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June 12, 2000

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Rave review

Raves are all the rage in post midnight entertainment in the capital

By Anshul Avijit

Delhi can no longer ignore its new melodic order. Of course, the loud raps of bhangra are still there giving company to Indipop's plebeian poesy, but somewhere in those partying outbacks of the capital, 5000-Watt giant Bose speakers are playing a new rhythm. No stories of love unlimited, broken promises, heartbreak holidays and other such upshots of low-cost lyrics. (Okay, there's nothing wrong with Dil Legi Kudi, but certainly not after the fifth round). Just plain hard music. Something with beats, with grunge and fringe aqueous sounds; something with techno chants and weird, twisted computer mantras. Party poopers call this music psychedelic trance, and the mode of non-verbal musical bingeing, rave. Says DJ Sunny Sarid of Ghungroo: "There's no doubt about it -- rave parties are definitely in ... though it has taken them a while to get here." True, raves have been more commonplace Mud Island and Parel in Mumbai and Disco Valley in Goa, where even international ravers throng to all-night shindigs playing Chemical Brothers and Seb Fontane. And where DJ Goa Gill, the half-Spanish half-German vanguard of Goan rave, is "regarded as God" and where the celebrated German, Cesseler of Shiva Space Technology, gets minstrelsy in his tantra-inspired beats. But even though the Delhi's malodorous Yamuna is keeping these greats-of-rave away, the music itself is hitting party circles in both farmhouses and private dos at five-star discos. Explains Amit Seth, a 28-year-old hardcore raver and DJ (he prefers the eponym DJ Light), who's had 13 raves in his trendy Mehrauli farm within a year and also made an rave album: "In my first party only two people kept going till sunrise. The last one had 2,700 people and more than 200 went back the next day." But Seth's parties are not just about a digital dance; they're about propagating an entire philosophy -- of peace, love, unity and respect, known better by the acronym plur. To build the plur atmosphere, his raves have plenty of incense sticks, fairy lighting, psychedelic sops and an uncomplicated buffet of bread-anda, aloo-parantha and sweet fizz. "It's a complete, no-nonsense chill-out zone," says 27-year-old Shabnam Kapoor who's a regular at the city's raves. The description of an archetypal Delhi raver: an upwardly mobile young adult with boots, attitude and an appropriately elastic neck to keep up with the protracted jam sessions. Forget streaked pyjamas, shin-length hairdos and frayed floaters.
All raves, from Ibiza to Tel Aviv to Goa, follow a post-midnight musical timetable that's pretty much the same. Says 26-year-old Ritish Pishoria, another ultra-raver: "Although the rave scene began in Delhi about three years back, it's only now that guys are getting the hang of it." At a typical party the music would begin with a little bit of house, progressive house and industrial, slowly moving on to the bass-heavy sweet trance accents of Sven Vath, a German regarded as the No 1 house DJ in the world. Early midnight hears full-blooded psychedelic groups like Xerox, Cyper, and Psychaos followed by the rougher, more combative tones of Goan, shamanic and Israeli trance. And during the confused shades of twilight, the inflections also change -- more liquid sound spillover in an amorphous mould called radium trance. And if you haven't yet got your symphonic nirvana by now, you can wait for the last knockout of the morning: jungle trance, that's got synthetic animal cries mixed with more liquidity. (So its best to avoid raves if you think that the just-braces-removed pop triumvirate Hanson are the next best thing after Spice Girls.) "It might seem an exhausting night out but actually one comes back quite relaxed," sums up 22-year-old rave-addict Deepak Bullar, who compulsively listens to trance a couple of hours every night. At this growing rate of popularity, Delhi soon might even have its own school of trance one raver suggested it may even be called Punjabi trance.
Are raves and drugs inseparable? Do all ravers say (in strictly party parlance) that Ecstacy (or Speed or whatever animal tranquiliser is currently fashionable) is "a holy substance" ? Maybe it's just a case of bad publicity and the capital's legendary squeamishness again giving good clean partying a dirty name. Says Seth/DJ Light: "I think music is the best form of high ... and you can enjoy a perfectly good rave without doing drugs." But DJ Rummy of the nightclub Djinns, also one of the pioneers of Delhi's rave sub-culture, feels that heavy drug associations prevent raves from having a healthy future. "Further, Delhi's tastes are far too capricious," he says. "Once the fad dies down, so will raves." A portentous warning from a seasoned raver. Will Delhi prove him wrong? So far at least, the psychedelia is raging on.

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