Echo: A Taste Of The Club Night
11 June 2015
If you’ve been keeping tabs on us in the recent past, you may have heard of ‘Echo’ - a one-of-a-kind club night we launched in April along with Alter State, a.k.a. Sanil Sudan and Taru Dalmia, known better by his alter egos BASSFoundation Roots and Delhi Sultunate.
Echo isn’t your regular party. Conceptualised with the aim of pushing sound culture to Delhi’s audio-heads and party going population, the club night outlines the evolution of bass right from the early days of dub, dancehall and reggae roots to when (real) dubstep and grime truly kicked off in the 90s. Every single element of Echo is curated and nurtured with love – right from the custom picked sound system that forms its nucleus and the tunes meticulously picked by our three DJs, to the artwork and posters that go along.
We can say with a certain confidence that the first edition of Echo managed to get the crowd off their seats and on to the dance floor. With the second chapter taking place tomorrow at antiSOCIAL, we decided to get in touch Echo’s three main selectors to get to know them better before they play:
What is Echo and its purpose according to you?
Echo is essentially a dubstep/roots night where our aim as selectors is to promote dub music and its variants in its purest form with a great soundsystem to back it up.
What are your three most influential dubstep albums?
Skream - Skream [Tempa]
Pinch - Underwater Dancehall [Tectonic]
Vex'd - Degenerate [Planet Mu]
Your dream b2b will involve…
Youngsta / 6 decks + 2 mixers / Bring it on!
The artist/act you just have to hear live within your lifetime?
Jah Shaka / Jeff Mills
Taru Dalmia / BASSFoundation Roots
Image credit: Zacharie Rabehi
What is Echo and its purpose according to you?
Given the fact that most club systems are not geared towards the heavy sub bass that non-jiggy jiggy bass music requires, we often find ourselves in a position where we have to play party tracks. Echo gives us the ability to explore deeper music with the necessary intensity of sound. For me personally, this means I can play roots and dub tracks that average systems cannot do justice to.
Three essential early dub / roots albums for beginners to the genre?
Blackboard Jungle - Lee Scratch Perry
Curse of the Vampires - Scientist
The Roots of Dub - King Tubby
An artist/act you’re itching to see play live?
I’d travel back in time and attend the original Jah Shakka dances.
A utopian description of the perfect Echo gig?
An original hand built Jamaican sound system, with pre amps at a public open-air location in Delhi… maybe in a corner of Lodhi gardens or Tuglaqabad.
Image credit: Nishant Shukla
What is Echo and its purpose according to you?
Echo is a no holds barred clubnight, trying to showcase what's real about the dub, roots and original dubstep culture. Where minimalism is everything and where we focus - once again - on the simple things. The music and the sound.
A lot of the music I listen to now, comes from roots drenched in these cultures - and it often feels like this is either forgotten or not known at all. This is just a polite reminder.
Three bass producers you’re listening to at the moment?
Your dream DJ b2b will involve…
Floating Points, Ben UFO, Pearson Sound, Oneman - I could go on forever.
The artist / act you just have to hear live within your lifetime?
Right now, I'm most excited about seeing FKA Twigs.
***ECHO is a recurring club night. This edition will take place at antiSOCIAL on 12 June***