- Nagendra S

The Coke Studio fever hit us when were studying at IIM Lucknow, sometime in the second year. The show was on air in MTV Pakistan and it was one show that we music aficionados in India craved for. The idea was simple: get a bunch of talented musicians together, ask them to create awesome music and air the whole thing in a studio setting. Some of the best talent on the various instruments were the common factor while multiple lead artists shared stage.

The best part about the whole package was that it brought together the traditional and modern genres together brilliantly. Sufi music is traditional to Pakistan and has inspired many a band earlier (remember the classic Sayonee from the band Junoon?). In the Coke Studio format though, it gave the Sufi artists the opportunity to share the stage with new-age artists, thus enhancing the effect even more.

My favourites from this format are: Aik Alif and Alif Allah (youtube links provided below). Aik Alif was played so many times on our speakers that neighbours in our hostel blocks thought we had gone crazy.

Anyway, back to India now. Guess there was a huge pent up demand for such a show in our country. The comments on the youtube videos voiced this repeatedly. So, it was only time before the show took shape in here as well. And the folks at MTV have responded! Yes, the good news is that the show will be on air sometime next month on MTV at a prime slot. The clamouring of lakhs of Indians has finally been satisfied!

MTV was eager to get some fan following and publicity before the show and towards this had invited the press (ahem, some bloggers and tweeters essentially) to the recordings of the show so that they could generate some buzz. The Facebook page has already been a huge success and inching towards the 15000 fan mark! According to Nikhil Taneja (many thanks to him, more later), who handled the press (ahem, again) at the recording, all this has been a completely organic fan build up and they have not spent any major monies on this. Remarkable considering that the fan page has been up for a few weeks only now!

The Experience:

Finally, now to the actual experience at the MTV recording studio in Mumbai. The studio is in a rather remote setting, somewhere off Malad and getting there was quite a ride.

Once there, we were escorted to the actual set where the recording was being conducted. To see the lit-up Coke Studio background and the set with all the musical instruments stacked orderly was a visual treat. We had only seen the photos on Facebook and this was a real wow moment.

Completely unaware who was recording that day, we trudged along taking some random pics around the stage. The crew and artists were on a break and we used this time to look around the place. The set is truly well designed and reflects the spirit of music perfectly.A centre pedestal with couple of chairs flanked by a circular setting of instruments on either side. The Coke Studio symbol formed the background for the pedestal. The strings (read guitars and bass) along with the back-up vocals on the left; the percussion and the harmony vocals on the right. All this of course from the viewer’s perspective. Reverse the same for the artist’s perspective.  There are some nice musical instruments inlaid into the pictures on the walls with soft lighting in the back. Wonderfully done!

Soon we discovered that the artists of the day were none other than the legendary Colonial Cousins! The one and only Hariharan made a brief appearance before disappearing into the rehearsal area. We could hear him train the back-up vocalists and the harmony vocals to the smallest detail. The man is gifted with such a smooth voice! Though I have had the opportunity to hear him live, hearing him live (read without any mic / amps / speakers) was heavenly!

Leslie Lewis was moving around with his characteristic braid. Leslie also happens to be the music producer for the show (the equivalent of Rohail Hyatt). Leslie has also composed most of the originals that are on air. The other major artists were Benny Dayal, Suzanne (both famous post success of Slumdog) and the ever smiling Kavita Seth. Such an array of artists and we were waiting for the first take. Since this is a television show, there was as much emphasis on the video aspects as on the audio. A total of 8 cameras were operating in unison to create some exquisite transitions.

