Preview: DJ Sami

By P.Ramakrishnan
Sat, 11 pm, Armani Bar

Just as Hong Kong's handover anniversary is celebrated each year with a dance party, India's Independence Day has also proved to be a good excuse for hedonistic dance-floor fun.

Providing the soundtrack at this year's extravaganza is Akbar Sami, one of Mumbai's best known DJs and provider of countless Bollywood sound-tracks. Sami is one of the Indian entertainment capital's highest paid disc jockeys.

Although he's said to have single-handedly brought house music to Indian dance floors, Sami says his sound resists easy categorisation. "In India, one needs to have a sense of rhythm, know some of the basics of instruments and have a wide collection of different styles - unlike in the west, where they have genre-specific DJs and clubs."

In the world of Indian remixing - where producers often illegally sample movie soundtracks and rework them for the dance floor - Sami is one of the few to work with original composers. He's the official remixer for no fewer than five upcoming Bollywood releases.

"If you hear my remixes, just about everything is new - the range, the instruments," he says. "Film producers ask me to work with them, but I've had to say no because I don't have time to work on bad albums. If the music's bad, you can't do anything with it."

Since Sami first spun in the 1980s, he dreamed of opening a nightclub. He realised his ambition two months ago, with the launch of Synergy, which has rapidly become one of Mumbai's top hangouts.

"I wanted to do it for a long time, but I couldn't find the right place. A friend showed me this property and so Synergy was born."

However, such is the demand for Sami that he hasn't found time to man the decks. "When everthing settles down - the club is still a baby - I'll spin," he says.



Thursday, August 10, 2006