The Belly of the Beats

Ever wonder where those songs you hear DJs play come from?

Urban dictionary "producer" and Dr. Dre pops up -- followed by the words "best beat maker and producer in the world.

Nobody makes beats better". No doubt, he was the "golden ticket" producer when it came to 90s R&B and rap. He made beats for all the best artists back then. And yeah of course, a lot of us still listen to his songs. Don't forget that Straight Outta Compton movie last year!

But, music and technology have come a long way since then and even more diversity has kicked in with the advent of electronic music. What you can do with sound now as a result of technology is just awesome. So, here are some producers Guru is particularly fond of right now; we've also slipped in a guest producer from Indonesia to make things more interesting.

Go on, have an eargasm or two.

Midnight Club

Genre: French House

Sounds Like: "Galactic. Roland TB. Love"

Midnight Club is an anonymous trio sending out some very sexy filtered French house; they shot to stardom two months ago via Soundcloud when they released their track No One Understands, which had an unbelievable 200,000 plays in one week alone. The song was so good that Daft Punk called into their studio to tell them directly that they loved it; Midnight Club couldn't quite believe their eardrums. Butttt, hang on a minute, why is this relevant to Bangkok? Well, one of the trio, although he insists his hometown is Discoville, is actually Thai and is living, breathing, and partying, among us. Being true to Midnight Club's artistic integrity, that person insists on remaining unknown and so too shall Guru keep that person's identity unknown even though we so want to spill the beans because that person is just so awesome and musically gifted. But put on your disco pants and listen to this music right now.

Play this: People.

Listen: http://soundcloud.com/midnightclubx.

Gramaphone Children

Genre: Modern Funk / Electro Funk / Boogie / Disco

Sounds Like: "Synthamagic ear candy".

The Kentucky-born Thai producer started off working with the indie label Hualampong Riddim before he "accidentally" fell into DJ'ing in 2012. His life now fully revolves around producing music, as he does it "commercially" for TV and advertising gigs to put bread on the table, but he also does it out of passion and currently runs an independent electronic music label which he co-founded with a few friends call Kitsch Cat. This is where most of his own fun music is made and the label also brings together both local and international artists. He's just finished his latest album, Slice & Dice Vol.01, due to be released next month, which will be available for purchase on iTunes, beatport, Amazon and bandcamp. We've already listened to all nine songs for you and can't quite believe what a genius this guy is. He's collaborated with our favourite indie-pop singer Pyra in a couple of the songs which just adds a whole new flavour. Another one to get your disco pants on for and boogie too, we luuurrrve it! #groovybaby

Photo: Gramaphone Children

Play this: Move Slowly feat. Pyra.

Listen: http://soundcloud.com/gramaphone-children.

Dan Buri

Genre: Techno

Sounds like: "Energetic. Cosmic. Driving".

From Bangkok and Germany, people have only scratched the surface of the enigma that is Dan Buri if they think he's just an amazing Techno DJ repping the Berlin scene here. Truth be told, he's a prolific producer in all shades of techno, and throughout his career has had digital track releases on labels such as Asia Music, Stab Recordings and Moon Island Recordings to name a few. But, even though he's ALWAYS been a lover of music, it's not always been techno. Aged five, he would get up onstage to imitate Michael Jackson at his dad's work events -- so cute -- and in his early teens, he got into hip hop, listening to all the OGs, from Tupac, Snoop Dogg, NWA to Gangstarr; after getting into rap and writing lyrics, him and his crew taught themselves the basics of music production with a program called MAGIXX Music Maker, which marked the beginning of his journey as a producer. He parted ways with hip hop aged 18 and fell in love with techno and has now upgraded to Ableton Live and a nice studio set up in his apartment. He is now releasing tracks on his very own record label, Neverest Records which he founded earlier this year with a group of friends in Bangkok. All his songs can be purchased on beatport. #yay.

Play this: Helium.

Listen: http://soundcloud.com/dan-buri.

