Cloud Confluence

Fried Eye says- We had brought before you a flood-fest photo feature and from as a part of our Fan Speaks, we have a report from our fan on Cloud Confluence Festival- A musical bonanza from Shillong. Though it has nothing to do with rains and monsoons but the event happens every year in World Music Day, i.e., 21^st Jun and that happens to be the time of monsoons in this area of the world.

So, what was cooking in Shillong on “World Music Day”? Cloud Confluence Festival was the spectacular cuisine of the day. Man! What a fest. The first of its kind that was hosted in the city, thanks a bunch to ROCKSKI GROUP who was the sole brainchild of this magnificent joyful celebration where both musicians as well as music lovers came together under one roof to grace the fest that took place at the STATE CENTRAL LIBRARY premises. The fest kicked stated with performances of various upcoming bands, hip hop groups and even solo artistes in which they all played at the STRATUS stage then came along a recording workshop conducted by Imti of DWAR fame, Rangdap a popular figure in the Shillong music circuit and Jason of POTFM fame. The workshop though very brief, was highly informative and productive. The whole workshop session was sponsored by The Computer Store. The recording was based on the users using the two interfaces available on the latest Apple Mac book. Those are garage band and logic Pro. Both interfaces were witnessed and when being exemplified by Rangdap seemed to be very user friendly and something which could be easily operated even by newbies in the form of recordists or bands themselves. The workshop gradually came to an end and eventually the CIRRUS stage popped up and was the main highlight of the fest showcasing some of Shillong’s renowned bands, solo artistes and instrumentalists. Oh!! Yeah one of the most intriguing things about the whole part of the fest was the fact that it was an entry free affair and secondly there were amazing freebies in the likes of POTFM’s tees and Cloud Confluence Playlist CD. People were exploiting each moment of their time to get hold of those, checking out whether their passes had doubled sealed ROCKSKI logos or not because an announcement was made earlier that day by ROCKSKI group itself that those with passes that has doubled Logo sealed on them could bag a free CD home.

Anyway, less of the that and more on the music.- The bands that truly heated up the crowd were mostly the bands that played the second half of the fest on the CIRRUS STAGE.  The first band was Plague Throat and these local death grind maniacs played a ballistic set comprising of two originals. They did justice to each song by playing them real hard and tight and not only that but this band tore the moshpit apart by getting some head-bangers feeling the cricks on their necks after a round of insane moshing assault. Following P.T were Dosser’s Urge, a band relatively new to the scene but blasted the audience with their newly evolved sound of punk meets indie- where did they meet? Was it in their jam room…? Yeah, probably that should be the place right..!. Street Stories came in and started there set with their infamous ” Apple and the Clown” a sing along single. Apparently the crowds voices broke into the song during the choruses. These Indie-men wrapped up their set with their power-packed single “insanely sound”. Next up on the bill was POTFM, these lads have shaped up their audio-visual concept of delivering when playing live to newer heights, and this band enthralled the audience with their brand of menacing alternative / power- pop sound along with a vibrant stage act. Colors were very much appreciated by everyone.  Project Blend ltd kept it simple by playing a set that brought about enough satisfaction for the head-banging audience. Dwar took the stage by storm and played their popular single “Keep the promise Alive” and the crowd loved it!

As the fest was approaching to an end Rangdap belted out his refreshing, fascinating and undulated guitar solos. His sheer experience and love for the six strings was fantastic to watch on stage. With that, it all came down to an end the curtain fell on the very first but genuinely definitive festival. If you’ve missed it this time no worries but make sure that you’ll not miss it again next year.

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