The Score Magazine, April 2013

ISSN 0974 – 9128

Vol 06 Issue 04 - April 2013

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India's National Pan-Genre Music MagazinE

celebrate the

60th national award with

MUSIK LOUNGE and its winning

sound teams!

Modi Digital’s

BAND OF THE MONTH

COVER STORY

THERMAL & ABasking QUARTER in the

NORAH JONES VASUDHA SHARMA

3 wheels of their 9 lives

aat powers

QUIRKS n queries

On the precious moments that made her whole as she tours India

As she relives her experience at the wake of her crowd funded album

Celebrate Record Store Day and take an informed stance for the Independent Indian music scene. Up for the challenge?

contact us on

the edit PAD Strategy and Planning Ajay Prabhakar Director, Business Development Pragash VM Editor-in-Chief Nikila Srinivasan Associate Editor Supriya Talupuru Marketing Manager Sneha Ramesh Regional Marketing Manager, BLR Subikka GS Creative Director George Vedamanickam Lead Designer

i

ndia is now officially the land of overpriced festivals, monopolies and concerts.

With growing pockets, should come better experience and better entertainment. But what we are seeing is lack lustre implementations and a real lack of competition. Frankly, upping the game in India needs infinite patience and time. You cannot raise start-up funding for disruptive innovation in the entertainment arena all too easily; it’s a risky segment.

It’s important to remember some of the biggest names in the industry today have made commercial viability possible by “sticking to it” for donkeys years. Any reasonably smart upstart wouldn’t wait so long to make it in any industry. He or she would choose to move on, and “make money” and have a “career”.

The days ahead don’t look so bright and I fear the eco-system might collapse before it was ever born. It won’t take a nano-second for a radio producer to decide he has “had enough” and play Bollywood/ mainstream pop instead.

The solution? Fund music upstarts. Of all orders. Make it easy to raise investments and go gung-ho on the innovation. We’ll up the game for everyone. We’ll make the biggies scream and shout in their pants. We’ll delight customers and get the fan girls squealing.

Am I hoping for the clouds? Perhaps. But if there is a sky-fall, I wouldn’t want to wait forever and see it come down in slow motion.

Godspeed.

ajay prabhakar Strategy and Planning

Vaishali Menon Content Support Shresht Poddar

brand partners

Photography Venkat Balaji ScoreNight Photography Steevez Rodriguez Praveen Zaiyan Praveen Leo

subscribe to us at http://scorem.ag/buy-subscribe DISCLAIMER: Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photography or illustrations without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs and illustrations. Views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publication and accordingly no liability is assumed by the publisher thereof. Advertising copy and artworks are the sole responsibility of the advertisers. http://www.motherteresafoundation.org.in The Score Magazine is proud to support the Mother Teresa Foundation and urge our readers to join us in giving back a fraction of what we have been given.

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“The Score Magazine” is wholly owned and published by Registered Office: 38/23, Venkatesa Agraharam, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004.

i nside

cover story: norah jones

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On the odd things that makes her music, her family and the biggest lessons in life

bally sagoo

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26 MODI DIGITAL’s Band of the Month

Thermal and a Quarter: A lot can happen over a TAAQ. Don’t believe us? Check out our interview with them!

From Hanji to Fututre Shock. Bally gives us the un-remixed version.

Scores of bollywood

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We give you the low down on scores desi style.

Quirks & Queries POWERED BY AaT

Indie music, with love from 1980

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With Vasuda Sharma (This little book of walking talking musical knowledge gives us her top quirks).

fest focus : Mahashivarathri

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This time music takes us to the silent valley with big sounds.

Carnatic segment

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No need to bother good ol’Jeeves when there’s an app for it!

INDIE review

In the land of Indian Rock, we take a check on where things stand.

Salman ahmad: thompsun music house star of the month 38

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Slave to all things new and musical? We bring you all the albums that are in right now.

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The Junoon star talks about Led Zep,his ideals and the music that makes him.

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It takes a while to amass all the music in the world – there’s a lot of it. I think as you get older you just keep learning new things, and I’ve certainly done that!

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vishal shah supriya tulupuru

Coming from and excelling in two vastly diverse backgrounds, there must have been a world of experiments when Anoushka and you sit down to play music. What is it like working together?

We actually did so this month and it was much more intense than our previous sessions – it was more involved this time so it was really nice. I think being sisters, that’s the whole reason we’re working together even though we admire each other’s music – sort of wanting to work together is partly because we’re family. I think it brings us closer – I understand where she’s coming from and she understands where I’m coming from, even though we play very different styles. It’s an interesting family story.

Ever since your first India tour was announced, the excitement here has been viral. Everyone’s been asking just one question: Why haven’t we seen you prior to this?

I’m excited to come. It’s also bittersweet because my Dad just passed away. He always wanted me to play here. It’s always just been a matter of timing and adding on to tours.

It’s just never worked out in the past. I’m usually so tired by the end of the tour that I never want to add the faraway places. It’s very sad that he’s gone now, but he was very excited that I was going to be playing in India.

How familiar are you with the works of Indian musicians? Do you have any personal favourites?

I’m mostly familiar with my dad and sister. They’re my personal favourites. I’ve heard a lot of music from them over the past few years that I love. I have a really great old Bollywood soundtrack compilation that I listen to sometimes. I do love that old Bollywood music which I think is so good.

What music would you say made the biggest impression on you while you were growing up?

Probably the music of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson and stuff like that. I didn’t get into jazz until high

school. That did end up playing a huge role in the music that has influenced me. In college, I got into Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.

A lot of Indians feel connected to you because of your family background. Your success brings a sense of pride. What is your connection to India, its music and its culture?

I think it’s very sweet that people feel a sense of pride because of my nationality. I’m excited to come to India and feel that kinship with the audience. I hope that we have a good time, you know. It’s very interesting to me and about me personally.

What influences has your father had on your music or on your approach to music?

You know, I don’t know. I don’t know if could put it into words. I know that the kind of music I make doesn’t sound very Indian, so there’s that, but there’s all kinds of little things – the phrasing, and melodies that I’m sure has influenced me along the way.

What is the one biggest lesson you’ve learnt from your father?

Just that music keeps you young, y’know. He was still performing till the end of his life and I think that’s what kept him going – staying active and staying artistic, if you’re able physically. Even if you’re not physically able, to keep your mind going. I think that’s why he lived to such a wonderful old age of 92.

What’s coming up for you in the immediate future?

Could you tell us a little about your upcoming projects?

After the tour in India, I’m going to have some time off. I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I’m just excited to have no plans for a while!

nection, n o c i s e d s the obviou f o ere when e it w p e s w in s n a e India. Ev ed. Same t h in g s li en of e e n id d o a e J m r h o g a r m in o il e N the begu couldn’t b o t s s r y staying o e r h v c w O a . d r ll e n a h a s s n h g a f dom thin erview wit n t a r in e is it h r t u d o we ha t her fav u o age. b a ld s o e r o t n e y g a w le multip onderful w t s o m e th artistic is

s e n o j h a r o n The

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8 awesome

things about the

A lot of these points highlight the event organization by OML, which quite frankly, played a big, big part in making the concert a huge success. Kudos to their team!

Bangalore gig: 1 2 3

The gig started bang on time at 8.30pm. Considering the far off location of the venue from the city, a lot of people would have been glad the show got over by 10.

The stage was astounding. A sea of purple and blue lights added a touch of grandeur with big origami cranes with lights in them hanging from the ceiling.

The band. Even those who came just for Norah Jones couldn’t

not notice the rest of the band. The guitarist with all of hairraising solos and folksy tunes up his arms, the drummer with his varied use of percussion instruments, the keyboardist and the bassist were a bunch of superb musicians themselves.

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The food stalls. None too cheap, none too rich. Snacks

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The people. It was the kinda crowd a performer would love

like burgers, sandwiches, noodles and rolls could keep you munching while enjoying the show, besides being delicious too.

Oh, and the chocolate mousses and blueberry cheese cakes were an absolute delight!

to sing to. They knew all the lyrics, they chorused at the right times and they even waved elegantly and in perfect sync; in short, a perfect crowd. Not bad for the heavy metal capital of India!

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The arena. The space was really quite proportionate to the

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Why? Norah Jones of course! She is a beautiful lady, a high

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crowd size. There were zero hassles, the beer and food counters were well served at, the staff very polite, the loos pretty clean and there were even ‘Watch Your Step’ stickers at the really bumpy parts of the ground. In my opinion, a splendid job by the OML team. calibre performer with the most sensuous jazz voice and a smile that (believe me, I kept track) livened up the crowd and evoked cheers each time it appeared on her face. Come back Norah, come back sooner next time!

The Bangalore gig took place on a Friday. I’d like to do a little Chandler here and say ‘Could there BE a better way to usher in the weekend?’

timeline 10

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1996 : Norah wins the Down Beat

Student Music Awards for best jazz second vocalist. Next year, she earns the writing best jazz vocalist award. She starts the tripwith songs and appears regularly hop band Wax Poetic.

2000 : She assembles her own group

and with Jesse Harris, Lee Alexander record Dan Rieser. The group goes on to and ds Recor some demos for Blue Note a jazz by d signe is subsequently, Norah label the next year.

2002 :Norah Jones debuts with Come-

Away With Me. The album goes multi all over and platinum, selling 18 million copies ing Best winning five Grammy Awards includ hit diamond New Artist for Jones. The album in 2005.