Back to the music: the composition was by Leslie and was set to a soft tune. The wordings were sprinkled with ‘Rama, Rama, Krishna, Krishna’ and reminded of the good old ‘Krishna nee’ rendering by the Colonial Cousins. The best part of the composition were the ‘swaras’, in true Carnatic style that were subtly interspersed with rest of the song. The fact that Hariharan was singing them in his brilliant soothing voice made it even better. The song transitioned between Hari, Leslie, Kavita, Benny and Suzanne smoothly and was lingering in my head a long time after I left the studio. The song was shot thrice with the third attempt being the final cut. To finish the day on a high-note (pun intended), we heard the third take direct from the mixer with some studio quality headphones. Boy-o-boy, that was one amazing experience! We could not help but close our eyes and enjoy the soulful music. The sparse audience heard with rapt attention. On completion of the song, the artists were given a standing ovation and it took some time before the applause subsided.

On a scale of musical awesomeness, this was second only to hearing AR Rahman live. Only this time it was in a closed environment with headphones on!

And as for the inevitable comparison to the Pakistani version, there is no doubt that this is going to be equally good. The line up of artists is equally good, the accompanying artists are up there too. The studio set is well designed and the music production team has some great names. The show itself is produced by Idiotbox, the television arm of Red Chillies, another big name. There is no doubt that this is going to be a revelation for the music audience in India.

PS: A special thank to Nikhil Taneja from Viacom who organised the whole event and organised for quick photo shoots. A couple of them have been uploaded for a real-life feel of the studio!

(The author is a good friend and batchmate from IIML, currently working with Mahindra and Mahindra. You can visit his blog here, and he is available on twitter as @nagendra_s)

I asked a couple of my friends if they would like to accompany me for the Rekha Bharadwaj concert happening as a part of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. Their reply was “Who is Rekha Bhardwaj?” I felt like smashing their heads out. Dejected, and not to keen about forcing people to come for this (this was her second concert I was attending and the first one, where I had dragged someone, was a bit disappointing). After the first experience even I was a bit confused if I should go for this one but Vipin convinced me to give it a shot. And how I would like to thank him for that!

The Asiatic Library steps are the perfect venue for a small concert. I was expecting a small crowd especially after seeing the ignorance of my most knowledgeable friends. When I reached the venue a dance show was on and about 3000 people attending it. I expected the crowd to ebb after the dance show but I was so wrong.

So Rekha’s band took the stage after the dance show and I was delighted to see a percussionist (dholak, djembe, etc.) as the fifth band member. The sound system was much better than the one at the Bandra Festival. So far, so good. Holding on to the Indian tradition, she began her concert invoking the Gods with a lovely melody titled “Zikr” and it set the tone for the concert. Her voice was sweet as ever and she was hitting every note perfectly. The crowd loved it.

Now it is difficult to hold a motley crowd of thousands of people with sufi songs that not many have heard before. A significant section of this crowd however, seemed to know it’s music and even the others were very well-behaved and appreciative. The first song of her own that she sang on stage was “Tere Ishq Mein” from Ishqa Ishqa, a song that is still buzzing in my head. I had heard the song just before going for the concert and it sounded ordinary, but hearing it live was something else. It sounded just perfect. “Jogiya” was another nice sufi-rock song from Ishqa Ishqa. A cover of “Tere Bin Nahi Lagda” by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan followed. I was there the first time she had tried this on stage and let us just say I did not like it. But this was a million times better. She was singing it within her range and gave it her own flavor making it very enjoyable. She finished the sufi line-up with “Raat Ki Jogan” which she claims is her favourite song from the album and quite rightly so. (Just to make fans jealous, by this point Vishal Bharadwaj had joined the concert).

Then came the Bollywood songs and the crowd was on its toes. I missed the Indian instruments and Suresh Wadkar in “Raat Ke Dhai Baje”. The song nevertheless had the crowd dancing. With all its electronic processing, “Genda Phool” is not easy to imitate live. However, the band did an amazing improvisation with jazz-like solos on the guitar and keyboard. “Ab Mujhe Koi” does justice to her voice and is done with minimal and instruments. So it sounded exactly like the original (there is no point in adding that I enjoyed it). And then came the highlight of the evening. “Darling” being performed live for the first time. Although not the same without Usha Uthup and the ensemble of instruments, she made it enjoyable with her typical rendition. With time left for only one more song, it had to be “Namak”. Another song that had disappointed me last time but today Rekha was in her element thus nailing the song.

