REIGN IN BEATS

REIGN IN BEATS was a DJ showcase series conceived and produced in Bandung during the pandemic, when restrictions on public activity prevented clubs, venues, and other music spaces from operating as they normally would. Presented as a series of short individual sets and documented for online release, REIGN IN BEATS featured five Bandung DJs and selectors: GNDHI, Mr.Dymz, DJ Evil Cutz, Vladvamp, and Morgue Vanguard. Each brought a distinct approach, set of references, and musical character, making the series a compact portrait of Bandung’s DJ culture at the time—moving through hip-hop, funk, soul, electronic music, rock, and other territories shaped by each selector’s personal experience and record collection.

Rather than framing the project as a competition or confining it to a single musical direction, REIGN IN BEATS treated the DJ set as a curatorial medium: a practice of selecting, sequencing, and bringing records into conversation to construct a narrative of its own. Each episode therefore served as a personal space in which the DJs could reveal how their collections, references, techniques, and sensibilities translated into a continuous passage of sound.

Within the context of the pandemic, the format also responded to the disappearance of the communal spaces so central to DJ culture. As dance floors, gigs, and physical gatherings came to a halt, audiovisual documentation became one way for music to remain in circulation—and for the practice of selecting and playing records to retain a space in which it could be presented.

Today, REIGN IN BEATS can be revisited as a document of a particular moment: an archive of how members of Bandung’s music community sustained their practice and musical exchange while social conditions temporarily forced music culture to migrate from physical spaces to the screen.

DJ EVIL CUTZ

MR.DYMZ

GNDHI

VLADVAMP

MORGUE VANGUARD