It is always a great challenge for a musician to make his debut with a classic song, which has in the past been covered by many great artists, and turn out a commendable job of it. And if that wasn’t challenging enough, consider a case where the musician himself does the instruments, modified lyrics and in the end launches the song on his own label. This “all-rounder” happens to be Dilpreet Bhatia, a Delhi-based folk-rock singer/songwriter, who recently came out with his debut single, a tribute to the great Nusrat Fateh Ali. Dilpreet is our spotlight artist for the week.

Let us start with a brief about you, your

musical background and so on.

I am based in Delhi, but spent most of my childhood in a small town of Fatehabad in Haryana, Started learning music from my teachers at school there. Performed in school and college fests but never thought that I would take music so seriously. Went to Bangalore for a Software Job and suddenly I started feeling that something is missing out here…I cant live without performing, without music. I came to Delhi and started learning Hindustani Classical from my Guruji Sumitra Guha and kept on trying and trying to do what I love to do, perform where ever I could and write whatever I felt….

Trying to cover a classic, especially by someone like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, is always a

high risk venture, with high chances of the song not going down well with purists, fans et

al. Nevertheless you chose to do just that (and did a beautiful job of it, we should add!).

So why Nusratji? And why this particular song?

I must say that I am honored, and thanks a lot for your kind words. I am a great fan of Nusrat Ji…his compositions are legendary. And the simple reason I chose this song was that ‘I loved it’ and I could relate to this song. I was not thinking of any risk when i was improvising it.  I hope you would have noticed that the antra of this song is not what Nusrat Ji have sung. What he has done, is legendary. And lot of artists like Kailash Kher, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and NFAK have sung this song before.  but extending it, writing new antras and giving them a whole tune…ya it may be scary but this is how I feel one with the song and I am honored that people liked this version and I hope that if he(Nusrat Ji) could listen to this song from up there, he wont scold me after hearing it…

At a time when most Punjabi songs tend towards the cacophonous orchestration, it is

refreshing to hear purely acoustic songs which bring out the real beauty of Punjabi Sufi

music. Was the arrangement entirely handled by you as well? And who is the pianist?

Ya, I did the music arrangement, recording and mixing for this song at my home studio, and all the intruments on this song, including piano, are played by me.

Today the easiest path to fame is quite evidently reality shows, and there have been many

who got their 15 minutes (and more) of fame through this. And considering you have good

talent as well, why did you not opt for that route?

I never thought its a good option for me.

This song has been launched via your own private label, Sur & Soul Records. Do you plan

to go big on the labels front, by trying to launch albums of other artists as well, or are you

going to employ Sur & Soul for your songs alone?

Sur ‘n’ Soul Records will not be limited to my songs alone, we have plan to launch other artists as well, mostly associated with hindustani classical. But it will remain an Indie Label.

Needless to say, launching a single costs a lot of money. Is music your sole bread-winner,

or are you employed otherwise?

I am also working as Lead Software Engineer for creative software giant Adobe Systems Inc.

You have come out with your first single now. When do you plan to launch a full album? And is that going to be all covers or are you working on some own comps as well?

The full album is already ready, Its in Punjabi, and songs have been written, composed and sung by me and directed by Leslie Lewis of Colonial Cousins. I have also collaborated with 6 times Grammy Winning Mixing Engineer Ken Lewis for one of songs in this Album. We are right now showcasing it to labels and hopefully it should be out very very soon.

The staple musician question – who are your influences?

Ghulam Ali, Nusrat Ji, Pt Jasraj, U2, A R Rahman and my Guruji Sumitra Guha, have had the greatest influence on me and my music.

A lot of Indian musicians are currently collaborating with international musicians with

great success. Have you explored that possibility?

Yes, I have recently completed recording a song for UK based producer Shammi Pithia, Did one song with Ken Lewis, which is featured in my upcoming album, and currently working on a multiple song project with Canadian band Nawticks.

Next pitstop would be Bollywood we are guessing. Anything on that front yet?

Nothing on that front right now, this Single and Album have been keeping me busy for now, but ya, I am surely gonna give it a shot.
We wish you all the best, and hope your debut album happens soon indeed.
Another spotlight artist coming up your way soon!

The name Amartya Rahut might not ring a bell in most minds. But I doubt there is a person who wouldn’t have heard at least one of his many works on TV, which range from the jingle for Cadbury’s Perk to Colors Channel Signature Tune to his award-winning Punjabicized version of Jingle Bells created for Nickelodeon. His religious views, as per facebook, is “John Lennon is God”. That gives a general idea of how committed this guitarist-composer is to music.

Amartya’s first shot to fame was his fusion band in early 2000s, OM, which he formed with the now-famous Amit Trivedi and three other guys. He did his Bollywood debut last year with Aagey Se Right, but it unfortunately didn’t attain success in spite of being a good album. The man is currently busy with the works of his new band Nine which debuted at the Kala Ghoda Festival on Feb 12. We decided to catch up with Amartya aka Bobo and get his story for our readers. Read on then!

