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Journalism of Courage
WHAT’S more exciting than scaling walls at Anjuna’s beachfront and gatecrashing a trance party at Paradiso? Standing right next to Amit Duvdev and Erez Aizen of Infected Mushroom and watching them conduct the tripper lot at a Mumbai nightclub.
Though Goan ravers will agree that a smoky club is not a patch on the all-night beach trips in the kingdom of trance, the fellowship is steadily growing at Mumbai’s nightspots. It hasn’t been a month since Infected Mushroom and DJ Skazi left an impression on the metro, but three big acts including DJ Astrix, Talamasca and GMS are lined up for the year.
DJ Whosane, who’s been raising tranceheads since ’93, feels that the following has grown tremendously since his time. ‘‘The hardcore Goa trance happens only at private parties and what you hear at clubs is a progressive, milder trance.’’ In fact, people in the music business such as Hiren of Ion Eye Management who brought Infected Mushroom to Mumbai reveal that hardcore has sunk. ‘‘While techno trance is completely out, psychedelic is really catching on,’’ he adds. And DJ Dale of Mumbai’s upbeat nightspot Fire ’n Ice feels that though there are more people getting high on this music, it is a cultivated listener base. But come Tuesday night, which is dedicated to trance, and you will spot the trancendetal worshippers in their kurtas and rudraksh beads making a headway for the club. ‘‘But I have to play hip-hop and even commercial music before I start playing trance for my weekend crowd.’’
A stone’s throw away, Pune is also turning into a breeding place for trancenauts. Here too, psychedelic instantly lights up the place. Says DJ Cawas Daruwalla of Polaris, the nightclub at Taj Blue Diamond, ‘‘It’s always a full house at any trance party.’’ DJ Yusuf Kapasi, a freelancer, says Israeli trance has hit boom time in Pune. ‘‘There are many farmhouse and outdoor parties dedicated to trance, where international DJs perform,’’ he reveals. DJ Navin Kainth adds that trance eats into 30 per cent of the music played at the Pune discotheques and clubs. Pune’s trance gateway and nightclub Garden of Eden lives up to its name every Sunday when ‘‘trance is huge!’’, according to Kainth.
But every joint has its own highs and lows. ‘‘When a couple visits a discotheque, chances are that the girl would enjoy only commercial music. People who hang around till the end are the kind who ‘trip on trance’. So it’s only later in the night that I play hardcore trance,’’ rues Daruwalla. And Kapasi believes that it’s only the younger generation that enjoys trance.
According to Jazzy Joe, a high profile DJ from Delhi, ‘‘Trance is the music for stags and doesn’t encourage interaction on the dance floor. In fact, after the rock era, this was the only music that was meant for stags.’’
Down south, the clash of trance titans and house hedonists is at its acme. DJ Bipin who plays at Bangalore’s hip 180 Proof says trance is bigger than ever before. ‘‘In fact, we have a trance night every alternate Friday and the fact that we’ve had six artistes in the span of the last six months explains the explosion,’’ he says. Paul Taylor of Spun Records, Voodoo, Sven Looping of Charasmatix, Yoshi, DJ Dino and DJ Nirmal have witnessed a huge gathering in the Garden City. Besides, Bipin adds, Bangalorites thrive on at least two raves every month. But Rohit Barker, a radio jockey with Radio City, Bangalore who calls himself ‘a moonlighting DJ’ maintains that trance has hit dirt. ‘‘It’s only happening at an underground level at farmhouses and the big thing now is funky house and progressive at the main clubs,’’ he says. And the war continues…
The capital city, however, spells doomsday for trance, what with discotheques being extinct these days. DJ Rummy who set trance on the throne in Delhi and credits this genre for his popularity, finds no takers for this music today. Trance took off in Delhi four years ago when deejays such as Moody, Rummy and Phillip gave it an impetus. In fact, My Kind Of Place at the Taj Palace was one of the first discotheques which introduced trance nights on Thursdays. Joe reasons that trance died an early death because of the high energy levels it requires. ‘‘Trance addicts dance as if there’s no tomorrow, sometimes on drugs, sometimes on booze.’’
Soon trance was replaced by chill-out and lounge music. Rummy, however, feels that the lack of corporate backing and trance’s association with cocaine brought down its popularity.
For Mumbai and Pune where this kind of buzz is passé, trance still has a firm foothold. Of course, energy levels here are always on high voltage, taking trance head on, right from dusk till the crack of dawn.
With inputs from Tina Baruah/ New Delhi and Preeti Raghunath /Pune
