Despite the déjà vu feel Mujhe Chhod Ke makes for a nice listen in both its versions, thanks to the allure of the ghazal-esque arrangement from lead composer Ouseppachan and fabulous vocals by Hariharan and Shreya Ghoshal respectively. The plucky Every Day charms in parts, especially the Ouseppachan-trademark violin sequence that opens the track. The composer lends his vocals as well alongside Shaktishree. Dakkanaga seems like the composer’s attempt to do a Bombay Dreams-like piece, except this one pretty much falls flat. Shaktishree and Suchith Sureshan do a decent job on the singing though. The theme starts off well, but the composer attempts to pack too much into the 4.5 minute-piece and ends up making it a mish-mash. Of the three guest composers, Nirmalya is the only saving grace, more owing to the cuteness factor of two kids singing the song. If Nirmalya is as young as she sounds, not a bad job composing. K Niran’s Baat Yeh Kya loses out to the datedness of the tune and template, but the man is a good singer, having a very Karthik-like feel to his voice and style. And I don’t know if it was just me, but the percussion sounded wrong in multiple places! And the less said about Rudolfsan’s O My Queen the better. While I have never been a fan of Franko as a singer, here he is totally annoying.

For a movie described as a “musical” on its website, Dam999’s music disappoints big time.

Music Aloud Rating: 5/10

Top Recos: Mujhe Chhod Ke

Being a music arranger/producer can be a pretty thankless job, at least from the spotlight perspective. People tend to laud the composer for a piece while in many cases it might have been the arranger responsible for making the music praise-worthy. And one of the pioneers in this business is Ranjit Barot, a man who has been in the Hindi film industry from the time of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. But thanks to his exceptional percussion skills (“one of the leading edges in drumming”, John McLaughlin called him) Barot hasn’t quite had the misfortune of remaining in the sidelines, at least to people who follow fusion and world music. From McL to Wayne Krantz to Billy Cobham on the international scene and Zakir Hussain to L Subramaniam to Vishwa Mohan Bhatt on the Indian scene, Barot has collaborated with pretty much everyone on the who’s who list of fusion music. And now with the advent of MTV Unplugged with Barot at the helm, the man is slowly gaining the attention of Bollywood followers as well. So enough intro I guess.  Presenting our interview with Mr. Barot. Big thank you to the man for being generous with his replies.

We know that your tryst with percussion began at a very early age. But your site does not speak of who your teachers were. Could you tell us that?

I have never had a formal teacher, actually, being self-taught. Well, I started playing in school bands and such, basically ‘teaching’ myself as I went along. In those days ( we’re talking 1970′s ), you listened to tapes, vinyl, whatever you could get your hands on, and you went to see as many gigs as you could. You created a DIY academy where you are part student and part teacher to yourself. Some of the drummers I liked then were Steve Sequiera. He played with Louis Banks for a bit and I heard him in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar that Alyque Padamsee had put up. That was fantastic production,  and had a live band on stage with the actors playing all the songs and score. Brilliant. Also, Jerry D’ Moss. A killing drummer who’s now in Hamburg, driving cabs I heard. What a waste. He was the finest drummer around.,So you exposed yourself in as many ways as you could, and I suppose all the drummers you heard on tape and saw live, were all your teachers in some way. I got into Indian percussion much later on. I think I needed my drumming foundation to be solid before I got into anything else, although Indian music was in my house all along, my mother being the legendary dancer, Sitara Devi. I did become a student of the greatest of masters, Ustad Allarakha, when I was about 14, although I didn’t pursue my tabla studies too far. I was consumed by drums and he gave me his blessings to follow my heart, while instilling in me a deep sense for complex Indian poly rhythms. I currently draw inspiration from Sridhar Parthsarathy, a great mridangam player who plays with me often. He’s impacted quite a few western drum set players, all for the better. For me the teaching has come more in the way of an approach on the drums, rather than a literal translation of Indian rhythms on to the drum set.

You got into Bollywood quite early on, in the 80s. How did that come about?

I got into films initially to stay out of college. It’s a long story, but let’s say my teachers during my first year science term weren’t convinced that I could split the atom. After much TV style drama, my mother and I came to an agreement that if I could show that my ‘infatuation’ with the drums wasn’t a passing phase and I could actually make a living doing it, then I didn’t need to get my a** back into college. The late Kalyan ji, of Kalyan ji / Anand ji fame, used to come over and have chai with my mother after his evening walk. On one such evening, when I was about 16, he heard me practicing and asked to meet me. On entering my room and seeing me on my own, he remarked, ” I thought there was more than one person playing in here”. He then invited me to my first recording session for a film called Professor Pyarelal. Funny, as I ended up playing a lot with Pyarelal of Laxmikant / Pyarelal fame. And so it began.