Let us start with your pre-OM days. Your

musical upbringing et al.

I have been a professional freelance guitar player from my school days in Calcutta… Have played with some of the premium bands of that time… Namely Shiva, Fifth Dimension, Asteroids, Cactus, Paras Pathar….

But personally I have always wanted to compose original songs and ideally wanted to do it on a national platform and not be restricted to any regional space… So shifted base to Mumbai in 2000.

In Mumbai started off with whatever little work I would get initially in advertising… And the struggle which I guess every migrant in Mumbai faces in our industry….

How did OM come about? The five of you are seemingly people from different

backgrounds, both geographically and musically.

During my initial advertising days in Mumbai I started working with Amit Trivedi (Dev D/Aamir)… He used to be my arranger for all my advertising sessions… His friends were Sriram and Ram…and one fine day we got together and created Om… We were pretty lucky I must say to get times music to spend on our album pretty much as soon as we had started the band…

I have read you as being credited as composer for OM in many places. Just want to clarify

whether it was entirely your effort, coz in at least a couple of songs (Baadal and Tum Tana

especially) I have got an improv sort of feel.

My part in Om was being the composer and guitar player for the band… Sriram composed a few tracks on his own… Amit arranged all the songs and Baadal was a traditional piece which we jammed on…

Om was formed in 2002. I believe you came out with the album some time in 2004. And

after such a brilliant debut nothing was heard of Om again. What happened? Is there a

possibility of a reunion in future?

Unfortunately, after the album released, although we did get decent response, our personal goals seemed to be pretty individualistic…as for myself I was already composing on a regular level for premium mainstream advertising commercials, Amit the other key member of Om was working with me… Ram and Sriram had full time corporate jobs… So it fell apart… And now it seems pretty unlikely that there will be a reunion…

Coming back to your individual exploits, after your stint with Om you were lying low, at

least to the public eye, till Aagey Se Right came about in late 2009. What were you doing in

this long hiatus?

After Om, I scored the music for for 2 Marathi films for a friend of mine , director Bipin Nadkarni… The National award winning Uttarayan and Evdhasa Aabhal… I got the State award, Zee Alfa award, and the V Shantaram Puraskar for the above films…

Along with all this my advertising stint continued on a regular level… Personally I love composing for ads… As the time frame is limited, the money being good… And the job, very challenging… One needs to be on his toes everyday to score advertising music…

Along with advertising I do a lot of television work as well… The channel signature tunes of Colors and Real have been composed by me. Last year, ‘KHATRON KE KHILADI”, “CHOTE MIYAN”, “BIG BOSS” AND “NATIONAL BINGO”etc…

In 2009 I did Aagey Se Right… Again for a friend of mine from my advertising background, Indrajit Nattoji… I still wish the music had been promoted a little… There was almost zero publicity as far as the music of the film was concerned…

What other Bollywood projects have you got coming up?

Currently, working on a couple of film projects …but no point in naming them now…as I have realized one simple thing as far as feature films are concerned…till they release one never knows what the outcome is going to be…because it is a big affair and I guess there are lots of variables attached to a film…so, being a little superstitious about it (hehe)..

Congratulations on your debuting your new band Nine at the Kala Ghoda festival. Tell us

more about the band. When is Nine’s official album going to hit the shelves?

Currently I am occupied working on the band Nine with two extremely talented and dear friends, Neelesh Mishra and Shilpa Rao… Nine was completely Neelesh’s idea…I am simply composing the songs and creating the music to his thoughts….. And things are shaping up well… Hopefully this year the album should release…

To be parting on a light note, mind telling us the history behind your famous nickname

Bobo?

As far as Bobo is concerned…a very strange uncle of mine (this is the story passed on to me by my dad), had this brilliant idea of naming me Bobo when I was a baby…and its stuck till date (hahaha)…

Whoever I meet for the first time, I introduce myself as Amartya…by our third meeting he starts calling me Bobo…so that’s a comic tragic affair I have to live with I guess!!!

Well here is wishing Amartya all success with his upcoming Bollywood ventures, and Nine. As an ardent fan of OM I do sincerely hope that a reunion of OM happens in spite of Bobo’s misgivings! We shall be back with another artist soon. Below are some videos of Amartya’s past works.

Piya by OM, reproduced with the artist’s permission

Amartya’s rehash of Jingle Bells for Nickelodeon which won the Promax 2009 award for best music

A Condom awareness ad with music composed by Amartya

First decade of the third millennium is drawing to a close. The 2000’s have been momentous in all walks of life. One of the most remarkable things that happened during the last decade is the dissemination of information through the medium of internet. Entertainment, especially music, in terms of reaching out to listeners has gone through a revolution. Youtube, file sharing and digital download, proved to be a boon to the music fan, music became really accessible. Writing about impact of music during the last decade is beyond my pay grade, I will rather concentrate here on the last year, 2009.

