Bollywood “drawing inspiration” from Hollywood and other parts of the world is nothing new. It has happened in the past and will continue forever. It has happened in movies, ads, music and what not. The latest to join that list is the much publicized Kuch Nahi Ho Sakta video of Lead India. Directed by Tarun Mansukhani (whose debutant directorial venture Dostana drew copious amounts of inspiration from I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry), this video is undoubtedly inspired from the Don’t Vote, a series of videos produced last year by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way to encourage the youth of America into voting. Except for the fact that the English version has a much largest starcast and speaks of sending the website url to five more friends, the videos follow pretty much the same pattern, with the stars initially vehemently asking the viewers not to vote in a sarcastic manner and then asking people to vote.
Since the inspiration has happened for a noble cause it can be overlooked in the normal case, but what is annoying is the mere cheek of Tarun Mansukhani to refute the claims of inspiration in spite of such striking resemblances!! If you cannot be original and have indeed drawn inspiration, why don’t you just put your hands up and admit it, at least when you are cornered?

Kuch Nahi Ho Sakta

Don’t Vote

Don’t Vote – Sequel

It was one fine day in 1968 when a 15 year old Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, who was then learning the Sitar, stumbled across a Spanish guitar brought by a German student at his father Manmohan Bhatt’s music school. He set about experimenting with it, trying to modify its structure to suit Indian music. What resulted was an Indian version of the Hawaiian slide guitar designed to play Indian classical music, the Mohan Veena.

Most basically an archtop guitar, the Mohan Veena consists of 20 strings, three melody strings and five drone strings coming out of the peg heads and 12 sympathetic strings wound around respective tuning pegs set on a piece of wood by the side of the neck. It is played like a Hawaiian slide guitar, with the first two fingers of the right hand used to strike the string (a technique developed by Bhatt himself) with a metal or plastic wrap for the thumb, and the left hand for sliding with the help of a steel rod or slide.

Bhatt drew a lot of flak from the purists for what they termed as a dilution of traditional music, when he forayed into fusion music with the Mohan Veena. Nevertheless, he has managed to silence the critics with his immense success in the field, even winning a Grammy in 1994 for the album A Meeting by the River done with American slide guitarist Ry Cooder. Unknown to a lot of people, he has played in movies for A R Rahman in movies like Iruvar. The distinct sound of the Mohan Veena can be discerned especially in the interludes of the song Narumugaiye. There is a Mohan Veena solo version of Jana Gana Mana in Rahman’s album of the same name. He also scored music for a Hindi movie named Bawandar. Other famous players of the Mohan Veena include folk musician Harry Manx who studied as a student of Bhatt for five years, and Matt Malley, founder and bass guitarist of rock band Counting Crows.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt’s elder son Salil Bhatt is an accomplished player of the Mohan Veena. Not to be outdone by his father, he went on to create his own version of the instrument, which he calls the Satvik Veena. While the shape and design are almost similar, Satvik Veena is an all-wooden instrument, tail-piece, tuning pegs and all, as opposed to the metal counterparts on a Mohan Veena. The tuning pegs are also concealed in a Satvik Veena, thereby keeping the tuning intact. And Salil with his Satvik Veena has already won a lot of acclaims all over the world. Talk about chip off the old block!!

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Vishwa Mohan Bhatt’s solo version of Jana Gana Mana in Rahman’s album.

Harry Manx talking about the Mohan Veena and performing Reuben’s Train on the same.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Mohan Veena), Salil Bhatt (Satvik Veena) and Doug Cox (Dobro) performing a piece from their album Band of Gypsies

Jarvis Cocker the front man of the Britpop group Pulp, is back with a new album, Further Complications. A single from this album called Angela was released last week. The song has got a  sexy riff and I loved it. It is available for free download here on Jarvis’ official site. Go claim it. And if you are not happy with the audio alone, here you go with the video of the song.

Moby’s new album Wait For Me will be out soon (June 30 as per latest reports), but before that he has released a single from the album complete with a video. The song is called Shot in the back of the head, its got a psychedelic feel to it and is a far cry from the retro disco sound of his last album, Last Night.
The video is directed by David Lynch

The song is available for free download here

..is the new video produced by Karan Johar featuring some of the leading young Bollywood stars for Times of India’s Lead India campaign. The video lasting just over 2 minutes features Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor, Ritesh Deshmukh, Imran Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Sonam Kapoor, Asin and Farhan Akhtar apart from Karan Johar himself. Good to see actors other than Aamir Khan also get into the act of inspiring the people of the country to vote. And I say, finally something of use from Dharma Productions!! Below are the video and snippets from backstage.

