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	Â	Â
7. Melancholic Ecstasy		            Â

.

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		Â
4. Hille Le		Â
5. Khajuraho		Â
6. Kaun	Â	Â
7. Kandisa		Â

 

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	-	Â
5. Torrent
6. Out of the Blues	-	Â
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:
[email protected],[email protected]

Feedback: [email protected]

For Bookings in Canada:
Nomans|Land Promotions
[email protected]

Director: Sangeeth Sivan
Producer: Jaswant Khera
Music Director: Pritam Chakraborthy
Lyricist: Shabbir Ahmed
Label: K Sera Sera Music
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His work first came into spotlight a couple of years back when he captured the freshness of teenage love and effectively summarised the youthful romance of the movie Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar through its title song. Thought the song was missing in the movie per se, it became very popular with the college-goers and others alike. This year his next Bollywood work, the title song of Aloo Chaat, is again getting decent reviews around. In the meantime he is pretty active on the advertising field as well with a more recent one being Ranbir Kapoor’s Pepsi My Can ad.In spite of all this, the man himself hasn’t been much in the limelight. Music Aloud decided to catch up with ex-Parikrama guitarist Vipin Mishra in his atelier where he is doing the final touch-ups to his first full-fledged Bollywood album, Aarif Sheikh’s Lets Dance.

Could you tell us a bit about your musical beginnings?

I saw Parikrama perform at just about the time they were formed, in the winter of 1991. I was finishing class 11th, and that got me interested at the whole prospect of playing rock guitar through 25000 watts of sound!
The learning started towards .. 1992-93.
Formed a band in college, auditioned for Parikrama in 1995, IInd Year Eco Hons, Delhi Univ, joined them, toured for 6 odd years, more than a 100 odd shows, got a bit bored, played guitars with Silk Route, started doing some commercial work, set up a project studio, got bored, moved to Mumbai, 2005.
Happy and not bored till now!!

From Parikrama to MP3 to Aloo Chaat, how do you think you and your music have evolved?

Parikrama is and was a genre specific band. Hard Rock! So that’s one change. My music as of now is freestyle.. Jazz, hip hop, world, orchestral, ethnic…just meandering and free flowing.
Secondly the approach. From a guitar player, to composer.You have to hear the song in totality in your head.

What do you listen to during your leisure time?

Mornings, jazz with newspaper and coffee. Adhoc : U2, Rehman, Coldplay, Keane, Toto,Leonard Cohen (For the words!), Maroon 5, Paul Rogers,Silk Route, A-Ha Old Stff, Tears For Fears.. the list goes on and on.. Zep, Floyd, Crowes..

What kind of music can fans expect out of Let’s Dance?

Well, Its like hip hop and 80s mixed up. Even the ballads and a slower “fight against all odds” tune has a mid tempo hip hop groove to it. Its a young album.

Which artists have influenced you the most?

Whole lotta them, but in the domestic scene, I d have to say A.R.Rehman. He’s the reason why so many of us, who scoffed a “Filmi” music through our teens are here! He showed class can succeed with masses.

As an upcoming music composer, what is your take on the growing influence of Western,

especially electronic, elements in contemporary Indian music?

Music, like any other art, is a reflection of contemporary society. There is a huge exchange of ideas, ideologies, influences, information. The west is turning to the east, and the east is absorbing the west…it’s a brand new pie. Like heritage architecture must be preserved, so must traditional music be promoted. But at the same time, we must not grudge the great new shiny, mighty and beautiful towers which may come up. Because that’s the result of what architects today think of as “beautiful” and where people aspire to reside “today”.

Would you mind telling us about your upcoming projects?

Well there are a few, but nothing concrete as of now.

With the advent of various music sites such as myspace on the one hand, and the plethora

of talent shows on the other, today’s youngsters have lots of avenues to showcase their

talents, which could either work in their favour or be their undoing. In such a scenario what

do you think are the challenges facing the wannabe musicians? Words of advice?

That’s a very broad question and is an interview by itself. So we’ll do this another time, but in short…

(For Composers) I believe a person chooses a creative art from cause he as something to say. He has a perspective, has opinions and looks for a form to express them..So most importantly, you should have something to say…and not browse Korean, Indonesian, Thai, Arabic, regional and other world music web pages for inspiration!
(For Singers) Gone are the days of mimics. Find yourself and be yourself. The further apart and proficient you are, greater are your chances of getting noticed.

