Saturday Night Fever

It’s Saturday. The night is young. You don’t want to pack up yet. How about some techno music to enliven the evening and an array of visual snapshots to heighten the mood and rhythm? B.L.O.T. (Basic Love Of Things), a group creating audiovisual techno music, will be lending its tunes to the city this weekend.

Think beats of progressive and electronic music as you sip your Bloody Mary. While your ears are tuned into the music, your eyes are glued to a screen that shows a mixed rhythmic blend of various stills, be it an old Hindi movie, animated figures, abstract images or simply techno lighting effect. This concept — that of an intertwined audiovisual techno night — that was alien to the country till some time ago has been introduced by B.L.O.T. two years back.

B.L.O.T. is a venture established by three Delhi boys: Avinash Kumar, Gaurav Malaker and Akshar Pillai. Kumar, an NIFT graduate, who used to create toys and had no knowledge about electronic music, became a visual jockey for B.L.O.T. Malaker, a lawyer, joined the group when he realised how boring he found his profession. Pillai, a promo producer, was part of the trio when they started, but left mid-way.

Presently, the duo are creating imaginative and immersive spaces for music and dance. Or, as they call it, “a live cinema experience”.

As the music plays, audiovisual snapshots and frames come alive on screen to add to the mood of the techno trance.

Kumar, a designer-cum-filmmaker, became a visual jockey, graphic artist and product designer for B.L.O.T. “The visuals for the music are very impromptu. They depend upon my mood or, at times, on the audience we are playing for. The best part about this field is that there is no such thing as right or wrong; it is all about experimenting,” says Kumar.
 Malaker, who is now a disc jockey, percussionist, FX and electronic music producer, says, “Our main focus is on how audio-video can compliment each other. Electronic music is relatively fast but, at the same time, is well spaced out. So, it gives us a lot of time and scope to improvise,” he says.

With every show, the duo try to add a new element. Kumar and Malaker have also performed abroad and it is an experience that they cherish tremendously. “The crowd at Berlin understands the electronic music and is also surprised to see Indians coming and performing. Whereas in India, it does become difficult, because Indians come with preconceived notions of how their night is going to be,” says Kumar.

For B.L.O.T., the first major gig was at Aqua at the Park Hotel in New Delhi around August 2007 and, since then, there has been no looking back for them. B.L.O.T. is not only associated with electronic, techno, minimal and progressive music, but they have also ventured  into other arenas. They are on the verge of releasing their first DVD album.
For now, they are gearing up to entertain Mumbai this weekend.

(Watch B.L.O.T performing today, Nov 21 at Blue Frog, Lower Parel, at 10.30pm)