Exclusive First Listen: Dot.'s 'Everybody Dances To Techno' Gets Reimagined By Bulli Bainbridge As Part Of 'Indie Remixed'

For 3 months since last November, Mumbai's Zain Calcuttawala aka Bulli Bainbridge had dedicated his Instagram space to reimagining some of his favourite Indian indie music, which included tunes like Anoushka Maskey's 'September Embers', Prateek Kuhad's 'Co2' and Parekh & Singh's 'I Love You Baby, I Love You Doll', as part of a series he called 'Indie Remixed'. 2 works as part of the series have so far seen a wider release: a reworking of 'City Life' by Raghav Meattle and another of Shalmali Kholgade's 'Runnin''.

Zain is now releasing his reimagining of Aditi Saigal aka Dot.'s most popular song 'Everybody Dances To Techno' – which the artists exclusively share through Wild City ahead of the wider release on May 31.

"Still can't believe how long the effects of this song have lasted," Aditi tells us joyously. The singer-songwriter and actress (notably for being part of the main cast of the 2023 Bollywood film 'The Archies') had uploaded a phone recording of rehearsing 'Everybody Dances To Techno' in 2017 when she was a university student. Since then, the same recording has received more than a million listens across the web, generated covers, fan videos and also a release across streaming services late last year as part of Dot.'s 'Practice Rooms'.

Bulli Bainbridge's remix adds a polish to the track that it hadn't seen as of yet. In addition to dialling up the nostalgic undertones of the songs with a 50s'-style arrangement albeit with a more modern polish, the remix brings along a full live orchestra with Macedonia-based FAME's Skopje Studio Orchestra contributing a cinematic lushness to the string arrangement.

The orchestra has also contributed to Bulli Bainbridge's upcoming remixes of Anoushka Maskey's 'September Embers' and Tejas' 'Ruby' which will be released later this year.

"I truly believe that India has seen some exceptional indie music over the past decade; be it songwriting or production value and quality," says Zain while explaining how 'Indie Remixed' has been a beneficial exercise in creativity and experimentation for him as well as how the inspiration for the series came from the thought the songs sparked about how they might have sounded if he had produced them. "It's been lovely paying tribute to music I love in my own way and bringing them back to the audiences' focus as best as I could."

Bulli Bainbridge's remix of 'Everybody Dances To Techno' by Dot. releases on May 31 via Bohemia Junction. Meanwhile, you can listen to it exclusively with us from the player above and head to the artist profiles of Bulli Bainbridge and Dot. to learn more.

Image by Ambika Singh