Gig Review – NH7 Weekender 2013
In what was easily the set of the day, Delhi’s Nucleya tore up the Eristoff Wolves Den on Saturday evening. Packing the stage to its maximum capacity and then some, the bass-heavy producer played some spectacular tracks from his brand new EP Koocha Monster, as well as older material, accompanied by stunning visuals. And, there was crowd-surfing.
On Saturday evening, Welsh reggae rockers Skindred proved why their showmanship is hailed far and wide. Playing the Bacardi Arena, the band was at their entertaining best and even attempted their trademark move, dubbed the Newport Helicopter, for which they instruct all the men in the audience to take off their shirts and swing them around their heads in unison. The crowd lived India’s first Newport Helicopter, and, needless to say, they were thoroughly entertained.
Nischay Parekh and his band closed the MTS Other Stage for the day, playing what was the most memorable set at the stage for the day. The trio played a number of songs off their first EP Ocean and threw in an unreleased track ‘Sunbeam’ as well. Halfway through the band’s set, Vijay Nair, CEO, Only Much Louder, came on stage to quickly tell the crowd how much he enjoys Nischay Parekh’s music as well.
On Saturday evening, playing the last set of the day at The Dewarists, The Raghu Dixit Project announced that they were finally releasing their much awaited second album. They treated thousands of fans to a whole lot of new material, playing their entire new album ‘Jag Changa’ in its entirety. The album is currently available on pre-order from the band’s website, and festival-goers who have purchased a ticket will receive a free copy of the album.
The big daddies of Indian electronica, Midival Punditz had a host of surprises for their audience on Saturday evening at The Dewarists. Besides playing a great deal of new material from their upcoming album, the duo was called on stage a bunch of all-star collaborators – Papon, Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy, Siddharth Basrur, and for a brilliant sing-a-long, they called on Raghu Dixit and Karsh Kale to perform their popular track ‘Train Song’.
English duo Slow Club set the perfect mood on Saturday evening at The Dewarists, as the sun went down and the stunning stage came to light in the evening light. Scores of fans lounged in the grass at the stage, soaking in the duo’s highly agreeable sound.
What to look out for on Day Three:
The final day of the first Bacardi NH7 Weekender of the year is set to see some massive sets. Headliners Chase & Status will play the Eristoff Wolves Den on Sunday, and you’re not going to want to miss this. The Karsh Kale Collective + The NH7 All Stars will close every edition of the festival this year, but this is your chance to listen first to a bevy of the most talented musicians in the country on stage together, at the Bacardi Arena. The Breezer Dub Station will see a set by Sikh-Canadian rapper Humble The Poet later in the day, while the Bacardi Arena will host electro-rockers Sky Rabbit and Pentagram, among others. If all else fails, and you’re incredibly confused, just catch the sets specially curated for the festival, as you’re unlikely to be able to watch them again – Party Scribe at Red Bull Tour Bus, Krunk All Stars, and festival closer Karsh Kale Collective + NH7 All Stars.
Kingfisher Octoberfest 2013
The Kingfisher Octoberfest is all set to go live starting tomorrow at our very own Jayamahal Palace, Bangalore! The fest will be on for the next three days (18th – 20th October 2013). Here’s a quick glimpse of the line up –
18th October 2013
Kingfisher Premium Kingsland Stage: Arijit Singh, Point of View, Core 304, All The Fat Children
Common Colors World Stage: Exist Immortal, Inner Sanctum
Nocturnal Cell – DJ Clement, DJ Rohan Kapoor
19th October 2013
Kingsland Stage: Hoobastank, Indus Creed, One Nite Stand, Skrat, Slapdash Tavern
World Stage: Avial, Shankar Tucker, Aabha Hanjura, Beat Gurus
Nocturnal Cell: DJ NDS and Blue, DJ Ajit Pai, DJ Inferno
20th October 2013
Kingsland Stage: Mika Singh, Raghu Dixit, Laetitia Zonzambe, Lagori, Machas With Attitude
World Stage: Baiju Dharmajan, Girish and The Chronicles, Slain + Choral Riff, Clown With A Frown
Nocturnal Cell: DJ Joshen Miller, Ash Roy, DJ Jasmeet, Twokid Wickid
Seeing names of your favourite bands? Not too late! Book your tickets right away! Well this year being the 9th edition of the amazing music festival, Common Colours (the organizers) promise that it is going to be fantabulous this year! We strongly think you should be a part of it – An awesome weekend with music for the ears and beer for the throat! 😉
Avicii at Sunburn Arena
Time to get ‘Sun Burnt’ !