Nino 93 Flow

Genre: Hip Hop / R&B / Trap / Future / Soul

Sounds like: "Cinemat ic. Energetic. Explosive"

When it comes to Thai hip hop "beat makers" Nino 93 Flow's dark melodic and trap infused sound ensured that Rapisnow, currently Thailand's biggest underground rapper village, named him "Producer of the Year" in June after he dropped the song Bad Temper with renowned Thai rappers Rahboy and Estee. But he doesn't just stick to one sound and has quite the talent for recreating that special R&B/Rap sound we loved so much from the 90s. He's produced with a variety of Thai hip hop artists from Southside, UrboyTJ to a lot of underground artists from Rapisnow, as well rappers from his own crew and label, 93Flow. The Khon Kaen born producer started exploring music in school but it was in Vancouver that he was exposed to production. It was only when he came back to Thailand and founded 93Flow with his friends that he began to take production seriously, creating a production house that also honed his film production skills. He is also one of the illest music video producers btw.

Photo: 93 Flow

Play this: Jayrun & $ir Poppa Lot - Dai Prod... Dai Reu Plao feat. Rahboy.

Listen: http://youtube.com/watch?v=-Xs_Db68XZc.

Sunju Hargun

Genre: Electronic Music

Sounds Like: "Futuristic. Analogue. Open-minded".

You'll certainly recognise the Bangkok-born DJ if you're into techno. His name is plastered on the walls of almost every underground and mainstream club in Bangkok, and he'll headline every major festival too. Yet here's another prolific producer whose been making beats and remixes with local and international artists for quite some time, all from a very simple home studio he calls his "jungle". For him, this is a space for his creativity to really shine, where he explores his new ideas and has "fun doing it". When it comes to Sunju's music, his sound is like no other -- he experiments with sounds to such a degree that it seems like they may not even come from this planet; this is completely evident in one of his most recent tracks, Planet K; he uses Ableton more than anything else nowadays as he finds it gives him the chance to explore new possibilities to further his never-ending creativity. Listening to one of Sunju's creations actually puts you in the mood to create something too. No, not that, guys.

Photo: Derry Ainsworth

Play this: Jungle Tickle

Listen: http://soundcloud.com/sunjuhargun

Marmosets/King Kong

Since 1994, it was Kritsada Vadeesirisak's biggest dream to be a producer, so he studied Computer Music and Composition at Chandrakasem Rajabhat University. Yet, it was many years of metal and punk rock music before he started listening to other genres of music that inspired him to collect records of jazz, nu jazz, broken beats and two step. His experimentation with music creation thus began and he would make music through many means by collecting samples, using synthesisers and with electronic hardware; the possibilities for his sound creation were infinite. He eventually set up his own label, Zoo Studio, releasing two genres of music under different names, Marmosets and King Kong, along with releasing music for other DJs. Marmosets focuses on his house, techno and more experimental music creation and King Kong focuses on his drum and bass and bass music. His music is dope and we're impressed with his skill in being able to switch between two pretty different genres.

Photo: Zoo Studio

Play this: Marmosets - Believer ; King Kong - December Feelin'.

Listen: http://soundcloud.com/marmosets; www.http://youtube.com/thezoostudiobkk.

Guest Producer: AQ Flow

Genre: Hip Hop

Sounds like: "Dope of soul samples"

We were lucky to meet Indonesian producer AQ Flow when he was visiting Bangkok recently to work on an album with JKNSLRY, a Bangkok-based rapper; together they'll be dropping an EP under the group NASI. When we heard AQ Flow's beats, especially the unreleased EP, we almost died and went to heaven, no lie. It sounded like honeyed hip hop samples and beats cascading down from a rainbow of heavens. This is someone who needs to keep on producing. He's actually a rapper himself from Medan who was dissatisfied with the beats available to him back when there were only two hip hop producers he knew of; pushed to start making his own stuff with music software Fruity Loops, him and some friends sampled a tribal song that was released in 2011-- the song, which featured local emcees rapping in their mother tongues, was so good that it topped local charts for several weeks, was on TV and was pirated heavily.