Additional Lineup announced for BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender 2016

​BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender announces an additional lineup of artists for their 2016 Pune and Hyderabad editions, building on the eclectic mix of performers from India and around the world, across different genres.

Talking about the 2016 edition of the festival, Vijay Nair, CEO of Only Much Louder, says, “Keeping the lineup of the festival fresh every year is one of the most interesting challenges we have while putting together the BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender.

The lineup is curated individually for every place the festival visits, and this year, we’re bringing fans some of our strongest lineups yet. We know that music fans aren’t defined by their love for just one genre, which is why we design our lineups with the hope that not only will you find something you love already, you’ll also discover your new favourites for the next few years.”

HYDERABAD| DJANGO DJANGO

At BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender in Hyderabad, David Maclean from Django Django will be performing a DJ Set. Django Django are a British art rock band based in London, England. The group was formed in 2009 and has released a self-titled studio album in 2012, followed up by Born Under Saturn in 2015.

PUNE | KARSH KALE

"Karsh Kale mixes eclectic beats with the sounds of his heritage to make a sound that is distinctly his own.” - President Barack Obama

Described by Billboard Magazine as a "visionary composer and producer", Karsh Kale today is known as a pioneer in the world of global fusion. His career has gone through many avatars over the past 15 years as he jumps between the hoops of being a world renowned tabla player, drummer, DJ/ remix artist, vocalist, multi instrumentalist, film composer, as well as a band leader and curator all with equal ease.

He has produced five internationally released solo albums (Realize, Liberation, Broken English, Breathing Under Water, Cinema & Up), of which his most recent "CINEMA", won the Best Fusion Album Award in India at the GIMA (Global Indian Music Awards) in 2012 and debuted at #1 on the iTunes World Music charts.

Karsh Kale has also developed a reputation as a genre bending collaborator which has led him to work with some of the most renowned artists from around the globe including his musical hero Zakir Hussain, Pt. Ravi Shankar, Herbie Hancock, Sting, Anoushka Shankar, Lenny Kravitz, Bill Laswell, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys and many others.

Over the past decade, Karsh has been invited to perform at many prestigious venues and festivals around the globe and was recently invited to perform at the White House in 2013 and was introduced by President Obama himself. His work was also featured at The Smithsonian Museum recently.

He has become a noted composer in the world of film and has also made his forward thinking artistic presence felt on T.V shows like the Cannes Award Winning show like The Dewarists, in which Kale featured in 2 seasons as well as popular shows such as Coke Studio @ MTV Season 2 and MTV Sound Trippin Season 2. From curating festival headlining jams to cool, left of center experiences, Karsh truly defines the new age of collaboration and invention in music.

Be it with his live ensembles; The Karsh Kale Collective, Karsh Kale – Classical Science Fiction or Karsh Kale Soundsystem or as a world-renowned producer, Karsh Kale continues to push the boundaries of music in many directions as well as continues to be one the most sought after collaborators of his generation. Karsh Kale recently launched his album UP via Times Music (India) and Six Degrees Records (Worldwide) Website: www.karshkale.com

PUNE | FUNC

Guitar hero, electronic producer, dub pioneer, graphic artist; Randolph Correia has a long line of credits to his name, but the genre-bending niche he has carved remains his most iconic achievement.

As Func, the guitarist and producer has dabbled in genres ranging from glitch & funk to dub, alternative rock & drum and bass, while all his live shows take place exclusively under his moniker Func Live. His beginnings in art school in Bombay taught him to keep an open mind from the get-go, as a result of which FUNC has evolved into a creative powerhouse with a diverse palette of genres and sounds.

Pentagram was no doubt a revolution in independent Indian music; starting off as their guitarist and producer over two decades ago, Randolph has produced hits like ‘Voice’, ‘Tomorrow’s Decided’ and ‘Nocturne’ for the band.

They made history as the first Indian outfit to be invited to perform at Glastonbury Festival in 2005, along with the likes of Chemical Brothers, Tori Amos and Fatboy Slim.

Shaa’ir + Func, formed with Monica Dogra in 2005, is another musical phenomenon with Randolph on guitar/production duties. Their East-meets-West electronic music laden with glitch and funk — coupled with their explosive performances and head-turning get-ups — had them shooting to wild popularity, becoming a gateway band into the Indian indie gig scene for scores of fans. For S+F, Randolph has produced favourites like ‘My Roots’, ‘Every Time You’re Around’ and ‘Together Again’.

