We got in contact with Denpasar-based (Bali, Indonesia) producer and DJ Funtime on SoundCloud. The young club producer Cahya sent us his new EP, and it was like nothing we have ever heard. „I want to submit a track that you all will probably like,“ he wrote, and he was right. The EP is called Velfarre 2002 (Bandcamp pre-order), and as a description, he mentioned only simply: „it’s a track where Eurobeat meets Indonesian Breakbeat.“ I’m a huge fan of DJ Love and budots, and all the crazy club experiments, but Indonesian Breakbeat with Eurodance? It made me curious. So I sent a couple of questions to Cahya, so he can explain his process and inspiration behind this unusual crossover.
About the inspiration behind the EP
Funtime: „So the whole EP is basically Eurobeat fusion with Indonesian Breakbeat. I discovered Eurobeat when I was very young, probably around 8 years old-ish, since I used to watch some highlights of it on YouTube. I started digging Eurobeat more seriously during the 2020 pandemic just to see what the history of it is, how the genre evolved, the dance culture (para para), and how they make it. When I started becoming a DJ in 2021, I was playing full Eurobeat and no other genres. In 2022, I ended up doing more open format and not sticking with Eurobeat, and last year, I stopped playing Eurobeat because it’s hard to reach the market.“
As for the Indonesian breakbeat, which combines some genres of it like BKB (Breakbeat Kejut Bahu) is already a thing that happened in lots of local commercial bars around Indonesia for the last 2-3 years, and I happened to go to these locations often with my friends.
There are a couple of inspirations that resulted in this EP:
1. „Tempo-wise, both genres, like Eurobeat and Indonesian breakbeat, are similar. Ranging from 140 to 160 BPM.
2. Music wise also, both of them are very maximalist in production. Many layers and many little details are going on in both genres, which gives me an idea to combine them both. This results in a full maximalist sound.
3. Lately, in the underground scene in Bali (Specifically the tourist areas like Canggu and Uluwatu) are playing minimal and heavy bass music like Minimal House and UK Breaks. I’ve reached the point where I’ve gotten sick of it because everyone does the same, and I just want another color to appear in the scene and not the same thing going on for the last 2-3 years.
4. I’ve had a huge argument with my best friend a couple of weeks ago, and somehow it triggered me back to listen to Eurobeat again after not playing it and not listening to it intensely for a year. It gives me a reminder of why I love the genre in the first place and a call to go back to this genre and discover more of it.
5. The final inspiration comes from my self-reflective moment after I have a huge argument with my best friend, which made me realize that I haven’t been honest with myself at all. The EP concept wasn’t supposed to be like this at first. I switch concepts too many times, and I was trying too hard, which doesn’t work for me, and I ended up making a lot of tracks that I don’t really like. I even ended up declining a label that offered me to release my EP because I feel dishonest with myself about what I like, and they force me to invent something new (like make it not Indonesian but also sound Indonesian???) when their works don’t even apply to what they told me to do.“
Funtime
About the „Xenon 1996“ track
„So Xenon 1996’s inspiration is coming from the eurobeat sounds around 1995 to early 1996, like Niki Niki – „Take A Flame From My Heart“ or Derreck Simons – „Love Gun,“ and the breakbeat part is inspired by whatever I heard inside these local clubs that play Indonesian breakbeat. The kick, the snare, the toms, a couple of sound effects, and the orchestra hit are actually a eurobeat sample pack I found on the internet, made by DJ Command. While the percussions (that disco vibey percussions) are from Roland Cloud’s TR-727. As for the synths, it’s a combination of layers from Xpand2 and Nexus 2. The Indonesian breakbeat parts are mostly samples I got from my friend and KSHMR’s sample pack. I set it to 153 BPM since the average BPM was around that tempo back in 1995-1996 (Even though the DJs back then sped it up to 160 BPM).“
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