Rekha Bhardwaj can probably never have concerts like Sonu Nigam or Sunidhi Chauhan because of the limited number of songs that she does but watching her on stage is a different experience. She is extremely innocent even on stage and that flows through her voice. She was quite overwhelmed by the crowd response and was expressing that through her fluent Urdu time and again. I just hope someday I get to listen to her playing with a lot more instruments and “Beedo”, “Ranaji” and “Badi Dheere Jali ” as well.

Photos Courtesy: Yatin Khanwalkar and Aditya Rotti

Ajay Parasuraman

I know I promised that the next post would be on Ragas but there was a concert review in the pipeline as well. So, this comes before that.

Due to travel issues and budget constraints, I was forced to stay out of T.M Krishna and Sangeetha Sivakumar‘s concert at Narada Gana Sabha. While strolling aimlessly, I chanced upon one other concert which was supposed to be happening at one of the closest venues from my home – one of Sudha Raghunathan(more likely to be identified with this song), which was held as a part of the 75th Avatara Mahotsavam of Sri Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal at Krishna Gana Sabha on 19th July 2010. The audience — with grey-haired men and women all around, I was probably the only one who brought down the average age of people present there, which was about 55 — were made to wait for about half-an-hour from the scheduled start during which the chief guest, Sri Sri Jayendra Swamigal, made his way through to the stage amidst loud chants of ‘Jaya Jaya Shankara, Hara Hara Shankara’ and variations of the same.

The mini-concert (as it wasn’t an actual full-fledged concert as such) started off with a piece popularized by M.S Subbulakshmi in her times — a shloka on Dakshinamoorthy. Then, she sang the very popular Muthuswamy Dikshithar kriti Vatapi in the Raga Hamsadhwani. The song as you know is in praise of Lord Ganesha and usually, it sets the pace for the rest of the concert to follow. Blame it on the audio system or the constantly murmuring crowd, the performance didn’t live up to expectations. Sudha lacked her usual ferocity as she delivered the sangatis with effort. Her usually vibrant voice refused to abide by her wishes. I frankly felt like the adjudicator at one of the High School Carnatic competitions.

Then she started off singing the anupallavi of the Thyagaraja composition Mokshamu Galadha in the Raga Saramati — Now, I’m opposed to such antics as singing the composition from the last and moving on to the start of it. Picture a composition in praise of Rama that starts off with Hanuman landing in Lanka and ends with Rama’s Pattabhishekam. How would it be if one sung the Pattabhishekam first and then of Sita being held captive in Lanka. The entire intended meaning of a song is reversed. In any case, I’ll let that one go by for now.

The mini-concert took a ‘mini’ break for an hour or so, and we were treated to a very enlightening discourse by Kanchi Periyavaa himself! The concert resumed as soon as the related festivities were done with. The second-half, so to say, began with Mamavatu Sri Saraswati in the Raga Hindolam. Then, the evergreen song extremely popular at Navaratri concerts, Annapoorne Visalakshi in the Raga Sama was sung.

On the whole, we were treated to a lacklustre and mediocre performance from someone whose reputation ranks among the highest in their field. Sudha’s voice lacked the usual tenacity of sangati delivery and effortless brigas. The Chennai kutcheri crowd are among the most demanding and ardent rasikas there are. Did Sudha satisfy their palates? I don’t think so.

I know I promised that the next post would be on Ragas but there was a concert review in the pipeline as well. So, this comes before that.

Due to travel issues and budget constraints, I was forced to stay out of T.M Krishna and Sangeetha Sivakumar’s concert at Narada Gana Sabha. While strolling aimlessly, I chanced upon one other concert which was supposed to be happening at one of the closest venues from my home.

