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How Bhavishyavani Future Soundz Shaped Mumbai’s Nightlife

Eden Festival marks another chapter in the rise and prominence of Bhavishyavani Future Soundz, Mumbai’s oldest music collective

Mar 27, 2014
Photo Credit: Parthiva Nag

(From l-r) Cyril-Vincent Michaud (Loopkin),  Char Lee,  Mathieu Josso (M.Mat) and Tejas Mangeshkar (Tee) Photo Credit: Parthiva Nag

“No stags on dance floor, no sandals, and I want only cream crowd.” The proprietor of Western Café bar on Waterfield Road (where Zenzi once operated) laid down the mandate for the Bhavishyavani crew to host one of their earliest parties at his venue. As Mukul Deora (aka Bhaisaab) and Jatin Vidyarthi (Masta Justy) slouched uncomfortably in the DJ console on the mezzanine on the night of the gig, playing “sci-fi, futuristic beats” to a sea of throbbing people, the owner approached them again. “Lower the volume,” he said. The duo faded down, temporarily, and as soon as his back was turned, promptly turned it up again. “The fourth time he walked up to the console, he pulled out his Walther PPK, James Bond-style pistol, put it down on the table and said, “Turn it down, I won’t ask again.”

For Deora and the rest of the Bhavishyavani Future Soundz crew, such anecdotes are all par for the course. The DJ-producer and now film producer recounts several such colourful tales as India’s oldest sound system celebrates their 15th anniversary with the launch of the Eden Arts Festival this week. In the late ’90s, Bhavishyavani organised parties at some of the city’s dodgiest venues, striking deals with the owners to get rid of their regular clientele for one-off gigs. The collective included DJs Tejas Mangeshkar (Tee), Ashim Ahluwalia (Insat), designer Kurnal Rawat, and has since inducted Frenchmen Mathieu Josso (M.Mat), Charles Nuez (Char Lee) and Cyril Vincent-Michaud (Loopkin) into its ranks.

Mumbai’s electronic music scene was a very different beast back then. The late ’90s were marked by an underground psychedelic trance scene with parties being held on the outskirts of the city. The club scene was dominated by Bollywood music and Indi-pop. Mumbai’s DJs were mining Bollywood hits from the past, isolating the vocals to loop over dance tracks by artists like Erasure and 2 Unlimited.

In 1998, the first Disco Mixing Championship (DMC) to test the technical proficiency of DJs on turntables was organised in Mumbai. A year later, Times Music logged on as a co-sponsor and took it over in 2000. They renamed the event the Times War of the DJs, rewarding the winner with recording contracts and music videos. But the winners found themselves tied down by knotty contracts and were expected to deliver remixes of popular Bollywood tracks on tight deadlines.

This climate of club monotony and psychedelic boredom united five friends who were all equally disillusioned by the aural desolation. A tri-continental union of sorts brought together Ahluwalia (who had spent some time in America), his cousin Vidyarthi (returning from Australia) and Deora, who was fresh off the boat from an education in London. Inspired by the wave of drum & bass, jungle, trip-hop and the Asian underground movement in 1997, their initial listening sessions covered everything from drum & bass legend “Aphrodite [jungle and drum n bass producer from the UK] to 10-minute Autechre [Brit electronica duo] remixes, [Finnish electronica duo] Pan Sonic, and also stuff like μ-Ziq [from London] and post-rock artists like Seefeel.”

Check out the Wild Boat Party Ft. The Mole organized by Bhavishyavani Future Soundz

 

Ahluwalia feels that in spite of being an electronic music outfit, Bhavishyavani has always been “much closer to the dub sound system culture.” Crucial to their D-I-Y ethic, in addition to scouting off-beat venues, is their phenomenally successful design aesthetic and of course the cult ”˜Bha’ logo itself. “Our friends Tejas and Kurnal shared our music tastes and had started this fledgling graphic design company called Grandmother. They suggested we start some kind of underground party where I would DJ along with Justy & Mukul. They would promote the party and design all the flyers,” says Ahluwalia.

