Pune NH7’s Lineup: Top 5 Local Acts To Watch Out For

As aural sorcery rains down from above and machinist wrists gear up to control rhythmic limb shuffles, mounds of tar integrate to form a single one-way street headed straight to Pune's Magarpatta city; the venue which is to host the first of this year's Bacardi NH7 Weekender. Over the years, Pune's original festival form has been subjected to the most additional complexities thanks to its longevity. While for the most part, the layering has been positive as far as experiential design is concerned, getting to the crux of its lineups offers a few too many distractions along the way.

With the weekender only a day away, we decided to look past the pageantry and get straight to the pulse of it. It goes without saying how blasphemous it would be to miss out on the opportunity to watch insane international acts (read: Simian Mobile Disco, Chase & Status, Skindred, Textures, Deadly Hunta) so we decided to focus on the Indian artists instead.

Here are 5 local acts on this year's lineup you really shouldn't miss.

Nischay Parekh
Full-blooded, festival-friendly indie pop coming out of Indian covens is a rarity and Nischay Parekh has been playing the part with ease. The Kolkata-based multi-instrumentalist's Ocean has been on repeat for the past month and from what we've heard, the live act is even more exceptional.

Donn Bhat + Passenger Revelator
Last month, Wild City featured a breathtaking mix by this incredible duo. They played to rave reviews at Ziro Festival recently and VH1 India predicted that their sound would be 'sure to shake up local indie tessellation with a breathtaking focus on aural escapism and lyrical precision alike.'

Thus far, they've seemed rather inaccessible on the live circuit front but a feature on this particular lineup promises to take care of that.

The Koniac Net
Thought frontman David Abraham has battled accusations of xenocentric treatment of Indian audiences, he's proved himself to have a far more strategic approach to his band's placement in the indie music scene which unfortunately doesn't see them perform quite as frequently as we would have liked. Thankfully, their slot in this year's lineups will hopefully have the whole country revel in what too few know to be one of the country's best kept indie rock secrets.

Frame/Frame
Nikhil Kaul (moniker: Frame/Frame) just released one of 201723701's most intelligently produced EPs, a debut one at that, titled 'Swimmers

He very recently had his debut EP's launch in Delhi and proved that a live translation of his music was even more involving than one could have hoped. And the audiences at NH7 weekender will be among the first few to get to witness it.

Sky Rabbit
Mumbai-based frontman, Raxit Tewari, is a man of many masks. Having spanned many an aural territory ranging from bonafide metal riffs to bubble-wrapped shoegaze with his solo project Your Chin, we have to admit the middle ground of indie rock soundscapes he's found with Sky Rabbit might just be our favourite. Or at the very least, the perfect sound for festival fun.

Earlier this year, the band released a new five-song EP titled 'Where' which showed an incredible evolution in their production approach. All in all, the electro-rock band is definitely worth your time at this year's Weekender.

[Honourable Mentions: Your Chin, Tajdar Junaid, Suman Sridhar feat. Jiver, Blackstratblues]

Other things to look forward to this year [for non-vegetarians only] :

The Makin’ Bacon Stall
Offering up the most delectable sounding once live edibles, all topped off with gregarious portions or (arguably) everyone’s favourite meats, this food stall’s interactive website has got a lot of tongues wagging, in more ways than one.

It’s located right near the Red Bull Tour Bus, opposite the Bacardi Arena at F-24.

We didn’t think it would be easy to follow this up so that’s it. Happy weekending!

Words: Mandovi Menon (Homegrown)

Image Credit (main): Kunal Kakodkar
Image Credit (thumb): Shatabdi Chakrabarty