Swedish producer and DJ Avicii who came in to the electronic music picture in the year 2008 has now marked his name among the top stars!…Aaannnd the Sunburn festival got even bigger and better with Avicii coming to India to headline the Sunburn Arena on the 6th, 7th and 8th December in Mumbai Delhi and Bangalore! If you had missed Avicii’s performance in India earlier this year, now is the time to NOT miss for some kickass performance! The now 22 year old producer and DJ known for his hard work and has cranked out some mind blowing tunes and brilliant melody compositions as well! With a thirst for knowledge and loving his experimentation, his fascination towards producing fresh tunes one after another still continues.
He is also on the lookout for adding some new collaboration combined with his own high energy style productions for the tour! Well let us all wait and watch! But let us not wait to buy the tickets as they are all selling like hot cakes! Book tickets right away ! Also for all the surprise lovers, The Sunburn team claims to have some more surprises coming up for the second phase! Some completely redefined music for all the music lovers to look forward to! Not to forget that the organizers have empanelled some of the best artists and technology from across the globe to make sure everyone is happy with the experience by attending the festival!
Coshish Launches Debut Album ‘Firdous’ Under Universal Music India Label & Announces Tour Dates
Mumbai based four-piece progressive rock band Coshish has released their debut album titled Firdous under Universal Music India, the label which has previously released albums by other critically acclaimed artists and bands including Euphoria, Rabbi Shergill, Lesle Lewis, Jal The Band and Indus Creed.
Firdous is a concept album consisting of ten tracks that document the life of a seemingly ordinary young man and his transition into becoming a self aware being, free from the ties of the material world. The CD contains photographs and handwritten lyrics behind them which are part of a puzzle in which listeners need to piece together the correct order of songs in the story. The album has been produced, recorded and mixed by Zorran Mendonsa (New Zealand), mastered by Jens Bogren (Sweden). Additional sounds and samples were recorded at Rattlehead Studio. The album artwork was created by Bernard Dumaine (France) and Daeve Fellows (Canada) along with additional art by Imran Ladak (India).
Coshish consists of Mangesh Gandhi (vocals, rhythm guitars), Shrikant Sreenivasan (lead guitars), Hamza Kazi (drums) and Anish Nair (bass). The band has been active since 2006 and has been featured on MTV’s Rock On, NDTV and Channel [V] India’s V Gumrah. Coshish has performed at several prestigious festivals across India including Storm Festival, IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee, The Blue Frog, IIT Mumbai and VCET. Coshish was voted as the Top 5 Headlining Act and Most Featured Band of Season 10 by UTV Bindass TV.
Coshish will be touring throughout India and has announced the Mumbai dates for the first leg of their tour. The dates for Pune, Chennai, Trivandrum, Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad will be announced soon.
Wednesday, September 11th: The Blue Frog, Mumbai
Tuesday, September 24th: The Little Door, Mumbai
Firdous CDs are available in Planet M stores all over India, as well as online on Flipkart, WebmallIndia, Infibeam, Landmark, Hungama, Nokia Music Store, iTunes and Amazon. For more information about Coshish, visit their Facebook page and check out their album video sampler on YouTube and SoundCloud
Solar Deity Finishes recording ‘Devil Worship’
Satanic Black Metal overlords Solar Deity have finished recording the follow-up to ‘The Darkness Of Being’ and the sequel to their debut ‘In The Name Of Satan’. The second part of the band’s ‘Satan’ trilogy, ‘Devil Worship’ will be released very soon, and according to guitarist/vocalist Aditya Mehta, is as intense as the previous ones but much darker than anything they’ve done before.
The other half of Indian’s most ferocious black metal band, bassist Animesh ‘Asmo’ Das, says, “Programming drums for the three tracks took longer than what both of us expected, and all the effort reflects in what will be heard. Ashwin’s (Shriyan, producer) prowess made it easier, but by the time we finished work on the second track, I was already at my wit’s end, deconstructing and restructuring the patterns, rolls and fills that were written for each riff.”