While Music Aloud looks forward to Lets Dance and more from this young music director, you can check out Vipin’s website for more details and more music.

Music video of Chalta Chal, a song written, composed and performed by Vipin Mishra for a single.

Promo video of the title track of Aloo Chaat done by Vipin Mishra.

Music video of Aaj Kal, written, composed and performed by Vipin Mishra.

Title track of Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar

We hereby start off the Music Aloud Playlist For The Month series. At the start of every month we shall be bringing out a list of recommended 15 songs picked up from the previous month’s releases or from earlier releases if we do not find the previous month’s songs fit enough. If available, we shall also be embedding the audio/video links here so that you can try our recommendations here itself. The playlist would primarily feature Hindi music, but there would also be songs from English or from the World music arena if we strongly feel the need of making people aware of some such song. This month though, the list is entirely composed of Hindi songs, if you exempt the Pussycat Doll remix of Jai Ho. Listen on then..

1.  Jai Ho (Slumdog Millionaire) – Singers: Nicole Scherzinger, Sukhwinder Singh, Vijay Prakash, Tanvi, Mahalaxmi Iyer

What better song to start with than the one that got India its first Best Song Oscar. The one I recommend for the playlist this month is however the remix version of Jai Ho by Pussycat Dolls. The remix has been done very well, leaving Rahman’s original instrumentation untouched, and Nicole’s vocals have blended in well with the song. Barring Nicole’s pronounciation of Jai Ho as “J” Ho, Pussycat Dolls have done total justice to ARR.

2.  Bade Se Shehar Mein (13B) – Singer: Karthik

Karthik’s voice and SEL’s mellow instrumentation wash over you in this soothing melody. The chorus do a splendid job as well, with the occasional high pitched intervention by Shankar. If you are feeling down or something, this is the song you should be listening to.

3.  Aasma Odh Kar (13B) – Singers: Shankar Mahadevan, Chitra

Another song from 13B, having a heavy South influence. Sung by Chitra and Shankar Mahadevan, this romantic song has a slight haunting effect about it.

4.  Aisi Sazaa (Gulaal) – Singer: Shilpa Rao

Shilpa Rao’s soulful rendition is bound to touch your heart in this song which has been brilliantly arranged by debutant (in music direction) Piyush Mishra. With sounds of rain and the sparse instrumental backing, one would surely get reminded of the songs from Water.

5.  Beedo (Gulaal) – Singer: Rekha Bharadwaj

Rekha Bharadwaj rules the roost in this folk song, a composition that could give Vishal Bharadwaj a run for his money.

6.  Yaara Maula (Gulaal) – Singers: Rahul Ram, Aushim

With the vocals by Indian Ocean’s Rahul Ram and Aushim (according to my assumption Asheem Chakravarthy) and the rock instrumentation that comes between a philosophical song having dark overtones, this song could as well have been an Indian Ocean song. No credits taken away from Piyush Mishra though for his superb composition.

7.  Duniya (Gulaal) – Singer: Piyush Mishra

If you are into the good old Hindi songs, this song will be a trip down the memory lane for you. Piyush Mishra does a decent job on lending vocals to this tribute to the legendary Rafi song from Pyaasa. The use of harmonium, tabla etc. give a bhajan feel to the song, at least for the first half.

8.  Dhoop Ke Sikke (Sikandar) – Singers: Anusha Mani, Shankar Mahadevan

Another feel good song to add to your playlist, again from the SEL trio. The nursery rhyme-like motif that goes “Tee-ree-ree” is especially cute!

9.  Gulon Mein, Serene version (Sikandar) – Singer: Mohit Chauhan

The composer duo Justin-Uday have splendidly retuned the classic Faiz Ahmed Faiz poem to give another soothing song for our playlist. And this sort of song is bread and butter for the singer Mohit Chauhan as he has proven many times.

10.Gulon Mein, Upbeat version (Sikandar) – Singer: KK

Sandesh Shandilya composes this faster version of the same poem, and with KK’s rendition this song is in no way behind the other version.

11. Mohabbat Aapse (Aa Dekhen Zara) – Singer: Akriti Kakkar

The flute bit that launches the song makes you sit up and notice, and Akriti Kakkar doesn’t disappoint you with the vocals either. The result, a nice romantic melody from Pritam.

