Maria Goretti

Shillong, Sept. 30: The high-tech disco scene in the city is poised for a grand takeoff with MTV veejay Maria Goretti and disc jockey Sanjay of Calcutta’s Tantra disco at a first-ever show of its kind on Monday.

“This will be a new experiment, perhaps for the first time in the country, where pure sublime club music will be played -- sans techno, rave or psychedelic. Music with tribal and progressive beats, collected from all over the world, will be the keynote of the evening,” said Larson Ming of Cloud Nine, where the show is scheduled to unfold at 7.30 pm that evening.

Of late, Shillong has been witness to a sudden revival of music. And people are eager to be part of the new weekend disco culture. Monday’s show, which would be a totally “new concept”, is expected to herald a new sound wave in the city. Ming said the aim is to introduce the concept of in-house DJs as in nightclubs in other parts of world.

Ming, who has been at the centre of most of the attempts at club music resurgence, said, “I am happy that most hotels are attempting similar experiments in order to make life brighter for everyone, especially tourists.” Most of the music that will be played on Monday evening will be “floating” and collected from nightclubs abroad. “It will have a mix of Asian and African tunes as well,” Ming added. The lack of equipment and paucity of knowledge of this form of music has made it practically new in the country.

Talking about the huge investments involved in making this type of music, Ming said, “The music which Sanjay is going to play on a huge ‘turnaround equipment’ is a new segment of music which is not available commercially,” Ming said as he talked about the huge investment involved in making such music.

For those familiar with club scenes and discos it might well be another night, but for the average music lover of Shillong it will be quite a night to look forward to. Some are even looking forward to meeting “old friend” Maria Goretti. The MTV veejay had visited the city earlier and is rumoured to have a special fascination for it, especially its music-savvy crowd.

The show, incidentally, follows the regular Saturday night fever at the same venue, but on paid entry for couples and women.