With piercing tremolo picked riffs and insane blastbeats, the band’s first release, ‘In The Name Of Satan’ was a rather faultless blend of melody and aggression, giving us nothing but pure essence of viciousness. Whereas, ‘The Darkness Of Being’ continued to caress the prowess that the band had so pristinely displayed in their first EP and their single ‘Snowless’. Songs like ‘Ceremonial Feast At The Black Temple’, ‘Blasphemous Chanting On A Moonless Night’ and ‘Circling The Moon’ quickly drew the attention of all heavy listeners across the country as Black Metal was something rare to come across in India despite the country’s growing population of metal bands. Solar Deity’s stature further elevated with excellent performances in Mumbai and mainly with their killer debut performance at the Trendslaughter Fest III earlier this year, where they adapted the attire of grim reapers by dressing up in black robes.
‘Devil Worship’ is being produced by Ashwin Shriyan (bassist of Demonic Resurrection and Reptilian Death) at Mindmap Studio, and will be released via Nephalist Recordings. The artwork, release date and track list will be made available shortly on this website.
Official website: http://www.solardeityindia.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SolarDeityIndia
Bandcamp: http://solar-deity.bandcamp.com/
DNA Entertainment launches SOUNDAWAKE, India’s largest EDM festival
DNA Networks, the pioneers in mega live entertainment in India bring to you
SOUND AWAKE, an EDM festival in Bangalore which will create a single platform for performances by top international artistes.
SOUND AWAKE seeks to redefine EDM, and change the perception of Electronic Dance Music in India. The influence of this genre of music on the audience has been tremendous over the last decade. DNA aspires to contribute to it and widen the reach of this thriving genre in India. The festival will feature 4 stages and is being held in collaboration with dance record label giants Ministry of Sound and HedKandi.
In tandem with the world’s top dance record labels, DNA with SOUND AWAKE is set to bring the best of the world’s EDM to India.
The festival will be held at Supernova Arena & Convention Centre, Yelahanka, Airport Road, Bangalore-560064- the newest addition to other live entertainment areas in Bangalore.
The Ministry of Sound is the world’s largest dance music brand. DJs such as Ferry Costen, Gareth Emery, Hardwell, Paul Oakenfold, Paul Van Dyk, Sander Van Doorn and other famous Disc Jockeys have been associated with the Ministry at some point in their careers. From a training academy to night clubs in most parts of the world, the Ministry of Sound churns out the best of EDM in the world.
HedKandi is a UK based record label whose catalogue includes both artist albums and various genres of club compilations. As well as producing music albums & compilations, they host events all over the world. It epitomises a distinct brand of upbeat House music accompanied by a live saxophonist and percussion player. They have an exclusive team of DJs who produce contemporary and classic house music that unites the souls in passion on the dance floor.
DNA Entertainment Pvt Ltd’s MD, T. Venkat Vardhan on Sound Awake – “SOUND AWAKE is a brand new initiative which will enhance the diverse portfolio of live events that we at DNA Networks promote and produce. The main festival in Bangalore will be preceded by celebratory pre-gigs with some of our featured DJs on 2nd August in Kolkatta , Hyderabad and 3rd August in New Delhi and Mumbai (To be confirmed).
21 DJs, 5 cities, 2 days of festivity and 1 festival; it is going to be a unique experience that awaits music fans of the Electronic Dance Music genre.”
In Bangalore, the venue Supernova will feature four live stage sets which will be a visual treat for the EDM enthusiasts. The stage set ups are as follows-
DNA LIVE STAGE is the main stage that will have top international artistes’ performances. They are as follows-
- Taboo who has churned out hits like ‘Boom Boom Pow’, ‘I Gotta Feeling’ & ‘The Time (Dirty Bit) with The Black Eyed Peas and simultaneously has started a single career in EDM genre.
- Darude, the Finnish DJ who belted hits like ‘Sandstorm’, ‘Feel the Beat’ & ‘I Ran So Far Away’.
- Yves Larock, writer and producer of hits like ‘Zookey’, ‘Rise Up’ & ‘Until Tomorrow’ who is in demand for both his DJ skills and music skills.
- The Shapeshifters, the duo who are the stalwarts of British dance culture and producers of Britain’s most successful ever dance acts such as ‘Lola’s Theme’, ‘Back To Basics’ and ‘Incredible’ and remixes for the likes of George Michael, Christina Aguilera, Moby and Natalie Imbruglia.
- Dirty Vegas, the British house music trio who gained mainstream popularity with tracks like ‘Days Go By’ and ‘Walk Into the Sun’.
MINISTRY OF SOUND STAGE will feature the top resident DJs of their clubs around the world who will perform on this stage. They are as follows-
- Shane Kehoe, one of the Ministry’s longest standing official world tour DJs who has been making music since the 90’s. He has played alongside giants Afrojack, Moby and Deep Knight.
