B52 presents NIGHTSHIFT meets FULL POWER, May 15th 2010

Flyer Design: Pia Alize Hazarika

In Pic: Ashley Murickan @ B52

In Pic: Sailen @ B52

In Pic: Azhar @ B52

One night. Two sounds. Join B52's regulars Sailen & Azhar and Ashley Murickan on an EDM journey spanning all genres; Nightshift's deeptechdiscohouse and Full Power's crazy blend of progressive psy trance.

Happy Hours, Buy 1 Get 1 Free all the way up to 9:30PM, for boys and girls, because we don't discriminate.

Directions: Get on to Inner Ring Road heading into Koramangala, pass the Oasis Mall/Sony World traffic light, it's the fourth building on your left towards the BDA complex, it's the floor above Ambrosia. Valet service is available so don't trip about parking. 

Looking forward to this one, always nice spanning through all genres of EDM on one night. Azhar and I are playing the first two hours this weekend. It's the first time for us on a Saturday night. The folks at B52 were really enthusiastic about combining two of their most popular nights - Nightshift and Full Power, so we're giving it a go. Ashley plays a blend of progressive, trance and a little bit of psy too... It should be a power packed night.  Hope to see you all there! - SG

RSVP Nightshift meets Full Power, Saturday, May 15th: Click here
Check out Nightshift's encore from last week on YOUTUBE: Click here

Movie Review: How To Train Your Dragon - Pet lovers let's hold hands!

So finally got some time to write out a little review for How To Train Your Dragon… it’s my been my first animation since maybe Ratatouille or Free Jimmy (not like your usual DreamWorks type animation, Free Jimmy is a proper raunchfest with Simon Pegg and Woody Harrelson doing the voices, you guys should get on it)… can’t remember which. Much to my girlfriend’s distress I gave Wall-E and Up, a miss.  Saw a lot of positive reviews for HTTYD; so I thought why not, I like dragons, let’s give this a watch.

Anyways the moment the opening scene played out, I realized I had made a mistake.  This movie really needs to be watched in 3D, it’s a bit wasteful to do it in 2D.  From the opening scene I also noticed one blaring issue I had with this movie – a huge part of me thinks for a few of the characters, the voices didn’t really match the faces I was seeing on screen.  Butler was good as the main character’s father, but the main character Hiccup, I just could not get my head around his voice throughout the movie - it’s the same guy who stars in Tropic Thunder as Kevin Sandusky.  Having a 28 year old doing the voice of a 13-15 year old kid is a bit off – I kept thinking why not Justin Beiber? Lol. The yank accents for the kids and the heavy Scottish accents for the adults was also a bit jarring.

The real winner of this movie is the main dragon, Toothless – miniscule details like his scales, his big green eyes, the movement when he flies, the way he chows down on food, as well as his basic emotions and mannerisms are ridiculously thorough. This is really remarkable animation and as a character,  Toothless is quite possibly the coolest pet anyone could ask for.  I’m not showing an image of him, because it’s a bit of a spoiler. There’s quite a lot of mystique during his introduction, I was quite intrigued.

The wide varieties of expressions on the rest of the character’s faces are splendid and something that regularly caught my eye was the manner in which everyone’s hair is meticulously detailed.  There are also a wide variety of different dragons, with unique abilities and features, which makes this movie a nice little encyclopedia for dragon lovers everywhere. Essentially, the extensive work on the detailing and the creative behind the different dragons, was thoroughly impressive.

Besides the mismatched voices, thought this movie was totally worth a watch.  Barring a few moments of really corny dialogue, the plot worked well and wasn't too predictable.  The whole Vikings vs Dragons theme had it’s didactic touching moments. After watching MIA’s ethnic cleansing ‘Born Free’ video, it becomes clear that the ‘we must all live in harmony’ message in HTTYD sticks out.  You also have the Lion King type father-son relationship, where the son must do all he can to follow in his father’s footsteps even though he’s the complete opposite… etc. etc.  And of course the little love story on the side, which is cute and works well if you’re taking your lady out for this movie. Was that sexist? Sorry!

