Nikhil Chinapa‘s birthday tour kicked off on a Thursday night with a massive celebration at Royalty in Bandra, Mumbai. The bash was graced by an immensely appreciated British music producer known to love India. Yes, you got that right – Funkagenda! Funkagenda has paid several visits to India in the past couple of years having played both at Sunburn Festival and individuals gigs several times. He has been known to express his blatant love for our country throughout the span of his established career. His groovy, propulsive style of house music has melted dance floors across the world, and this particular mini tour was a part of a 5 city trip spanning across Indore, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi.

To give a little backgrounder to this genius man Funkagenda is a UK based producer and Dj who is a class apart. He is like champagne, ever bubbling and with a golden stage presence. Funkagenda is now creative commander of Funk Farm, as well as being a key member of the iconic Toolroom Records. The Funkagenda/Mark Knight partnership is like a pulsating force in the music industry which seems absolutely indestructible. Blacklight, Everytime (Funkagenda mix), Antidote a track mixed by Funkagenda and Mark Knight are a few of his infamous numbers. As though this wasn’t enough the wizard of music has also won a Grammy (52nd Grammy Awards) for the Best Pop Vocal Album for his contributions to the Black Eyed Peas album ‘The E.N.D.’

Here’s our review of the Mumbai edition.

We thought we were late when we reached close to 10 pm, since the time announced was 9 pm. However, it turned out that we were lucky since the gig only ended up starting by 11.30. It took quite a while to fill up the place but around midnight when Nikhil Chinapa took over the decks; the crowd was buzzing and energetic to say the least! It seemed to us like it was building up to be a funkalicious night!

Funkagenda soon began turning tables by midnight opening with You’re The One by Cajmere & Sonny Fodera. He picked up the pace as he went churning out some delicious tunes like Your Love-Mark Knight, 10 p.m. by Marco V and even the groovy likes of Eric Prydz- Every Day that just transformed an otherwise bored at first Thursday audience into manic dance junkies. Funkagenda seemed to love every bit, and his tracks felt like they were energy pills being sent across. Funkagenda played a remarkable set, drifting from deep house to trap with unbelievable tracks such as Anaconda-Wolfgang Gartner a mix of the XX-Fiction and even dropping a mix of You’ve got the Love by Florence and the Machine amongst others, just when we thought it was getting monotonous. Playing a plethora of unfailing dance tracks such as Concrete Angel-Gareth Emery, Fedde Le Grand’s remix of Paradise by Coldplay, Always by BT, Insomnia by Faithless to name a few, here is our Bangin’ pick of Funkagenda’s set.

Around 1 am or so, in the middle of a track, suddenly, the entire music stopped and it seemed to be a sound system crash. Suddenly, a video popped up on the screens, and we were in for a pleasant surprise! Music producers from all over the world such as Sultan & Ned Shepard, Albin Myers, Nadia Ali, Dave Seaman, Tuhin Mehta (Brute Force), Anish Sood, Dj Naved, Rohit Barker etc. and the rest of Chinapa’s friends and the crew at Submerge all chipped in making a video collage wishing Nikhil a glorious birthday! It was a heart-warming gesture, and the crowd seemed to cheer for every word Nikhil had to say. Nikhil knew that this wasn’t the time or the place for a speech, and he decided that it was more than enough and took in the spirit of ‘less talking, more dancing’. Like a well-oiled machine, Funkagenda took this as his cue and dived right in getting the crowd to bust out their very best dance moves.

Around 1.30, when we thought the inspiring journey had come to an end, Funkagenda and Chinapa had a brainwave, and turned out they were going to play B2B for a whole extra hour! We were in for a treat, and boy, were they impressive! Dishing out hit after hit, tracks such as Pryda’s Allein, amongst many were keenly appreciated by the audience. Funkagenda ended up performing all the way till past 3 ending it with one of our favourites, released all the way back in 2001, a chartbuster titled ‘Flaming June’ which was a fitting end to a historic travel through time, all thanks to Funkagenda’s classic tunes.

This re-establishes the fact that music has already escaped the confines of time and space. Usually when clubs call it a night by 1.30-2 p.m, Chinapa’s birthday earmarked a fantastic exclusion to this particular rule which goes to show the growth of the industry here and the power and might of one inspired man in this city of big lights. This single gig went onto prove that this city indeed never sleeps and will always continue to feed an ever hungry music audience. This man is a beast who romps and thumps and makes you experience an unforgettable night with every set. We loved his power-packed performance, and we cannot wait until this crowd-pleaser is in town next!

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Special thanks to the Submerge team!

Review By: Khushi Hegde & Saurabh Dhope

Edited By: Aditya Seth