5is dnorah ifferent

reasons why

Although her voice takes to jazz and country far better than it does to rock music’s chords or melodies, it’s the way she sings it that makes listening to Norah Jones a fine experience. Five reasons you’d not find a Norah Jones easily:

1 2 3

She makes use of a combination of drops and brilliant falsettos while singing. You get to hear that in a lot of songs off ‘Little Broken Hearts’ as well as off her jazz albums. It is this that jolts you in case you get drifted away in the middle of the song!

Her music has a pleasant dreamy effect; that doesn’t mean it puts you to sleep.

The difference lies in her rendition of the lyrics, which is very smooth.

It generally takes more than a few listens for the songs to grow on you. Once you do that, you’ll be able to pick the perfect mood and setting to listen to them.

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5

Everyone loves a cheery and happy Norah single, but some of her darker singles like ‘Black’ and ‘Miriam’ are beautifully haunting. How’s that for variety!

nj’s hit list

Court Spark Jones keeps it really simple and gracious most of the times – be it her attire, her communication with the crowd or her music. Makes for a visual treat, her live performances!

Man Of The Hour Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet Jones Baby, It’s Cold Outside Virginia Moon Sinkin’ Soon Life is Better

2004 :Jones releases a follow-up

. country album, the Feels Like Home n The album sells more than one millio US. copies in its first week in the

Until the End

2007 : Jones makes her film

debut in Wong Kar Wai’s ‘My Blueberry Nights’ alongside Jude Law and Natalie Portman.

2010 : Jones releases …Featuring,

a compilation album which has her Charles, collaborating with the likes of Ray e Hancock, Foo Fighters, Dolly Parton, Herbi does M. Ward among others. She also Mouse’s vocals on some tracks for Danger (aka Brian Burton) project.

2012 In turn, Brian Burton produces

’ fifth and co-writes the songs on Jones s. The studio album, Little Broken Heart ly, but album does not do well commercial is appreciated by music critics.

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“

Monojit Datta

I thank almighty God for this. I have worked very hard all my life and I am extremely happy to be part of Meinl family. In my experience, Meinl is one of the best companies in the world.

(On being a part of the Meinl Family as a Meinl Endorsee)

An inspiration for almost every musician in Kolkatta, Monojit Datta is a percussionist extraordinaire, equally at home playing the flute, clarinet, keyboards and guitar.

He had a dream of playing authentic Latin music, which he nurtured even while playing for rock bands such as Shiva and world music outfit D for Brother, with his brother, guitar virtuoso Amyt Datta. The dream came true in the form of his band The Orient Express where he has handpicked all the musicians in the band. He has trained them to become sensitive, talented and energetic contemporary musicians playing authentic Latin music.

He has played with stalwarts such as Louis Banks, Ranjit Barrot and Remo Fernandes and has been awarded the Surendra Paul Award for Excellence.

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1. Tell us about your Meinl set up and why it works for you?

I have a traditional Latin setup since I am a Latin percussionist. I play the Marathon Designer Congas by Meinl. It has a very rich sound and I am very happy with this set up.

2. Your first Latin project “Orient Express” tell us a little about this project ?

Orient Express is India’s 1st authentic Latin band formed in 1997 covering styles like Cumbia Merengue, Son Montuno, Cha Cha Cha and so on. We have been a part of SOMEPLACE in Kolkatta for many years now performing week in week out. The idea is to spread awareness about Latin music all over our country in the years to come.

3. You are the visionary behind “Let the river flow” project. Could you tell us about this concept?

This is a project to let people know about the rich tradition of Latin and Jazz music and also about its evolution. In this project, I get to showcase its influence on other forms of music by demonstrating the art form itself. I also use this platform to highlight some of my talented students.

4. Tell us the musicians or bands that have had a huge impact on you and have influenced you?

Great question! Many blessed musicians have influenced me. When I was a boy I heard Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Xavier Cugat, Buddy Rich, Pepe Jaramillo, Stan Getz. Then, I went on to listen to greats like Poncho Sanchez, Mongo Santa Maria, Giovanni Hidalgo, Orlando Poleo and many more.

5. Your advice to young upcoming percussion players?

Develop the sense of respect and be aware of cultures and discipline. Build your character and work hard: this is what I can say in few words.

6. What are your musical plans for the future?

THE ULTIMATE SELECTION We are proud to offer a wide assortment of high quality percussion instruments for players all around the world regardless of age, playing skills, or economic background. Since our formation, our main objective has been to offer percussion instruments which comply with the highest quality levels regarding manufacturing and materials used. Only by committing to the highest standards, we can guarantee top quality instruments, the maximum of playing comfort, the best possible sound and a long lasting customer fulfilment.

Over the last 25 years, MEINL has created a niche in matching a variety of instruments to the right customers. A well thought out assortment driven by trend setting ideas and a large array of vivid colors is what MEINL stands for.

I am very grateful to Meinl and friends like Bhargavas Musik. I want to give it my best and spread the message of Latin jazz.

MEINL percussions imported by Bhargava’s Musik.

Available in all leading stores across the country. meinlpercussion.com & facebook.com/meinlpercussionfanpage | www.bhargavasmusik.com

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iNDIE MUSIC, With love from 1980.

Be it politics or music, culture rules our country’s every sector.

Indian music today stands sound on a foundation laid over 2000 years ago in the Vedic age. Since then, various civilizations defined and redefined musical revolutions to suit their traditional tastes. With this article, we take a curious walk along the indiescape of Indian Rock.

The climb, in quotation With a Bollywood obsessed mid-twentieth century, acceptance and thus transformation of tastes from the same to indie music and thereon from classic covers to indigenous numbers was a task well handled by arguably one of the pioneers of Indian Rock, The Rock Machine (re-christened as Indus Creed) who hit stages in 1984.

Apart from a tenuous number of exceptional cases like Colonial cousins, Alisha Chinai and Daler Mehndi who Bollywoodized their authentic style, the major chunk of the then novice indie bands remained in their native stream to prove their stance of characterizing India’s own indie rock. The genre of a country’s music that was once delineated and went by the term Bollywood had now opened its arms to forms of Indian fusion: Vedic metal, Raga, Carnatic and Sufi rock. The boom of the century saw it’s parallel with the number of underground bands.

It may be due to high entertainment taxes in Mumbai or perhaps the climate generally, international bands seem to restrict their tours to the more traditional Bangalore with deviations to Delhi and Pune. Thus making the former

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cities dig deep for local bands and live performances. Everything has its own set of positives and in a way this regional imbalance has paved an alternative way for local bands to restore this devoid.

The fans and the ACs It would be half baked to talk about the contemporary music scene without the mention of colleges. Every dude with long wild hair, weird piercings ends up jamming with similar peeps, hoping for a Steely Dan or Hootie and the Blow Fish sort of musical journey from college to stages of fame. A few who believe in their music more than a hypothetical future make it big at least at present. Reuben Jacob of Clown With a Frown, a cross-collegiate band believes that experiments and experience sets in motion in campuses. “It’s almost a norm nowadays for every college to have its own label of Battle of the Bands”. As these stages are our firsts, it provides us that extra push to get together and play some great music. In terms of the bigger platforms outside of college, they provide upcoming bands with the exposure

aishwarya tilak

they much deserve to get their music out there, thereby bridging the gap between them and their fans. Indeed, the gig culture has gone to an all new level with the advent of music festivals like NH7, Freedom Jam and M.A.D or weekly gigs like our very own ScoreNights, each of which boasts of a faithful fan base.

ways

to be more Indie

The shine on your Indie The icing on the cake being the onset of E-music. With the internet storming a revolution in all spheres of life, the music industry too lags nowhere behind and has led to a number of on stream stores and even stages such as EarthSync’s IndiEarth. Sonya Mazumdar, Director, EarthSync, states, “It was set up to support and build industry infrastructure for India’s independent artists.

Given the challenges artists face to reach new and far away audiences, the online platform specifically provides for exposure to India’s creative content worldwide and world media to explore and discover non-mainstream music and film from India. As an independent label and production house, we struggled through the years, and now with hands-on experience, we are committed to supporting the independent industry.”

Except for the fact that the indie music is far from being an evanescent one, the future remains to be an eyeball of mystery.

It’s a two way traffic scheme between mainstream film music and its indie’s spitting image. Criticize Bollywood to whatever extent, but none can deny the exposure it provides to young indie bands.

Bollywood, on the flip side, in search of distant sounds looks forward to revolutionizing its taste to some extent. The slight slant of Bollywood towards indie music with local band Agnee composing the soundtrack for Aalaap and Siddarth Basrur sequencing Ghum Ghum Gaye from David proves its initial stages of doing so.

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2 4

Being “indie” is about having the ability to represent oneself in a way that highlights your uniqueness.

Cover all grounds of music: from The Jets to Ravi Shankar and pick the best along the way. Like B. B. King said: “We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you’re doing so.”

Indie music is collaborative.

If you are a musician, collaborate with bands of various genres. Especially the genres you don’t get. The idea is to create history. Be all Freddie Mercury about it.

Then, mail us the song.

Be the musical attorney that you seek. Indie music is all about causes: Never a dearth there. Go get the hands dirty and the voice sturdy.

What you scene is what you hear.

Never crown yourself with the Indie title. Too mainstream, anyway. Rather rise, ye strung countrymen.

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T hough I can’t put the traditional way of record labels against its contemporary counterpart of digitalization and online marketing, it is certain that the latter helps an artist to maintain his touch base with potential listeners in a more viable manner.

- Karthick Iyer, Carnatic violinist & vocalist.

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It is a common grumble that our rich culture in music tends to get sidestepped often.

We look deeper into the parlance to see where the independent variables stand in the film music industry.