Ek Se Bure Do is the latest no-brainer comedy flick on the block having Arshad Warsi and Rajpal Yadav donning the lead roles. The music has been done by Ravi Pawar to the lyrics of Panchhi Jalonvi.

Ishq Ki Zaat

Delivered in the high energy vocals of Daler Mehndi and Bhojpuri singer Kalpana (who previously sang
Uncha Lamba Kad in Welcome) this Punjabi song is a decent listen. The interludes have a heavy Arabic lilt.

Aisa Pehli Baar

Ravi Pawar’s attempt at a fast-paced dance number fails miserably as this song is nothing but a whole lot of noise. The voices of Sunidhi Chauhan and Suzanne do little to mitigate the effect. Its time Sunidhi
stopped wasting her time and energy on such item numbers and concentrated on songs that utilize her talent better.

Jaana Jaana

The sax refrain strongly resembles the one in Anu Malik’s Rock Star from Humko Deewana Kar Gaye. But
that refrain is one of the more attractive things about the song which reeks of a stale tune. A waste of three singers, one of them being Hema Sardesai, a singer who once showed a lot of promise debuting with A R Rahman but has of late strangely stopped getting chances though her talent is still very much intact. The other two singers by the way are Shaan and Harshdeep (Ik Onkar
from RDB)

Ek Se Bure Do

A song made along the lines of songs like Munnabhai, with references to Dadagiri and so on. And the
composer has gone quite ideally for Vinod Rathod to join Sonu Nigam. But he got only the choice right.
On the music front he once again falls flat on his face after showing promises of a good tune for a fleeting moment at the start.

Meri Har Ada Ke Charche

Not a very great song, but after all that you have gone through this would indeed come through as a bit of relief, primarily thanks to Sonu Kakkar’s superior vocals.

And thus ends a rather pedestrian soundtrack from Ravi Pawar. Not quite surprising considering that even his previous album, Wafaa was an equally forgettable one. But if one were to look at his past where he had delivered some decent songs, like Zoom Bumbura from Tum Bin, Shweta Shetty’s Deewane To Deewane Hai etc, this is indeed a big let-down. And the movie perfectly matches up on the letdown factor I hear.

Who would have thought that posting videos on Youtube could land you up at Carnegie Hall!! In what is going to be the culmination of a pathbreaking initiative in the world of music, 90 odd musicians hailing from over 30 different countries will debut in New York’s Carnegie Hall at 7.30 on April 15, playing for the Youtube Symphony Orchestra. The concert will be conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas of the San Francisco Symphony.
It all began on December 1, 2008 when Youtube called for musicians from all across the world to submit a video of themselves playing the Internet Symphony No. 1 “Eroica”, composed specially for the event by Tan Dun, the Oscar-winning composer of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. More than 3000 entries were received until the deadline of January 28, which were then evaluated by members of London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic Orchestra till February 13. 200 finalists were chosen by the judges, whose videos were then posted on Youtube for viewers to vote their choice. The final list was announced on March 2. And these are the people who would be having their dream debut at the Carnegie Hall later today. The concert would include works by Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Villa Lobos and John Cage as well as Tan Dun’s composition. Below is the global mashup video from Youtube, which is a compilation of the 3000+ submissions. For individual submission videos, visit http://www.youtube.com/symphony

Last month hasn’t been the best of months musically for Bollywood, with most albums turning out to be substandard or just about average. So Music Aloud has gone for a mix of songs from early 2008 and elsewhere. We have tried to provide links to listen to the songs online wherever possible.

1. Saanson Ka Rukna – Straight

The pick of the month is this Beatle-esque composition from the young music director Sagar Desai. The energetic Suraj Jagan and the retro-sounding chorus have been bang on in their singing.

2. Kya Hua Hoo Hoo – Straight

This one is a more folkish song coming from the same album, again brought to you by Sagar & Suraj.

3. Nazaara Hai – 8×10 Tasveer

Nagesh Kukunoor’s latest movie has bombed big time at the box office, but the music side hasn’t been that disappointing, with some splendid compositions from Salim-Sulaiman and Neeraj Sridhar. Nazaara Hai is a rock song from Salim-Sulaiman sung by the vibrant Vishal Dadlani.

