Techno Rewind

Hashim Badani

The small confine of Bombay 72° East, a suburban Mumbai club, bursts at its seams with rivet heads – electronic beasts lurching back and forth, the phosphorescence of glow sticks moving with them, squiggly laser beams splaying across the walls ”“ the space acquires a hedonistic-visceral air and we already suspect this energy shall be a constant till dawn. Opening act Ashvin Sharma of Jalebee Cartel spins off a hypnotic hook and the crowds – as if under a voodoo spell – lap up the lengthy reprise that follows. Christian Wedekind aka DJ D Nox, who is to come on at midnight, surveys the club as he guards his martini from the throng that surrounds him ”“ “You know, this is very surprising, I mean I didn’t really expect to see girls in dresses!” Officially playing for the first time in South Asia, he did not anticipate such a fashion forward, globally informed audience. “I played for fun in Goa in 1997, but that was mostly with European friends,” he explains. He says little of what he hears of the Jalebee Cartel set only alluding to the fact that it is up to mark. When Wedekind steps up behind the turn tables, he effortlessly woos the room with his sleight of hand. In attendance are DJ Whosane and DJ Freeze (F Bar’s resident DJ), who patronise D Nox and are known to have spun his tracks very often. “I have only watched him on YouTube, this is my first time watching him live,” says a rather enthused Freeze.

The German DJ isolates himself from contemporary forms of electronica and doesn’t care to follow any artist in particular, partly also because he hasn’t the time. Only making mention of French DJ Laurent Garnier, who goes back to the days when techno defined anything that was digitally affected ”“ “he swiftly moved from house to drum and bass, also the surprises he bought in, it was like those ah! Moments.” It is what Wedekind himself hopes to achieve, the ability to defy subgenres without failing his essence, and as he succinctly puts it ”“ wanting to achieve that ah! effect. The DJ, who is known to have dabbled with psytrance when starting off, strays from admitting to subscribe to the genre in any way. “I do get booked for psytrance gigs, I don’t know why as I don’t play that stuff anymore and frankly if I did so in Germany I’d get kicked out.” He uses adjectives such as ”˜too cheery,’ ”˜old’ and simply ”˜not cool’ in trying to explain the contempt psytrance evokes in German audiences. Today, D-Nox has come full circle and is going back to the days of techno, narrowing down to house and drum and bass. His most successful collaboration till date has been with German prog house biggie Frank Beckers, and he doesn’t seem very open to other collaborations right now. “Beckers understands my music best, I haven’t been able to form such an association with anyone else,” he says.

Having toured extensively through Europe, England and South America, his favourite destinations are easily Brazil, Mexico, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Of what he suspects, the future of electronica in India is very promising. He cites the reliance of electronica on monotone rhythmic music complemented by the understanding of instrumental foundations and multilayered percussion usage as reasons – “Such stuff wouldn’t work, for instance, in China; in India people like to dance a lot as is the case with Brazil and Israel.”

D-Nox is not quite the tech-freak as is the case with most DJs ”“ “All I need is two CD players and a mixer.” He has his own label Sprout (sub-label Plastik Park). The last album he came out with was that of a debutante and was the worst album in the history of Sprout. So now he has decided to promote only friends and people known to him through the label, and will perhaps consider a new artist once or twice a year. “Before I sign on an artist, I think to myself, would I play this track myself?”

DJ D-Nox’s takes on:

DJ Tiesto: “He plays pop-electronic music, he is like Britney Spears in the electro industry. His music has no soul and he won’t even care to experiment or evolve as he gets 50,000 Euros for playing the same shit for over 15 years.”

Goa Gil: “He should stop playing. One thing that is essential for a DJ is the technique; he was never able to make music. Perhaps people tripping on LSD understand his stuff, as one needs to be wasted to handle his music.”

Paul Van Dyk: “He is so full of himself, he doesn’t even lift a finger. I remember he was sitting in front of me on a flight once and he had his personal assistant take out his laptop for him from top. I mean, if I know he is playing where I am attending I get nauseous and turn around.”