The pronites at IIM Lucknow’s Manfest 2010 saw a lot of delays and cancellations because of the foggy weather. However, the one thing that did beat the weather right on the first day was the rocking concert by India’s most well known rock band – Parikrama. This was the 5^th Parikrama concert I was attending and so I really did not expect much since I expected a similar line-up of songs as I had heard before. However, to my delightful surprise Parikrama has come up with a lot of original songs and their performance has become much better.

The concert began with one of their new compositions, In the middle, which has a very AC/DC like sound. Vaporize has a much more original sound with a lot of violin built into it. Rhythm and Blues was a refreshingly new sound by Parikrama. Their website tells me that the original song was recorded with Usha Uthup. I would like to see them performing live together sometime. Then came the first cover of the evening. It was Iron Maiden’s Trooper which was done quite well. At this point a special mention must be given to the new drummer Srijan Mahajan, without whom Parikrama could not have performed such songs. When vocalist Nitin Malik picked up the acoustic guitar, I was quite sure they are going to play their favourite song “Yellow”. However, the surprise continued as they played another original – Am I Dreaming, a song dedicated to Lord of the Rings. No rock concert is complete without a bit of profanity. It struck when Nitin explained the true meaning of the words “Load up”. This was followed by another LOTR inspired song – Tears of the Wizard. Unlike most of their other songs, this song has much more heavy metal touch to it.

The age of classic rock was then brought back as Parikrama played a medley of Pink Floyd songs followed by the Zeppelin classic “Stairway to Heaven”. Although couple of other amateur bands played “Another Brick in the Wall” that evening, Parikrama showed why it has been India’s most popular rock band as it gave a spectacular rendition of the song. The crowd went bonkers when guitarist Sonam Sherpa broke into the tune of “Saare Jahaan Se Accha” in the middle of the song.

Parikrama’s signature songs “But it Rained” and “Open Skies” were also well received by the crowd. If there is one member of the band who was most loved by the crowd, it has to be the violinist Imran Khan, who makes “Open Skies” the song that it is. Another original “Whiskey Blues” saw an amazing jam between violinist Imran Khan and Subir Malik on the keyboards. Listening back to the original, I think we all missed Shambhu Nath on the tabla. After another one of their originals, Screaming Town, Nitin announced that the last song would be a metal version of the Clapton classic – “Wonderful Tonight”. As much as I would have liked to hear it, they did not disappoint us by playing their own rendition of the rock anthem “Smoke on the Water”. And before Nitin could even say anything more, the crowd was already cheering for AC/DC. So the evening ended on a very high note (quite literally) with the AC/DC song – Highway to Hell.

The band members that did not find a mention above did not really go unnoticed. Bassist Chintan Kalra with all his tattoos is the true rock-star of the band. Saurabh Chaudhary on the guitar was probably the quietest face of the group but nevertheless did his job quiet well. One of the reason’s Parikrama has remained the most favourite band for rock show’s in India is because of the amazing chemistry the band members share with each other which is quite evident on the stage.

Parikrama brings a perfect combination of original compositions and covers to the stage. With a lot of non-rock instruments such as violin, mouth organ, tabla – the sound of their original compositions is extremely refreshing. Although they may not be my most favourite Indian rock band, Parikrama proved it yet again why they remain the most popular rock band for college fests!

