One of the bigwigs of the Drum And Bass scene and one half of London Elektricity, Tony Colman was recently at Blue Frog in Mumbai as part of the Bass Camp festival, an initiative of Krunk Live and they certainly did NOT disappoint.

With an impressive back catalogue of singles, EPs and 5 solo albums under his belt, Colman along with his colleague Chris Goss formed London Elektricity, way back in 1999. Shortly sometime after, the duo also founded Hospital Records, one of the most well known music labels in the UK dance scene today; Under which the likes of Netsky, Camo and Krooked, High Contrast, and Metrik have signed on. He is possibly responsible for shaping the genre as we know it today.

Hospital Records even has a periodic podcast hosted by Tony Colman, you can check it out here.

http://tunein.com/radio/Hospital-Records-Podcast-p346102/

Now lets move on to the Bass Camp festival.

The Opening set was by one of Mumbai’s very own Aditya Ashok (aka Ox7gen). He took to the decks at around 10.30pm and boy did he manage a build up to the great man himself. Having opened for a bunch of honchos on the D&B scene, this young gun has made quite a name for himself.

On the night in question, Ox7gen had a banger, bass-induced set, which I think was a perfect precursor to what was in store for the crowd. He had dropped a lot of his original productions like Northern Lights, and Strain the Colour from This Sidewalk.

Moving on to the man of the hour, the one man beat machine, Tony Colman. He took over from ox7gen at 12 am and trapped the crowd in a sheer state of constant energy for the next 2 hours.

Before he started, he shared with us how he’d never been to India before, and how he already loved the energy here. (We also caught him grooving to Ox7gen’s set)

The amazing man that he is, Mr. Colman used absolutely NO monitors or Mixing Equipment. All he had in his arsenal of dance floor destroyers were 2 specially designed vinyl turntables, his headphones and a big backpack of 100% vinyl records. Yes, that’s right, he had a 2 hour 100% vinyl and dub plate set.

Another major factor of Mr. Colman’s set is that he didn’t adhere to the ‘start slow, then pick up’ adage. From start to finish, his tracklist was completely and utterly #bangin, in every sense of the word.

His tracklist consisted of virtually every artist signed under the Hospital Records banner. From Netsky’s IronHeart, to High Contrast’s remix of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep and a lot of unreleased smashers in between.

Amongst the demolishers that he dropped were his very own “ The Plan That Cannot Fail”, “Meteorite”, Camo and Krooked’s remix of Daft Punk’s “One More Time” and Caspa’s Remix of “Wheres My Money”. All of which were complete glass shattering, ground leveling Dubstep and Drum and Bass bombs.

Mr Colman being the experienced shark he is, knew how to get the crowd pumping with all his antics on stage. Right from stripping out from his Hospital Records Jumpsuit, to teeing off on stage just before a drop. Not once throughout the set did the energy levels drop. Not once did anyone take a break from dancing. Even the Visuals by Wolves+Josh just added to the mesmerizing effect that defined that night.

After 2 hours of what could only be described as hell breaking loose on the dancefloor, One could easily see why Mr. Colman is such a respected personality on the Drum & Bass scene today and why after 14 years, he still is easily one of the best Drum & Bass producers and DJs there is.

A London Elektricity concert is easily one of the things you must make a point to attend at least once in your life. Even if you aren’t a fan of the genre, Tony Colman will make sure you start losing it to the music, almost involuntarily even. As for us, we’re counting down the days till we can see Mr. Colman again.

PhotoCredits:

Naren Satya