Wild City

Ash Roy is one of the founding members of one of India's most prolific electronic dance music acts, Jalebee Cartel. For over a decade he's been the vocalist and provider of all percussion based elements to Cartel's live shows whilst steadily building a catalogue of original production which he's released over the years. Based in Berlin with his bandmates every summer, Ash considers himself to have an equal footing on both sides of the globe. While the band has shared flyer space with the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Modeselektor and Carl Cox, he's played individually with the likes of Sasha, Cari Lekebusch, Fergie, Nic Fanciulli and Ambivalent (hear his exclusive Wild City mix here). Not one for slowing down he's also recently released his Hour Glass EP on Vapour Recordings which he'll be officially launching on 25 August at Zoo Bar in New Delhi. To support the EP as well as celebrate Ash's return from his annual retreat to the German techno motherland we thought we'd get in touch and get a fre

When first delving into the world of production after mastering the art of turntabalism, KloÈ's search for a deep and emotive take on neurofunk established her as one of the most innovative producers within the genre. Now one of the key players behind the newly formed genre named neurohop, she's become an influential figure in helping to develop and define its progression, through her label Caliber Music. One of the leading producers supporting the genre; a synergy of neurofunk, glitch-hop and other various influences, KloÈ remains focused on signing forward thinking producers of this emerging sound to her label. Her relentless passion for music and quality of sound, make her the perfect figurehead for Caliber Music, one of neurohop's most innovative and influential labels. On a production tip, KloÈ has a number of critically acclaimed releases such as 'Tzolk'in', 'Gone' and 'Dusk' under her belt and her passion for music shines through on every single release. Running through a whopping 50 tracks in just

Distal is a veteran of electronic music. Forgetting bpm and genre to the masses, he relies on his signature sound alone to leave a solid mark on his listeners. With the ability to compose a wide array of moods, tempos and rhythms, the 28 year old producer takes influence from his early childhood love of techno, jungle and hardcore. In early 2010 Distal started his own label named Embassy Recordings with childhood friend Ethan Anderson and till date has put out almost a dozen 12” vinyl releases and many more digital releases, collaborations and remixes for prolific labels such as Tectonic, Soul Jazz, Frite Nite and Trouble & Bass. He easily brings forward one of the strongest and most unique sounds out of the whole footwork, bass, electronica crossover. His signing to Pinch's Bristol based Tectonic label for the release of his debut LP 'Civilization', is perhaps a sign of things to come. Within the LP his productions take a more structured and synth laden route in comparison to his earlier upbeat drum heavy

Nitin Garg is a Delhi based designer and graphics artist who in his free time creates as he describes it, 'organic ambient soundscapes'. Influenced by artists such as Brian Eno, Hammock, Keith Kennif, Sigur Rós, Stars Of The Lid and other ambient and post-rock projects he creates a joyful experimentation of space, time and imagery in music that starts simply with field recordings, a laptop and a couple of keyboards. "Most of the time I am inspired by nature and the sounds of everyday life within the urban spaces around us. Whenever I'm working on something I usually have a visualisation of a place, memory or moment which I then try to recreate." A core member of Mumbai based blog The Future Elements which provides music reviews, interviews and podcasts from post-rock, shoegaze, drone, ambient and alternative electronic music scenes from across the world, Nitin is passionate about the signature sound that he has created for himself. Currently working on an EP which he hopes to release later this year, he aim

"A·poc·a·lypse: n. A prophetic disclosure; a revelation." At first Apocalypse Meow may come across as just another guitar-based band. In fact, they're pretty much the opposite. Combining echoing atmospheric accompaniments with electronic beats their sound is something quite unique and continues to evolve throughout their production. A brand new electronic music project, Apocalypse Meow is the collaboration of a video game designer and a singer/songwriter. Currently consisting of 3 members, the line up includes Delhi based musicians Aalap Davjekar (singer/songwriter, arrangements), Angad Singh (bass, arrangements) and Saurabh Babbar (guitar). "Pushing forward many years of stimulating psychedelia, Apocalypse Meow starts off where acts like Pink Floyd, Air, Burial, Future Sound Of London, Grizzly Bear, NIN, Frank Zappa, Massive Attack, Sigur Ros and Radiohead left off." Bold statement, right? Maybe. It's clear throughout their Wild City mix that the 3 piece act discard conventional verse-chorus-verse songwr