You have had a long fruitful relationship with ARR. How did you meet? How has it been working with the man?

I met ARR when he was still Dilip. He used to come to Bombay to do adverts and we shared the same studio. He also used my equipment while he was in town as it was pretty much the same setup he had in Chennai. We then met at an award ceremony and he called me down to work on the song Humma. Since then, I’ve worked on quite a few films with him, the last one being Rockstar. Playing that music at the live promotional gig was a blast.We’ve had a great working relationship, and more importantly, we remain very close friends with a deep love and mutual respect for one another. Even when it comes to our gear and sonic space, we share the same expectations. I have a my own great set-up in Mumbai, Nirvana Studio, which is my base, and the only other composer who regularly uses it is ARR. Its a great arrangement – I work days, he works nights:) Sometimes I’m part of the night shift along with him too.

John McLaughlin is another man you have of late been quite associated with, being part of his 4th Dimension tour et al. Tell us about the experience of working with one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time.

I first met John ji at Ustad Zakir Hussain’s commemorative concert to his father on February 3rd, 2007. We had an impromptu jam and he cast me as the drummer on his album, ‘Floating Point’. There’s always been a desire to take that relationship forward. We then met in Raleigh, North Carolina in November last year as part of the New Universe Music Festival where both of us were performing. I remember walking back to the hotel with John ji, and he turned to me and said, ‘Sir, we have to play together, you know’. To which I replied, ‘Sir, you have my number, and acceptance, anytime you want’. He then called me early this year and I was part of The 4th Dimension Summer tour 2011. I’m off at the end of the month to record a new 4th Dimension album which will be followed by a 2012 Fall tour.I feel extremely blessed to be associated with both the masters, John McLaughlin and Ustad Zakir Hussain. I consider them both mentors, not only as far as music is concerned, but also role model human beings.

Bada Boom. Your debut full-fledged album. Your long-cherished dream, if I may call it that. And fittingly featuring a fabulous lineup of artists. So how long did you prepare for this one? And how did you go about it?

I think the desire to put something out was kindled while recording ‘Floating Point’ with John ji. It then turned into, and I quote a title of the first Mahavishnu Orchestra album, an Inner Mounting Flame which could only feed on the highest creative output I was capable of. I got through the next couple of years putting to bed all the commercial commitments I had undertaken. By late 2009, I started seriously composing and recording various artists all over the world. Once I’d receive their parts via the Internet, I would further tweak the arrangements to incorporate some shadow of an idea I was able to glean from their performances. Bada Boom was completed towards Sept-Oct of 2010, (when I was neck deep in the Commonwealth Games music score production!) and released late 2010. I’m very fortunate to have all those incredible musicians on it, and I’m very proud of it as well.

Coming to current matters, tell us about MTV Unplugged. How has the experience been? How much of a challenge was it, given the legacy that the brand Unplugged carries with it?

Let me state right at the onset that I have never been swayed by current trends, nor challenged by ‘legacies’. We as a nation react very differently to music and music plays a large part of our social consciousness. Unplugged is an international format belonging to MTV where popular artists perform their hits in an acoustic format. No electronics, amps or speakers. acoustic instruments only.This allows, in my opinion, a more intimate setting for the artist, aided largely by the fact that there is a live audience present. Now when I say acoustic, I don’t necessarily mean soft. If you’ve seen some Unplugged artists perform on the international version, it can get loud. We are a groove committed nation. Every aspect of our social life has rhythm embedded in it. Weddings, religious festivals, etc. You put a dhol in the mix, on stage, and you’ve got some serious celebration going on. So, I went into the series with an open mind, knowing that, as with everything else, India thinks differently. This is not to say that there were no quiet moments. There were plenty of those too. I think it was a great mix of artists, a killer house band that made my life very easy, a great channel that allowed me complete creative freedom and a production house that brought high standards of visual entertainment to the table. I have to say, at the end, that it was one of my most enjoyable experiences. It put me in touch with all these wonderful artists and singers who I may never had a chance to work with in the normal scheme of things. The spin that MTV has put on this show is allowing independent non-film music to be included into the show. As we all know, when you say ‘hit’ music in India, it’s predominantly film music, as it is the largest selling and the most listened to music in our country. If we were to limit the show to just that format, then I think it would have limited us and the artists to some degree. Including Indie music allowed us to explore non film artists, as well as bring on some folk artists and instrumentalists. This move has also given Indie music a huge platform. So, all in all, I’m very happy with the show and I’m truly grateful to have been a part of it. More power to MTV.

