his right now is The Revolt of The Masses , a trance, breakbeat type track that LOMU states was inspired by the 1930 José Ortega y Gasset book also titled “The Revolt of The Masses”. Gasset, a Spanish Philosopher notable for his Proto-Existentialist writings, wrote “The Revolt of The Masses” in reflection and in critique of people and the ‘masses’ rise of power. ‘Masses’ here being a word to describe what we might refer to today as ‘hive-mind’ or the lack of individual thought because you are sticking to that status quo.

“The mass crushes beneath it everything that is different, that is excellent, individual, qualified, and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being eliminated. And it is clear that this “everybody” is not “everybody.” “Everybody” was normally the complex unity of the mass and the divergent, specialized elite groups. Nowadays, “everybody” is the mass alone.”

― José Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses

A concept and philosophical question still relevant nearly 100 years after Gasset wrote the book, asking how are you attaining and promoting individual conscious. A very difficult idea to express and grasp with words, let alone without, and yet when you sit down to listen to LOMU’s track, I think that idea is transferred. Breakbeat with a flare of trance is already a strong beginning for this concept. The trance sounds of the track emit this ambient and robotic sound—the mass production and lack of humanity, while the syncopation (off beat rhythmic bits) is what pulls you out of the uniformity, the thoughtless head-bobbing. You listen to this track and there is something both robotic and mechanic about it from the synths and noise. And yet it is simultaneously loose and lively, a great comparison of what Gasset reflects on in his book: the numbing pull of the masses while trying to recognise the individual. While a deepdive into this track alone could take pages, the takeaway for this article is simple: Take a look at LOMU’s work yourself, as the young DJ is creatively expanding the Taiwanese DJ scene.

Instagram: @lomu_official_ and @takaodrumz

Soundcloud: LOMU (Ivan Jarman)