4. Haafiz Khuda – 8×10 Tasveer

A second song from the same movie, a romantic melody from the composer duo which will surely remind you of Pritam. The biggest highlight of this song is the singing by Tulsi Kumar which has shown a marked improvement over her past offerings, though her voice is a slight letdown. The male singer is Mohit Chauhan.

5. Sona Lagda – Ek The Power Of One

While the movie has been unanimously voted as a horrendous experience, the music was also rather disappointing with some lacklustre scoring by Pritam. This song is the only decent composition in the soundtrack (I have chosen to ignore Tum Saath Ho as it sounds too stereotyped), sung well by debutante Shashwati.

6. Gujarat Ke Firaaq – Firaaq

This semiclassical song from Rajat Dholakia and Piyush Kanojia re-establishes the authority of Jagjit Singh in classical singing.

7. Aathma – Elephant Walk

Elephant Walk has been a wonderful album from the Bangalore-based composer Amit Heri, and this song is the pick of the album, seeing a sizable contribution from every artiste involved in the album.
(You can listen to this song on http://www.amitheri.com under the Music section)

8. Jaane Kyon – Jazbah

Rather unfortunately this album did not pick up well in the market in spite of having some excellent compositions from Suhel Khan. This song especially is worth mention for its Sitar sequences and the superior singing by Bhupinder, Mitali and Suhel himself.

9. Saiyaan Tori Boli – Jazbah

Another song from Jazbah which is more along fusion lines, delivered well by Suhel and Preeti Uttam, daughter of the once-famous music director Uttam Singh.

10. Five Peace Band – Floating Point

A re-visit of an old piece that John McLaughlin composed for the fusion band Remember Shakti, this indo jazz fusion song features some brilliant stuff from bassist Hadrien Feraud, sitarist Niladri Kumar and John, assisted by Sivamani on drums, Ranjit Barot on percussions and Louis Banks on keys. (Floating Point was a jazz fusion album of John Mclaughlin that was released last year, and something which I got hold of fairly recently.)

11. Maula – Delhi 6

Listening to Sufi songs from Rahman is always an out-of-the-world experience, probably due to the prominence that Rahman gives to God in all walks of his life. This song follows suit, and the flawless rendition by Javed Ali and Kailash Kher add to the beauty of the song.

12. Sapnon Se Bhare Naina – Luck By Chance

Luck By Chance has been the best album from SEL this year and this song has been absolutely stunning. I generally have an inclination towards fusion numbers, and this song is classic fusion. Be it the alternation between light and heavy instrumentation or Shankar Mahadevan’s sargam in the second interlude, everything is brilliant about this song and would surely rate among the top songs by SEL to date.

13. Mann Chandre – Connections

Rahman showed us the unconventional way of looking at Punjabi songs with this number, whose unconventionality happens to be in its subtle and mellow orchestration involving instruments like Ghatam as opposed to the usually loud Punjabi songs. I am still looking for name of the female who sung this song with Sukhwinder Singh.

14. Basin Bridge – Mahaleela

Sivamani’s debut solo composition has many gems in it, and I find this one the best of the lot, having some superb mandolin playing from U Shrinivas.

15. Inninte Eenam – Thaalam

Though this is a Malayalam song, we decided to include this for the brilliant fusing of folk and rock elements done by the debutant artistes Job, Charan and Yakzan. Also featuring in the song is Rex Vijayan, guitarist of the Mallu folk-rock band Avial. It is quite enjoyable even if you were not to understand the lyrics, and hence becomes our 15th song for this month’s playlist.

Nandita Das’ debut directorial venture features the musical combination of Rajat Dholakia – who in the past has been known for completing R D Burman’s work in 1942 A Love Story following his demise, national award-winning performance in Dharavi and most recently as the person who composed Genda Phool alongside A R Rahman for Delhi 6 – and Piyush Kanojia, who won critical acclaim last year for his scoring of the movie Gandhi, My Father. Though the album is about two weeks old now, Music Aloud decided to publish an albeit delayed review given the quality of the album.

Meri Gali Mein Andhera

Given the premise of the movie, Rajat Dholakia and Piyush Kanojia start off bang on with Meri Gali.. A song with very sinister-sounding instrumentation, rendered effectively by Sukhwinder Singh. Though not a very hummable song, it is bound to go well with the movie.