Can we expect a next season for Unplugged? If you really look at the lineup from season 1, the only outfit that really qualifies as not-so-established from the Indie scene is Advaita. Do you think Unplugged should focus more on that segment?

I’m not sure what MTV’s plans are for the next round. I suppose there should be a follow up since the response to this season has been extremely positive. As I mentioned, Indie music got a boost with Unplugged and, yes, I think this is an area that needs all the support it can get, so fingers crossed that this trend continues.

Would you like to tell us about other current projects in progress/future projects in line?

Right now, I’m rehearsing and preparing for the Chivas Studio shows in Delhi and Mumbai.  I’m off at the end of the month to record a new 4th Dimension album with John ji, which will be followed by our tour in the Fall of 2012. There’s a tour of India with Ustad Zakir Hussain through Dec 2011 and Jan 2012. I’m also currently working on an album with Carnatic electric mandolin maestro U. Shrinivas ji. So, I’m fairly busy for a while.

Tell us more about Chivas Studio. What kind of music can we look forward to? There is apparently fashion, gourmet et al. The music will not be sidelined, hopefully? And is it just in Mumbai and Delhi or can we expect it in other cities as well?

Chivas studio, as I’m sure you’re aware, is a property where Chivas brings together many creative people to collaborate and present something new and unique. In this case, it is by way of theatre, painting and photography. It’s proving to be so much fun working with Rohan and all the artists involved. The music is the driving force, so no, it won’t be sidelined. There’s a concert in Delhi and then in Bombay. I hope they take it to more cities, but I suppose that’s a decision that the people at Chivas will have to take.

You have collaborated with almost every big name in the music world in the close to three decades that you have been around. But is there anything still left on that wish list?

Not really. I’m at a point where I want to study Indian classical music in all seriousness. It’s such a deep art form and one lifetime is not enough. I suppose one makes a wish list when one is a master and chooses to work with another master. I’m still a student, so…

Apart from being a percussionist, you have donned the hats of a composer, arranger, and producer. How do the three roles differ?

I think it’s like 3 sides of a triangle. Being a composer, arranger or producer has individual aspects to their execution but all have a meeting point at the end. One has to keep track of the other as one is working on a project. They are separate, yet connected. Makes sense?

If we were to ask you to choose your favorite role from the above four, which one would that be?

Ah, that is a difficult question, though when push comes to shove, playing for a live, well informed audience holds a special place in my heart. It is the most joy to share your music with people, one on one.

Solo albums released by band members are an interesting concept. Working in bands can be an act in restraint, there might be lot of constraints in place. Truly great bands are never one act plays, where rest of the band contribute back ground score. Solo albums give the individual artists an opportunity to follow their own creative urges and can turn out to be a very rewarding experience. For a listener it is a chance to rediscover their favorite artist’s music in a new avatar.
Shor Bazaar, the quirky rock group from Mumbai shot to nationwide fame with their single “Savita Bhabhi”. The song is a tribute to India’s favorite porn star Savita Bhabhi , a cartoon character. What a pity! In a country of one billion we don’t even have a porn star of our own. It is actually an ode of sorts to the average Indian urban male’s frustrations and desperations. It is an outright funny song which I think is a attribute of the band. The song has a very catch riff and is built around it.

This review though, is of the first solo EP released by one of the guitarists of the band, Abhishek Dasgupta.

Balram
 ABHISHEK DASGUPTA – BALRAM by Abhishek_DG
The song seems to be about a staple b-grade daku movie sequence. It was a dark and stormy night, the damsel was in distress. The baddies were after her chaddie and the just before the defilement happens the hero appears. He beats up the thugs are rescues the fair maiden and saves her honor. The way Dasgupta has pieced this song together is quite brilliant. The lines are hilarious, I especially like way he has sung this line “Yeh Ghinoune Iraade bane Chinta ke Mudde “ It basically a guitar driven song and Dasgupta being a guitarist has flaunted his skills on this track. There are two guitar interludes in this 2:27 minutes long song and they are very pleasing to the ear.

