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Battle of Bands

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One of the many things that make the University of Delhi happening and enchanting is the performing arts societies and their marvelous annual productions. In the past few months, we saw cut-throat competition across several Delhi University colleges. The hours and hours of practice and hard work were put to test this fest season and from amongst the pool of massive talent, some groups emerged brighter than the others. We attempt to select the best society of the lot.

Methodology
The best college society in each category was selected by creating a tally of the top 3 positions that could be won at various events. The society that secured the 1st position was awarded 3 points, the society that secured the 2nd position was awarded 2 points, and finally, the society securing the 3rd position was awarded 1 point.
Eight college fests were referred to while evaluating the top societies tally this fest season. They were: Tarang, LSR; Ullas, KNC; Tempest, Miranda House; Montage, JMC; Mecca, Hindu College; Reverie, Gargi College; Confluence; Hansraj College, and Nexus, Sri Venkateswara College.

The Top Three

Backbeat of Ramjas College and 6 In The Evening of Hansraj College are at the top position. Second position is shared by Commonthread of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Tapas of Motilal Nehru College, and Musoc of Kirori Mal College. Third position is secured by Conundrum Drive of PGDAV College.

Points Tally: Battle of Bands

The Winning Society at a glance

6 In The Evening, Hansraj College
This year they composed three original songs. A band member told us that all three songs varied in their style and approach owing to the diverse background of team members. The first song they wrote, ‘Afterlife’ was a result of the band’s first jam together. Afterlife revolved around Rohan’s infectious melodies on the sarod which sets in a mood of beauty and introspection. The second song ‘Home’, was more upbeat and groovy thanks to the skills of drummer Dimpal and Bassist Puru. The third song they wrote was named ‘Third eye’, which was high piched and aided by powerful drums and enticing Sarod.

President, Aditya Paul told DU Beat, “Since the starting of the session we just had one simple goal, which was to serve the song and let the music flow while allowing each band member to put forward his ideas. This approach definitely helped all of us to grow as musicians. I personally felt so proud of the Puru and Saksham who are in their first year, but adapted to the process so quickly and made this entire experience even better.

Performing members

Aditya Paul – Vocals and Guitar
Dimpal Kumar – Drums
Saksham Kumar – Keyboard
Puru Aggarwal – Bass Guitar
Rohan Prasanna – Sarod
Kartik Balan – Mridangam

Backbeat, Ramjas College

BackBeat, the music society of Ramjas College, had been inactive for a few years. However, this year they made an inspiring comeback.

The President of Backbeat told DU Beat, “We had to put extra efforts to establish a system again. This year’s band production was based out of individual thought procedures combined together. The primary state of mind while composing the songs was to deal with all complexities, rhythmic and harmonic in the songs tastefully. While the songs had parts inspired from Shakti, the band also made sure the songs sounded equally groovy and fun for everyone who is listening.”

Performing members
Shreshth Chawla, President (former – Drums
Akshay Bhatnagar, Parijat Kirti – Guitar
Devmitra Thakur – Percussions
Puru Agarwal- Bass
Sanchayan Joardar, Santur Kundu – Vocals

Winners Tally

Out of all colleges we considered, Backbeat won at:
1st: Mecca, Tempest

Out of all colleges we considered, 6 In The Evening won at:

1st: Nexus, Tarang

(Hover over the icons to know more about their victories)

 

Images Designed by Kartik Kakar for DU Beat  ([email protected])

Vaibhavi Sharma Pathak ([email protected])
Niharika Dabral ([email protected])

Every year, societies from colleges across the campus compete neck to neck and put up spectacular performances during the fest season. This year too, saw certain teams shine a little brighter than the rest. We bring you a series with college societies that put their heart and soul into their respective fields and took home the top prizes at various cultural fests.

The best college society in each category was selected by creating a tally of the top 3 positions at competitive events held during various cultural fests of this season. Whenever a society won the first prize they were awarded 3 points, for the second position they received 2 points and for the third position, 1 point was added to their tally.

For the Battle of Bands category, Tantrik Steve scored the maximum points in the tally. Tantrik Steve‘s 8 points were followed by 3 points each with Hindu Collective of Hindu College and Common Threads of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College.