FILM SCORE IS FILM MUSIC, RIGHT?

THE DOWNFALL

Let’s put it this way. A film soundtrack consists of all the songs and dialogues used in the film, whereas a score is practically anything that you hear in the film right from the moment it starts.

Even the silence in between accounts for part of the finished score. In this manner, a score is a piece of technicality that aids the narrative of a film, acting as a carrier for the continuous flow of images.

Needless to say, a good score is one that seamlessly falls into place with the visual imagery and incites the exact emotions from the audience that the situation depicts at that particular moment in the film – in short, a perfect audio-visual experience.

The advent of the 80s brought in Electronica within the reach of composers. Ergo, the introduction to a whole bunch of whacky electronic effects that could be created by twiddling the dials. In a way, it killed the simplicity that was sound and the minimalistic nature of film music. Part of it can also be advocated to the ‘action’ and ‘intense drama’ genre of films that took precedence in that period. A lot of the films made within these genres being largely commercial, were largely meant to be enjoyed in the cinema halls.

THE BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN FILM MUSIC

Within Bollywood, there were musicians who refused to get wound down by mass appeal and were constantly on the lookout for new sounds and music. The likes of Ilaiyaraja and A.R. Rahman have redefined film music for India. This could be mainly due to their exposure and appreciation of world music which shows richly in every score that they create.

Film scoring in India dates way back to the era of the silent film in the 1920s with the likes of Suresh Mane, Sawai Gandharva who popularised the Kirana gharana. This time was considered to be the golden period of the Indian cinema in the 1950-60s. It also had Satyajit Ray collaborating with the late Pandit Ravi Shanker for his epic Apu Trilogy. Also, Ray subsequently worked with Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ali Akbar Khan. He considered score to be intrinsic to the narrative of a film and music the best way to bring out emotions. So much so that after a while, he began composing music for his own films, like Chaplin used to and even featured solely as a composer for other feature films.

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CURRENT INDIAN FILMS AND MUSIC

With the tirade of nonsensical commercial films that are churned out by the hundreds every year, a background score has become a rarity, let alone a good one. However, there were exceptions then as they are now. The last decade has seen the rise of many new composers who are keen to experiment with the way music is used in film. Ranjit Barot, Ram Sampath, Amit Trivedi, to name a few, are musicians with a very top-down view of film music.

vishal shah

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOLLYWOOD AND MAINSTREAM BOLLYWOOD FILM MUSIC

Film composers in Hollywood as well as those in world cinema strictly follow a notational writing style of music. The range of genres is vast – symphony orchestra to jazz pieces and rock music to electronic effects, but it is arranged such that an ensemble is able to perform it. In Indian films, a live performance is restricted to the songs in the film and never to a background score. Thus, a full suite can be avoided to make way for little pieces of background music in bits and pieces throughout.

Length The Hollywood film scoring process involves composing one long suite which becomes the ‘crux’ of the story in sound followed by subsequent pieces which revolve around this primary theme. If you were to listen to the score separately, the result would be the same as watching the film without its dialogues or visuals. A Bollywood score is usually a single short piece called ‘theme music’, which only a select few composers keep, for that matter. However the major role is played by its soundtrack, which consists of songs sung by playback singers.

Market Hollywood releases its soundtrack and score separately. The musicians performing the ensemble are credited separately and appreciated at all award ceremonies. Interestingly, the Filmfare Awards in India did not have a Best Background Score category until 1997, which was 44 year after its inception in 1953.

It’s a different market here, with the songs being the mark of good film music.

Credit The opening credits for any film are devoted to the producers, director, cast primarily and only the major names in the technical fields. In Hollywood, a film scorer’s contribution is considered to be this vital as to have them credited in the beginning. Background score in Indian films generally takes a backseat with the score and soundtrack coming under the title of the music director, when in reality, they are often different aspects and handled by a different set of technicians altogether.

Now the composers who compose the background score find a special mention in the credits. It is a trend that began with magnificent gusto, lost its way in between and is now finding its voice again. All thanks to artists who break down film music to what it is at the very basic level – Sound.

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nilankur dutta

s a e m Co e r a you n’t o d : ad e r

In these very pages, we have bemoaned the death of certain genres and in line, seem to be doomed to suffer in mediocrity.

Is it because we have offered Lady Gaga the chance to drive around in a gold encrusted wheelchair or let Nicki Minaj do what she does? Angry murmuring or aloof observations: read on and decide for yourself.

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The million moments of yeaahh I went on the charts list to see if I am really right and hoping I’m not. I do this every week. Out of the first seven songs up there, four of them are always about your token pop diva wasted and running around the park naked. Two of those have the same four lines repeated over and over again. The last one is so avantgarde that the singer has not even felt the need to put words to the music, instead choosing to dwell in the safe ambiguity of ‘raahhs’ and ‘oolala’s.

The Dandy Warhols

have been around since 1994, they have eight studio albums. There’s even a movie about them and they perhaps make the best psychedelic rock in the whole world right now.

Take my word for it and you tube them, you’ll have something much better to listen to for the next two weeks. Yet to see them on the telly or hear them on the radio.

Also, what is it about a party that inspires us so much? We have musical icons who have made a career entirely out of going to parties. People do not want to sing about much else anymore.

People don’t want to listen to much else anymore. It’s not even like it’s instructive, you know? All I’ve learnt from those songs is that you must occasionally throw your hands up in the air and drop low. I’m still clueless at parties.

When I ask people why they listen to this kind of horrendous horsecrap (because make no mistake people do listen to it) they tell me because it’s good music to dance to. “You know, its music that you can turn off your mind to”.

People have been dancing to music for centuries without it losing its dignity and becoming mutated into the kind of ridiculous watereddown baby food that is now.

Mainstream Mug-rags Patrick Carney said in 2011 that ‘rock music is dying because people in the world are okay with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world.’ Which is a respectable sentiment, but right now the biggest artists (yeah, they’re not bands anymore, they’re artists) in the world just take old songs and add a recursive loop. Goes

without saying there has to be the million times they place their hands in nine o clock position and go back and forth, to make it debatably, fractionally better for your dancing experience.

What happened to the sweat and blood and anger and love that used to go into making music?

I know I know: another article whining about mainstream media isn’t exactly inspired, or original. But the point of this article is to make a retraction. I have maintained for all this time, that good music is dead, that the DJ’s are hunting down the last vestiges of rock and roll.

But here’s the thing, good music isn’t dead, it’s just that none of you listen to it anymore. Last week I discovered this band called Katzenjammer who have this incredible song called Demon Kitty Rag, which has something to do with vaginas. These guys are incredibly good. But none of us have ever heard of them.

Even Bruce Willis, when he’s not making the best bad movies of all time, has a half decent blues band. But none of us have ever heard of that shit.

The dichotomy is this, good music doesn’t happen to you anymore, you have to go out and hunt it down on the wastelands of the internet whilst sifting through piles of malodorous manure to discover some really cool stuff. That is because music channels, magazines and record labels are not willing to do it for you anymore. Neither for that matter, am I. This is more true in India than anywhere else, because we have a couple of astonishingly good rock bands around, (all of them are in Shillong apparently).Some more half decent jazz and blues numbers, like Soulmate, but all you will see on TV is Parikrama trying their hardest to evacuate their bowels on air. We have perhaps the greatest fusion music ever made in the history of this country happening right now in the various seedy pubs and garages and basements. The thing is, you have to go look for it yourself.

“

of us decide that ll a id d t n oi p t a h w At s more important going to a party wa toiling away in or , ve lo in g n lli fa than t? ally making a poin heartbreak, or actu

trends

n o i t va r e s e on r

popularly t popular and os m e th of e ur pick.

Here are som e lot. Take yo th of s re n ge dissected ehouse and om Amy Win fr s ce en flu Pop with in e Machine) rence and th Lily Allen (Flo ds) m (Japandroi 90s revivalis tors) e (Dirty Projec Afropop indi dian) o-fi (Neon In Chillwave/gl idiaries its billion subs Dubstep and ncool-andith their so-u w e di In of e The collectiv (St. Vincent) thus cool-do ing) imes New Vik aesthetics (T Shitgaze/lo-fi

This article perhaps came off as a hateful rant for all things mainstream, which is not entirely untrue, but it was intended to be a call to arms for all of you who love good music to not give up hope yet and start listening to Pitbull. This comes from somebody who has labored under the illusion for many years, there is brilliant music around, you just have to go out and look for it.

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19

ry hi s to lit tle

A

I was born & brought up in Bhiwani in Haryana till the 10th standard. Since it is a small city, my parents thought of shifting to Delhi for me so I could get more opportunities. In Bhiwani, I was made fun of for talking in English. Delhi was a major culture shock for a bushy eyebrow-ed simpleton like me. The teenage dating scene in the co-ed Ramjas School mortified me and I could not adapt to the backbiting. I was shifted to St. Thomas Girls School soon after.

On my first day at St. Thomas, my mom told the principal that I sing.

The principal made me sing a patriotic song over the intercom. The minute I finished, her cabin was swarmed by students & teachers alike who had come to see who this girl was. Despite the initial embarrassment, the artist in me felt very proud.

I have always faced a constant internal struggle between the desire to dance and my passion of singing. I have grown up performing on folksy Haryanvi & Rajasthani songs. My parents wanted me to train in Indian classical music but I used to run away from my classes. Back then, it never excited me.

My elder brother, Bharat and I used to get into serious fist fights. Along with my mother, he used to play a lot of pranks on me. When I was 6 years old, he told me that I was actually our sweeper’s daughter and they had brought me from the slums. These guys even took me there and they finally revealed the prank.