12. Aloo Chaat (Aloo Chaat) – Singer: Kailash Kher

Don’t let the initial electronic loop going Aloo Chaat discourage you, as what follows is a good folk fusion from Vipin Mishra, ex-Parikrama guitarist. And he aptly chooses Kailash Kher to deliver the folk part who pulls it off in style.

13. Aloo Chaat (Aloo Chaat) – Singers: RDB, Nindy Kaur

To cover the deficiency of a disco song in the playlist, I include this song which I feel is the best disco song of the season. I haven’t heard any other work from RDB, but this song of theirs is impressive. The Arabic loop running in the background has sounded really good with the Bhangra and rap.

Couldn’t help but include a couple of songs from the two biggest hits of the previous month, Dilli 6 and Dev D, given that I am still hooked on to those two albums in spite of so many releases this month. So here are two songs, one song apiece from each of the albums.

14. Dil Gira Dafatan (Dilli 6) – Singers: Ash King, Chinmayi

Awesome is the word that describes the instrumentation of this song! Quite, yet subtle. The guitar loop that starts immediately after the initial vocals has been simply mindblowing! Ash King has been spot-on with the various intricacies in the rendition. And Chinmayi provides excellent backing. Too bad Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra didn’t give the song its full due in its picturisation. He rather tried to use the song as a mean to advertise the producers and other stakeholders of the film, like Marriott Hotels and ROMP (People might have noticed Abhishek Bachchan flying an aeroplane named ROMP06!!).

15. Dhol Yaara Dhol (Dev D) – Singers: Kshitij, Shilpa Rao

Ideally the song from Dev D should be Emotional Atyachaar, but since a lot has been heard of that song already, I recommend a different song. A second song from Shilpa Rao for the playlist. The folk song has been superbly sung by Shilpa Rao and Kshitij, Shilpa’s voice quite matching the folk style. The instrumentation by Amit Trivedi has been such that you close your eyes while listening to the song and you could very well be travelling over the North Indian countryside!

It was a golden day for India at the Oscars, with A R Rahman picking up not one but two Oscars, the Best Original Score and the Best Song, both for his work in Slumdog Millionaire. This also makes Rahman the first Indian to bag two Oscars. The third Oscar came in the Sound Mixing category with Resul Pookutty sharing the honours with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke. Though only in three categories, technically India has won four Oscars, as the veteran lyricist Gulzar also won the Oscar alongside Rahman for the Best Song for the lyrics of the song Jai Ho which won the Best Song. Slumdog Millionaire incidentally won five other Oscars including Best Direction and Best Picture, taking the totally tally to eight. Jai Ho according to Rahman in an interview, is a dedication to Satyameva Jayate, the national motto of India. Indians can be proud that the song glorifying the national motto won the Oscar for the Best Song.

Rahman receiving the Oscar for Best Original Score

Rahman receiving the Oscar for Best Song.

Rahman on the Thank You Cam after receiving the two Oscars

Resul Pookutty along with Tapp and Pryke on the Thank You Cam after receiving the award.

Dhruv Ghanekar has released his debut solo album titled Distance. For those who must wondering who this guy is, here is a brief history of Dhruv.

Exposed to classical music from the age of 9, Dhruv had the fortune of receiving tutelage from the great Sarangi exponent Ustad Sultan Khan.  His interest towards jazz led him to Berkley School of Music. In between he formed a rock band named Chakraview, and later teamed up with Ashutosh Pathak to form Smoke Studios, composing music for ads and alternative movies which included small-time movies like Bombay Boys, White Noise etc. He also released an album called Smoke with Ashutosh Phatak which received considerable airplay on MTV and Channel V. Dhruv then went solo into music composition and grabbed the spotlight when he composed some memorable music for the utterly forgettable movie, Drona. Dhruv also runs an establishment called Blue Frog, which is a studio, a performance club and a production house all rolled into one.

Dhruv’s command over both jazz music and classical music makes his fusion songs a delectable experience for aficionados. The same can be said about Distance, which is a world/fusion music disc with jazz and Indian classical overtones. The songs grab one’s attention through some slick guitar work. You can hear snippets of the tracks at his Myspace page. You can also listen to bits of other works of Dhruv on his second myspace page. It will be interesting to see how far this man traverses along the path of Indo-jazz fusion trodden by greats like John McLaughlin and Louiz Banks.