Chor
ABHISHEK DASGUPTA – CHOR by Abhishek_DG
This starts with a blues-like rhythm and then shifts to create a very interesting strumming pattern. In the song you hear a frustrated soul lamenting his misfortune of having to share his dwelling with his treacherous mischievous room-mates, which is something I can totally relate to (my tongue is in cheek). Dasgupta has used sliding guitar to devastating effect in this song and when you finish listening, the sound remains in your head. I also liked the way he has sung the song, it lends it a certain lazy, bored feeling.

Chandramukhi
ABHISHEK DASGUPTA – CHANDRAMUKHI by Abhishek_DG
This stoner track is a song about a heart breaker, which some of us can relate to. This song has some very cool turns of phrase and is written in the same vein as the other two songs in the EP. What I didn’t understand was the inclusion of the bhajan “Raghupati Raghav Rajaram” in the song. It’s another matter that I really loved the way Dasgupta inserted the Vishnu Digambar Paluskar hymn into a doper song.
Even though all the songs came be slotted into comedy rock genre that shouldn’t dilute any serious effort gone into this impressive EP. It is almost composed in the form of a well-written CV and I hope it will take Dasgupta to greater heights.

You can download the songs from his facebook page or from his reverbnation page.

Sinisterness is the dominant theme of Don 2’s score. Not that I was expecting anything else from this kind of a movie, but Don had two songs that provided respite from that mood. In Don 2, everything is dark, even the waltz at the end takes a diversion. But more on that at the end of the review.

Anusha Mani and Vishal Dadlani kick off the soundtrack with a spunky techno-based Zaraa Dil Ko Thaam Lo Shankar Ehsaan Loy build around the classic Don hook. The contrasting combo of Anusha’s husky voice and the rawness of Vishal’s vocals works well. The bongo drum (or is it something else?) beats that underlie Dushman Mera give it a very RDB feel. Sunitha Sarathy handles the vocals here with Shankar Mahadevan. Sunitha does a neat job as usual, and the song seems to work fine till the latter half where a vocal version of the second interlude of Don 1 title song appears. Mistake. Sunitha also does a cameo in the primarily instrumental theme, The King Is Back, which (again) rehashes all the loops we had heard in the first movie with some more techno thrown in. And if you felt that you didn’t hear enough of Don 1 yet, the composers present you the title song itself in a renewed form, KK replacing Shaan on the vocals. With due respect to KK, Shaan sounded much better singing this. And yes, there is a remix as well, that features the “Don Ko Pakadna Mushkil Hi Nahi..” dialogue in a seemingly infinite loop! The pick of the album is Usha Uthup’s Hai Ye Maaya, which though once again replete with the Don signature elements, works for the imaginative jazzy touches. And for the imposing voice of the lady. The remix was too techno for my liking. The Don Waltz starts off decently, following a regular waltz template, until after about a minute and a half where the curse of Don strikes this song well! But that said, Caralisa Monteiro sounds awesome doing that humming. The only track where the Don loop doesn’t appear is Aa Raha Hoon, but that is probably only coz there is nothing very musical about it, SRK rendering a dialogue about his return.

Scratch what I said initially. DON is the dominant theme of Don 2’s score. Yes, the Don template does have an allure about it, but SEL stretch that allure a bit too thin by using it in every song of the soundtrack. Bad move.

Music Aloud Rating: 5.5/10

Top Recos: Hai Ye Maaya, Zaraa Dil Ko Thaam Lo

Jalwanuma follows the haunting-melancholic melody template now popular as the “Bhatt feature formula”, only Ghost is not a Bhatt movie. The tune works though, Toshi Sabri getting Akram Sabri to sing the song with him, thereby adding another Sabri to the long list of Sabris in the music scene – quite a musical clan I say. Aaja Khatam Sabr is also haunting, but without that Bhatt hangover, featuring some nicely imaginative segments from composers Toshi and Sharib. And Sunidhi carries out her part neatly. Salame Salame is once again templatized dance music, and passes muster mainly due to the vocal efforts of Shaan and Sharib Sabri. With Dil Ke Liye the composers once again take on the Bhatt elements but the effect, despite that factor, is outstanding, even better than the first song – more so with Javed Ali’s singing. A very standard rock-based track (again with the Bhatt flavour) sung by Sharib called Kahan Hai Tu ends the soundtrack on a low-key note.

Decent but repetitive stuff this from the reliable duo Toshi Sharib for a flick that stands a good chance of going unnoticed except for being Shiney Ahuja’s comeback movie.