Till date, I do not abuse. During one of our sibling fights, I called Bharat a “magarmach ka bachcha” (a crocodile’s son) in the most dramatic fashion. Bharat took advantage of my naivety and threatened to tell dad that I called him a crocodile. Being the innocent kid that I was, I pleaded him to not rat on me.

I showed up at the Coke [V] Popstars audition just to understand what it was all about. My parents were unaware about this. They always thought I would go into civil services.

While standing in the auditions line, I fell asleep. The judges were shocked since aspirants are generally very nervous. I told them point blank that I am not here to be a Pop star but I am here to test my capabilities on a National level and to see where I stand.

I composed an A capella for a Bollywood film, Shahrukh Bola Khoobsurat Hai Tu, and approached Shankar Mahadevan for it.

He loved the concept and from the word go, he supported me whole heartedly. Shankar is all about quality. He will lend his voice to only good quality stuff. Back then, I was all of 23. During the recording, I felt so enamored that I could not believe Shankar was asking me to guide him to sing the song. Such humble people are very few in number.

I have done a one year long CWP (Contemporary Writing & Production) course from Berklee College of Music in Boston. Having done this course, I consider myself to be more intellectually richer than the richest people.

I’m releasing my independent crowd funded album in August 2013.

I have recorded 5 tracks and 5 more to go. The album is going to be a fusion of folk ragas with contemporary Western music. It is a collaborative effort of my musician friends (who I met at Berklee) from Canada, Croatia, Korea, Norway, Jordan, Palestine, Turkey, Virginia, Israel, Egypt and ofcourse,India!

3 words that describe me the best - believer, dreamer and karmic.

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The soundtrack of my life would include Queen’s I Want To Break Free & Alanis Morissette’s You Learn.

3 people I religiously follow on Twitter - Vishal Dadlani, Baba Sehgal (for his insane tweets) & Shah Rukh Khan.

I am left handed but I play the guitar, as well as, badminton with my right hand.

In a way, I am ambidextrous.

After winning the show, Euphoria’s Palash Sen (one of the judges) was highly instrumental in convincing my parents to let me take music ahead as a career.

I love Mughlai food. I swear by the Dal Makhni & Butter Naan from a restaurant called Aangan in Delhi. I do not have anything against nonvegetarianism but it does not appeal to me.

shresht poddar As a kid I used to love writing in slam books. Under the ‘What I want to be’ question, I used to write - ‘An IAS officer (and a Popstar!)’. Deep down, I have always known I would end up being a musician.

Powered by

a m r a h S a d u s a h t and i V s w r a t s p Po

was e [V] e k r o e C h t g , n sma inni he After w g her band, Aathis damsel. S e n th o formin ing back for e v i t c a a no look not be crazily asuda Sharm of might d front but V asure trove o e Bollywo king-talking tr a LOT to say! l is a wa - and she has music

My first salary was Rs. 30,000. I spent most of it on my family. The feeling of gifting something to your family from your hard earned money cannot be matched with anything else.

I love street shopping. I can live my life in cotton clothes. I also love gadgets and I would rather spend money on them.

I love to travel.

Boston is at the top of my list. I want to traverse the entire Eastern & Western coasts of the USA. I have a lot of European friends so places like Croatia are on my wish list too.

I want to go to places which have a rich music culture.

I hate it when men showoff. If you cannot afford something, big deal! I need my man to be true to himself.

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Aruna Sairam Do all these musicians feel their performances have to be gravely religious and spiritually incandescent just because it’s Mahashivarathri? Somehow Padma Shri Aruna Sairam may be to be leaning towards that side of the line. She seemed a little out of her depth initially. She began with Sabhapathikku Veru Daivam, then moved on to Mahadeva Shiva Shambho and then sang Kaana Vendamo, all tributes to Shiva. Not that I’m complaining, because she did a good job, but the whole air of hallowed reverence was a little wearying. She did redeem herself later on, though, with Mamavatu Sri Saraswati that had a great thaniavarthanam, and then Maaadu Meikkum Kanne that the crowds loved because of its inherently heart-warming lyrics. After that, she sang Veshamakkaara Kanna. Here we could really appreciate her talent, eliciting images of little Krishna running around stealing butter and breaking the water pots of the gopis. A nice performance overall, very upbeat towards the end.

Anita Ratnam Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, (the establisher of Isha Foundation) was keeping the audiences listening with rapt attention by recounting tales of how Shiva wanted to see Krishna’s Raas Leela and dressed like a girl for it. Then there was another legend, where the seven sages of Shiva circled the Shiva-Parvathi entity every day in respect, to pay homage to Shiva’s teachings. Bhrigu (one of the seven), however felt he had nothing to do with Parvathi and only wanted to circle Shiva. In order to achieve this, he turned himself into a wasp and tried to bore a hole between the two to just circle Shiva, his guru. All these stories were enacted by the Anita Ratam troupe.

Oh, the horror. Gaudy costumes and awful coordination. Neo-Bharatnatyam, it’s supposed to be. I couldn’t see anything remotely Bharatnatyam about it and unless neo means traumatizing, the genre is a total misnomer. Shiva contemplating the womanly clothes was a botchy haze of misplaced expression, and Krishna with the women around him was a melange of hapless dancing.

About the wasp that was supposed to bore a hole ? Well, that looked like it was the unfortunate victim of an epileptic attack.

Raghu Dixit Project It was nearing three in the morning by this time and a lot of rather haggard looking people were lying down on the grass, almost as if they were about to fall asleep. Enter Raghu Dixit, the piece de resitance. They brought everyone to their feet, and hoe. Raghu began with Hey Bhagwan, my personal favourite. After this they sang a lot of their hits, like Mysore se Aayi, Jag Changa and Lokadi Kaaladi. But their amazing set list aside, it was about the way they transformed an atmosphere charged with torpor into an unequivocally exuberant one. Almost the entire crowd was on its feet, jumping and clapping and dancing at the prompting of the frontman. He ended with Mahadeshwara, a fitting tribute to Shiva.

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Srinivas Seshadri

Mahesh Vinayakram He is the son of the prodigious Vikku Vinayakram, ghatam player extraordinaire. He began with Pancha Bhuta Kiranavalim, but along with VV Ravi on the violin they created a completely new interpretation of the song that was like Muthuswamy Dikshitar on Red Bull. After this, he sang Om Namah Shivayah (again, it was good, but what’s with the dogged determination to refer to Shiva? I get that it’s a powerful day to invoke his blessings, but it seemed a little passé after a bit) with some amazing vocal percussion.

Sounds of Isha The ‘home band’, if you will, these people have an ingenious way of combining rusty folk grooves with lush acoustic patterns and full-toned solos. What I personally love about Sounds of Isha is that although their music is always exuberant, there is an undertone of technique that just can’t be ignored. A lot of their songs have signatures that aren’t conventional (they take fives and sevens effortlessly in their stride). In spite of that, they are still so palatable even to the (hundreds of) listeners with no knowledge of music theory. Also, the bass guitarist (Swami Medya) was playing the electronic pad for a bit, then switched to the keyboard, then the drums and then ran back to the bass. He makes Dave Grohl look horribly under-accomplished. The flute and violin were sprightly and complemented the guitars perfectly while the singers spirited us all away to the Land of Happy Endings for a good sixty minutes.

Bala Bhaskar There is no denying the amazing skills that this artiste has. However, he should perhaps have been a little more prudent in his choice of ensemble. The electric guitar and violin just didn’t go together, hitting high notes with a jar and jostling each other for attention.

But the compositions were great, and the percussionist was discerning enough to know just what to play where.

Mahashivaratri is a unique experience. From the traditional to the uber radical; people from all paths seem to connect deeply with this God. We catch up on the events organized

by Isha Foundation on this propitious night.

Mahashivarathri

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23

Sagooing

shresht poddar

the future

If you grew up in the 90s, you will definitely know of Bally Sagoo. He is the guy who kick started the trend of remixes back in the day. His last album Hanji released in 2003 and he is BACK after a hiatus of 10 years with his latest album - Future Shock!

SUCH A HUGE GAP? There is no particular reason. I have been working on a lot of stuff simultaneously. This album has been in the making for almost 4 years now. As of right now, I am more interested in producing other people’s projects.

THE CONCEPT The basic theme of Future Shock belongs to music that I have been listening to for quite some time now. From Los Angeles to New Zealand, there is some element from each of these countries present in my songs. At the same time, I have retained the Indianism aspect to an extent. RnB, Hip Hop, Bhangra - you can find everything together in my album.

FUTURE SHOCK - THE TITLE? I wanted a global yet mainstream title. Did I want to name it Bally Sagoo - 2.0 or Bally Sagoo Bhangra No. 29? No. I did not want this album to be categorized as a Bhangra or Party album.

At the same time, I have attempted something very different from my past albums. Hence, Future Shock!

A BIG BREAK Just like I have done throughout the years, I have introduced an array of singers in this album.

I love bringing new talent to the forefront. I have auditioned thousands of people over the past few years. I went to Africa specially to record some of the local rappers. I get more excited working with new talent.

I am not a major foodie

though I love to experiment with exotic meat dishes like Crocodile Tikkas.

I am not active on Facebook or Twitter. I have a team

who handles my social networking updates. I do not have time for such stuff.

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WILL THE PUBLIC LIKE IT? I have been in this industry since the 80s. I understand music. I breathe music. I have worked with the biggest names of the industry from Sonu Nigam to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. My fans are loyal to me and they will listen to whatever I churn out as long as I keep them in mind. If you do not like my music, then do not buy my album.