2009 in music will most probably remembered as the year when Michael Jackson died. The King of Pop was mourned all over the globe with his hits topping the charts everywhere. Musically 2009 was a very vibrant year too, lots of new music was released. One of the major releases of the year was U2’s No Line on the Horizon. The CD was a bold experiment, U2 consciously trying to move away from their comfort zone and the result was an album with Brian Eno as a co-creator, but it did not achieve the kind of success it’s predecessors could boast of, nevertheless the band showed that they still have the creativity and guts to go where not many had dared to go. Bono and Edge had reportedly spent a considerable amount time setting music for the Spiderman musical which is something to watch out for in 2010. U2 also embarked on a world tour with a custom made stage in biblical proportions and performed before sell out crowds. I wonder when they will come to India.

Talking about pleasant surprises, it can’t get better than what happened on Britain’s got talent on 11 April 2009, when Susan Boyle sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables. The event went on to become one of the most watched events in 2009.

In the world of pop it was the year of Lady Gaga. She  became the first artist in nearly ten years (after Christina Aguilera in 1999 and 2000) to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with their first two chart entries (Just Dance and Poker Face). Green Day released 21st Century Breakdown, the punk rockers delivered a first class album. Their previous release American Idiot had raised the expectations of the fans and the band definitely met it, if not exceeded it.

The Beatles, arguably the world’s greatest band ever, continued to exert their influence over us, but this time in a slightly different manner, through the Beatles’ version of Rock Band video game series.  Liverpool Hope University also did their bit in honouring the local heroes by introducing a Master of Arts in The Beatles, Popular Music and Society!

I had the fortune to listen to a lot of new music during 2009. One of those bands who caught my attention was Blackbud. This indie group have generated lots of interest and they have already been compared to some of the greats of the olden days. Blackbud released an eponymous album last year,its a superb album and I recommend you to check it out on youtube.

Early last year the dance rockers Franz Ferdinand had released their third album, Tonight. The single Ulysses is one of the best songs of last year. Pearl Jam’s Backspacer too was a good effort with Just Breathe standing out, the song has the potential to enter any greatest hit list, given the size of Pearl Jam canon, I guess I am taking too much liberty. Kasabian is another group from the 2000’s whom I feel will, go a long way (actually lots of others also have the same feeling). Just listen to Fire from their 2009 album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, you will get hooked. The pyrotechnic rocksters Muse released The Resistance the album was noted for it’s classic musical influences, these guys might well be the Queen of our age. Other releases of note are supergroup Monsters of Folk’s self titled debut album, Modest Mouse’s No One’s first and You’re Next, Rammstein’s Liebe ist für alle da (German: “Love is there for everyone“) and Porcupine Tree’s Incident.And Our lady Madonna released her third Greatest Hits album titled Celebrations. I am sure there are many more, but right now this is all I can recollect.

Nine Inch Nails, the alter super ego of Trent Rezner was dissolved this year. Talking about band splits Oasis’s nasty break-up and Aerosmith’s reported split are what caught my attention last year.

In India the scene is emerging, bands like Lounge Piranhas, Avial, Motherjane, TAAQ and Themclones to name a few are getting more and more popular. Last few years have seen major international acts touring our country, this Mr Big chose India as the first stop for their re-union gig. Another high point will be Porcupine Tree headlining Mood Indigo. 2009 had been a very vibrant year for Indian bands, they had a busy time traveling across the country, many bands released CD’s, many like Indian Ocean and Raghu Dixit toured even abroad. And lots of clubs have started playing live music and it has helped bring the bands closer to their listeners.

So 2010 will be interesting. There is too much to wish for. Indian music had arrived on international scene when Beatles released Norwegian Wood, but its been a long time, waiting for a full fledged Indian outfit making a mark on the international scene. Lets hope that will be one the surprises 2010 will throw at us.

Although 2009 was a good year for music with a lot of revolutionary albums such as Dev.D and Gulaal coming out in Hindi movies and lot of international artists such as U2 and Bruce Springsteen also coming up with some great albums, the year was also marred by the deaths of some of the most legendary artists from the world of music. While welcoming the new year and expecting a lot from it, we would like to take some time out and pay homage to artists whom we would be missing for the years to come.

Michael Jackson

Though his final days were marked by controversies of various sorts, the fact remains that to most people alive today, Michael Jackson still remains the embodiment of pop music. The day was December 1, 1982 when his path-breaking album Thriller was released, the album that topped the US charts for 37 weeks, the album that sold over 104 million copies worldwide, the album that forced MTV to abandon its white rock-oriented scheduling. The man has ruled our hearts ever since. The year also saw the posthumous release of his album and the documentary film by the same name “This is it”.

