Renaud Sips
Renaud Sips aka Zaipz, also known under the artist names The Shifter9 and The Shapeshifter, has been Dj’ing for the past 14 years (1998-2012) and has been involved with music making in general for 15 years. He had the chance to receive a wide-ranging musical education from a very early age, and made his musical debut in Belgium, his homeland, as the lead singer and songwriter of the band Headache, prior to which he had become a proficient bass guitar and percussion player. His early days behind the decks were strongly influenced by the Chicago scene of that time, as well as that of his own country and by artists such as Dj Rush and Dave Clarke. His focus then progressively moved to the more hypnotic sounds of producers like Luke Slater or Ken Ishii. Renaud, playing under different names, has visited over 30 cities in China as a Dj, ten in which he was resident Dj playing on a daily basis: Tango (Beijing), Yes (Guanzhou), Pink (Tianjin), Infinity (Shenzhen), Mayflower (Changchun) to name a few, bringing the total number of his nights in the Dj booth to upwards of 500. It is during those years of tribulations that he became ever better acquainted with the sino dance subculture in all its aspects and differences from its European counterpart.And so he naturally came to include a growing number of house tracks in sets that used to be made up exclusively of techno beats, not just to provide local crowds with sounds they could more easily approach, but also to enlarge the spectrum of the elements at the core of his pedigree sound. In 2003 he and Finnish psychedelic trance scene veteran Dr. Green founded Hyper Society in the Chinese capital,and rocked the city with their parties. Among other events they were behind Paradisio, at which no less than 18 Dj’s played all day and night in- and outdoors, and Starving Dj’s, which attracted a record 1500 clubbers with a line-up made of local talents only. From his arrival to the middle kingdom in 1998 to these days, Renaud has been an early witness of the evolution of the Chinese dance scene. From 2004 until now, Renaud has played alongside names such as Secret Cinema (whose performance he contributed to organize in cooperation with local event organizer O2culture), Tiesto, Graham Gold, Djell, Scott Bond, Smithmonger, Above and Beyond, Tony Vargas, Inaqui Marin, Yang Bing, Jonspecta, Thome Tomato, Impulse (Retronouveau), J.Swarz, Lupen aka Crokan and many more. In August 2008 he performed in the Philippines at Club Ascend-Manila. Having mainly played tribal/funky/hard groove during his first five years as a Dj, Renaud then steered towards a more progressive approach, went through house, the electro revival and kept on the edge of the constantly innovative underground trends meeting as well the minimal wave and more recently the fresh sounding Detroit deep house or tribal/tech-house. He has more recently been adding a deep cosmic/disco house to his sets. In may 2009 he organized in collaboration with Tripfabrik Chris Janzen and Phonicpimp William Lovell the Dali Music Fest at the Tianlongbabu Movietown of the same place,an event each one present then still remembers and wich 2010’s edition is being looked forward to. Throughout this evolution he has shaped his own unique sound, a blend of tech-house, dub, techno, minimal, funk, electro, Chicago, Detroit, EBM and house. His style is funky, versatile and dynamic, but also atmospheric, funky and progressive, always floor-friendly on the wet side, his very own tribal groove underline trademark. Renaud, who always has a soundtrack playing in his mind to accompany each situation met in his daily life, believes on the one hand that Dj’s have the ability to get in touch with the power of the present moment and that through constructing their sets they can also turn music into something which has the power of healing and opening one’s heart, mind and soul. On the other hand he views electronic music as the reflection of the world at this point, a reflection which never stops evolving, as does our universe…
(renaudsips@gmail.com)