INDIAN REMIXES TODAY! When I went to Having started the trend of remixes in India, I can proudly say that Africa to record the today’s remixes are so much better than the shit that was coming rappers, some of the guys out a few years ago. There was a time where remixes had started were so stoned that they were to get a bad name. I do not like doing remixes any longer since rapping very aggressively. Despite it is too easy for me now.Moreover, I do not get any creative being great stuff, I would have satisfaction from it. Mashups are the next big thing in India! had to censor most of it if I were to include them in my tracks.

Moreover, being in the ghetto area, we always had the fear of being robbed.

I suffer from insomnia. I am working

around the clock and I barely sleep. I am a major workaholic. I compose, program, arrange and edit my own music. At times, I forget to eat.

I am perpetually creating music.

For Future Shock, I had shortlisted around 80-90 tracks and with a heavy heart, I had to reduce them to 15. My next album will feature some of the other compositions.

supriya talupuru

PATROL How many musicians does it take to change a lightbuld? Four. One to do the dirty work and the rest three to give you details about their latest sound quest. Luckily, reviewing bands doesn’t require so many hands or mouths. Audiovisual evidence on www.highonscore.com! scorem.ag

/TunePatr ol_T heScra

Gr ey shack that Rock N Roll

scr atch G W hO ?

The kind of music that seems to go perfectly in – sync with Transmetropolitan ( a well known comics or to the disturbed few- graphic novel).

WhO?

They are the type of hard rock band that... well, can just be a rock. In a smooth way, like that would make a difference. They have this very characteristic loudness that literally glows through each of their hoots. You can also easily songs. Like the morning after a serious session of the their powered chords. They are forget, to not and ts backbea their with recognize them band, you ask mortal? Those rock Indian an is What band. rock out and out an Indian head bobbing (like classic hearted whole and oldies) classic (of who revel in name calling

Why?

oldies). on losing

relationships, few wHEN ? They have evenly themed songs. A few on torrid We suggest this music for the in

your marbles and even one on the pleasures of riding. to start your infatuation with Grey between moments. Like brushing teeth- a great place Shack.

chennai

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? It’s to apathet hard to be fond of punk with ic, out being and Roll b anti-establishmen chil and is gett t last time ing their we checke led as Punk is su mumblin hands dirt pposed g and doin y in Punk. d. We’re not sure w g it really the melod It seems li hy a Rock loudl y seems ra ke the vo ther forced y. T he riff and to calist is nes are ra upon. An ther well other con wHEN ? W done. But fused loos e’ re e n en ot sure. P d. from Sex ersonally Pistols an , w e hope th d really ch outfit. T h at they ta ill e vocalist ke a few le has a grea out instead of hav ssons out ing lyrics t punk “P like a Dea unk” voic th Metal e. frettin g right in to your ea r.

bangalor

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f bl ue s sher if blues Genre: duh,

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GENRE: alternativ e rock

that WhO ? A band in pieces siblings. In certa

WhO? We seem to have a gro wing affinity to bands from the seven sisters side. Let it be not ed that it can’t be helped . Bands from there are genre breaking simply becaus e of the amount of gen res they churn out. Be war y of the name. They’re not creepy and we’re sure as hell they’re not virg inal.

Why? The vocals are a little scra tchy and the lyrics are little obvious. But their tempo and the taut submissions from the drummer are no where little. They bring the grey shade of pop and smo oth feel of rock out in som mesmerizing moments. e We’re specially a fan of the grand guitar monologues become a personal marke that has r for us.

guwahati

c a r ds

ENRE: R ock n’ roll

GENRE: Them Blues with some Hard rock

wHEN ? When you want to fee

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in this place.

Blues and its me really Rock n Roll, so they move into s of RnB. These bit d od d an nk kickass Fu love with ing up. We’re in guys lit everyth e instruments th y wa e th d the vocals an y on the other. Like Baile mesh into each r. rocks to the ea d, but r us a little biase ns Why? Co ide Blues Sheriff th pa is th of d we’re truly fon ues never wished to a lot to make Bl m of the live, it takes us. It takes ues is the mediu Bl it by being more . rd for co up re ke er ma approachable ov But these guys e. tap e they frilly. Just a ar r of s no c ine nf amati be held in the co never overtly dr re. Women and ’re he ey Th ion d. nt un so ial me approachable in deserves a spec te ng ha Ch yy wend done prime. W h. e thinking their voices, sig alone and you’r to Blues when you’re all nt ten me lis n mo ca ial we ec wHEN ? Thatouspknow what. On a more serious note, about doing..y can you. . We reckon, so Sheriff anytime

mizoram

BluesSheriff

Patrol_ scorem.ag/Tune Tune Patrol brings you sounds fresh off the strum. Give them a listen and tell us what you think! Check out more bands out on tunepatrol.com/beta

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Band of the Month MODI DIGITAL, Distributors of RME, SPL, Neumann, Reference Laboratories, Tube-Tech, Rosendahl, HHB, Da-Cappo, Merging-Pyramix, Violet Design and dealers of Genelec, Sonodyne & Gefen.

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27

FAVORITE QUOTES

“

Women and rhythm section first” - Jaco Pastorius

You have been touring in support of your new album (3 Wheels 9 Lives) – how hectic has the schedule been for you over the last few months?

Yeah, it’s been pretty good – it’s actually the peak season right now, and a lot of dates are being booked as we speak. So, can’t complain really – we are enjoying it.

Can we expect a live album from Thermal And A Quarter anytime soon?

We’ve recorded a lot of live material, but we haven’t consciously taken any decision to release a live album. We’ve recorded several tracks and done a lot of work (tracks have been mixed by Kirk Yano – who has produced albums for Miles Davis and Public Enemy, among others – in New York) but releasing it might take a while.

We released 3 Wheels 9 Lives only recently, so there is no specific time frame with regard to the live stuff.

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“

Bruce Lee Mani:

Leslie:

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read” - Groucho Marx

“

Rajeev: Just because you like my stuff doesn’t mean I owe you anything” - Bob Dylan.

thermal and a quarter The fretwork, the beating drum sound that swings like strings, the perfectly meandering bass and the groove we get listening to them. Sigh. It’s true.

A lot happens when we TAAQ. Over to the outfit that churns out Bangalore Rock.

Photocredits : Venkat Balaji

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raunaq sahu Let’s talk about the Taaqademy.

How has the experience of teaching been and have you seen any changes in the way people think about learning or performing music?

Obviously, the Taaqademy is extremely close to our heart and it does help out in paying our bills. We see a great deal of enthusiasm – a lot of people want to learn music. Lots of kids are joining the academy and their parents are really supportive. People working in the corporate sector are also coming, as they see this as a place to release stress and learn something new. Our approach is quite simplistic and we primarily cater to hobbyists. It’s about having fun and appreciating music in general as opposed to becoming masters at a particular instrument or going for a career in music. The focus is to ensure that the right people teach the students in the right way.

You have been a band for over a decade-and-a-half, which is a long time. What are the changes you’ve seen over this period, both in the music business in India and the way the public takes to your music?

Over time we’ve played across the country and seen things happen in India, so yes, we can comment on how it’s moving along. Most of the places we play now expect people to play original music, and the audience also no longer expects the typical covers all the time. It’s evolving for the better. The scene is still not as big as we want it to be, but we are getting there – new venues are coming up and more and more bands are playing original music.

TAAQ was one of the first bands to embrace the internet – in fact you were probably among the first Indian bands to put out an entire album (Plan B, 2005) online, for free. Was it a very conscious decision, recognising the potential of the medium?

It was a gradual process - we kept learning as we grew as a band. In the early years, the internet wasn’t even an option. It was a conscious decision to get on the internet – we could see that there was a lot of potential. Our website went live in 2000 and there were hardly any bands that had their own websites then. As things progressed, we realized that being based in a city like Bangalore was a big plus, what with it being the IT capital and all. In 2005, we released Plan

B on our website for free, way before peer-to-peer file sharing became the music industry’s biggest headache.

You don’t have much of an issue with music streaming sites, like say, Grooveshark.

Well, there is a very fine line between streaming/listening to music and downloading music. More than anything else, we are against some third party making money out of it by charging someone else on your behalf – that is illegal. But as far as streaming and informal sharing of the music goes, we are cool with that. Our music can reach more people that way.

How do you keep your music fresh, after all these years of touring, recording and now, teaching? Is there any secret you’d like to share with us?

A glass of fresh blood every morning with Complan in it! Seriously though, this is music and you can never really stop learning. The whole process is so dynamic – you are playing with different people, doing different things, still looking for ways of finding your sound and so on. Nothing has ever come in the way of us getting up in the morning, going to an awesome jam room, meeting buddies, playing together and writing music. This is what we have always done and there is absolutely no secret to how we motivate ourselves. We consider ourselves extremely lucky to have had this opportunity of doing what we love, because not many people who love music have the chance to do this full-time.

What are you listening to these days?

A lot of Corinne Bailey Rae, Jamiroquai and Scott Henderson. Now we have a new member in the band who’s into this kind of stuff. There is cool music across all genres – it’s all about finding the right stuff.

This might be a presumptuous question to ask, but do you think that you are going to be around in, say, another decade’s time?

As far as we are concerned, we want to be present in the future! We want to do it as long as we possibly can, to the point where our arms and legs fall off.

In a few years, we are going to reach the 20 year milestone and that is something we look forward to.We heard that Deep Purple played in Singapore recently – they had come to India during their 25th anniversary tour or something, and it’s been over 10 years since then! Inshallah, we’ll also keep at it.