Les Paul

The man who “made the sound of rock and roll possible” passed away in August this year. Les Paul will be most remembered for his contribution in developing the solid body electric guitar. Besides, he is also popular for developing a lot of other sound effects such as tape delays, phase effects etc. Although majorly known for his sound engineering skills, Les Paul was also an accomplished guitarist. While playing for numerous well-known jazz and blues artists such as Georgia White and Django Reinhardt, Paul found himself unsatisfied with the sound of acoustic guitars and hence created several versions of his own that were later also used by some of the greatest names in Rock’n’Roll.

Asheem Chakravarty (Indian Ocean)

Christmas did not bring much joy to Indian Ocean – one of India’s most pioneering fusion bands as their percussionist and singer Asheem Chakravarty passed away of a cardiac arrest in Delhi. Asheem had shown his musical prowess at a very early age when he surprised musicians with his proficiency in the table without any formal training. As a member of Indian Ocean he played the tabla, tarang and various other percussion instruments. Without Asheem, the band will miss a major Indian element in their music.

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

Held by violinist Yehudi Menuhin as ‘The Greatest Musician in the world’, this sarod maestro was instrumental in taking Indian music to the west. He was most known for his collaborations with Sitar Maestro Ravi Shankar. In his career the Ustad travelled across the globe and also established music schools in California and Bern. During his career he was nominated for 5 Grammys and was also accorded with Padmavibhushan in 1989.

Gangubai Hangal

Born in Dharwad in 1913, Gangubai got trained under the tutelage of the renowned Sawai Gandharva in the Kirana Gharana. A strict purist, she always believed in the classical tradition of music. In one of the rarest instances of recording for a movie, she sang a song in the Marathi movie Vijachi Lagan. Gangubai was awarded with the Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award at different stages of her life, for her outstanding contribution to the world of Hindustani music.

D.K. Pattammal

With the demise of the Carnatic doyenne in July we lost the last remaining member of the famed female trinity of Carnatic music, M S Subbulakshmi and M L Vasanthakumari already dead. Overcoming the oppositions imposed on her by the orthodox traditions of her family, Damal Krishnasamy Pattammal made it big in the then male-dominated carnatic world. She was known as an authority on Muthuswamy Dikshitar’s compositions. She also dabbled in film music, though only for patriotic and devotional songs. She was part of the A R Rahman-Bharat Bala project Jana Gana Mana which featured over 35 top artistes in Indian music.

2009 was a very good year for Bollywood musically, a lot of music directors, old and new, coming out with many beautiful compositions. It was a good year for us too, considering we started in 2009! And here we present our analysis of 2009 Bollywood music. We have gone composer by composer for all prominent ones, in descending order of the number of quality albums they have produced. With the exception of Rahman who we are starting the list off with in spite of just two albums this year because, well, he is A R Rahman! A caveat at the outset – The list has been compiled from songs that we happened to hear over the year, as those are the ones we can comment definitively on. There might be albums/people we missed out in the review so apologies in advance for that.

A R Rahman

Any talk about Indian music in 2009 would invariably have to start with that million dollar moment of Indian musical history – Rahman standing with the twin Oscars in his outstretched arms at the Kodak theatre. Rahman had it coming all these years, it was just a question of when that prefix of “Academy Award winning composer” would get added to his name. However as a Rahman fan there was a slight pang somewhere to see ARR collect the Oscar for a work which would not quite qualify as his best. If the Academy found the music of Slumdog.. to be fit for Oscars, wonder what they would say to soundtracks like Roja, Bombay, Dil Se, Lagaan and so on. Nevertheless glad that the Academy saw it fit to honour the maestro at least this year.

On the Bollywood front, this year Rahman fans weren’t subjected to a treat like last year atleast in numbers, with just two albums getting released. But Delhi 6, with its stupendous assortment, was worth two albums in itself! Blue however didn’t turn out to be as elegant, probably maligned by the Akshay Kumar element. That is not to say it didn’t have its gems, Aaj Dil and Bhoola Tujhe being the stand-out ones. Though this is a Bollywood roundup one cannot go without mentioning Rahman’s Hollywood ventures this year for their musical brilliance – Shekhar Kapoor’s Passage and Vince Vaughn’s Couples Retreat. The big one next year is going to be Mani Ratnam’s Raavan. Apart from that unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be anything in store for Bollywood, though down south there is much more in the offing.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

The year went pretty decent for the trio, both in terms of the number of releases and the quality. Though some like Shortkut weren’t quite impressive and some contained just one or two songs, like Sikander, SEL produced some wonderful songs for 13B, Luck By Chance, Wake Up Sid and ended their 2009 run on a high note with London Dreams. Major releases for SEL next year are My Name is Khan and Karthik Calling Karthik. I am not very hopeful about My Name.., being a KJo movie, it is Karthik Calling Karthik I really look forward to. SEL have always been at their productive best with Farhan Akhtar.

Salim-Sulaiman

After SEL the Merchant brothers were another set of composers who stood out for their consistency in 2009. Minor faux pas like Kambakkth Ishq and average albums like Luck and Pyaar Impossible notwithstanding, the MDs gave some exquisite scores in movies like 8×10 Tasveer, Kurbaan and Rocket Singh. Their first assignment for 2010 is Teen Patti. Hopefully that will come out to be much better than the middling Luck, though the genre looks to be the same. Either ways, looking at the way their career graph has been moving over the past couple of years, 2010 does hold a lot of promise.

