{"id":46899,"date":"2010-02-06T21:51:14","date_gmt":"2010-02-06T21:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.tehelka.com\/?p=46899"},"modified":"2010-02-06T21:51:14","modified_gmt":"2010-02-06T21:51:14","slug":"electronic-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/electronic-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronic high"},"content":{"rendered":"

Considered \u2018too niche\u2019 only five years ago, a new genre is rocking the Indian party scene, finds<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Aastha Atray Banan<\/strong>
\n

\"Turntable<\/a>
Turntable fever
DJs Nikhil Chinappa and Pearl are the first couple of electronic music<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nON THE LAST<\/strong> day of Sunburn Festival 2009, as the No 1 electronic DJ in the world, Dutch-born Armin Van Buuren, took to the colossal stage, 15,000 electronic fans couldn\u2019t believe their luck. It was surreal \u2014 a beach on Goa was transformed into a psychedelic club embellished with tentacles and other deep sea-like creatures, where bikini-clad girls with neon antennas in their hair danced with men with super-sized spectacles, as they glugged beer and watched the sun set over a seemingly never-ending party. This moment was one of victory for the lovers of a festival celebrating music once considered \u201ctoo niche\u201d.<\/span>
\nVJ and DJ Nikhil Chinappa, the man responsible for roping in Van Buuren, in partnership with PDM Entertainment, says, \u201cThe more people get bored of Bollywood music, they get drawn to genres like electronic. Also, international DJS want to come to India, especially because the electronic scene in Europe is stagnant \u2014 in India, it\u2019s just beginning.\u201d<\/span>
\nElectronic music, which is produced using computer workstations and makes use of synthesizers and unique music samples, entered India almost a decade ago, but went underground because of its inability to appeal to the masses. Now, even though the Internet is its only source, festivals like Sunburn and platforms like Submerge (that promotes electronic music through gigs in the country), seem to be spelling out a music revolution.<\/span>
\n\u201cWe remember being at a festival in Ibiza and dreaming about doing something similar in India,\u201d say Nikhil and his wife and co-founder of Submerge, DJ Pearl. \u201cBut India has its obstacles. The 1-am deadline really hurts the clubbing scene,\u201d says Pearl, the only female electronic DJ in India.<\/span>
\nDespite these hurdles, as\u00a0Time Out\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0music writer Amit Gurbaxani points out, it has become economically viable to host electronic nights. \u201cSunburn saw a 10-fold increase in crowd, while a rock festival like Eastwind got cancelled this year, because of lack of funds. When a brand of music is backed by big sponsors, it\u2019s just so much easier to draw in people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018At electronic gigs you need to forget a real world exists,\u2019 says DJ Pearl<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But that\u2019s not all that is needed, says Pearl, \u201cA good DJ should be passionate and should work the crowd.\u201d And if the junta loves it, Bollywood can\u2019t be far behind. Tapan Raj from the Midival Punditz, who is now composing the background score for\u00a0Karthik Calling Karthik,<\/em>\u00a0says, \u201cThere are filmmakers who want to experiment, and an audience that wants something different. Change has begun.\u201d<\/span>
\nThat being said, what the electronic scene now needs are only the \u201cfreaks\u201d, laughs Pearl. \u201cAn electronic festival or gig needs the weirdos to up the excitement factor. When you are there, you need to forget that a real world exists. Isn\u2019t that the reason we all got into this?\u201d Amen.<\/span><\/p>\n

WRITER\u2019S EMAIL<\/strong>
\naastha@tehelka.com<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Considered \u2018too niche\u2019 only five years ago, a new genre is rocking the Indian party scene, finds Aastha Atray Banan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":46903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[5725,6278,6279,6280,6281,6282,6283,6284,6285,6286,6287,6288,5884,6289,6290],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}