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Visiting DJ, Tom Stephan from UK, sets the dance-floor on fire and has Bangalore's party-goers grooving to his music.
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IT'S NOT very often that international DJs come and do shows in India. But when they do, they not only have the audience craving for more, but also expose dance-music fans to newer forms of music. Bangalore witnessed one such party on Friday last, when DJ Tom Stephan mixed his music at the Speedzone dance-floor.
Tom Stephan's show, was hosted by Namma Bangaluru's favourite party animal, Nikhil Chinnappa, who with help from DJ Ivan, set the mood and warmed up the party. DJ Ivan, in his familiar style, slowly increased the tempo of the music, and had the crowd increasing in number and energy level, culminating his stint at the turntable with a mind-blowing mix of Sean Paul's "Get Busy". DJ Ivan is known to play the most current and popular music, and this time round, he introduced quite a few tracks for the first time in India.
By the time Tom Stephan began with a couple of house mixes, the crowd was already going crazy. What is interesting about Tom is that his unique selection of Tribal, Techno, and House music grooves maintains a high energy level all through the party, ensuring that the audience do not even feel like taking a break. In addition to this, his involvement in what he plays is evident in the way he expresses himself when he operates the turntable. To add to the ecstatic mood were the state-of-the art lasers and flashlights. Probably the first of its kind in India, the technical aspects of the party were as much talked about, as the party itself.
Tom began his career as a DJ after he graduated from a film school. "My dad presented me with a drum set, a guitar, and keyboard, one on each birthday, and this ensured that I understood and felt the various sounds of music," says Tom. According to him, Deepache Mode and Nitzer Ebb were his major influences when he joined a sound engineer friend and began learning the technicalities of sound mixing. "I began playing at a few pubs, and at a later stage, I started experimenting with different sounds," he says.
When asked about club music tending more towards Hip-Hop grooves than trance these days, his answer was, "Dance music has always known to be fast and racy, but these days, people are maturing and moving towards more intense music that has this groovy feeling to it." Tom is rather surprised how bhangra has made inroads to UK. "We see a lot of bhangra fusing with house music in UK. It is quite surprising to know the reach of Indian music in UK clubs."
So, did the 1000-odd party-going crowd of Bangalore enjoy Tom's music? They sure did. "I'm a hardcore party animal and have never experienced such a perfect combination of music, people, and energy ever before," says Sridhar, a college student. His companion Nidhi adds: "For a few hours, I thought I was in Ibiza or in some UK discotheque." Well, that explains it all. It was one long night indeed, and one that many would find hard to forget for quite some time to come.
The show was organised as part of Smirnoff Experience, a global dance music event series, conducted in 24 countries around the world including five cities in India. DJ Tom Stephan is joined by DJ Lee Burridge and DJ Sasha on his tour to Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Goa, and Kolkata.
A. VISHNU
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