Indio, United States--Once an afterthought for many international artists, India has quickly emerged as a hotbed for electronic dance music -- and, in a sign of its growth, the first Indian act has played the influential Coachella festival.
The duo B.R.E.E.D, which had its start in Mumbai and Goa, put on an energetic set at the festival that closed Sunday in the California desert with a style driven by a heavy rhythm that the band calls "future bass electronic."
Away from the larger stages that showcase some of the world's most famous bands, B.R.E.E.D played the more niche Do Lab known for promoting rising electronic artists. In an open enclosure designed like a whale carcass, B.R.E.E.D put on fast-paced numbers with hints of trap music as dancers sprayed from floral-adorned water guns into the sweaty and sunburned crowd.
If not for DJ Ritesh D'Souza's shout-out to an Indian friend, it is unlikely that most at the show recognized the duo's origin. But B.R.E.E.D experiments with Indian form on its latest album "Binate," whose tracks include "Tears" led by the mournful violin of Manoj George.
B.R.E.E.D has also set electronica to a nadaswaram, a south Indian wind instrument, with D'Souza saying that the band wanted to "get a very exotic instrument, that people are not using actually, into our niche."
Bandmate Tara Mae, a classically trained US pianist who met D'Souza while living in Mumbai, said the sound "has futuristic elements. It's very, what we call, forward-pushing."
The duo moved to Los Angeles in late 2012, hoping to expand its reach after becoming regulars in the Indian scene.
"We became big fish in a small pond, kind of, doing the same clubs with the same people," D'Souza told AFP.
AFP