Slow Down Clown is a Mumbai based 4-piece act that fuses various forms of alternative rock, folk and punk into a sometimes uncategorisable category. It began as a solo project, formed by singer/songwriter Vitek ‘Tek’ Goyel in Upstate New York in 2001. Upon his return to Mumbai, Tek teamed up with producer and guitarist Anurag Shanker, to translate his bedroom enterprise into a full band experience together with bassist Wilson Kenneth and drummer Arfaaz ‘Fuzz’ Kagalwala (also known as Fuzzy Logic). Their songs are characteristic of Mumbai, "brimming with anecdotes, steeped in nostalgia and entirely relatable. Frenetic and ecstatic, lovelorn yet optimistic, Slow Down Clown are an easy, addictive listen." Their debut EP, ‘Say Nothing’ (stream here) was released on Meteorik Records in September 2010. The band have since played to packed venues across the country, whilst keeping busy in the studio working on their follow up. To anyone not paying attention, their mix could at first come across as a random collec

Jatin Puri burst onto the Indian live music circuit less than a year ago, quickly gaining a countrywide reputation for his original and innovative take on varied forms of electronica. Influenced by trip-hop, breakbeat, hip-hop, bass and even pop, Puri’s eclectic sound defies easy classification. His catchy and thoughtful tracks are all self-produced, composed, performed and sung. Within his short career, he has released two albums (read our review of his 2011 release, Purify here), provided scores for short films and played countless gigs across the country with more notable shows taking place at last years Bacardi NH7 Weekender and this years Holi Cow Festival. Most recently, the Delhi based artist won the award for Best Music Video at the International Songwriting Competition (ISC) for 'Life Is Good'. The video was shot in Hauz Khas Village last year and features local Bboys from the SlumGods. The judging panel for the competition was an impressive mix of iconic artists such as Tom Waits, Ozzy Osbourne an

Delhi based Qilla Records has fast become one of the country's key underground powerhouses, a name now associated internationally with underground dance music particularly with minimal and techno. Spearheaded by Madhav Shorey a.k.a Kohra and Gaurav Malaker, one half of BLOT, the label is now on the cusp of its 8th release. Unlike its predecessors, this is the first time the imprint has put together a compilation rather than an EP, showcasing a completely new direction for the label. "The idea behind our very first full-length compilation 'Open Dialect' came after we received a large number of demos that were all fantastic tracks but didn't quite fit the "label profile" so to speak. We decided to section out certain styles of tracks into compilations that support parallel ideas of the label presented differently." - Kohra, Qilla Records Due to be released on 21 May, the compilation features tracks from a number of young and upcoming producers from France, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and India. It also we

Kevin McHugh a.k.a Ambivalent has spent the last decade living in either Berlin or New York. In a sense, these two metropoleis represent the contradiction at the heart of his Ambivalent persona. On the one hand the reckless freedom and hedonism of the Berlin subculture, on the other the more considered, conceptual approach of its New York counterpart. As a result his unique sound lies somewhere between the two, a precarious balancing act that manages to infuse stripped down, finked up minimal techno with a distinct sense of purpose. Due to be over in India over the coming weekend, we did, well, what we usually do and got him to sit down and make us an exclusive mix for Wild City. It wasn't easy - he's a busy man! But you know what, he came through in the end. "Sometimes I rarely get moments to just sit and focus on one thing. Time on flights is often my best way to get some thinking done, or make a mix. This podcast was made in one of those moments. I did my best to fit a balance of sounds that I play in my