Pritam

Tum Mile was Pritam’s master work of 2009, a soundtrack that added another feather to the Bhatt legacy. Billu Barber, Love Aaj Kal, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani and New York, in spite of their regular Pritamesque elements, were reasonably endearing. But that just about ends the list of Pritam’s good albums from 2009, which is far outweighed by the number of his crappy compositions – De Dana Dan, Ek, Love Khichdi etc being just a few of them. It would be better if Pritam stopped taking so many assignments, and stuck to a few good soundtracks every year. That would obviate the need to lift tunes as well I suppose!

Amit Trivedi

His score for Aamir had got heads turning in 2008, but the absolute stunner came at the start of 2009 with Anurag Kashyap’s Dev.D. Ranging from jazz to folk to classical to Punjabi, Amit proved his mastery over almost every genre of music with this 18-song soundtrack. The background score for Wake Up Sid alongside the one song Iktara in the OST went on to show that Dev.D was not going to be a flash-in-the-pan case. Amit currently has a couple of projects under production, like Chiller Party and Aisha which must hopefully come out in 2010; I am all ears!

Sagar Desai

2009 saw Sagar Desai, composer for Rajat Kapoor’s movies like Mixed Doubles, Bheja Fry etc, graduate from parallel movies to mainstream cinema – at least more mainstream than what he had previously done. And he made wonderful use of the opportunity he got. First there was Straight where he gave a rock music-oriented score. And then came Quick Gun Murugun, in which he expanded the ambit with classical, wild west et al, creating an unexpected winner out of a comedy soundtrack. Bollywood Hungama talks of a movie called Meridian under production which has Sagar’s score. Hoping that the soundtrack comes out soon enough. This man surely has a lot more to offer.

Toshi-Sharib

Though in all their works of 2009 they had to share space with other composers (Raaz, Jashnn, Jail), the Sabri brothers proved their mettle even with those attempts. Unfortunately the movies they worked for didn’t do great in the box office either, thereby resulting in most of the songs going unnoticed. Hopefully 2010 will see them get a full soundtrack to themselves. And a decent movie at that, please.

Vishal Bharadwaj

Right from Maachis, Vishal’s music has always stood out for its raw unconventionality. Kaminey’s score was again totally conformant to that tradition, but with a tinge of sophistication added to it, like the surf-rockish Dhan Te Nan and the orchestrally extravagant Kaminey. With the wonderfully rendition of the title song the man also proved that he could do a thing or two behind the microphone as well. Next up is Ishqiya, and from the TV teasers I can already sense a delicacy!

Piyush Mishra

It took 11 years for Piyush Mishra to get his first music directorial venture. And what a debut it was! Gulaal would easily count among the best soundtracks of 2009, Piyush Mishra going on to display a Vishal Bharadwaj-like streak in his works. The man wouldn’t be restricted to composing alone, writing some splendid lyrics alongside Swanand Kirkire to pay a lasting tribute to Sahir Ludhianvi, and also singing a couple of songs to good effect.

Ilayaraja

Listening of the music of Paa alongside the visuals in the theatre definitely increased the appeal of the songs, but I still maintain that Ilayaraja should be doing much more than just reusing his older tunes if he is to make a lasting impact in Bollywood. Mudhi Mudhi was wonderfully effective on that front, but others didn’t exactly match up. Raja’s other work in 2009, Chal Chalein, was a rather forgettable affair. I am waiting for that one Raja album akin to Rahman’s Rangeela. But wonder if its too late now.

Shantanu Moitra

Like I said for Paa, the visual element has contributed a great deal to the charm of 3 Idiots’ soundtrack, but that still doesn’t make up for the repetitive feel that Shantanu Moitra’s composition carries about it. It is high time he changed his style.

Vishal Shekhar

It was a relatively quiet year for the composer duo, the only release being Aladin. Even that, though entertaining, was left wanting for fresh tunes, most songs being tributes to Amitabh Bachchan and hence evocative of his songs of yore. Vishal had a much better year as a singer, singing some very good songs for SEL, Salim Sulaiman and the other Vishal. Even Shekhar had that beautiful melody in Luck By Chance. Hope that 2010 will see as much of Vishal Shekhar the composers as Vishal and Shekhar the singers.

Sajid-Wajid

As usual, Sajid-Wajid’s contributions this year too were mostly limited to Salman Khan movies and comedy flicks with the exception of Kal Kissne Dekha. And as usual most of their scores were middling. But the duo produced a surprise winner just a week back with their music for Veer. The movie had some exquisite tunes, and hopefully this will inspire them to produce more good scores in 2010.