The Quick Chops The boys rhyme phrases with anything else that can be limed(eek!)

Pig blankets : BLM - Big muskets Rajeev - Big HAMlet Leslie - Fish bucket

Independence : BLM - In remittance Rajeev - Cadence.

Leslie - Transendence

Crisis : BLM - Here’s mud in your eye, sis!

Rajeev- Cyprus.

Leslie - Genisis

Mitten : BLM -

Kitten

Rajeev - Kitten?

Leslie - Bitten!

Parota : BLM - Terracota Rajeev - Mars Volta Leslie - Sappota

What are your views on Women BLM:

Make the world go round.

Rajeev: Same old situation (we sigh in agreement) Leslie: Very lovely.

Pope BLM:

Makes the rounds.

Rajeev: Geffory (a drummer from Bangalore who goes by Pope).

Leslie: Useless idiots who sit around smoking pot (Atheist mode on).

Governments BLM:

Go on the make.

Rajeev: Organized Crime.

Leslie: Depends who the people elect. Power to real world.

Premier Digital Mastering Studios, located in the heart of Bollywood at Andheri, Mumbai is dedicated to delivering very high quality services to the Music fraternity. Mixing, Mastering & Overdubs being its mainstay, PDMS is also into music production from scratch, Scoring & Sound designing for films with it’s talented team of The Score Magazine Musicians & Engineers. Equipment, Acoustics & Ambience are a state apart from the rest! www.highonscore.com

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Armin van Buuren a i d n i in

e v i l

On 16th March, 2012, Mumbai got a date Armin van Buuren, Rank 1, Arnej, Aly & Fila, Shogun, Vinayak^A & Sanjay Dutta and got its very first A State Of Trance experience. ASOT 600: The Expedition as part of its worldwide tour was rather eagerly awaited. Let’s take you on the roll.

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The venue for the event was at the Royal Western Turf Club, one of the well known racing grounds in the heart of Mumbai.

This place has seen the many acts recently like Swedish House Mafia and Avicii.

Talk about memories!

Veni, Vidi, Vici The afternoon began with Vinayak A‘s deep panned house set.

Post 3pm, Sanjay Dutta brought some progressive house & trance. Who would have thought that having house and trance in the Mumbai afternoon heat would be a good idea? Luck for them, these guys played it just right. After this, the international acts started to set in. Arnej, the Canadian producer came upon the stage and thus started the roar. It’s his third time here. You know what they say about the third time over, don’t you? His set list (at least as we saw in the pre part) leans a little more towards than trance, but he played it out rather evenly at the main event.

It was about this time that the crowd was starting to really swell. Next up was Piet Bervoets of Rank 1. He began with the track “7 instead of 8″. Personally, we’re not so fond of this song.

It just sticks to your head and do what you might, this song only leaves when it wishes to. The drum bass for this track was rather smooth we thought. His set was mostly original productions from Rank 1. Special mention to the collaboration track with Jochen Miller “Wild and Perfect Day”.

It was Shogun up next. He opened with the track Inifity by Guru Josh Project. As suspected, he was the build up for Armin and he did just that. It was also quite cute the way he got the groove on himself. We didn’t think he was so popular here in India but we couldn’t be more wrong. The entire crowd went nuts calling his name. Just really pleasantly odd! We think it’s awesome that the gathering of people was so receptive. Any doubts that international acts may have had coming to India should take a look at the videos from this event.

Enter the reason for the event itself: ASOT’s 600th scene.

Egyptian Duo Aly and Fila came into action. Songs worth mentioning here are the “We Control the Sunlight” and “Fire Islands” track (Fire Islands a collaboration with Solarstone).

After them, come in the man himself is Armin van Buuren.

Now, whatever we add here is not going to be enough. To say people lost their tops and howled like drunken wolves would be a understatement. Of course, we found it rather annoying with

all the hand hearts people made every two seconds. Doesn’t help when you’re stuck in a group full of giants. Armin kicked off with The Expedition and chased it with his relatively new D# Fat track. He took his chances when he finished his set with yet another new singel “This Is What It Feels Like”. We’d have rather had him play “In And Out Of Love” in the end rather than somewhere in the middle. There was this odd moment: Armin was handed an Indian flag with seemed to have a heart in the middle instead of the usual chakra. Sure, it was publicity and made for a decent photo, but we still don’t get why something like was done.

We think Submerge and Percept Live, the force majeure responsible for the success of the 12th birthday celebrations of this tight radio show did a swell job. The visuals and pyrotechnics which all compiled for the same was brilliant: it was possible the highlight for us; this side dish was the claim to fame.

The Good Word Of the various genres we heard, these following were as clear as unmuddled water:

Anthem and Uplifting Trance: Literally what it sounds

like. It’s the “hands in the air” trance. Strong melodies, astute breakdowns and the grandiose build-ups. The fun guy friend kind of music.

Trouse: A mix of trance and house. The floozy stoner intellectual kind of music.

Hard Trance:

Trance with brash/ loud EDM with bright hints of thumping bass and beats. The big muscled Jhat boy kind of music.

Vocal Trance: Otherwise known as the “pop trance”. True to the name, the main focus is blending vocals into the track as smoothly as ice. The flashy stud kind of music.

The Bass Tracks ASOT is said to have over 25 million weekly listeners spanning 26 countries.

This radio show, (Armin’s brainchild) has now beome a authority staple for those into EDM. Post the 250th session, every 50th episode of the show is marked as a milestone and is celebrated with a live act. After their Invasion World Tour from last year, A State of Trance takes on the mother of all celebrations with with a three month extensive ‘Expedition Tour’. The aim was to have large format shows.

They achieved that alright here in good ol’ Mumbai.

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Here is the chance for all you musicians at Bangalore for a dedicated jam session every week at your suitable time!! Furtados now does it for you!!

What’s the Open Jam Session?

It’s that musical ambiance which is created when a whole lot of musicians come together and create music just by having a great time and encouraging each other’s talent. A jam session is thus one of the greatest indulgences for any musician who looks at dedicating sometime doing something he loves and create music with other budding musicians just like Him. What better when you have your favourite space for the jam session within your favourite music store?

All individual musicians music, bands and music lovers are welcome to take part for the FURTADOS OPEN JAM, every Saturday at the Furtados, Koramangala store from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

An exclusive stage is now there for you to come and showcase your talent! You can come as an individual musician, with your musician buddies or as a full fledged band and rock out.

We are open to all kinds of genres. Whether it’s Death Metal/Jazz/Rock and what not. You are also open to bringing any special instruments that you wish to add for your performance.

Not just this, we have a treat for every musician each Saturday at Furtados! Either being up on the stage or just coming as an attendee, you get an exclusive 5% discount on any product that you buy at Furtados for the next two days.

We believe in keeping every musician happy and engaged. You also get a chance to check out the wide range of Guitars, Amplifiers, Keyboards amongst many other fine instruments. You can use these instruments for your performance. This way you can experience the various brands we sell and make a purchase in the near future.

So, come and enjoy!! Jam together! Create Music! Check out gear! Entertain your buddies! And most important: Laugh away!

Feel like getting in touch with us? Call us at 080-41104304/05/06 or Drop a line at our website (www.furtadosonline.com) The Score Magazine www.highonscore.com

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Records rollin’, we lovin’ On the third Saturday of April each year, record store owners across the world get together with their customers and musicians to celebrate Record Store Day. It’s less a Hallmark concept than a convenient observance in memory of the Way We Once Were. The glee of springtime is a good occasion for a party anyway, but the deeper connotations of this day aren’t lost on the slew of musicians who run meaty PR campaigns built around their participation in the festivities.

These community-defining establishments may soon be too few far between.

The Times They Are A-Changing. Take for example, the plans RP Sanjiv Goenka Group’s made public about closing “unviable” Music World stores around India. Here, we mourn and celebrate the demise of the erstwhile Record Shops. Because nothing brings that fact home like the way we acquire and listen to our music.

Everyone’s Dreaming From bricks to clicks in music retailing there has been a slow paradigm shift; certainly slower than when Gramophones replaced sheet music as the connoisseur’s collectible of choice at the end of 19th century. That was a huge step towards inclusivity, when all sounds could be recorded and distributed to anyone who wanted it. It was a trend that took more than a century to consummate. Proliferators proliferated, to the point now where Everyman Joe could spend lazy evenings listening to Ludovico Einaudi, if he so willed. It has been an evolution linked by sub cultures defined by the way fans related to their music. In the record store, every corner was a niche in the truest sense of the word, where aficionados sought refuge in the middle of names and stories they identified themselves with.

Side quip: Record stores were the pilgrimage sites that devolved myths, their shelves brimming with colorful album sleeves, each meaningfully decorated with liner notes.

Kiss It Goodbye It was all downhill once tapes gave way to CDs. All the record marketing gimmickry that ensued demonstrated the kind of losing battle being fought. Record stores were no longer demarcated as personal sanctuaries. They became, well, stores. Not that the homogenized superstores that overhauled them did any better; people would always be loathe to pay more for less. Yet they tried, with little touches like listening booths and endless stocks of all kinds of peripherals (cards, headphones, batteries, self-help books, you name it). It was unfortunate for the heavily corporatized record companies and distributors that music is an art form that loses none of its integrity with replication, especially if pilfered skillfully.

Side quip: Mom-and-pop shops that catered exclusively to neighborhoods of music enthusiasts could never conjure the financial tractability and were soon smoked out of their nooks.

