Vine, Visuals and Vibrasphere! (live at Emperor’s Kitchen, New Delhi)

Vibrasphere, the crème de la crème of progressive trance, performed live in New Delhi after four long years. The gig was well promoted and rumor had it that anyone who knew anything about Electronica highly anticipated the event. As expected, close to 500 people experienced one of the best trance gigs the capital city has witnessed in a very long time.

I reached at 10:45 pm when the party was getting warmed up. The venue, Emperors Kitchen, had something for everyone – a bar & dance floor area at the entrance, a chilling area on the first floor and a fine dining area inside the restaurant. The best part was the open-air dance floor! Large sound, lasers and a perimeter of tall trees created a pleasant aura. Colorful, morphing images hovered on the floating white nets above the dance floor and filled the large white wall behind the audience. Limited space had been well utilized and was quickly filling up. Most of the audience hung out at the bar area since drinks were free until midnight. The absence of a coupon system allowed for quick professional bar service. Prima facie, the evening seemed promissory.

DJ An-tiq was first on the lineup. He belted out minimal and tech tunes propped on a consistent 128 BPM bass line. It was a decent opening set which did well to warm up the evening. It didn’t really provoke the crowd to flood the dance floor, but a couple of unique tracks which were not restricted to any particular genre really caught my attention. His performance was a good effort considering it was his fourth commercial gig. The sound, technique and experience showcased his potential to develop something distinctive in the future. Moreover, the crowd seemed interested in tanking up before an uninterrupted jamming session during Vibrasphere’s Live act!

Rickard hit the console just after midnight to play an uplifting two hour set. The performance mostly comprised previously heard remixes but also some new music, which was the highlight of the evening for me. Unreleased tunes from his upcoming releases seemed like a breath of fresh air. His sophisticated track selection attracted all and sundry to the dance floor, which was more than packed within thirty minutes of his arrival! As suspected, the set was characterized by mesmerizing melodies, elegant harmonies, soft pads and a few breaks, which at times slowed the tempo. Overall, the music cleverly flowed from 128 to 137 BPM and reminded me of his studio albums, except that it featured diversified sounds which were an amalgamation of minimal, upbeat dubstep and progressive trance. Most people were overjoyed because of Rickard’s physical presence, but I expected the “Live” set to be more compelling. Great artists lead to great expectations, and Vibrasphere played a good set. Rickard concluded his performance around 2 am which was my cue to exit.

In a nutshell, Saturday night was well worth it because the organizers covered all the important aspects: best-in-class artist, new location with an open air dance floor, expansive visuals by Inklab, professional service and last but not least, the fact that the subwoofer was pounding till four in the morning. Vibrasphere could have done better by playing a longer, more atypical set, and the some of the socialites could have done better by actually enjoying the music rather than occupying space on the dance floor. Nonetheless, Uncharted and Outliners Entertainment in association with Namaha Records has clearly raised the bar and left New Delhi looking forward to another stylish night of mayhem!