Others

Sohail Sen wasted the wonderful opportunity he got with What’s Your Rashee (okay may be not so wonderful from the movie perspective, but an opportunity nevertheless with 13 songs!), producing just a couple of good tunes which got lost in the melee of the other average or below average tunes. Sandesh Shandilya, as usual, came in a couple of those multi-composer flicks, giving some memorable tunes but also some shoddy songs. I look forward to the day when he will get a complete soundtrack to himself. Shamir Tandon did a commendable job in 99. Nouman Javaid impressed with his two songs for Jashnn. Ankur Tewari gave decent music alongside others in Aao Wish Karein but lost his footing when solo, in Raat Gayi Baat Gayi. On the other hand he gave some very amusing lyrics for QGM. Monty Sharma made his presence felt with a couple of average albums, but after Saawariya his has been a consistent downward journey. Some new composers like Vipin Mishra, Bappa Lahiri showed promise, while some other veterans like Lalit Pandit (of Jatin Lalit), Anu Malik were consistent in their mediocrity.

That just about wraps up our rather long roundup of the music of 2009. Before we close, we leave you with our list of 15 best songs of the year. Wishing all of our readers a wonderful 2010! We hope the new year brings you a lot more good music.

(Songs listed in alphabetical order in the format: Song(Movie)  Composer|Singer(s))

Aaj Dil (Blue) A R Rahman|Sukhwinder Singh,Shreya Ghoshal
Aasma Odh Kar (13B) Shankar Ehsaan Loy|Shankar Mahadevan, Chitra
Arziyaan (Dilli 6) A R Rahman|Javed Ali,Kailash Kher
Dil Gira (Dilli 6) A R Rahman|Ash King, Chinmayee
Emosanal Atyachaar (Dev D) Amit Trivedi|Rangeela, Rasila
Iktara (Wake Up Sid) Amit Trivedi|Kavitha Seth, Amitabh Bhattacharya
Kaminey (Kaminey) Vishal Bharadwaj|Vishal Bharadwaj
Khanabadosh (London Dreams) Shankar Ehsaan Loy|Mohan
Mudhi Mudhi (Paa) Ilayaraja|Shilpa Rao
Paayaliya (Dev D) Amit Trivedi|Shruti Pathak
Pankhon Ko (Rocket Singh) Salim Sulaiman|Salim Merchant
Sapnon Se Bhare (Luck By Chance) Shankar Ehsaan Loy|Shankar Mahadevan
Taali (Veer) Sajid Wajid|Sukhwinder Singh,Sonu Nigam,Neuman Pinto, Wajid
Tu Hi Haqeeqat (Tum Mile) Pritam|Javed Ali
Yaara Maula (Gulaal) Piyush Mishra|Rahul Ram

I didn’t quite like the vocals in Sajna (which I believe is done by Vince Vaughn, he is supposed to have recorded a song for the movie), mainly due to the corny lyrics, but Rahman’s mesmerizing arrangement is more than enough to have you hooked to the track. The big surprise comes in the next track. How often do you get to hear Tamil song playing in a Hollywood soundtrack? Well here is one for you, Rahman crooning a chirpy Kuru Kuru set to a mildly folksy orchestration. A really addictive track this one, as I am discovering at this precise moment (thanks to a close friend for deciphering the lyrics). Jason and Cynthia Suite on the other hand begins on a more solemn note, Rahman employing all his orchestral splendour to a gradual buildup over three minutes before springing a surprise mode change to a more folksy segment led by the flute for the next two minutes. Nana which comes next, has a lot of tribal sounding words interspersed with rap in a carnivalesque track. I couldn’t discern Blaaze’s voice among the rappers. And I think the kid’s voice belongs to Rahman’s son Alim who had reportedly recorded a song in this movie.
In spite of a slight resemblance to Jaage Hai’s orchestral sequence in its grand opening, Tour of the Villas is an absolute treat, an instrumental and more elaborately orchestrated version of Sajna. Strangely enough for a minute-long segment in between the song goes into a karaoke mode without a leading tune, just the backing instruments playing on. Of course that takes no credit off this short and sweet track. Meeting Marcel, the next track, is a spiritual song, albeit arranged in a sinister manner. While the first half with a folk tinge is dominated by the flute, the latter half taking on a darker tone belongs to the violins. Itinerary is typical background track material rather than something intended for a CD. It is made up of a sequence of different tunes which wouldn’t make much sense unless listened to while watching the movie. Undress sounds very Indian and very nicely so, thanks to the extensive use of ghatam, no negative connotation intended mind you. Lasting just over 1.5 minutes, this track would have been a perfect fit in a movie like Lagaan or Swades. It will be interesting to see how the picturisation of this happens (my interest has nothing to do with the title I assure you!).
Sharks is another mindblowing track albeit a totally classical-oriented one (Puriya Dhanasri/Panthuvarali the raga is I guess). With the violins playing at a frantic pace to an equally frenzied percussion, this song took me back to Rahman’s classic Hai Rama for a moment. Luau refers to a Hawaiian feast. And John O’Brien’s sole score for the movie is quite evocative of the party mood with its very native arrangement. Salvadore is superb fusion, Kailash Kher’s well executed Hindustani tarana (similar to thillana in Carnatic) mixed brilliantly with a Latin/Middle Eastern instrumentation. Intervention is another track marked by its orchestral opulence, and the combo with Rahman’s soulful humming is quite deadly! The result, another totally riveting track.
Similar to Itinerary, The Waterfall also features a collation of varied tunes which would be better viewed than listened to. Rahman produces an elegant reprise to Jason and Cynthia Suite with Jason and Cynthia Piano Theme, cutting down on the orchestral elements and making it more easy on the ear. Things are rounded off with another bouncy track, Animal Spirits, which starts off as a spruced up version of Jason and Cynthia theme but then moves on along a different line for about two minutes where things take a turn, with a revisit to the opening sequence of Tour of the Villas.
After a long hiatus post winning the Oscars suddenly there is a deluge of Rahman songs. While Blue was more commercialised and Passage at a more esoteric one, Couples Retreat combines a bit of both. Honestly I didn’t expect a Rahman soundtrack to displace Passage from the position of his best soundtrack this year, so soon! And now the million dollar question is, will the movie turn out to be worth such a brilliant effort. Hope it does. You can listen to the soundtrack here.
Music Aloud’s rating – 8.5/10
Recommended tracks – Kuru Kuru, Salvadore, Intervention, Tour of the villas, Undress