- Tim Cullen, with his warm uplifting, energetic sound and the impressive catalogue of performances, he is often seen playing alongside many of the World’s most respected names, including Paul Oakenfold.
- Patrick Hagenaar, hailing from Holland is the key resident for Ministry’s global tours has fans across all continents. He has remixed Toni Braxton, Professor Green and Kesha’s ‘We R who we R’.
- Santero, who has been rocking dance floors across Europe for well over a decade is one of the most versatile party- starters in the business. He is pushing boundaries of modern house music and is a true DJs DJ.
HedKandi STAGE will feature artistes that truly epitomise the sounds of the HedKandi international dance floors like Chris Frater, Joelle Atkins, Dan Van alongside percussionists Aimee Jay and Roxy.P on saxophone.
INDI STAGE will feature artistes who represent the vast DJ community in India. This stage will cherish the local dance culture in an effort to recognise and encourage the Indian talents in this genre.
The live audience will be treated to a visual experience which is a huge part of EDM and its versatile sets. The stunning performances will be accompanied by other features that include the world famous Goan flea markets, gaming zones, F&B areas. The flea market will have kiosks which have been hand-picked from the various flea bazaars of Goa which sell authentic handicrafts, hand-made leather goods, beautiful jewellery, ceramics, clothing, trinkets and a mound of other accessories. The fascination of shopping at the Goan flea market can be experienced here.
Official SoundAwake merchandise will be available at the venue. You can choose from a range of products which are designed keeping in mind the diverse audience of the music festival. An eclectic mix of music, beverages, food and audience will be on offer at the festival all day long. Tickets for SoundAwake are available on the following websites-
www.soundawakeindia.com www.ticketgenie.in
Radio City Freedom Awards Encourages Fresh Talent
Mumbai, June 10, 2013: The first of its kind Radio City Freedom Awards has been a platform to recognize and reward independent music across genres and languages. The recently concluded grand finale introduced the country to the untapped talent & young musicians creating independent music.
Following the award for Best Hip Hop Album in Radio City Freedom Awards, Machas with Attitude were spotted recording their next song with the famous composer Vishal Dadlani. Listening Party a specially-created one-hour show on Radio City Freedom, will provide a chance for these young artists to present their latest albums to listeners.
The grand finale of Radio City Freedom Awards witnessed the best of independent artists being felicitated by the highly acclaimed people from the industry. Vishal Dadlani presented the award for the Best Hip Hop / Rap Artist (Jury’s Choice) to the winning band Machas with Attitude. The Bangalore-based band got a huge break when they recorded a song with Vishal Dadlani, along with Enkore, the winner for the Best Hip Hop / Rap Artist (People’s Choice).
Elated by this opportunity, Machas with Attitude say, “We’ve been huge fans of Vishal since his Pentagram days & were really glad to receive an award from him. He then invited us over to his studio to record a song for one of their upcoming movies. It was an awesome experience to record with such open minded people who also incorporated a few of our suggestions. We would really like to thank Radio City for facilitating this opportunity.”
Adding further Enkore said “The idea behind the awards firstly is pretty fantastic to me, and the execution was even more impressive. What meant a lot to me was that hip-hop was given the same platform as other genres, more popular in the Indie scene. Big ups to Radio City for the initiative! Working with Vishal was a great opportunity but even more a great learning experience, getting a glimpse into how someone of his experience and repertoire works in the studio.”
Radio City Freedom Awards aims to celebrate the essence of independent music & provide a platform that promotes ‘Indie’ music in the country. This will be followed by exclusive online Listening Party, a specially-created one-hour show on Radio City Freedom, playing back-to-back songs from the new album along with audio bytes from the artists. The upcoming ‘Listening Party’ will feature music from Gods Robots, an electronica band from Mumbai on June 15, from 4pm to 5pm.
Listeners can tune in to Radio City Freedom at www.planetradicity.com/rcfreedom.
It’s All About Girl Power Through Music This BOMB Thursday @ Andheri’s Kino 108!
This Thursday, May 16th it’s all about girl power through music at Kino 108—the Andheri, Mumbai based venue will be hosting Mumbai based pop-rock band The Chudail & Demons and Delhi based ambient and electro-fusion trip-hop outfit SPACE as part of ennui.BOMB’s BOMB Thursdays series.