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MIHIR SINHA

Bricks to

Clicks

Money For Nothing Due credit should be given here to the credit stores. They did attempt to align their business models to the changing reality, albeit with painful lessons learnt; note Virgin Megastore installing computer terminals to facilitate online orders. The fact that the iTunes store overtook Walmart as the largest music retailer in 2008 was both obvious and surprising. It had been coming, but no one could predict when the moment would arrive. It was probably just the timing, as simplistic as that may sound. The time lag was used by human society to shift perspectives and upgrade their listening technologies. If we weren’t going to record stores to hang out with friends, we were bringing them home and taking them everywhere else. The culture got more embedded as we gathered more devices to toggle and personalize.

Side quips: People are only bothered about getting the song they want, not whether the artist makes money off it.

Monkey Business Record stores, thus, have been squeezed out of personal reckoning. We no longer need a physical space where we go to choose music and lifestyles, since we are now choosing it digitally all the time. The only ones left grappling with the changing circumstance now are the artists, caught between protecting the rights to their creations and letting it ride bandwidths to anonymous popularity. They can’t even tell if hanging on to the first-sale doctrine makes sense; stringency in distribution hurts them more.

Side quips: Playlists, preferences, settings, ambiences were all customized to death.

The first Indian gramophone record was made in 1898 at Kolkata by Hemendra Bose. It’s been a long, heart warming walk since then for us. This year’s Record Store Day will be held on April 20th with Jack White (White Stripes) as ambassador. In parts of the first world, there is already a counter revolution taking place in vinyl recording industries, spurred on by the discerning who want a different experience.

The telling feature of this nascent trend is that it’s driven by the younger lot who probably have never experienced LPs before. They are looking for contemporary recordings pressed in vinyl. Whichever way it goes, it will demonstrate the price we put on things that define us as a species.

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HIGH TECH

CARNATIC Until a couple years ago, the last thing a Carnatic Musician would hear from anyone is “There’s an app for that!� with regards to Carnatic Music. Today, is a different story altogether.

Scene-re-ga-ma There are sites like Sangeethapriya, an online music library opened its doors to anyone interested in listening to both current Carnatic concerts by contemporary musicians as well as concerts by the great stalwarts of the past. A sweet deal considering unlimited downloading and listening is completely free. For those in need of lyrics, the Karnatik.org site and the lesser known but highly informative, Thyagaraja, Guruguha, and Syama Krishna Vaibhavam offers lyrics and word-by-word meaning for compositions of the Carnatic Trinity on their site (a tool that foreign students of the art form found useful as composition books were most likely not available at a store near them). Then there were sites such as Kucheris.com, which provided concert listings all over India and more recently, all over the world. All was developing splendidly. When the iPad, iPhone, and other smart devices came out, it was really only a matter of time till these tools would return in the form of apps. Then, Prasad Upasani came out with the iTanpura.

The Drone that launched a thousand apps The iTanpura, was an immediate success among practicing students and Musicians. The great quality about this app is that it has the feel and sound of a real and perfectly pitch-aligned tanpura. One of the most recognized and widely used applications in the music circuit today by both Carnatic and Hindustani Musicians alike. Upasani went further and gave Hindustani Musicians a virtual accompaniment by creating iTabla Pro. Tuners aid instrumentalists in tuning their instruments. With apps such as Cleartune and ProTuner, instrumentalists need only rely on an arrow for that perfect pitch alignment. The app Taranga, which is a tuner specifically for Indian Music sets itself apart from other tuners is that the app shows you what solfa syllable you are currently at in a particular pitch; a great way to keep track of whether you are within your designated raga.

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Keeping to the Beat Talanome and Tala Keeper, which are Carnatic based metronomes have proven to be very useful for practicing musicians. Instead of programming the tala yourself, it is readily available in their dropdown menus. You have the option of choosing the notes per beat with ease. Unforunately, you aren’t likely to find actual percussion accompaniment; something to look forward to in the coming years.

Lyrics at your fingertips Karnatik Lyrics and the Kriti Book app offer a growing database of compositions . Since learning new compositions are a vital aspect to growth in music education, it is a valuable edition to any musician’s Smart device. However, this area can be developed further by providing meaning to lyrics and expanding the composition database. In a world of iBooks, it is essential to add online editions of composition books. If this is to be the case soon, then a musician can truly say he/she has lyrics at their fingertips!

Guess that Raga Don’t know what raga is being sung? Don’t actually have a clear idea about what a raga is? Confused by this entire article as a whole? Well, can’t do much about the last one, but if you are looking to shed some light on the first question, then you’ll be glad to know that learning ragas has become as easy as one, two, three. Some of the best apps are iRaagam and Carnatic Raga. They provide references to close a thousand ragas. For the Western Musician, there is Raga, translates upto thirty-five of the main ragas of Carnatic Music into Western notation.

The Virtual Guru In an effort to embrace digital consumers, websites like Musiguru offer lessons and tutorials in Classical Indian Music. Some of its team members, include artists like KN Sashikiran, who have noted the rise in virtual learning in this art form. The site which is still in its beginning stages of development, offers video Tabla Lessons, Beginning Vocals, and even a few songs to learn. The app, which is now available for free, allows its customers to learn any time, any place, any pace, as their motto suggests.

Carnatic Music coming to a city near you The last is probably the most useful category of apps for Carnatic enthusiasts and those who know little to nothing about Carnatic music, but are looking to check out a performance or two. Websites like Kucheris.com, which came a couple years ago, began offering listings for all Carnatic Concerts happening in India during season. Now, they offer listings of year round, all over the globe. Anyone anywhere interested in attending a concert need only check the site to see if something is coming to his or her area making them the perfect pocket book for concert listings.

Over the last decade, these numerous websites, apps and what nots have provided Carnatic listeners (rasikas) and musicians a portal to actively listen to music and be in the loop on the latest events in the Carnatic scene. To raga or not to raga is no longer the question to be asked.

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THOMSUN MUSIC HOUSE

Salman Ahmad

In the mid-nineties India experienced a lot of change. Culturally, musically and even politically. It was during that time a video of 3 men singing about friendship and joy came out. That song was “Dosti� by the famous Pakistani band Junoon. This was the biggest thing the world had seen from Pakistan in a while after Imran Khan and reverse swing. We talk to the man behind the motion.

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sai adithya

T he only thing acceptable in Pakistan during that time was cricket. Imran Khan is more than a popular figure in Pakistan. I could relate to him because he had a multi-cultural background (Pakistani and British), was a progressive thinker and was a cricketer, we then became good friends .I strongly believe we need a liberal thinker to lead Pakistan.

He was part of a scene that took music across borders, across various religions.

It soothed war wounds with the guitar, powerful lyrics and vocals. This long and meaningful chat with a true musical legend, a social crusader that is Salman Ahmad was a wakeup call for me. The hope is for you too.

How did it all start?

It all started because of Led Zeppelin.

When I was in high school in New York, I got tickets to the Led Zep show in Madison square garden. My friend Dan Spitz gave me the ticket to the show. (The very same Dan Spitz who went on to start the thrash metal band “Anthrax”. Now isn’t that amazing?). Jimmy Page bending and coaxing and summoning magical sounds out of his guitar wearing his Dragon painted pants, I was transported to another world. I was in a state of Fana (trance). I worked as a bus boy in a restaurant for 1.25$ plus tips. Over the course of time I had saved up 200 dollars. I was still short of 35$.My mother pitched in and helped me buy my first guitar- A Les Paul replica. In 1981, my parents decided that we’d return to Pakistan. At that time, the Taliban was on the rise and liberal Pakistan was being a story of the past. In 1982, I was studying medicine and there was this underground talent show. I went on stage, closed my eyes and performed Eruption by Van Halen. When I opened my eyes, there was an angry mob of Taliban students breaking things and sending people out. One of them climbed up on stage, tore out the amplifier and when I responded he took away my guitar and bashed it on the floor, I was seething and helpless.

Describe the situation in which Junoon evolved?

In 1990, I was on the hunt for a singer and recruited Ali Azmat from a local band called The Jupiters.

(Yes, the same Ali Azmat who has sung Bheegi Bheegi from Gangster, Alvida from Life in a metro) . Brian O’Connel, an American then became our bassist.

We made Ehtesaab, a song that had visuals mocking the corrupt upper class in Pakistan.

The state responded with a censorship on us.

Nonetheless, we continued our work and came

up with Sayonee. In 1998, we toured India and were winners of Channel [V]‘s award for best international group. At that point of time, India and Pakistan were testing nuclear arms. I commented that both the countries should spend the money on education and welfare of the people rather than destruction. For that, we were banned & charged with treason by the prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Your social work is outstanding in itself apart from being a UN Goodwill ambassador.

Talk to us about that.

My wife and I decide to start an initiative the SSGWI (Salman and Samina Global Wellness Initiative).We’re building model villages in Pakistan to help in our way. I’ve been a UN goodwill ambassador for the past 10 years. I got the chance to perform in the Nobel peace prize concert with international artists Melissa Etheridge and Tabla virtuoso Pandit Samir Chatarjee.

How was it making your recent single Naya Pakistan?

This was my way of giving back to his country. Beneath the hard extremist layer, Pakistan has a stifled society wanting peace and a normal life. Junaid Jamshed (an Elvis Presley like figure in Pakistan also part of an extremely orthodox sect called the Tableegh-E-Jammat) came in to sing the opening lines of the song. JJ and I have been very good friends. You transcend differences when you’re friends. I respect his views. He agreed to sing the opening verses which is basically an acapella-alaap. I’m very happy he did. It just signifies the need of our nation even better.

What about your collaborations with Indian musicians?