This is slightly old news but since I got to know of this only today and since I found the song to be a must-listen I decided to post the news anyways. I am sure the band Zeest needs absolutely no intro for the youth of the Indian subcontinent. Their song BC Sutta was so much of a rage in colleges that there is absolutely minimal chance you haven’t heard it at least once. (If you haven’t then you really gotta be rethinking what you were doing while in college after all!!)
Well the point is that early this year Zeest released their next song which they called 100 rupai, meant as a dedication to the current economical scenario. According to the band “the song is a story of a financially frustrated Indo-Pak’s youth life.” We think the song is a brilliant follow up to their previous hit. Another youthful song with simple conversational lyrics and soft-rockish feel. The guitar segments are especially worth mention. Plus, this song is zero on abuse quotient which is saying something after Sutta!! I really wonder whether it is for lack of publicity that this song hasn’t caught up after so many months of release. In any case, people reading this article please try to spread the word about this song. Its really a must-listen. The band is apparently working on their debut album currently. Making even a conservative extrapolation from Sutta and 100 rupai, that is going to be some album!! Here is the song for you. You can also download it at their website.

A video tribute to the king of pop…

Whenever the Bhatt family has come out with a new movie, the most looked upon aspect has always been the music. And the Bhatts have never disappointed on that front. Even with a wide variety of composers tried out, they have maintained the consistency in the quality of their music. Hence expectations have been pretty high from their latest work as well, Jashnn.
Main Chala is the best song of the album, Nouman Javaid doing a brilliant job with the music and the vocals. With just an acoustic guitar for accompaniment for most part, Nouman Javaid sounds almost like Mohit Chauhan delivering this quiet melody. The starting guitar reminds one of songs like Led Zep’s Stairway to Heaven. A faster unplugged version of the same song is also equally wonderful, but woefully short. Another offering from Nouman comes in the form of Dard-e-Tanhai, another soulful and haunting melody. Though reminiscent of some other recent songs from the Bhatt stable, it still is an engaging track. Even the pepped up Kilogram mix version is a good listen. Toshi and Sharib enter with Aish Kar Le, a lively track. The vocals done by the duo themselves, is not that up to the mark, especially due to the voice quality, but the music makes you forget all such shortcomings. Two other songs from the twosome have KK on the vocals. Aaya Re, though pacy, sounds a bit hackneyed in places and is not bound to make a lasting impression, in spite of KK. Nazarein Karam, however, is well orchestrated and splendidly sung by KK and Shreya Ghoshal, the motif coming alternately in vocals and instrumentals especially standing out. As expected, this one too has a remix version. Fortunately this one too is worth listening with no indiscriminate modifications made to the actual tune. The final track of the album is by Sandesh Shandilya, rendered by Shaan and Shreya Ghoshal. Sandesh is a music director who always delivers and Tere Bin is no exception either. A typical Bollywood tune with a not-so-Bollywood instrumentation marks a fitting end to the wonderful soundtrack. With such a wide array of tunes at his disposal, I sometimes wonder what Sandesh Shandilya is doing being one among many composers giving a tune or two for the occasional movie rather than going full on with a complete Bollywood soundtrack. Coming back to Jashnn however, the Bhatt household has again proven their reliability when it comes to the music in their movies. Please go get the CD if you don’t want to miss out on a musical treat.

