Five hours of techno and burlesque: Seoul becomes the newest playground for rebels

Djilogue, born Hwang Yoo-jun, is a DJ, co-founder and director of techno club vurt. in Hapjeong [SEJONG CENTER]

 
[Interview]
 
Seoul is about to stage a five-hour techno marathon fused with burlesque and media arts. At the mention of “techno” and “Seoul,” you might first think of Blackpink’s latest banger “Jump” — but what the show promises is not a soundtrack to the city’s glossy “KPop Demon Hunters” style glamor, but one to a metropolis steeped in restlessness, cutthroat competition and sheer exhaustion.
 
“Young people in their 20s who come to my club seem really sick and tired,” noted Djilogue, a pioneering figure in Korea’s techno scene who co-founded Seoul’s first techno club, vurt., and director of a musicians’ collective of the same name, during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Wednesday at Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul.
 

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The helplessness born out of an endless race to outpace peers, Djilogue added, is etched into the faces of Seoul’s youth as they constantly ask themselves, “What is all this for?” And within this modern frustration, he points out, techno culture truly finds its power.
 
“I’m curious to see how these signs of the times in Korean society will merge with the underground culture, which has long been shaped as a protest to such social norms,” Djilogue said. “I believe we’re just at the beginning of it.”
 
 
The show must go on
 
Djilogue, born Hwang Yoo-jun, founded vurt. in Hapjeong in 2014 when he had just entered his thirties.
 
More than a decade and one pandemic later, he still runs the club with his co-founder, who is now his wife, hosting weekly techno parties at the space that remains the city’s oldest techno venue.
 
His latest project, however, reaches well beyond the underground. This year, he served as music curator for the final segment of Sejong Center’s “Sync Next 25” contemporary and experimental performance series, collaborating with audiovisual art team eobchae.
 
The show, taking place Friday and Saturday, drew initial inspiration from Berlin’s techno scene, which was recognized last year as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, but aims to capture something uniquely Seoul.
 

A poster for ″Sync Next 25″ techno and audiovisual performance by vurt. and eobchae, set to take place at Sejong S Theater in Sejong Center in central Seoul on Sept. 5 and 6 [SEJONG CENTER]

 
“Berlin’s techno culture being recognized as Cultural Heritage was big news for me because it felt like the end of underground techno culture in a way,” Djilogue said. “I was asking myself, ‘What is the point of being underground when it’s recognized as Cultural Heritage?’”
 
But that didn’t mean the party was over, he continued, which is why he began to think about what comes next.
 
“That’s how Berlin’s techno culture became the initial trigger, but we’re not trying to merely recreate or introduce Berlin’s culture.”
 
Compared to Berlin, according to Djilogue, Seoul’s techno culture is still nascent — young, fresh and surprisingly healthy.
 
He, therefore, hopes for the “Sync Next 25” performance to serve as a gateway into what techno truly represents and to show how Seoul’s scene can present its identity. For newcomers, it could be an initiation, and for longtime fans, it is a chance to experience the music in the unlikely setting of Sejong Center, a grandiose venue that has long been regarded as the epicenter of Korea’s sophisticated mainstream culture.  
 
 
‘Techno is not a sound. It’s a state.’
 
The upcoming performance features DJ sets by Rrose from California, Anthony Linell from Sweden and Korea’s Xanexx and Scøpe, interspersed with audiovisual and burlesque performances directed by eobchae.
 
Each show will last for five hours, though Djilogue never intended for audiences to remain seated the entire time. During DJ sets, the crowd is meant to be part of the performance, like at a party. Partygoers then turn back into the role of audiences for the interludes of burlesque and media art.
 

Sejong Center and techno music collective vurt. hosted a listening party in central Seoul on June 20 ahead of the ″Sync Next 25″ performance. [SEJONG CENTER]

 
According to Djilogue, techno, with its repetitive patterns and minimal melodic progression, is designed to pull listeners into a hypnotic state, grounding them in the present moment rather than in anxieties about what comes next.
 
Therefore, the slogan of the show — “Techno is not a sound. It’s a state.” — perfectly highlights the essence of the genre, and how the culture extends beyond rhythm and groove to embrace dance, community and the trancelike state that immerses listeners.
 
Djilogue cited three conditions for “immersion”: A powerful sound system that allows you to feel the music with your whole body, a dance floor that prevents you from worrying about what others might think and a DJ that can read the room help you lose yourself in the rhythm.
 
“The goal is to let the audience experience immersion itself and to imagine what change could be sparked when we focus wholly on the present moment,” Djilogue said.
 
 
Rebellious roots
 
What, exactly, does this immersive experience entail?
 
On the dance floor, the genre offers a rare chance for release and connection, a fleeting escape. From its origins in Detroit to its evolution in Berlin, techno has carried an undercurrent of protest, thriving in the underground fringes of big cities.
 
“The culture has taken on various characteristics depending on where it evolved, but the central keyword has always been resistance,” Djilogue explained. “It could be resistance to money or resistance to commercialization. Within that resistance, the culture has built its own ideals and identities.”
 
And that opposition positions the techno culture against the mainstream. While many pop hits are increasingly borrowing from elements of techno music, such as its rhythm and sounds, especially as EDM gained mainstream traction in the 2010s, such songs are fundamentally different from the underground techno culture, Djilogue explained.
 
 
What lies ahead
 
Underground culture isn’t about winning mainstream approval or even becoming mainstream, the director stressed — but it cannot remain frozen in time either.
 
“I don’t think it needs to be mainstream, but I do think it has to adapt to the pace of today’s world,” he said.
 

Djilogue, born Hwang Yoo-jun, is a DJ, co-founder and director of techno club vurt., located in Hapjeong, western Seoul [SEJONG CENTER]

“Techno always functioned as an outlet, a form of liberation on the dance floor, but I believe it holds value far beyond that.”
 
For him, techno isn’t just music. It’s a modern echo of one of humanity’s oldest instincts: to dance as a spiritual act. His club vurt.’s slogan, “Ancient Future,” reflects that belief that techno could reclaim dance as a liberating ritual.
 
“If we say music and dancing are tools for our mind, I believe techno can play a greater role, in that sense, in modern and future societies,” he said.
 
In order for the culture to survive and thrive, it needs to expand its reach, not necessarily in a way that involves mainstream recognition or commercialization, he said.
 
"When we first started out with vurt., we wanted Korea to have a techno scene. I think we’ve achieved that goal over the past decade," Djilogue said.
 
Now, he’s pursuing something more lasting.
 
“What I want to do through vurt., from now on, is to create music that, no matter when or in what era people hear it, they can still recognize as good music.”
 
Tickets for vurt. and eobchae's "Sync Next 25" shows are priced at 35,000 won ($25) and are currently available on Sejong Center's website.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]