"Bangalore based duo Rahul Giri and Tanvi Rao currently make up one of the country's most interesting contemporary acts, Sulk Station. Their debut album ‘Till You Appear’ is a brilliant specimen of trip-hop and downtempo, beautifully laced with Indian classical influences. Placed side by side with their more contemporary sounds it’s a listen that manages to create a despairing timelessness." - Abhinava Bhattacharyya This Wednesday Wild City will be hosting Sulk Station’s debut Delhi show and album launch at Out Of The Box, Hauz Khas Village. In addition to Sulk Station, the show will include a performance from Teddy Boy Kill and Wild City DJ. To get you in the mood this Monday, Sulk Station have put together a mixtape of tracks that played a big part in influencing their album throughout last year. Featuring tracks from the likes of Baths, James Blake and Radiohead it's not hard to see why they sound like they do. Considering their influences from music that was utterly of the moment, one can only wait with

Wild City #023 - Daniel Haaksman by Wild City

Wild City #022 - Coma by Wild City

"With rhythm in her soul and funk in her attitude, Kini has been steadily creating waves within India's house music scene." Starting off as resident DJ at Poison in Hyderabad, Kini quickly rose through the ranks to open for acts such as dOP, Dale Anderson, Anil Chawla, Djuma Soundsystem, James Harcourt and Jody Wisternoff. A long time coming, we've managed to persuade Kini to lend us an hour of her time for a mix running through her current favourite tracks. Keeping things light it moves through various strains of house and techno while focusing on melodic grooves and tight dancefloor orientated beats. Featuring tracks from the likes of Maxi Mill, Martyn and Nicolas Masseyeff it's a fun and forward listen that only builds the anticipation for what Kini is going to deliver next. With four releases already under her belt on labels such as Whose Haus and Arjun Vagale's Maktub, Kini is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. "This mix is representative of the sound that I'm into right now. It covers a l

2008 was the year Frederic Berger and Patrick Buck started their marvelous career as Kaiserdisco, tying together over 10 years of experience within the music industry. A duo that's not so easy to pin down, Kaiserdisco combine with exceptional style and grace both the warmer, melodic and deeper sides of house with the more heated and groovy, pounding drum patterns of minimal and techno. Within the last 4 years they've remixed artists such as Booka Shade, Kosheen, Extrawelt, Sebastien Légér, 2000 and One whilst having releases on legendary labels like Drumcode, 100% Pure, Strictly Rhythm, My Best Friend and Global Underground. Beside their big future plans and already signed releases on Drumcode and My Best Friend in April 2012 the boys have also started their own imprint titled KD Music - what better time for them to enter Indian clubland. To mark their first ever Indian tour later this week at blueFROG Delhi and Mumbai Frederic from Kaiserdisco has gone and put together a mix that folds together various el

When you think of hip-hop, house and dubstep, Newcastle, in the North-East of England, isn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind. London, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Paris and Manchester are amongst the few cities that are credited with making huge contributions to the heterogeneous catalogue of electronic music we have at our fingertips today. It's sometimes very easy for national music media to overlook fledgling talent in cities such as Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle. To a similar extent, media attention regarding recent developments in electronic music has been almost exclusively centered on London. Whilst nobody could overlook the influences of a vast roster of dubstep, techno and garage producers based in the UK's capital, it seems unfair that artists with similar levels of talent lack the appropriate platforms for exposure in northern cities. TRIPTIK Music is aiming to address this imbalance, with these key criteria kept at the forefront of their progress: "Essential, Eclectic and Electro