The Winning Society at a glance

Tantrik Steve, Hans Raj College

 

Battle of Bands is the face-off between bands, usually rock or metal bands, but often musical ac. from a range of different styles, competing for the title of the Best Band. This fest season in DU saw variety in the compositions of the different bands of DU. With the magically enthralling performances of the bands captivating the soul of the fests, the bass, drums and the charismatic vocals did not, for once, fail to awe the crowd. 2017 saw the emergence of Tantrik Steve of Hans Raj College as the best band of the season with various wins in different fests throughout the season.

Frontman Abhishek Mittal told, “The DU music scene has taken up a toll and I am really happy with the way bands are experimenting towards newer sounds.” He stated that the band comprises of eight members with different musical backgrounds, having their own flavour that added to the performance of their band. They were open to introducing new parts to the sound and they helped each other sound better apart from making their individual parts fathom into music. They performed their original compositions as well, titled ‘Kaise tum mere‘ and ‘Madhurgaanam‘.

Band Members:

  • Gagan Goel for Hindustani vocals
  • Sarath S Kumar for Carnatic vocals
  • Sayan Sinha on Bass
  • Dimpal Kumar on Drums
  • Abhishek Mittal on Lead Guitar
  • Shivash Chagti on Rhythm Guitar
  • Rohan Prasanna on Sarod
  • Kartik Balan on Mridangam

Winners Tally

Four college fests were referred to while evaluating the top societies tally this fest season which were: Tarang, LSR; Ullas, KNC; Montage, JMC and Mecca, Hindu College.

The society emerged victorious at the following fests:

  • First Position in Montage, JMC
  • First Position in Mecca, Hindu College
  • Second position in Ullas, Kamla Nehru College

The band also won accolades at the fests of SBSC, St. Stephen’s College, PGDAV, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur and Ambedkar University.

(Hover on the icons below to know more about their victories.)

 

Image credits: Alex Arthur
Design by Alex Arthur

 

Radhika Boruah
[email protected]

Every year, societies from colleges across the campus compete neck to neck and put up spectacular performances during the fest season. This year too, saw certain teams shine a little brighter than the rest. We bring you a series with college societies that put their heart and soul into their respective fields and took home the top prizes at various cultural fests.

The best college society in each category was selected by creating a tally of the top 3 positions at competitive events held during various cultural fests of this season. Whenever a society won the first prize they were awarded 3 points, for the second position they received 2 points and for the third position, 1 point was added to their tally.

For the Battle of Bands category, Hans Raj Projekt scored the maximum points in the tally. Hans Raj Projekt’s 12 points were followed by High Time (Kirori Mal College) that scored 7 points. Playtime (Hans Raj College) bagged third spot scoring 5 points.

 

The Winning Society at a glance

 

Hans Raj Projekt, Hans Raj College

The Hans Raj Projekt is an offshoot of Swaranjali, the music society of Hans Raj College. The band performed four songs, all of which were original compositions of the band. Dilda Bhed about how problems of love can be understood only god or by the heart, Kya Kahu about the insignificance of the ego, When You about falling in love and getting back up and Madhukauns which is about determination.

The band president, Anirudh Varma reveals his secret of success. He says, “I think what has always worked for us is that we are very close friends outside the band as well which is reflected in our on stage chemistry. Our priority is to engage the audience not only at the level of the music but at the level of the sentiment as well and that is the feedback we get from the audience as well after our performance”

Band Members:

Vinayak Pant – Sitar
Shivash Chagti – Acoustic Guitar & Western vocals
Saptak Chatterjee – Hindustani Vocals
Anirudh Varma – Piano/Keyboards
Dimpal Kumar – Drums
Abhishek Mittal – Electric Guitar
Madhur Chaudhary – Bass

Winners Tally: Hans Raj Projekt

Eight college fests were referred to while evaluating the top societies tally this fest season which were: Tarang, LSR; Ullas, KNC; Tempest, Miranda House; Confluence, Hans Raj College; Montage, JMC; Mecca, Hindu College; Reverie, Gargi College and Nexus, Sri Venkateswara College.

The society emerged victorious at the following fests:

Ist position at: Reverie’16 (Gargi College), Montage’16 (Jesus and Mary College), Nexus’16 (Venkateshwara College) and Ullas’16 (Kamala Nehru College)
Apart from this the band has also won accolades at LSR, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, St. Stephen’s College, CVS and NIFT.

(Hover on the icons below to know more about their victories)
Akshara Srivastava
[email protected]