- Hailing from Portugal and one half of the formidable due The Underground Sound of Lisbon, Rui Da Silva made his first trip to Singapore with a gig at world renowned club, Zouk. Known and respected globally for excellent progressive and tribal productions and remixes, many turned up with bated breath and anticipation to hear the man who is also responsible for massive dance hit Touch Me, helm the decks that night. However, we all know a fantastic producer/remixer does not automatically equal a wonderful DJ (and vice versa). Rui's set that particular night laid testimony to that fact. Maybe it was just one of those nights where he couldn't have a good set. Or it could jolly well be us lot having high expectations. Whatever the reason, it was definitely one of the most disappointing DJ sets I've been to.
Walking through the spacious interior of the club, I could see some die hard Rui fans standing in front of the DJ console lending him their support. Sporting a long-sleeved white shirt and wearing a serious look on his face; Rui launched into a weird mix of electro beats with driving heavy synth sounds and basslines. He kept that going for an hour without any indication of it going anywhere. I noticed some dancers getting restless and at one point, his CD skipped and he didn't even realise it initially. He then moved onto minimal percussive tribal-sounding tracks. There wasn’t any sign of his signature sounds. His set had no direction, it was very messy and the crowd didn't get it.
A few of my mates left but I decided to stay on. I wasn't sure if he was aware that quite a few of us weren't really enjoying his set. To give him credit, Rui did look up every now and then to look at the clubbers and I wondered if he even realised that the dance floor was half empty half way through the night.
Without any proper build up, in the middle of what I defined as a clueless set, Rui dropped Touch Me. He played an extended version of it, but it didn't create any mayhem. What an anti climax. He continued with Layo and Bushwacka's Love Story but even those two recognisable tunes couldn't do much. I felt sorry for him and when he glanced at the dance floor, I caught his eye and waved a peace sign at him and he returned the gesture. I left shortly after that when I caught my friend suppressing a yawn. I couldn't get over how disappointing that night was. Come to think of it, maybe it wasn't Rui. Maybe it was us. Maybe he did play brilliantly after all and we were the ones who couldn't understand his set.