Switch Bitch has been gestating within various bedrooms and laptops for just over two years. Considering the matured sound you're about to hear over the next 12 minutes, it's hard to believe. What began with the shared passion of two people sitting around a laptop and making electro has over time evolved through sonic-scapes and grown as if by mitosis into a four piece counter-culture. "Now we have more than two, even five people at a time crowded around a laptop." Currently consisting of Abhinav Chaudhary, Nikhil Kaul, Abhishek Bhatia, Anshul Lall and Anupam Roy, Switch Bitch is an act that can travel from shadow to light and all shades in between with casual grace. As expected, the mysterious group have piloted an ominous, exotic musical journey and even better, have made it an exclusive 3 track EP released via Wild City completely free of charge. The key here is atmosphere. An EP that burrows itself into the brain before nestling down for the long haul. By taking electronics forward but without at any

Andy Vaz hails from Düsseldorf, Germany and is the man behind Background Recordings, a label internationally acclaimed as being instrumental to what people refer to today as minimal techno. In March 2007 Vaz added to his list of musical ventures by launching a new label called “YORE”, the focus of which will be on authentic old school Detroit and Chicago house sounds. His latest release, Straight Vacationing is his first full-length artist album since the 2006 release of Repetitive Moments Last Forever. It see's Vaz travel back into history, registering as less a straight-up collection of dance-floor burners and more a variety pack that mixes club tracks and full-fledged house songs. Straight Vacationing dives into the genre in all it’s rich variety. Last October Andy Vaz, Glitterbug and Murat Tepeli were invited out to India to tour as part of a Goethe Institut initiative. This is where we first met Andy. His love for house and techno became evident instantly and we just knew there and then, that we wanted

"There's no innate skill involved in quality drum and bass production beyond a surge of all nighters and dying city lights." says Mumbai based producer and DJ, Ox7gen. Self taught in the studio and now quickly gaining a reputation as the rising star of Indian drum and bass Ox7gen a.k.a Aditya Ashok is surely one to watch in 2012. In a career spanning just over a year, this self-proclaimed drum and bass newbie has been pushing the boundaries tirelessly. Suffice to say the effortless skill and insatiable appetite for glitch has paid off as he’s managed to garner himself an impressive following in only a few short months of live meddling. The latter half of 2011 saw Ashok play his first couple of gigs in Mumbai and also close Bacardi NH7 Weekender’s Dub Station stage. Throughout this mix, regardless of what genre is being explored, Ox7gen's love of drum-heavy percussion and thick rhythms is a constant. Textured by sharp, crunchy beats and mutating into a hard and sloppy sonic experience, it results in a listen

The legendary drum and bass duo Concord Dawn a.k.a Evan Short and Matt Harvey is quite simply one of the most recognised names in drum and bass history. After bursting onto the international scene in early 2000 with their "Best Electronic Album" and "Best Independent Release" Disturbance, the duo rocked the foundations of drum and bass into a movement that eventually would see the genre move into the mainstream. Classic tracks such as “Morning Light” and “Don’t Tell Me” found international acclaim and are still heavily play-listed across the planet. This week, Matt Harvey will be bringing his critically acclaimed brand of drum and bass to audiences in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Bangalore headlining the 6th installlent of BASS CAMP Festival, the country's only bass heavy music festival. The duo’s Wild City mix is as expected mainly centered around their own productions and music. A 25 minute brockout of what you can expect as part of their Indian tour. "This is a mix of a selection of tracks I made last year,

With the sudden undeniable presence in India of glitch hop/electro hip-hop or whatever else you want to call it, we thought it only fair to get a mix from the genres fastest rising stars. A union of three talented young producers, Zen Death Squad are a phenomenon waiting to happen. Armed with laptops, synthesisers and drum machines, their diverse and explosive live sets are becoming notorious within the underground. Cyber Dojo Lazer Training EP was the trio's debut release. Uncompromisingly brazen and intensely colourful, the title track has already received global recognition from DJs, bloggers and crowds alike. "This is easily the strongest debut release I have heard in years. If you don't like this record you are pretty much a racist." - ill Gates Following a successful US tour including performances at the world renowned Low End Theory club in Los Angeles and San Francisco, alongside Gaslamp Killer, Salva and EPROM to name a few we expect there's a lot more to come from this trio. For now, they're seco