His experimentation with genres has never relented over the years; in 1999, he was a part of Bombay Black, a collective that challenged genre typecasting by dabbling in everything radical, from post-rock to punk to drum and bass. Check out their new album ‘Bombay Black Hole’ here and video for ‘Boing Boing’ here.

2003 had him forming FUNCInternational, a solo moniker to best reflect him musically, through which he has released 3 albums including ‘Dubba’ and ‘Mushroom Maratha’, bringing dub to Indian shores for the first time. He also performs as FUNC live, his moniker for his live gigs.

Randolph was one of the heavyweights to kick off WOBBLE! nights at Bonobo, Bandra — Bombay’s premier bass-heavy night, where the freshest sounds ranging from hip hop to glitch house, dubstep, drumstep and drum’n’bass were to be found.

He’s also composed music for television channels such as Star, Disney, AXN, MTV & Channel [V] as well as for notable brands including Nokia, Sony & Levi’s, and has recently extended his music production to Bollywood, working on films such as Byomkesh Bakshi, Don & Honeymoon Travels.

Having remixed for various artists in film and television, few know that as a graphic artist, Randolph has also exhibited his works at Jehangir Art Gallery, Birla Art Gallery, Bajaj Hall & Art Gallery in Mumbai.

As a performer, Randolph has performed at festivals across the world such as Big Chill Festival (UK), Oya Festival (Norway), C/O Pop (Germany), Melkweg (Amsterdam), Sakifo Music Festival (Reunion Island), Knitting Factory (New York) & NH7 (India).

Living and working out of Bombay, Func is currently collaborating on an album with international artist Rodney Branigan & Rais Khan, and is also setting up his own label.

PUNE | NAEZY X PRABH

HIP-HOP

Naved Shaikh aka Naezy is a Mumbai rapper who dabbles in Hindi and Urdu lyrics. Naezy has quickly become a rising star in the Indian hip-hop scene, all thank to his impressive flow and slang-inflected rhymes.

Naved started his personal journey into the art form with The Schizophrenics, a hip-hop collective he formed with his friends from Khalsa College. In January 2014, he released ‘Aafat’ garnering over 450,000 views on YouTube.

Aafat’s success was followed by ‘Raastey Kathin ’and a collaboration with Mode7 – Raffael Kalby’s solo project. Naezy also wrote for and performed ‘Birju’, the lead single from Ajay Chandok’s Hey Bro. In April 2015, Naezy took the country by storm with his definitive hit ‘Mere Gully Mein’ in collaboration withfellow Mumbai rapper Divine and Sez.

Naezy’s story inspired filmmaker Disha Rindani to create a short film titled Bombay 70, which went on to win the Silver Gateway of India award for Best Short Film at the Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI).

Naezy intertwines his signature brand of lyrics and compositions to highlight the problems that exist in city’s ghettos and to resonate with the outrage felt by the country’s youth with regard to class & culture barriers, religious differences, failing education systems and dearth of economic opportunities provided by the system.

His biggest influences include Kendrick Lamar,Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Joey Bada$$, Snoop Dogg, Tech9, Eminem, Immortal Technique, Krs one, Wu tang. He has performed at several music festivals and venues across the country including Bacardi NH7 Weekender, Stage42 .

Prabh Deep is now a known and a respected emcee in the indian hip hop scene having an arsenal of popular records and a cypher series called “Old School Cypher” to his name.

He is also a regular performer in hkv, new delhi and has performed at social, raasta and summer house cafe. He has recently performed at one of the most prestigious festival in our country, the holi moo festival and recently had a privilege to perform at the hip hop homeland which was oraganised by 101 india.

In order to promote Hip Hop and increase its awareness he started an initiative called “introduce yourself” which is a platform aimed at artists to come together and showcase their own element that they practice, elements being breaking, DJing, emceeing and beatboxing.

PUNE | AQUA DOMINATRIX

ELECTRONIC

Aqua Dominatrix is producer Akshay Rajpurohit’s pseudonym for an electronic avatarcomprising of free floating Synth­Pop, verging on Techno.

Akshay is also a part of popular metal bands Scribe and Pangea. Aqua Dominatrix sees him leap out of his comfort zone into a world of analog synthesis. After the debut release of a 12­track album ‘Sadomist’, he played his first gig at MTV Spiro, opening for Pretty Lights in Mumbai, 2015. Aqua Dominatrix’s live performances range from nu-disco infused synthpop to dark techno and acid.