The Grid hosted GridLocked, the first techno Friday night that had city DJs Sahai, Aayna and 8-Bit Culprit man the console. Supported by fabulous visuals by Philip Gordon, the event saw a packed venue, glued to the music. t2 caught up with Faraz Ehsan aka 8-Bit Culprit for a quick chat. Excerpts.
DJ Aayna not only kept the crowd hooked to her music, her style game was strong too! "It was eminently refreshing to play such leftfield genres like break beats and bass, all laced with my 303 sound, in our city Calcutta, which predominantly appreciates gigs revolving around 4by4 beats. To see a crowd of familiar faces grooving to our edits was a rewarding feeling and hence, huge ups to the team for pulling off such an audio-visual experience.
Was heartily happy to slam some edits like Tokyo Drift (dub edit) by Mesopolonica, and some other cloud cheerers were Most Wanted by Glen S, Movin Baby by Paul Johnson and Breathe Deep by Human Movement," she said post her set.
Could you please describe your set that you played at The Grid?
Over the last couple of years, my DJ sets are more open-format and you’d find me dabbling with a bunch of different styles of music. At The Grid, I played a lot of my original productions, some ravey trance and house music from the 90s, UK Garage and breaks.
There were so many people who came just for you. How does that make you feel?
I am forever grateful to my friends and the people of my city for always coming out in large numbers to support me and my endeavours over the past two decades, it truly means the world.
Where do you see the techno scene by the end of this year?
The electronic music scene in Calcutta is at its peak now and I’ve seen exponential growth firsthand in the number of promoters/ patrons/ listeners/ venues that are now an active part of the movement. In my opinion, for this to be sustained, community building is most important. There are enough venues and people to experiment with more styles of music rather than doing what the other person is doing. We need more promoters and venues taking the leap of faith. For example, playing electronic music to 10-odd friends in nightclubs a decade ago, to playing to packed rooms in the very same city today goes on to show that the scene has come a long way and is here to stay.
No party is without a good set that preps you up for the night and DJ Sahai was in deck duties as he opened the night with a fantastic set.