Music Aloud Rating: 6.25/10

Top Recos: Dil Ke Liye, Jalwanuma, Aaja Khatam Sabr

Today is Children’s Day. Also, World Diabetes Day. But for Indian music lovers (Malayalis primarily) this day is extra-special for another reason.  This day, 50 years ago, under the tutelage of composer M B Sreenivasan, a young singer named Kaattaassery Joseph Yesudas made his debut as playback singer by singing the now famous poem beginning with Jaathi Bhedham, Matha dwesham, and an era began in Indian film music. Over the years the man has been part and parcel of every Malayali’s life, he has given us more than enough music to cherish over a life time. True to the first lines he sang, his musical influence has transgressed religion and caste. Having contributd a majority of his classics in Malayalam and Tamil, it was rather unfortunate that a lot of his greatness went unnoticed up North, but in Hindi too there was a fair share of wonderful songs he rendered. In any case, on this 50^th anniversary, we present to you an opportunity to listen to at least some of that awesomeness you might have missed, through a compilation of some of his best renditions in the three languages. We had planned to create a playlist of 50, but KJY has too many good songs. And in our defense, 62 in octal system does translate to 50.

(The sketch featured was drawn live by the brilliant Keshav at the Music Academy a few years back. Thanks a lot to him for allowing to use this)

Aaj Bhi Party, with Suraj Jagan on vocals, is standard party song template – techno base, onomatopoeic words in lyrics etc etc. Groovy, but tedious. Ishq Hothon Se is more engaging, despite again following the standard Bollywood melody formula. KK and Shreya, and some nice touches from Sachin Gupta like the distortion base underlying the lead hook. Peepni is another song on the lines of Aaj Bhi Party albeit on a Punjabi line, and has similar effects. Jaspreet Singh and Mona Thakur do the vocal honors in this one. Pick of the soundtrack is Abhi Abhi, Sasha Tirupati kicking off with a sparkling cameo (her debut, if I am not wrong) and KK carrying it on, with an ethereal arrangement by Sachin Gupta to back it all up. Total winner (though I must add the style is quite evocative of Tujhe Bhula Diya)! One More One More would have worked better if not for the lyrics, the title refrain especially sounds, well.. Interesting groove and fantastic singing by Neeraj Shridhar and Sunidhi though.

In Jo Hum Chahein Sachin Gupta produces another score which has flashes of brilliance, but fails to deliver anything refreshingly memorable on a soundtrack level.

Music Aloud Rating: 5.5/10

Top Recos: Abhi Abhi, Ishq Hothon Se

Aadat Se Majboor follows a template that Salim Sulaiman have mastered over time, and works quite well even now despite being evocative of the predecessors – the groovy arrangement, the hep feel and one of the coolest voices around, Benny Dayal. Even the rap-based cameo by Ranvir Kapoor is a nice touch. Too much techno killed the remix. The second track Jazba is again something on the lines of the first, though with a fresher and more imaginative arrangement. The composers get Shilpa Rao to sing this song that is not the kind she is generally known to sing. And she nails it. The remix is again a techno fest but you can hear it if you want to note the difference between Anoushka Manchanda and Shilpa’s singing.

Thug Le is like a Punjabi-rock-based take on Ladki Kyun. But barring Vishal Dadlani and Shweta Pandit’s singing the song doesn’t impress much, for once the heard before-ness not quite working. Jigar Da Tukda is quite literally a reprise to Ainvayi Ainvayi, complete with Salim Merchant leading the vocals alongside Shraddha Pandit. Except Ainvayi sounded much better. But the composers get the instrumental theme called Fatal Attraction totally right, interspersing a primarily techno piece with some fabulous flute and acoustic guitar segments.

So the Band Baaja Baarat team comes together again for Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl, but the campaign doesn’t quite kick off in style, owing to Salim-Sulaiman’s propensity towards reusal. Hopefully the movie won’t follow suit.

Music Aloud Rating – 6/10

Top Recos – Aadat Se Majboor, Jazba, Fatal Attraction

There is nothing very new about Mazhaneer Thullikal, the mood, the instrumental flourishes, the singing by Unni Menon are all bound to remind of some song or the other at different points. But despite all this, the song is one hell of an earworm! Sedate arrangement built around a very catchy tune – with charming results. The trippy second song Moovanthiyay, though not on par with Mazhaneer, is a decent listen, Vijay Yesudas doing a nice job on the vocals. And with that ends the soundtrack (or so I believe from updates I have as of now).

Very short soundtrack this, for V K Prakash’s Beautiful (quite surprising given the director’s musical taste), but with one track that would rate as composer Ratheesh Vegha’s most impactful composition yet.

Music Aloud Rating – 6.5/10