The third day of Varchasva, the sports/cultural fest of IIML, had a totally musical bent to it, what with events like Antakshari, Blitzkrieg the rock competition (which was decisively and comprehensively won by our college band 3.4, thanks to an amazing performance!) and the insti party at the close of the day. But to me the high point of the day’s proceedings was the concert by Delhi-based music band called Faridkot. Though delayed quite a bit due to bad weather et al, the show finally turned out to be worth all the wait, with the band delivering an assortment of splendid tracks.
Faridkot had the crowd on its feet right from the word go, kicking off with the 1972 chartbuster Jaanejaa. Though nothing can quite match Panchamda’s classic arrangement and the rendition by Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhonsle, the band managed to produce a very engaging version of the song, adding elements of rock to it. Having got the audience’s attention, they proceeded onto one of their own comps, Haal-e-dil. A rock-flavoured track, the tune was definitely not their best, and stood out mainly owing to Inderpreet’s soaring vocals and Rajarshi’s leads. They then followed it up with a very endearing folk-rock song titled Mahi Ve, marked once again by Inderpreet’s superior rendition and Rajarshi’s dazzling solo. This was one song where I found Inderpreet to be really at home, his earthy voice finding a perfect match with the lyrics and the folksy tune. In a bid to display the diversity in their repertoire, the band subsequently dished out a well-executed bluesy track called Titliyaan, which they dedicated to all the girls in the crowd.

One of the best things I liked about the concert were the well-spaced breaks that Faridkot took from their own compositions, with a eclectic mix of movie songs, mostly retro classics. After Titliyaan they took another of those intermissions, producing a delightful medley out of the chartbuster twist song Aaja Aaja and Saamne Yeh Kaun Aaya. After that it was back to their songs, starting with Jashn, a sufi rock-ish song with dark overtones. Sufi songs almost always make for a good listen and even in this case the effect was the same, if not better – the philosophical lyrics, the doleful tune et al. And after another likable track called Meherbaan, the band decided to pay a tribute to the sufi God Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, rendering his Tere Bin Nahi Lagda to good effect. Again Inderpreet was able to do total justice to the rendition, the resemblance in the voice and the vocal style being the major contributing factors.

The band then introduced what they called their favourite song, Patjhad. And once the song started it wasn’t difficult to guess why so, everything from the haunting motif to the drum rolls to the synth conspiring to create an instant winner. What followed was one of the two tracks of Faridkot I have heard in the past, Madho. The folk-classical-rock mix of this song and the arrangement in general often remind me of songs from Life In a Metro, especially In Dino. May it be noted here that I am not talking of a plagiaristic sort of resemblance, and therefore am taking no credits off the band for this wonderful song. Next in line was another yesteryear tribute, this time again a Pancham track, Dil Lena Khel Hai.

One of the best songs of Lucky Ali ever made is his 1997 track called Anjaani Raahon Mein portraying a nomadic guy going around trying to find a new meaning to life. A similar sort of mood was evoked in the next track of Faridkot which was aptly named Banjare. The mellow instrumentation and the soft crooning by Inderpreet did not constitute what you would call ideal rock concert material but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have such feel-good songs. If I were asked to choose my least liked song from the concert, that would be the song that came next, Khel Khel Mein, which in spite of its sufi and rock elements started sounding hackneyed after a bit. And the band signed off with the song audience had been asking for since the time the band came on to the stage, one of their most popular songs, Laila. The catchy “Laila.. Laila..” refrain had the entire crowd singing along.

Faridkot may well call themselves a “confused pop band”, but at least in terms of producing good music they don’t seem to be facing a confusion! Its a pity they ended runners up on Channel V Launch Pad, or we would have got to see all these songs in the stores already. And it was also saddening to see them sing all those wonderful tracks to a rather sparse crowd, the rains doing a fat lot of help in delaying the proceedings, thereby turning off a lot of people who would otherwise have attended. In any case, here is wishing that Faridkot make it big on the musical scene soon enough.  Below we provide a couple of videos from another of their concerts.

PS: Since I mentioned just two of the members by name, an intro of the band members: Faridkot is comprised of Inderpreet Singh on vocals, Akshay Raheja on synth, Gavin Pacheco on bass, Rajarshi Sanyal on lead and Reuben Narain on the drums. You can read more about the band here.

Lounge Piranhas performing at a Bangalore lounge.