After a splendid show in Luck By Chance, the musical trio of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa have returned with the score for the new horror flick 13B. Considering the fate of horror movies in Bollywood of late (barring Raaz 2 to an extent), how this Hindi-Tamil bilingual movie fares in the box office will have to be seen. Whatever the case may be, music lovers can be relieved that the music section has not been a let down, having come from the reliable composers. Here is Music Aloud’s take on the soundtrack.

Sab Khairiyat Hai
A pleasant number kicking off the playlist, well delivered by Shankar Mahadevan on the vocals. The song starts off on a country-ish note before drifting off. The motif played on harmonica has been the one of the highlights of the song. Unfortunately the song is too short to have enough of, lasting just under 2 minutes. Quite surprisingly you see the remix version of the song to be twice as long, over 4 minutes. But on listening you find that the length is only due to the elaboration of the interludes. The remix has been done well by Gulraj Singh, adding a slight rock feel to the song. Following this up with Gulraj’s previous work, namely the breakbeat version of the Johnny Gaddar title song starting with the famous lines “Johnny Mera Naam”, there is surely much more to expect from this man!

Bade Se Shehar Mein
A song exhibiting Rahmanesque elements owing to its instrumentation and mood reminiscent of numbers like Dekho Na from Swades, the song is nevertheless the pick of the album. The song has been splendidly rendered by Karthik, who is an established singer in the South. First Behka in Ghajini and now this. It is heartening to see Karthik finally getting his due in Bollywood from being just a member of the chorus or one among four to five singers singing a singles. And if other music directors are really listening to these tracks, then this man should go a long way in Bollywood.

Aasma Odh Kar
Listening to the song, one wonders if it has been primarily designed keeping in mind the Tamil version, going by the Southie feel to it, classical tinge and all. And the vocals department has been put in the safe hands of Shankar Mahadevan and Chitra. The best part of the song according to me is in the antara (second stanza) where Shankar starts off on a classical note with tabla for accompaniment and suddenly there is a switch in mode when Chitra starts singing Mushkil Badi.. The effect has been superb! Shankar had tried a similar thing in Sapnon Se Bhare Naina from Luck By Chance, switching from minimal accompaniments in one line to heavy instrumentation in the next line, with excellent results there too. Coming back to this song, Gulraj Singh again displays his flair wdith an excellent remix, slightly jazzing up the song. Especially praiseworthy are his improvisations using violins.

Oh Sexy Mama
Baba Sehgal returns after a long hiatus (or so I feel; if there was any of his works in between they obviously weren’t worth close attention) to render this number having a trance-like feel. Anoushka Manchanda, the ex-Viva girl, pairs up well with Baba. Her voice is well-suited for such songs as has been seen in the past with songs like Golmaal and she does perfect justice to the song. However the song falls below expectations considering that this was the most hyped song of the album. The remix has been done by DJ Shane as befits a song of this type, but there wasn’t much left for him to do considering that the original already had its share of electronic elements in it.

Theme
Guess the theme is extracted from the BGM of the movie as this has been credited to Tubby-Parik who have done the background score for the movie. The brothers exhibit a good knowledge of western music in this heavily orchestrated track with an excellent chorus. The track conveys the horror mood very effectively, which hopefully will be reflected in their background score for the whole movie as well.
For those who do not know much about the pair, Indrajit “Tubby” Sharma and Parikshit “Parik” Sharma have been into music arranging and producing since early 2000 and have a handful of popular movies and albums to their credit. This year they also moved into full scale music direction with 42 kms. I haven’t had a chance yet to listen to that album, but if this theme song is anything to go by, that album has to be checked out for sure. More details about the duo can be found at www.tubbyparik.com.

Though 13B may not be as good as Luck By Chance or many other past works of SEL, the album can nevertheless be termed a decent offering from the trio. Which is more than enough coz for all you know the songs might well be wasted in the movie, the movie’s genre being of such a type. I am still reeling from the shock due to what can be termed the “annihilation” of one of the best songs from SEL, Tere Naina, in Chandni Chowk To China. Only about 1 minute of the entire song appeared in the movie and on seeing the picturization one felt that it would have been better had the song not appeared in the movie at all! The director deserved a lynching for such a criminal act! I sincerely hope that such a fate does not befall this album or any future works from arguably the best music directors in Bollywood today after ARR.

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