Gujarat Ke Firaaq

Jagjit Singh delivers this semiclassical song, again with dark overtones. The Urdu lyrics by Gulzar are splendid and quite aptly the composers have provided minimal instrumentation for the song. Again not a song that would appeal to the masses, but a classical music fan would find the song to his taste.

Ummeed

A relatively less sombre song, as its title suggests. The major highlight is of course Rekha Bharadwaj’s flawless singing. There is a slightest Middle-East tinge to the background, with the use of some stringed instrument which sounded like the Oud.

Daag Daag Ujala

This is an old Urdu poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, read out as is. Though the credits are given to Faiz Ahmed Faiz, I am not sure if the voice doing the recital indeed belongs to Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Theme

Starting on an Arabic note, the instrumental soon moves into classical mode Sarod and Sarangi being the lead equipments. The raga I believe is Todi (Subha Panthuvarali in Carnatic), quite an ideal one to portray the gloom.

Rajat and Piyush have proven their quality and done total justice to the film with a classy album. While this soundtrack will surely find its takers among the discerning listeners, it is probably not going to create any movement in the hit charts due to its esotericity. Nevertheless Nandita Das can be content that she left the music department in efficient hands. And going by the reviews of the movie so far, she seems to have done the same with the entire movie.

Indian Ocean Radio

 

Back in 1984, before most Indian Ocean fans in college concerts were even born, Susmit met Asheem…during a concert. He was a fan of Niharika – a Bengali band Asheem played tabla for. They hit it off right away. Asheem was taken up by Susmit’s guitar-playing and his vision to evolve a new sound. Susmit, in turn, learnt the nuances of rhythm from Asheem – not the basic 4/4 beat, but the mysteries of chhand and jhonk and taal.

For the next 3 years, every now and then, they jammed as a duo, Susmit on guitar and Asheem on tabla and drums – no vocals anywhere in sight. After a memorable debut concert at Roorkee, there was only the occasional stray performance.

In 1990, Susmit sold his electric guitar to raise money for a demo recording of their band, by now called Indian Ocean (Susmit’s dad suggested the name). With Shaleen Sharma on drums, and Indrajit Dutta and Anirban Roy on bass, they recorded the demo, taping an incredible 45 minutes and 7 songs in 1 day. Despite the rushed recording, the quality of the demo tape impressed HMV enough to offer them an album deal.

In 1991, Rahul Ram, a schoolmate of Susmit’s, joined the band, replacing Anirban on bass.
Indian Ocean, the album, was recorded in Calcutta and, despite the crummy mikes and sozzled sound recordist, the band was on a high. They had recorded an original album, almost entirely instrumental, rare outside the world of Indian classical music. The future looked boundless; anything was possible.

But, much to the band’s frustration, the album took a year to get released. But when it did come out, it sold over 40,000 copies within a year of its release – at that time, the highest selling record by any Indian band ever. However, this had no immediate results – in concerts, contracts or money or anything.

In 1994, drummer Shaleen left the band. Amit Kilam, barely out of his teens and, in fact, still taking his college exams, took his place. This has been the line-up since then: Susmit, Asheem, Rahul and Amit.

Money was tight and there weren’t many opportunities to play. But somehow the band believed in themselves and in their music. They kept at it – composing, practicing, playing for themselves, getting better, tighter, more together. Vocals began to be used more and more, and they brought a new dimension to the sound.

Susmit and Asheem left their jobs to be in the band full-time, and kept at it even after they had kids to support. Rahul and Amit did not have salaried jobs either. All four kept afloat by taking on various musical assignments – odd jobs composing music for serials, ads and documentaries. 

New Year’s Day 1997. The SAHMAT concert at Mandi House, Delhi. After waiting 7 hours to get on stage, Indian Ocean played an inspired concert that had the crowd rising to its feet, roaring for more. Quite fortuitously, the band noticed a DAT recorder, bought a tape and recorded the concert. True to their unfailing lack of vision, no music company wanted to release a live album of an Indian band, so a label called Independent Music was formed to release this. Desert Rainwas a landmark album for its time and today, almost a decade later, still continues to sell (Much to the band’s surprise and pleasure, in 2006, it was no. 2 on the iTunes UK world music charts!). 

Meanwhile, the media started getting interested in the album and this ‘new’ band. Radio, TV and press coverage increased. From relative obscurity and a modest group of enthusiastic fans, the band began to be known around the country. First, the gigs began to fall into place – Delhi, of course, but also Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Mumbai. Money began to trickle in. More importantly, new material became more honed, and the playing tightened with every show. 

