The DJs and Vinylphiles club of UCSD will present “Pre-Party: An Electronic Masquerade” May 19 at Porter’s Pub. Designed as a pre-Sun God party, the event will feature two different areas of trance, house, drum ‘n’ bass, breaks and more, plus free beads and masks in the tradition of an old-fashioned masquerade.

The “Electronic Masquerade” is the latest in a series of events that are the group’s main focus, along with providing music for UCSD parties and training aspiring DJs.

The group was founded in 1997 by two graduate students interested in mixing music and performing at parties. After adding two more graduate student members, however, the group became frustrated by the lack of available funds and the discrepancies between what they wanted to play and what they discovered people wanted to hear. Early club members were dissatisfied playing Top 40 hits and wanted to explore the underground scene more.

So the group changed direction. Leadership was handed over to undergraduate members, who were better able to carry out the growing bureaucratic duties of the club and, most importantly, were eligible to receive A.S. funds. The DJs and Vinylphiles Club as we know it today was born.

With new leadership and a new name, the club also took on a new focus: providing quality electronic music for UCSD events and parties. The group usually puts on a couple of events a quarter, and performs at many more. Muirstock and WinterFest, most notably, are on the list of the group’s recent performances.

The club also focuses on training up-and-comers in the skills of electronic music production. Training seminars are available almost daily; students can go to the DVC office (located on the second floor of Student Center) at any of the times offered to learn the ropes of spinning from the club’s senior members, often on high-quality equipment.

Information on training seminars, new and old events, and booking DJs is available on the group’s Web site at http://djclub.ucsd.edu. Also on the Web site is a fairly exhaustive catalog of recordings of club members’ previous performances, available for download, plus links to other DJ groups and local DJ-related stores.

“Pre-Party: An Electronic Masquerade” will take place at 7p.m. in the Stage room at Porter’s Pub. Admission is free, but the party is only for those aged 18 and up.