The 2007 Indian Electronica Festival NYC in review

On September 20th we held the first ever Indian Electronica Festival in New York and I'm so happy to say that it was a smashing success!

This was our third installment of the 2007 Festival series and I worked with our Advisory Committee to program the event uniquely compared to the previous summer sessions in Toronto and London – NYC was all about the Djs... well, we also had a couple of live acts but the plan entailed creating a comfortable social atmosphere where people could chill out, shake their rumps, chat or whatever else they felt like...

The performance roster was fantastic – a Festival first saw some old school hip hop vibe courtesy of human beat-boxer Shamik – all the way from Calgary Alberta, his poly-rhythmic stylings had the audience captivated; with beats ranging from boom-bap to '94 junglis'! We also had Shaair+Func do a live set (which was electrifying, despite the venue not having a live set-up – which meant us plugging things into areas of the house mixer which may be considered profane ;) ) - this is a great duo that play an eclectic range of styles encompassing trip-hop, breaks, rock and more; further exhibiting their talents, under the name 'Fun'international,' one half of the group took to the decks after myself around 10 o'clock to spin a great selection of dubstep from around the world.

Of course, none other than the percussive impresario many New Yorkers love – Sharmaji, stepped up to the decks following Func'international to drop tracks from his magic bag of delicious indo-flavoured raggafantastic dubstep treats; which were so tasty I *had* to ask him to spin up a signature mix for Indian Electronica's 10th podcast show (download it – the set's sick).

Flipping the script, DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid jumped into the booth apres Sharmaji with an array of music cut up wildstyle – featuring bhangra dhols, bollywood classics, hip hop crowd-rockers, Jamaican dance-hallf fog-horn laden cuts and all sorts of other beats – 'twas nice nice. Of course, I couldn't help jumping in the booth and jamming away at some live visuals – remixing Spooky's prepared display of multinational flags on the spot with my own collection of WWII footage, fireworks, bharatnatyam dancers etc... Sexy stuff.

Thanks again goes to v:shal kanwar – who drove down from DC to end the gig with a mellow set; it was nice to see him play this time; unfortunately in Toronto we had too many acts on stage and v:shal didn't get the chance to spin.

To top off this wonderful Big Apple experience, the night after IE07:NYC, Tito G and I were at the Rubin Museum of Art's K2 lounge to host a listening party for Indian Electronica vol 001- IE's new 2 disc compilation release. It was a lovely evening of mingling with open ears – congrats to all who won a copy in the raffle, for everyone else please pop over to http://www.indi...ronica.com/records and pick up a copy from our online store ;)

To everyone involved including the Advisory Committee, the Rubin, White Rabbit and all who came, wished they could, helped spread the word far and wide etc... I thank you for all the positivity; hopefully this is the beginning of a long love affair between IE and NYC :)