Lounge Piranhas is a band which gives me feeling that I will be able to tell my grandchildren that I used to listen to Lounge Piranhas when they used to perform in pubs and sell their own CDs. This is a 4 piece Bangalore band formed in 2005 and can be called an alternative/punk band. They are the coolest Indian alternative rock outfit I have seen. They have a distinctive  and very trippy sound.  They are very adept in fusing of different genres of rock and roll. And what more, they have a didgeridoo and morsing player who appears as a guest in some tracks.

I had been waiting for a Lounge Piranha gig for a while. Last Wednesday, there were playing at a pub near my place and I  decided not to give it a miss. I was there at the venue pretty early, as last time I reached for a LP gig a month late! But then that’s a different story all together.

LP started with a track called Going Nowhere, which is also the name of their album. It is also the first track in the album. Its almost an instrumental piece with a very prominent base line and has a very psychedelic feel to it. There is a didgeridoo sound hovering around and some atmospheric sounds of a radio slightly out of tune. The rhythm guitar reminds me of a Floyd song, but it is the lead guitar which gives the song a Piranha touch. It keeps singing, it’s neither wailing or moaning, Abhijeet Tambe’s guitar kind of sings, that makes Abhijeet a singer with two voices. Later the song loses its Floyd touch, that’s when the lyrics begin and slowly catches tempo and ends in a high note.

After this I lost track of the song order, but I bought a CD after the gig. This review is a based on the songs on the CD. The next track on the CD is called Gun Song. Its my favorite track of the album and will get you banging your head, Kamal Singh (the other guitarist and vocalist and lyricist of most of the songs) voice is at it’s best in this song. The main riff of the song is what makes the song really cool, it has that thing which makes you like a song in the first listen, that magical combination of musical notes.  This song kind of defines the Lounge Piranha sound for me, a cocktail of alternative, punk, grunge and post grunge rock.

The next song is called Snakes and Lotuses. It seemed to me that there is an Indian influence to this song but that was an illusion created by the morsing and the guitar. LP tries to write thought provoking lyrics,  this songs lyrics contains words like emancipate and nauseate and goes to say that “this world is so un-required”

Next song was my favorite LP before I listened to Gun Song. It’s called Ebb and it’s a beautiful song with a nice rhythm. It goes like this “Sugar sweet with a taste of bitter, I couldn’t ask for more!”. This a song which you can sing along. I am pretty bad at decoding lyrics, I need a Wikipedia page to understand song meanings, which sadly doesn’t exist for these LP songs. But that day will come for sure. LP often performs in small venues and is known to do surprise covers and often treats you with some new songs. They did play some new songs at the gig I attended, there was this song on a MES college in Malleswaram and another one on Bajrang Bali, this one was almost a protest song.  The new songs were a bit louder and more of a pop-punk style.

The next song is called Eclat and is a pretty interesting track with a beat which keeps on changing. The next song called Teenage Curse is the most serious song of the album, I mean, the mood of the song is gloomy and serious. The last song of the album is called Hand Hole, its a favorite of mine. I like that part when LP says “Explode, justify, make known! Intensify”

LP’s CD has got the best album art I have seen on an Indian CD, George Mathen the drummer of the band is also an artist, all what you get to see on the album as well as the site is his handiwork. He will be releasing a graphic novel shortly. LP has a fantastic website, all designed by Mr. Mathen I believe, it’s worth a visit. There are some songs available for download as well.

Lounge Piranha is a band waiting to explode and made known. If you are alternative rock kind of person,  and love your Floyd and Coldplay and Radiohead. Go and buy a copy of “Going Nowhere”, you won’t be disappointed.

The newly re-grouped  Brit alt rockers, Blur was the final act at Glastonbury 2009. The band played an impressive set with hit songs like “She’s so high”, “Girls and Boys”, “Tender”, “Song 2″ and “Parklife”. The band is warming up for their Hype Park concert on coming Thursday and Friday.

Here is a fan video. Unfortunately it doesnt have the full song though.