Electro at the Institut<br>Dhaka Electronica Scene's ROOM 3

Photo: Tanzia Haq

Last Thursday, the most recent event by Dhaka Electronica Scene (DES) – 'Room 3' -- was held at Goethe-Institut Bangladesh's in Dhaka, featuring The Speakeasy, Fogbird, Kymatrip and Le Unicorns. The event took place in the Berlin hall.

The show started at 8 PM with fairly minimal attendance, but this picked up as the night went on. Don Donadoni warmed up the crowd with some excellent, upbeat sounds and I was disappointed he wasn't full-on performing as I'd enjoyed his work at the last instalment of Room.

Don's set was backed up by the visual work of Dr. Strangelove and lighting controlled by Zunayed Sabbir Ahmed. For the most part they were good and in sync with the music if not always with each other. The pair would display their work through the rest of the night and deserve some props.

The first real act was Le Unicorns – Syed Akbar aka Koshai and Space/Ghost with two guest artists. Their work was atmospheric and down-tempo, and while promising did not make much of an impression.

They were followed by The Speakeasy, best known for their lead man – Pandu. Other members include Saad Chowdhury and Zunayed Sabbir Ahmed. They put out a solid, jazzy rock performance layered over some electro mixes and samples that incorporated some classic Bangla tunes. Despite Pandu's best efforts the still largely empty hall wasn't loosened up enough to dance - apart from one aged gentleman with some great moves.

The night picked up with Fogbird's set. Frontman Fahad Zaman mixing, supported by instrumentalists Saybe Dipro, Tihan Shah and Salmi Rahman. Playing mixes of crowd-pleasers such as 'Riders on the Storm' and 'Seven Nation Army' they really got the rapidly-filling hall moving to the beat. This was the turning point for Room 3.
Fogbird's set got the crowd into the show, and Kymatrip came up to finish off the night with some straightforward but quality dance music, and by 10 PM the Berlin hall began to look, sound and smell like a club. An amazing transformation for a couple of hours.

It was all-in-all an excellent show, though not of entirely even quality which might make the 300 taka per ticket pricetag seem steep. Still, quite an achievement considering that it's just early days for electronic music in Dhaka.