Times Music signed on Indian Ocean in 1998 and, the next year, the band went to Mumbai to record a new album. Recorded in the hi-tech studio Western Outdoor, and released in March 2000, Kandisa went on to acquire cult status, becoming one of the most important, best-loved albums of contemporary Indian music. 

Kandisa changed everything. The band became a keenly awaited presence on the college circuit, with repeat invites from big cities and smaller towns all around the country. The international scene opened up dramatically. From their first concert abroad in London in August 2001, they went on to play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where they played 18 concerts in 14 days, and were nominated the Pick of the Fringe. They returned to the Fringe in 2002 and 2003. In 2002, the band played 37 concerts abroad across four continents: New Zealand, USA, UK, Japan, Australia and Indonesia, and the next year they toured the UK twice, returned to the Australia, went to Germany and then on to Singapore. In 2004 they flew across the ‘actual’ Indian Ocean, to play on the gorgeous island of Reunion. The next year, they toured the UK three times. Their high point was performing at Trafalgar Square in the heart of London, playing two concerts heard by an audience of thousands. And in 2005-06, they toured the US thrice, playing 26 concerts across thirteen states, and one in Toronto, Canada. Today, as their much-stamped passports attest, they are India’s leading global band. 

Growing recognition has brought Indian Ocean in touch with some of the greatest musicians in the world. Susmit, Amit and Rahul played with the celebrated violinist Pandit L. Subramaniam. Then, Asheem accompanied the legendary American folk singer Pete Seeger in a packed performance. The whole band jammed with the virtuoso Japanese trumpeter Terumasa Hino in Delhi, and played with top jazz musicians during their Japanese tour in 2002. A year later, Rahul and Amit felt privileged to play with Vikoo Vinayakram and his son Selva Ganesh at a percussion concert in Almora. In 2002, on hearing Indian Ocean play in Washington DC, the great cellist Yo-Yo Ma complimented them for doing to Indian music what he had always wanted to do with Chinese music. 

Indian Ocean’s fourth album Jhini was released in 2003, along with the band’s first music video for the title track. The band was nominated as MTV’s Artists of the Month. The album also won the AVMax Award for the best produced album of 2003. 

Indian Ocean’s first major foray into Bollywood was the feature film Black Friday. The soundtrack for the movie was released in 2005 to immediate acclaim. The song ‘Bandeh’, with powerful lyrics by Piyush Mishra, reached no. 2 in the charts and has become a huge popular hit. The music for Black Friday has continued to surge even though the film’s release was stalled by litigation until late 2006. More film offers have now come their way and the band is currently working on a film called Shoonya. 

In November 2006, the band recorded a 3-hour concert for a Live-in-Concert DVD. A full-length documentary feature on the band is also being made and a big-screen release is planned. Both are firsts for an Indian band. So the story continues, towards new horizons, new creative frontiers. 

 

Albums

The first live album released by any Indian band, ever. A concert played at the annual SAHMAT show at Mandi House on Jan 1, 1997, and recorded completely by accident!! No major record label was willing to take the risk of releasing a live album, and so a record company was created to release Desert Rain, thanks to Naresh Bhatia. Released on cassettes and CDs. Recording Engineer: Vikram Mishra; Remastered by K.J.Singh at Fast Forward Studios, Delhi; Photography: Amit Pasricha; Cover Design: A.V. Graphics Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. B/W Cover Photograph: Dilip Prakash. The Ghosh family and Silvy allowed us to run amok at M-6 GKII, and kept us plentifully supplied with tea, eats and love for all of three years.

1. Desert Rain
2. Village Damsel
3. Boll Weevil
4. Going To ITO
5. Euphoria
6. From The Ruins
7. Melancholic Ecstasy

.

Recorded at Western Outdoors, one of India’s premier studios, in Mumbai, this is our first “proper” studio recording. We were given two weeks for recording and 5 days for the mix, and actually had a producer!! Recording Engineers: K J Singh, Avinash Oak and Daman Sood; Assistant Engineers: Mr Chitre , Tito Dasgupta and Mr Subhash; Producer: K J Singh; Executive Producer: Pramod Shanker (Times Music). Mastered by K J Singh at Satya Studio, Mumbai. Lyrics: Sanjeev Sharma for Khajuraho, Kaun and Kya Maloom. Kandisa and Ma Rewa are traditional. Hille le is based on Gorakh Pande’s words. Kashmiri lyrics in Kaun by Indira Kilam.Kandisa was made possible thanks to Gurpreet, Orijit and the Sidhus and the wonderful ambience of 16/330 Khajoor Road.