Mangeshkar recalls taking long drives across the city’s southern half in Ahluwalia’s Maruti 800. “His whole trip was to take us in the car, bajao one cassette and think about future sounds,” he says. On one such excursion in the northern half of the city, while the five of them ventured to Juhu beach and sipped on golas, they observed the kitschy, ubiquitous robot that you can find to this day, telling people’s fortunes.

In a genius move, they decided that nothing captured their glocal narrative better than a shiny, lit-up futuristic robot, mouthing Indian fortune teller-style stories to anyone who would care to listen. The now iconic ”˜Bha’ logo was soon conceived and the robot, not surprisingly, became the mascot. One of their limited edition, collector’s item mixtapes that is very rare to find now featured the Indrajal Comics hero, Bahadur, on the sleeve with a ”˜Bha’ logo on his uniform. “It was like Indrajal comics on acid,” Ahluwalia says. And its tagline read: Fast Dancing for a New India.

 

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It took French house music legend Laurent Garnier who toured the country in 2004 to thrust Bhavishyavani Future Soundz into its next evolutionary cycle. After half a decade of gigging, organizing and promoting parties, the collective crossed paths with Frenchmen Josso, Char Lee and Michaud who had booked Garnier through their connections back in France for the event. And the Bhavishyavani/Grandmother team took care of the event’s decor/design for the Bombay leg. Josso says that trio had already partied and were familiar with the then Bhavishyavani crew. But after their collaboration, they found common ground and soon began working together.

BhavishyavaniAs Ahluwalia focussed on his film career, Deora on his solo artist aspirations and Mangeshkar and Rawat concentrated on the design aspect, Bhavishyavani gradually shifted focus towards techno and house artists, mirroring the influences of the new members and the global turn in music tastes as well.

In fact, Josso and Michaud initially organised their own gigs in Delhi under the Fresh Air banner, while Char Lee immersed himself with the Buba Tree collective, which was more dub and jazz oriented. While Josso and Michaud are friends from high school, Char Lee and Josso were roommates when Josso eventually shifted from Delhi to Mumbai.

Today, Bhavishyavani Future Soundz hosts its events at more upscale venues, but the gigs retain an underground edge with some world-class artists and a loyal, knowledgeable fan following. Eden Festival, which the collective has launched in celebration of its 15th anniversary, is an organic movement towards a new challenge and format. “It’s less focused on music and more about creating an ecosystem where different forms of arts collide without being an “art event” or a “music festival,” says Josso. “The plan is to use Bombay as a canvas to bring something new to the table.”

Josso and Michaud have worked tirelessly to bring artists like French raconteurs dOP, Hamburg superstar DJ Koze, Canadian techno trio Cobblestone Jazz, Wagon Repair boss Mathew Jonson as well as acts like Dave Aju, Guillaume & the Coutu Dumants and DJs like Mike Shannon and the Mole to the country. Josso is under no illusions that Bhavishyavani’s line-ups stem from their personal tastes, and their programming is in some ways “selfish”, referring to the lack of household name DJs, who play mainstream dance music.

 Watch dOP Sunday Sundown organized by Bhavishyavani in 2011

Eden Festival reflects this absence of “name DJs.” With a billing that includes hypnotic trance / minimal act Minilogue, Berlin genre chameleon Phon.O, dub-techno proponent Deadbeat alongside local heavyweights like Bay Beat Collective, DJ Uri, Suman Sridhar, Delhi Sultanate and possibly the biggest line-up of VJs and video artists for any music festival, this is set to be their biggest week yet.

If there’s one accusation that can be made about their endeavors is that they should definitely be gigging more than they usually are, and throw parties in different types of venues. Josso says that the collective would like to correct that trend this year. “It is definitely something we want to push rather than curate events for others. We want to touch a larger audience where the venue / door / drinks price tag is not the issue so people who are really interested in what’s going on can participate and enjoy the gigs,” he says.

It’s possibly the biggest compliment to their efforts then that Bhavishyavani Future Soundz continues not just to survive but thrive with this model. “Any party in this city is tough to promote. We definitely want to keep an underground edge in what we do because that’s where we come from, but in smaller / shadier venues, it is harder to get the means to an end. Sponsors come with strings attached but it’s a give and take situation,” Josso says. “We would rather work with that than sulk in a corner and not make anything happen.”