Gig Review: Max Graham & Protoculture at Club Royalty, Mumbai

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Max Graham and Protoculture combined last week to present a seamless Back 2 Back set at Club Royalty Mumbai, in the presence of some of the happiest dance music fans this city could offer as part of their official Rebrand Records India Tour. Both the legendary trance artists curated a set of mixed vibes as they time and again overlapped with each other, causing a fantastic synergy of sound and emotions.

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For those unfamiliar with the idea, a Back 2 Back set is essentially multiple artists playing their individual sets overlapped with each other. This causes an interesting order of tracks and can be wildly unpredictable for the audience as there is a seamless integration of multiple talents on the decks! What was special about Max and Protoculture’s combination was despite their varying sounds in progressive and vocal trance, they were able to curate a perfectly synchronized 3 hour set, which contained a plethora of sounds and a flurry of emotions for the audience to choose from.

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Starting from an initial hour of club-friendly dance music infused by Max Graham such as tracks like “Onee Too Many” by Filthy Rich & Redondo, Funkagenda’s massive “Blacklight” & Max Graham’s own collaboration with Alana Aldea‘s “Where you are”, the set took a euphoric turn once Nate Raubenheimer aka Protoculture took to the decks. Kick-starting with Russian giant Arty’s melodic “Flashback”, he then infused the Mory Kante’s sampled Ashley Wallbridge’s “Africa” before dropping his massive remix on Armin van Buuren feat Cindy Alma’s  “Beautiful Life (Protoculture remix)”. Playing within time intervals of 20-25 minutes, both artists kept taking turns as they oscillated the tempo back and forth through the course of the set.

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As Protoculture completed his first round with his anthemic “Laguna” around Mark Sixma’s “Requiem”, Max Graham returned on the decks and lined up his massive “The Evil ID”. The transition was perfect as the energetic trance riffs got punctuated with those chunky bassline attacks! Playing some big room sounds now on his second round, Max dropped the delightful “Dinodrums” by Estiva before causing mass pandemonium as he dropped Markus Schulz’s massive “Remember this”. With Jochen Miller’s “Brace yourself” followed by Cosmic Gate’s “Crushed”, he gifted the decks back to Protoculture who quickly transitioned Kat Krazy feat. elkka’s “Siren (Armin van Buuren remix)”.

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In his second round, Protoculture took the responsibility of swarming some club-friendly beats as he dropped Orjan Nilsen’s “Xiing!” right behind Ferry Corsten’s “Diss”. Max Graham returned shortly to play an absolute beautiful combination of Andew Bayer’s “Perth” right on the back of his collaboration with Neev Kennedy’s masterpiece “Sun in the winter (KhoMha remix)”. Protoculture took to the decks only to end the night and the memorable experience with the euphoric and uplifting ‘Talisman’ by himself.

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We had a chance to speak to Max Graham shortly after his set, about the general composition of a DJ set and he insisted the need to have it build gradually. Speaking in reference to his recent 6 hour set at New York, he said its important to get the people in the groove first before you start infusing some energy through your set. He was all praise for the Mumbai fans shortly after the set, as he tweeted about the affection he received.

After their performance, as the two trance giants proceeded towards the exit, they were swarmed by fans for handshakes and photographs. What was most unique to see afterwards was that, nearly half the audience followed the producers out till the main road, some conversing with them and some still trying to click pictures. They gladly obliged every fan, as they spilled over to the street. It seemed nobody wanted them to leave! Finally, after spending enough time with all the fans and patiently clicking photographs with them, both were escorted away from the venue, while the gleeful fans waved them goodbye with beaming smiles!

Special thanks to Submerge & Club Royalty for piecing together such a fantastic experience!
Written by Hamed Khalidi
Edited by Shule Puri
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