High on Music

Music is meditation, it makes you high, takes you to different places," say the members of Bhavishyavani, chanting it like a mantra. But for the promoters — an eclectic group of graphic designers, DJs, event promoters and film-makers — of a sound called "breakbeat", it has become a mission of sorts. They have dedicated themselves to pioneering and promoting this form of music in India. An aural journey that blasted off in Mumbai, even though the seeds were sown across seven seas, in two different continents. Aushim Ahluwhlia (DJ Insat), the maker of docu-film Thin Air, was studying film at the Bard College in New York when he came across drum and bass. Mukul Deora, (DJ Bhaisahab), 25-year-old percussionist and creative consultant for a graphic design company, encountered the sound in London, while studying at Kings College. But they formed Bhavishyavani only after they met in Mumbai and found that they had a common passion. So, together with some friends, theystarted the breakbeat revolution. "Breakbeat is a form of electronic dance music that evolved in the early ’90s when some veterans of the Acid House scene decided to branch out.

The long term goals of Bhavishyavani stretch even further into the uncharted. The multimedia aspect is something they intend to pursue, incorporating aspects of design into the club culture. "For one of our gigs we had a big screen and showed some stuff, various random footage, musically related things, close ups of record’s spinning, frequencies of spectrum analyzers and so on. We’d like to do that in the next few gigs, and introduce some Indian percussion also," say the DJ duo. Eventually they plan to connect with the global network, getting DJs from all over the world to come and play but, as Mukul points out, "the main thing is to have more gigs, to play music, to get people high on the sounds".

Bhavishyavani at Madness, Khar (W). On Apr 21. Time:10.00 pm.<

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