1. Kya Maloom
2. Ma Rewa
3. Leaving Home
4. Hille Le
5. Khajuraho
6. Kaun
7. Kandisa

 

We took fairly long to record Jhini. The Sylvan surroundings of the Kosmic Music Studios in Varadepalyam probably contributed to this, where we would laze in swings hung from mango trees, listen to the jackals at night and gaze at the Milky Way. Manoj was our sound engineer, extremely low-key and hard working. The album won the AVMax award for the best produced album in 2003.

1. Bhor
2. Torrent
3. Jhini
4. Nam Myo Ho
5. Let Me Speak
6. Des Mera
7. After the War

 

Black Friday is our first full-length Bollywood film. Recorded over three months in Delhi and Mumbai, with KJ of Kandisa returning as co-producer and sound engineer. This album is quite different from our other albums as it features, in addition to three songs, six instrumentals with extensive use of brass, woodwinds and digital sounds. The song “Bandeh” reached a peak position of #2 on the film charts.

1. Bandeh
2. Badshah in Jail
3. Bharam Bhap Ke
4. Opening / Pre Blast
5. Bomb Planting
6. Memon House
7. RDX
8. Training
9. Chase

 

 

The band’s first album, recorded in just 10 days at HMV’s Dumdum studio, Calcutta, in December 92. Shaleen Sharma played the drums on this album. Released only on cassette. Recording Engineer: Raja Mukherjee; Cover concept: Manas Chakrabarti; Graphic Design: Navin Shiromani. The Durgapal family gave us all their time, patience and space while we prepared for this recording.

1. Village Damsel
2. No Comebacks
3. Going To ITO
4. Brisk Lonely Walk	-
5. Torrent
6. Out of the Blues	-
7. Melancholic Ecstasy

 

Concert History 

Performing all over india for the past 15 years, the band has played at several of the country’s most prestigious venues including the Red Fort, the Gateway of India, Vasanthabba (Bangalore) and the Temples of Khajuraho. Indian Ocean is a hot favorite at college venues, having performed at almost all the IITs and IIMs. Their concerts typically last over two hours , with audiences refusing to allow them to leave the stage. 

The band first played outside india in 2001 in London and then at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a city returned to thrice in 2002 and 2003. They played at the New Zealand Arts Festival in 2002, at the Melbourne Arts Festival in 2002, the Smithsonian FolkLife Festival ( Washington DC) in 2002, Tokyo in 2002, Indonesia again in 2002, the Golden Jubilee Year of the Perth Arts Festival in 2003, Germany in 2003, Singapore in 2001 and 2003 and the Festival ArtKenciel in Reunion in 2004. 

In 2005 , Indian Ocean is slated to play in Glasgow, London, Birmingham, Italy, Dubai and return to Reunion.

 

Upcoming Concert 

Date: Friday, March 13th 2009 
City: New Delhi
Venue: British Council, Kasturba Gandhi Marg
Tickets: Contact British Council

The Band 

Susmit has virtually invented a new style of playing the guitar – an uncannily Indian sound where purity of scale reigns, strong melodic lines woven around the drone of open strings. This guitar sound forms the basis of Indian Ocean’s unique sound. Not very fond of verse-chorus formats, Susmit’s personal vision is towards finding a new vocabulary for his music. His virtuoso talent never overshadows the big picture, but serves the song immaculately, strengthening it, embellishing it, giving it a distinct character. His demeanour on stage – lips pursed in fierce concentration, enigmatic smile half-forming, a look of utter contentment flashing in and out – gives him a stage presence focused entirely on the music coming from his direction.

Pretty much a militant atheist, Susmit is convinced that destiny is created on earth, not written in heaven or hell. Self-motivation and direction make lives, according to him, and he has certainly lived as per this dictum so far. Entirely a self-taught musician, he believes music springs directly from experience, so all experiences are pretty much grist for the mill as far as he’s concerned. So he’s a foodie, chef, wilderness junkie, ornithology and dog breeds enthusiast, football fan…and lots else. He is an accomplished athlete and was into swimming, football and cricket. Classical music interests him more than jazz or rock.