The Chudail & Demons (www.facebook.com/thechudailanddemons) was formed in March 2013 by NRI vocalist-lyricist-composer Amanda Sodhi who moved from Los Angeles to Mumbai recently. This energetic band also features several seasoned musicians including Shrikant Sreenivasan (guitars), Jayakrishnan Unnithan (keyboard) and Pratik Kulgod (drums, percussion). The Chudail & Demons has an entertaining and large collection of originals and covers in both English and Hindi drawing from various genres including pop, jazz, blues, reggae, ballads, retro, soft rock, rock and gothic rock. Their original compositions’ lyrics have a dark and witty streak which leaves audiences smiling. Within just a few weeks of formation this female fronted band has already performed in Mumbai and Pune at several prestigious venues including The Blue Frog, Out of the Blue, 11th East Street Café, Kaifi Azmi Park and COHO Bohemia at India Fine Arts Gallery. They will soon be performing at Shockk and Amadeus. The Chudail & Demons will be opening for SPACE at Kino 108.
SPACE (www.facebook.com/soundofspace) was created in 2008 by two women from Kolkata who shifted base to Delhi in 2011 – Tritha Sinha and Ritika Singh. They are joined by Paris based musician and sound engineer Paul Schneiter. Their music spans eight languages including English, Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Punjabi and an imaginary tribal language which feels from the deep roots of Africa. Their lyrics and content are views of the modern Indian women and her thoughts about personal freedom, worldly affairs opposed to spirituality, throwing light on some needed prevalent social issues like domestic violence, forced arranged marriages and the much needed liberation of the Indian woman today. SPACE includes objects like Tibetan prayer bowls, ghungroos and street percussive instruments as well as electronic live loops from a laptop, creating a multi-harmonic sound, and taking listeners on a journey seen from the eyes of contemporary free Indian women. They have performed at in Paris in 2010, Bangkok in 2011 and in India at Blue Frog, Wills India Fashion Week, Delhi India Arts Festival, Ragasthan Festival, Ziro Festival, Escape Festival, Gulmarg Festival, TLR Café (Delhi), Someplace Else (Kolkata), Delhi International Arts Festival and events of SUTRA in Kolkata organized by women with the ICCR and Weavers Studio. SPACE has featured on ZOOM TV and Doordarshan and have played for the last two years at WIFW Delhi.
Catch both The Chudail & Demons and SPACE at BOMB Thursdays at Kino 108 on Thursday, 16th May 9:30pm onward. Girls get a free drink on entry before 10:30pm.
Gate: Rs. 200. Special happy deals on drinks and food all through the gig! Rs. 500 for 3 drinks or Rs. 200 per drink (house brands).
Kino 108 is located at J P Road, Opposite Apna Bazar, Near Indian Oil signal, Dhake Colony, Andheri West, Mumbai. For more information, visit the event page at
https://www.facebook.com/events/165363780297505/
Moshfest Coming Soon by Horns Up Entertainment
Horns Up Entertainment, a new live music events company based in Bangalore formed by Amarjeet Singha, Suhas VK and Ancer Thayyib (Former organisers of The Pit Series – Bangalore) will be going on the floors with their first event which will be called – Moshfest [Pub Edition V.1]
Horns Up Entertainment will be promoting independent metal bands, both new and established from across the country with a stress on the former, in their many events planned for the future.
“Moshfest” will be their flagship series of metal gigs and the first edition will be held at ION Bar & Kitchen, Brigade Road on May 12′ 2013 (Sunday)
The bands confirmed for this event are well recognized in college festival/pub circuit in the city and are very much a part of the emerging modern and new school wave which the Bangalore metal scene is experiencing. Each of them have been successful in establishing a loyal fan base.
The bands playing are as follows:
- The Velvet Trap (https://www.facebook.com/thevelvettrapindia)
- Cheisrah (https://www.facebook.com/cheisrah)
- Portal of Deception (https://www.facebook.com/portalofdeception)
- Slither (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Slither/256672337693375)
- Ontologus (https://www.facebook.com/ontologus1)
- Stop! Breathe (https://www.facebook.com/StopBreathe)
- And Ever More (https://www.facebook.com/AndEvermore)
- Prime Rage (https://www.facebook.com/prime.rage.india)
This event will not see any Headliner or Co-headliner as such. NH7.in is the official online partner for this event.
The gig will start at 4:30 PM sharp and will go on till 9:30 PM. Entries are kept at 300 INR with a free complimentary beer.
Passes can be purchased at the venue itself.
