The Big Mushroom Cloud Festival, now in its third edition is back. Positioned as a festival of new sounds, this audio-visual extravaganza has grown from its roots as a small pub evening to a daylong festival. Featuring some of the finest artistes from across the country, this alternative and new music festival is happening at CounterCulture, Whitefield on Saturday, November 5.RootsThe Big Mushroom Cloud Festival was a collaboration of five Bangalore based bands — Drones From The Turbine, Farmer, The Bicycle Days, Parachute XVI and Cactus Leper coming together to create an evening that was beyond the idea of typical gigs. It was first held at Suburbia, a little pub in Bangalore in April 2010. This was the first time wherein bands came together to create an audio-visual atmosphere that included art installations, visuals and lighting to add to the performance. The belief of this festival being that it revolves beyond music and to offer an experience. September 2010 saw The Big Mushroom Cloud Festival move to Tripura Vasini, Palace Grounds. This move gave the festival a larger stage, a bigger line up of artistes and most of all the space to create a true art and music festival appearance. The idea behind The Big Mushroom Cloud Festival has always been for artistes to think original - whether it is their music, paintings or the visual imagery that is part of this festival.The year 2011What started out as psychedelic music festival has now matured into a festival of new sounds and nalso has found a new home with similar thinking - CounterCulture, Whitefield. The Big Mushroom Cloud Festival 2011 promises to be a daylong adventure in some of the coolest music to come out of India currently. This outdoor event promises to have some cool art installations, a great sound and light set up and activities that’ll definitely keep you busy all day. The Big Mushroom Cloud Festival believes in showcasing new talent that is constantly emerging across the country. The artiste line up for The Big Mushroom Cloud Festival 2011 includes:Jass B’stardsThe Jass B’stards are curious bunch of musicians from New Delhi. They definitely don’t play Jazz. Their mix of sounds of the old radio with thumping grooves and interesting collaborations with singers makes them one of the hippest sounding bands to come out of New Delhi. Who said only 16 year olds can make weird music? Adil and VasundharaVasundhara Vidalur and Adil Manuel spearhead a collaborative outfit based out of New Delhi. Their musical spectrum spans Jazz Fusion, Funk, RnB, Blues and Gospel. Extensively working with artists based in India and abroad, their focus has been the creation of new sounds and energies through collaboration, exchange and cross-influence. Their summers are generally spent touring and playing at international music festivals like the Festival Tout Le Monde Chante (TLMC) in Villefranche de Rouergue (France), Festival Corne d’Or in Istanbul (Turkey), Centre Mandapa in Paris (France), Clef d’Or in Plovdiv (Bulgaria), etc. In some of these festivals they have been the first Indian musicians to be invited. Peter Cat Recording CompanyPeter Cat Recording Company are from New Delhi. PCRC is based in New Delhi/San Francisco, currently consisting of 4 members, formed in 2009. It was initially a solo project started by Suryakant Sawhney in San Francisco, eventually blossoming into a full blown band/act. The type of music they play is open to discussion, with some people saying they sound like post depression era cabaret to the Bangalore Times calling them Experimental Dark. Their style ranges from Gypsy Jazz to Ballroom Waltz to Midnight Moonlight car chase music (think Don). The sound is heavily inspired by 60s/70s Bollywood music, which was in turn inspired by American music of the 50s, such as big band music and soul. Lyrically, they choose to write about prostitutes, deception, android artists and about films coming to life.The Bicycle DaysThey are young and trendy, and this reflects in The Bicycle Days music. Their accolades is their bold approach to music and this has won them the JD Rock Awards for the best emerging band, the best EP of 2010 according to popular music webzine NH7. They also won top accolades as the third best emerging band in Asia by AVIMA in 2010. They have supported Swedish band Pain of Salvation and previously have supported Meshuggah, and have appeared at numerous festivals across the country. The Bicycle Days is probably one of the most exciting bands to watch on stage. Rock, Pop, Progressive, Electronic, Psychedelics, Soundscapes and Psychobabble are to name a few things that you might think of their set. The Bicycle Days steps it one notch by bringing in a unique Audio-Visual set. The visuals, unlike others will be mixed and projected live. Bangalore has traditionally stood out to churn young metal bands, but with The Bicycle Days, you are sure to be proven wrong with this notion.SchizophonicWhat happens if you bring in a jazz pianist, a blues guitar player, a DJ and give them all laptops to work with? Well, you get Schizophonic, a band comprising of popular musicians Aman Mahajan, Arjun Chandran and DJ Prashant. Schizophonic is an experimental project that brings together many different styles and genres in an electronic environment that is painstakingly created and maintained at each performance. The band comprises three musicians, all networked together and sharing material wirelessly, capturing sounds from the moment and introducing them into their own compositions in real time. The humans in the band have had experience playing a plethora of musical styles and their material reflects the influences of all that has gone by. From deep, dark Dub delays and Hip Hop turn-tablism to jazz piano and blues guitar licks off crackling LP’s, all human-generated sound is fed into an electronic hive-mind that behaves intuitively and dramatically; in essence, a fourth member of the band that can only be given suggestions but never entirely controlled. Schizophonic performances are unpredictable. Adam & The Fish Eyed PoetsThe first time Adam & The Fish Eyed Poets came to notice during the previous edition of The Big Mushroom Cloud Festival with CD’s of his debut album Snakeism being distributed for free. Adam & The Fish Eyed Poets is the working name of chennai based singer-songwriter Kishore Krishna, who after having released two self produced albums snakeism (2010) and dead loops (2011) decided to put a band together featuring the most talented musicians from the Chennai cesspool, with a sound that finds a volatile balance between the sexually charged stax/volt era rhythm and blues and the sneering, passive aggressive precision of post-punk/new wave acts. The other bands perfroming include The Family Cheese, Stuck in November, Totem, Mushroom Lake and Avilente.
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