Who: DJ Richard Durand
Where: Vie Lounge & Deck, Juhu, Mumbai
When: Sunday 20th July, 2008
Party Review: Tiger Translate in association with Submerge gave Mumbai’s EDM lovers another reason to party…in the day! The evening (5 pm) started off with some sweet, happy, elevating electronic tunes. The extra strong Long Islands, the sunset and the beach promised to make it a great night ahead. Come 8 pm, and Richard Durand (caught above doing a Bollywood step) took over the tables and bumped the tempo with some hard electro remixes of One More Time (Daft Punk), Hey Boy, Hey Girl (Chemical Brothers), and Toca Me (Fragma) - our personal favourite on the tracklist. But, we weren’t impressed with Durand’s ability to keep the crowd hooked. Enthused party animals also seemed disinterested, and broke into conversations and smoke breaks, ever so often.

The party moved indoors at 10 pm, where Durand handed over the console to Brute Force (DJ Tuhin). BF slashed out some cracking beats with mashes and remixes of popular tracks. But, the poor ventilation in the club kept us from enjoying it. I mean c’mon, the boys love to watch the girls sweat, but they weren’t ready for a smelly market in there! The real revellers remained unfazed, though; they loved the tunes and kept bouncing around.

Speaking of bouncing, not sure if all readers would agree, but we Indian EDM enthusiasts have this very unique form of ‘Bounce Dance’. It’s very cool and very liberating. Leave us a comment if you agree…

Overall Party Rating: 5/10. Nothing you missed out on, we’d think.

EDM EDU > Who is Richard Durand?
This Amsterdam-based trance DJ (boy do we love the dutch DJs) was recommended by DJ Tiesto as “Tip for the Top for 2007″ to DJ magazine readers, and he entered the DJ 100 at 91. His claim to international fame are Tiesto’s Lethal Industry, Flight 643, and his most recent track, Break My Fall on the album, Elements of Life.

posted by lavinpunjabi

Teisto kicked off the party season in Ibiza at Privilege on July 7. We couldn’t get the live scoop, but we did capture some of the energy. Here’s a quick glimpse. Love to all the party people!

For more pictures, click here

Photo Courtesy: Tiesto.com

posted by lavinpunjabi

Who? DJ Million Dollar Mano
Where? Northwest Chicago
When? February 16

Perk your ears up for Chitown’s Million Dollar Mano

In an arty neighbourhood on the northwest side of Chicago, a genre similar to Solomon’s style caught my attention. On the tables, was upcoming Chitown-bred artist, Million Dollar Mano. He spun pop turntablism with influences of rap and hip hop, laced with a high-energy dance beat. His set included tracks like Stronger (Mano remix), some old school tracks by Madonna and Notorious B.I.G.

Sample his sound here.

P.S.>> Don’t forget to put your sneaks on…

Also, if you hear a genre similar to this one in your city or country, tell us about it. Let’s herald the pop turntablism generation…

posted by bhairavi

Who? DJ Solomon from San Francisco
When? February 2, 2008
Where? Blue Frog, Lower Parel, Mumbai

The weekends at Blue Frog, Mumbai’s latest live music destination, are reserved solely for international acts, like DJ Solomon.When a San Francisco-based, Bay Area DJ spins Punjabi tracks, you have to sit up and take notice. Especially, if his story doesn’t end there just yet. Solomon moved from Sukhbir’s Ishq to Mark Morrison’s Return of the Mack, within seconds, without missing a beat - an example of what he is known as a wizard for - pop turntablism. He was perfect for the Saturday night spirit in the early days of the year.

EDM edu.>> What is pop turntablism?
Known as a niche music genre, pop turntablism essentially fuses scratching, beat juggling, word play, and live remixing with an eclectic mix of funk, soul, hip hop and rock tracks. It’s an emerging genre now popularly known as “Mashup.” Kind of like an extension of sampling, the genre doesn’t give you much time to “enjoy” each track the conventional way, but it has its own charm.

Other famous pop turntablists: DJ Am, party animal, Nicole Richie’s beau.

Party meter: Pumping
Thirty minutes into the night, you get used to the invariable nature of pop turntablism, and we liked how the aborted track changes were constantly catching us by surprise. We witnessed lots of fusing and remixing of assorted genres, from pop, hip hop and Punjabi to retro and alternative rock; wordplay, though, seemed to have gone missing from his Mumbai set. The dance floor was buzzing with energy, and the Mumbai audience was awfully patient towards this unknown DJing style, especially on a Saturday night. Three Cheers to them!

What we didn’t like
The service that night was the sole disappointing factor. From wrong orders to 30-minute standby time for a single drink, the service by the dance floor was chaotic. Plus, once the drinks arrived, we weren’t spared of the routine “there isn’t enough alcohol in my drink” argument.

posted by bhairavi

A bunch of enthusiastic music lovers, who would do anything to hear a good tune, and share it with the world. 20-something “desk jockeys”, whose alter egos thrive on iPods, EDM-centric conversations and dance floor frenzy.

Resident writer: ::Bebe:: (Bhairavi Jhaveri)
Creative moves and content inputs: Sunny Amlani; and Lavin Punjabi (international music scene)

posted by bhairavi

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If you missed out on a good party last night, DA will make sure you don’t feel left out. From the turntables to the dance floor, we update you with last night’s party - the music, crowd, vibe and what was spilling at the bar. What got us high and what didn’t. Feel it, like you were there. Plus, a calendar of upcoming gigs, events and parties in the city - all just a click away.

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If you are a newbie, and having trouble distinguishing one house sub-genre from another, or are just keen on exploring your EDM vocabulary, take a crash course through EDM EDU – terms, genres, technical jargon simplified.

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posted by bhairavi