I can’t imagine a person with any sort of pet not liking this movie.  For animal lovers, there must have been a time where you snuck in a dog or cat in your house and took care of it, knowing very well your parents would kill you if they found out.  This movie is sort of like that.  My girlfriend and I couldn’t help comparing Toothless with our pets… her being a cat person and me being a dog person, made for a heated debate.  Essentially, Toothless embodies everything you love about your pet… from warming up and building a trust with the owner to a point where they’re instinctually protecting the owner.  The ending is rather generic, but there is a little twist involving the main character Hiccup, which in my opinion saves the movie and makes it a little real. If you’re an animal lover, PETA nut, if you’re obsessed with your pet, then watch this movie (in 3D!), you will not be disappointed.

Here are my doggies, Toothless had a little bit of all three of them in his character:

In Pic: Hugo (Ghost in the Darkness)

In Pic: Bailey (Bizzle Dizzle)

In Pic: Jaango (Muffin)

YHIHF rating: 7.5/10, would have been a solid 8 if I had watched it in 3D me thinks.

Just watched IRON MAN II today, review for that coming up soon! - SG

Check out the How To Train Your Dragon details on IMDB: Click here
Check out the How To Train Your Dragon website: Click here

TICKET GIVEAWAY: BURN TOUR WITH SASHA @ EZONE, Bangalore, May 7th, 2010

Event flyer: BURN Tour w/ Sasha

In Pic: Sasha & Lee Burridge, Foundacion, LA

Sasha will be playing in Bangalore, Friday, May 7th 2010 at E-Zone. Can't begin to explain how excited I am about this event. Sasha is without a doubt one of my all time favourite DJs.  He changed my life.  I've even told him, he's changed my life.  Just got a shy smile in return. It all started during his Airdrawndagger tour, he had just released his much anticipated album (took 5 years in the making) and he was playing on a Wednesday, while I was studying in Orange County, California.  My friend, asks me, "Are we going to Sasha?" And like a complete rookie, I reply, "Man, I have classes really early tomorrow.  I'll never wake up." He quickly gives me a glare and says, "But it's Sasha, man."  Couldn't say no and to be honest I haven't looked back since.  Every single time 'The Man Like' played in LA from then on, I made sure to catch him live.  I've seen him on vinyl, I've seen him on CDJs and I've seen him on Ableton.  Been to every single one of his Foundacion nights in LA back in 2005, where he brought down a guest DJ to play with him.  The night pictured above was my second favourite, where he played with legend Lee Burridge.  The picture below and please take note of how happy I am (my friend Shah in the background, looking completely bedazzled over the tunes he was listening to)... was taken on my best Sasha night ever - his last Foundacion night where he played with Desyn Masiello.

                            

In Pic: One of my all time fav pics of Sasha taken by my friend Deniz,

Sasha on Ableton, Burridge on the decks, pure magic baby.

In Pic: Ashwin, Deniz, Sailen, Shah (wtf is he playing?)

Anyways guys, less talk from me and more about the competition.  I've got 5 exclusive invites to the Sasha gig in Bangalore courtesy of the very kind people at Fountainhead.  I just met up with the organizers and had a quick peek at the venue and holy fuck is this going to be huge.  I've been seeing Sasha tweet about his visual set up being mind blowing and by the sound of it, they're setting it up in Bangalore.  More to the point, Sasha seems to be back on fire, playing a much harder euphoric sound than before.  I'm so excited, I've got butterflies.  It's been 5 years since I've seen him play and even though this is just going to be a two hour set, I'm still really really looking forward to this.

Making the competition easy, giving away exclusive invites to the first 5 YHIHF readers to comment under this blog post with an answer to this question: Name the Sasha album that contains these three songs, Wavy Gravy, Bloodlock and Fundamental? 

This is easily one of my most favourite albums... I always ask the people who I interview to name a few of their life changing albums... for me this would be on top of my list.  You must listen to it.  

NOTE:

• All Sasha BURN! Tour invites which have been won will have to be picked up at Nightshift 4 @ B52.
• We have a few extra left over, Azhar and I will be handing them out at Nightshift 4.  So make sure to be there if you wanna blag yourself a very exclusive invite to Sasha's night in Bangalore.
• THE SASHA INVITES ARE COUPLE ONLY! STAGS CAN'T USE THESE INVITES. Please don't get in touch with us if you attempt to enter Sasha party as a Stag with the winning tickets.  I'm sorry guys, rules are rules, let me remind you, if you're a stag you're more than welcome to show up at Nightshift.

Follow Sasha on Twitter: Click here

All the details on the Sasha BURN Tour: Click here

Check out Sasha's website: Click here