After his path-breaking music for Morning Raga alongside Manisharma made waves in the music world in 2004, Amit Heri was not to be seen much in the public eye for quite a long time, except for performances. After close to five years, this year he has come out with a bang, first with a contemporary jazz album and then with a world music album. While the former, Elephant Walk, is a re-release of his 1998 jazz fusion album, Jhoola the world music album is a fresh look at the folk music forms from various parts of India. Amit Heri talks to Music Aloud about his music and the contemporary Indian music scene.

Could you tell us a bit about your initial stages, ie, after

Berklee till the release of Elephant Walk? Was the name

Elephant Walk some sort of tribute to Mancini?

I went to Berklee first time in 1989 (17 years old) and finally came back in 1996. Between 1996 & 1998 (when I recorded Elephant Walk) , I was busy setting myself up professionally in India, playing with musicians like Ramamani, Louiz Banks, Shankar Mahadevan, Ranjit Barot, Karl & Keith Peters and many others. I also performed a lot with my group and composed music for dance, theatre, tv and radio. I also performed extensively in Europe with legendary Saxophonist Charlie Mariano during this time.
I’ve visited the jungles of Bandipur and Madhumalai (close to Mysore) several times since I was kid. I think it’s the largest elephant sanctuary in Asia and is one of my favourite places. The tune was named after those magnificent animals – Elephant Walk. No connection with Mancini.

After the release of Bangalore in 2000, there was a long hiatus till Morning Raga in 2004.

What is it that kept you busy in those four years?

I always keep myself busy with music – studying, performing, composing and teaching. During this time I was performing with Trilok Gurtu for almost 2 years all over the world at some major festivals. Also recorded with him, performed with my group in India and did a lot of composition/production work. Scored the music for Mahesh Dattani’s film Mango Souffle.

How did Morning Raga happen? Was there a Bangalore connection to it, considering that

Mahesh Dattani was also brought up in Bangalore?

Mahesh and me are good friends and we have a great working relationship. We enjoyed working on Mango Souffle and Mahesh thought that my style would be perfect for what he had in mind for Morning Raga.

Morning Raga was undoubtedly a runaway hit, at least on the musical front. But why was

there no further composition from Amit Heri in Bollywood?

Being a Bollywood music director has never really been a great desire of mine. Hence, i haven’t made a conscious effort to get into the Bollywood scene. To work in Bollywood you need to be part of the scene, in Mumbai, hustling with the directors/producers etc or you need to be a hit in your local regional scene and get recognized there, both of which I didn’t really put energy into. Didn’t get any calls from Bollywood either in response to Morning Raga. That’s the reason.

How much of your compositions evolve from informal jamming sessions? In Hills of Grace

from your latest Jhoola we hear strings in Raag Hamsadhwani with Amazing Grace plus

some ghatam knocks thrown in, and even in Bathing Devi the tribal rendition doesn’t

sound at all like a studio recording. We are curious to know about the conception of

these songs.

An integral part of music for me is the interaction of musicians on stage and the energy that comes from that. For the majority of my study & career, I have played & performed with musicians & that defines me as a musician. So, naturally when I compose or produce this aspect is a strong influence in how I feel and think about the music and I am conscious about capturing this in the recording. Besides, an album for me is something that I want to take on the road & perform. That’s the end goal of JHOOLA too.

Some purists have criticised fusion saying its neither here nor there. What’s your take on

this?

As a musician, you need to study, experience, have a deep understanding intellectually and emotionally and be able to express naturally in each form of music before you try to bring multiple forms together. Only if you have experience & understanding of various cultures as a human being first, will you be able to create music that sounds natural and with meaning while bringing together multiple styles. Not many people have this experience and try their hand at ‘fusion’, perhaps resulting in a lack of depth as perceived by listeners and hence the criticism.

Are you influenced by Indian film music? Who is your favourite Indian composer?

I’m not really influenced that much by Indian film music. Although, I do enjoy the melodies of songs from old Indian films – beautiful. Amongst the present – day music directors, I enjoy Rahman & Shankar Mahadevan’s works.

Of late Bollywood music is seeing a gradual shift towards World music with a lot of

rock/jazz elements coming in (Leaving out the plagiaristic inclusion of such music!!).

Your take on this?

Rahman was the one who really started the trend and now it’s become part of Bollywood music. I like it when done well.

We don’t see a lot of Indian bands/artists making it big in the international scene. What do

you think the reason for this could be?

To make it in the international scene, firstly Indian artists need to have ’something to show’ that works in that scene and then either need to work with well known international artists/producers or have artist managers, promoters, booking agents who can push them into projects abroad. Very few Indian artists have been fortunate in achieving that.

Four years between Bangalore and Morning Raga. Five years between Morning Raga and

Jhoola. How much longer will fans have to wait for Amit Heri’s next album?

I have enough music to record at least another 3 albums. If there are companies wanting to do that, it will be sooner than later.

For the sake of good music, Music Aloud hopes that companies come forward pretty soon to make those prospective albums happen.
You can read Music Aloud’s reviews of Jhoola and Elephant Walk by clicking on the album names here.