Indian Ocean fans call him “the man with the golden voice”. Amazingly, Asheem sings and plays the tabla simultaneously with remarkable clarity and ease, a difficult feat almost never achieved by Indian percussionists. Asheem’s rhythm structures are uniquely his own, contributing in large part to Indian Ocean’s signature sound, while the melodies he creates are wonderfully different. He loves improvising vocal lines on stage. He plays traditional Indian percussion instruments in completely innovative ways. Brought up in an atmosphere of Indian classical, folk and other Indian forms, Asheem showed his rhythmic spark at an extremely early age.

Asheem is Mr Tangent, king of the non-sequitur. Nobody (including Asheem) understands how his brain works, and he’s won many an argument hands-down with his unique brand of logic, and statements such as: ‘Has Pele ever sold chole bhature? No!’ Asheem is the founder and resident guru of the “Soch mat” (Don’t think) school of thought. Permanently in search of a permanent residence, we’re still trying to decide if he’s incredibly determined or incredibly flaky. He’s into Osho, numerology, astrology, naturopathy, yoga, meditation – you name it; Asheem’s spiritual quest for the truth is as perennial as his quest for a house. His cheerful philosophy is ‘Sab badmash hain’ (They are all scoundrels). He reads books that nobody else reads – sometimes not even the author.

Rahul’s bass playing moves smoothly – from melodic enmeshing with vocal and guitar lines to the more standard laying of foundations over which the band soars. His riveting stage presence is an essential part of Indian Ocean’s electrifying live concerts. His vocals have a raw power, an uncompromising edge that emphasizes the folk roots of the band. Rahul also ends up doing most of the talking at live shows. His experiences as an activist/supporter with the Narmada Bachao Andolan and during his four years studying in the US have exposed him to a variety of musical styles from all over India and the world, and have strongly influenced his musical expression.

Unlike Asheem, Rahul is the total non-romantic. He is Logic Baba, the guru of rationality, and doesn’t suffer fools gladly – this despite his head-banging extrovert party-animal attitude to life and hair-styles. He has the shortest temper in the band, and is also called gyandev (lord of knowledge) based purely on his own feeling that he knows a lot (Yeah, right!). By far the sloppiest dresser in the band, he wastes inordinate amounts of time reading bad literature and doing sudokus. By training an environmentalist, he’s also into ornithology. He’s an irreverent atheist and a stand-up comic whose addiction to puns has driven others to untimely suicide. Rahul is into jazz, rock and reggae – and sometimes Hindustani classical music, if the melody takes him, as it does… frequently.

Amit’s drumming is a happy balance between the conventional and non-conventional. He believes in layering rhythm rather than heavy drums, and prefers simplicity over technical wizardry. He incorporates Indian rhythms into his drumming in a unique fashion, moving in cycles of 8, 10, 12 14, 16, rather than simple 4/4 or ¾ styles. He goes easy on the skins, yet his playing is very dynamic. Amit was introduced to music at the age of 4 by his parents, learning the guitar (hawaiian – Indian classical). He is an instinctive musician, picking up all kinds of instruments with ease, and he sings well too!

Amit is into metal machinery. We suspect that his first love affair was actually with his drum kit. He’s into technology in a big way, but also loves traveling, driving, doing jungle-stuff, taking pictures and going to the movies. He’s an actor and a keen observer of personality quirks and accents. He also knows the price of every make and brand of white goods on the market, as well as the price of every single camera in every single country in the world. He’s probably the only business-oriented person in the band. Unlike the others, he attends every single religious festival invented, or to be invented. He’s by far (though there’s really no competition here) the best dressed and best-looking guy in the band. For a non-smoking, teetotal, patriotic family man, he’s always surrounded by women (not that we’re jealous or anything). According to Amit himself, he’s “a guitarist by nature and drummer by profession”, but we feel he can pretty much get a tune out of anything that doesn’t move fast enough. Amit loves listening to various kinds of music – Hindi filmi, rock, pop – his favorites are A R Rahman, Trilok Gurtu and Deep Purple.

Indian Ocean,
1224, Sector 37, Faridabad,
Haryana – 121003, INDIA

Phone: 0-9810138921, 0-9811466634

Business Enquiry:
mail@indianoceanmusic.com,indianoceanmusic@gmail.com

Feedback: contactus@indianoceanmusic.com

For Bookings in Canada:
Nomans|Land Promotions
info@indianoceantoronto.com