Earlier I had collaborated with Subha Mudhgal for a song called Ghoom Thana. I’m collaborating with Sunidhi Chauhan for a project called Yarron. I’d love to work with a big actor like Aamir Khan for a project of his (Are you reading this, Aamir? Are you taking note Bollywood?).

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ScoreNight EVERY FRIDAY!

only at BAK BAK BAR (Bangalore) Star Rock (Chennai)

EVENTS Galore

For more gig reviews & pictures, hawk www.highonscore.com!

We take a look at the various bands that made the scene this March.

What a genre roller coaster ride that is.

AKS Aks are an Indo-Asian Rock/Fusion Act. In all honesty, we don’t know what that means but hell, do we dig it.

ORCHID

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Orchid is a progressive metal band from Bangalore and they played at Star Rock, Chennai. Their Facebook page “things you probably don’t like.” Hells no, this guy were exceptionally good. When you see a gig of their coming up: run to them live your tiny life depends on it.

ANALYZED CONSEQUENCES Analyzed Consequences, a Chennai grown outfit is influenced by bands like Opeth and Gojira. Again, a band you should check out.

SYSTEM 04

THE PEANUT BUTTER CONSPIRACY The Peanut Butter Conspiracy indulged us in what they call some no nonsense rock and roll.

Depends on which side you see them from.

System 04, is the hard rock/ alt. Metal band. Their Facebook mentions they’re influenced by the likes of System of a Down and on certain moments, they actually were there.

THERMAL AND A QUARTER The fretwork, the drums, the perfectly meandering bass and the groove we get listening to them.

Sigh. Special mention: this was their first show with their new Bassist: Leslie. They showed him off to a 160 strong crowd. Mad times ensued.

ARMOUR OF GOD has been playing melody through the bass since 2008. One of the well known bands in Chennai, these guys could have as well as caused a few cracks in our earlobes. Worth it all!

THE HALCYON DAYS The Halcyon Days is a band comprising of an eclectic bunch of musicians with distinctly diverse influences. We liked the little quirks in instrumentation they brought to the ScoreNight.

WITCHHOUSE Are one of those bands who move from Alternate Rock all the way to the Classics. Man, they killed it and gave us lots of songs to sing along too.

GREY MATTER Grey Matter. For the idea of music is when the sound counts and the sense doesn’t. T hese young chappies want to have fun and it’s clear as unmuddled water.

Rather infectious.

COLOUR CHAOS Colour? Check. Cool? Check. Femme fatal music-ified? Totally! Color Chaous was our Women’s day special band.

PARVAAZ Parvaaz is known for their groovy renditions in Urdu and Kashmiri. We didn’t understand a word. But the sounds didn’t go unappreciated.

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AUDIOPHILIC These Awards are very special for Muzik Lounge School Of Audio Technology. ML students were a part of the “Sound Design From Team” of Rajakrishnan Sir (visiting faculty the at ML) for the film “DHAG”.Sreejesh Nair, Desk a visiting faculty at ML won the Best Re-recordist” award. Music production and background score for the movie “Celluloid”, was done at the Muzik Lounge Studios, by M.Jayachandran Sir. ML also congratulates the award winners Radhakrishnan, Alok De and Sinoy Joseph.

Mr Ranjith Menon General Manager, Muzik Lounge

The country is abuzz with excitement about the 60th National Award that recently happened. We catch up with the Sound team of Gangs of Wassyepur and Annayum Rasoolum which won the awards this year.

On winning the National award...

“

It’s a great feeling, of course. It’s very nice indeed.

I’m very happy about it.

- Alok De

“

It is exciting and a great honour for me, my family and Chetana. What is even better is winning it with a colleague and friend Sinoy and Alok.

Over and above that, it is a very humbling experience.

- Sreejesh Nair

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I’m very excited. It’s a big moment in my life. It was great working with such a team too.

- Sinoy Joseph

“

It’s very surprising since it was unexpected! I’m just starting my career in this field.

T his was my third film and it feels great.

- Radhakrishnan Sivarajan

• What do you think makes this film different keeping in mind your work experience?

Alok De: The location sound was a real deal. It was quite a unique experience.

SN: This film was mixed in 3 different studios. It is a 2 part film and the best thing about this is that all of us knew what we had to deliver once we saw the movie and the sound design.

In fact there were many times the film itself kind of took you down the path of mixing. It was really interesting because it was the first time I worked with Kunal Sharma, the sound designer, and Anurag Kashyap the Director. But I am so happy that we were able to give a good output.

Sinoy: I worked the Dialogue Recording with Kunal Sharma.

The film required a very different perspective and treatment.

Sreejesh Nair contributed ideas and inputs also which made the entire process more complete.

Radhakrishnan: This film Annayum Rasoolum was made in Sync Sound. The ambience and the structure of the film was made in such a way that the true effect of the places were invoked. We got a lot of compliments for that!

• To whom would you like to dedicate this award?

Alok De: I dedicate this to my family and the people on my team.

SN: This award is dedicated to Father Paul Alengettukaran.

Without him, I wouldnt be in this field. It is also the result of a wonderful person and mentor Stanly Padavan.

Sinoy: I thank God almighty and my parents for this. Parents are the biggest motivators and deserve the full credit. I also thank Father Paul Allen, Stanly Padavan and all my colleagues at Studio Q labs.

Radhakrishnan: I dedicate this to my family and the director Rajeev Ravi for this.

• Till date, what has been the most rewarding aspect of your field?

Alok De: Well, is it not important to enjoy whatever you do?

I’ve been in this industry for 23 years. Every assignment is meant to make us better.

SN: My field does have its happiness. Although I now work in a completely different aspect of it, when I was mixing, the pure creative satisfaction that it gives is enough adrenaline.

Sinoy: I really enjoy working in this field. It’s challenging at

Radhakrishnan: Being with the people I’ve known and grown with in Sound Engineering is fantastic for me! I feel this is a sign of all things to come.

• What was the most challenging part faced during your respective projects ?

Alok De: The feeling is the most important thing. Getting it right with the songs, dialogues and the scene was quite an experience by itself.

SN: The most challenging part of Gangs of Wasseypur was delivering a mix that would be as strong as the film. It was a complete team effort and so, elevating the brilliant sound design to a bigger level was a true challenge in itself. Also, since I was mixing the climax and the action parts of it, I had to make sure it was real and big without overshooting levels. I am happy that the entire sound team was able to execute it in a good way.

Sinoy: In real life, there is no background music. I had to treat the film as a real scene. The dialogues, effects and the sounds had to complete each other.

Radhakrishnan: Cochin is a difficult and noisy place. There were more than just body mics that we had to use which was quite a challenge: but it was amazing to be working with the team that I did.

Testimonial Student : Kuriakose paul Course :

Diploma in audio technology

In my search to find the best sound Institute in South India which could take forward my passion, I heard about Muzik Lounge and without any hesitation I was there. Learning from the veterans in respective fields, getting guided by the best in the industry, Muzik Lounge slowly turned my dreams into a reality. I would like to specially thank our Principal and Renjith Rajan (Cheif Sound Engineer, Muzik Lounge Studios, Chennai) for everything they have done to me. I hope our mentors Sam Devassy & Stephen Devassy would take the institution to new heights, catering technology and its offerings to a bigger scale to people who are talented and passionate about music and technology.

the same time I get to work with very interesting people.

Admissions OPEN Batch for Diploma in Music Technology(18 month & Diploma in Audio Engineering (18 months).

You can download the application form from www.muzikloungeindia.com.

s)

/MLSAT /muziklounge /muzikloungeindia

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IndieReviews The multitudes of genres all covered in one platform.

This month, we take on albums with intricate bhajans to the good old rock music and here’s our word.

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filled Vedanth Bharadwaj - Mati Kahe Do you like Bhajans? If so, you would like the album. But if you homicidically irritated at the nasal sounds, then you’d probably want to give this one a wide berth. Mati Kahe, is a collection revisiting the classics of Bhajans originally sung by stalwarts like Surdas and Mirabai. The album is a valuable addition into the annals of devotional music. Every song is intricate, elaborate and complexly eloquent. To that the singer’s voice is suitably rich and does justice to the beautiful music. The guitar work is adequately confident to modernize the thing without disrespecting the source. If you are the guy who likes Bhajans and listens to them for inner-peace on your ipod, you should most definitely get this album. (It is available for digital download, track by track.) My axe to grind in this situation, is that the album does not really rise over the limitations of the genre.

Top Picks: Mati Kahe

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T his is an album for Bhajan lovers only and let us face it, there are not many of them among new Indian music consumers.

Dosser’s Urge - Dosser’s Urge Dosser’s Urge is a three member rock number from Sillong (where else?), who amongst other tomfoolery have released their debut eponymous EP. And boy do they rock. This might be something to do with the region, which produces good rock bands at the same rate as Bangalore produces racial stereotypes. It starts out with the immensely-personally titled and they kill it.

It is weakly composed and worded perhaps, but the drums are exactly right. The guitarist shreds with the manic intensity that makes you feel that all is right with the world again. The song Stale Style sounds almost exactly the same, except here they do a repetitive refrain. So is the next one, except the drummer thinks to beat the stick together and hence forth. However, it’s pleasant to listen to. Sure, nobody at Dosser’s Urge can be blamed for blazing any trail and the guitarist might be wearing sunglasses at night time, but as long as there’s somebody with a pleasant-ish voice singing pleasant-ish music, you’ll probably have a good time listening to it.

Top Picks: You’re Broke Again

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Although we wouldn’t suggest seeking this one out, we’d recommend it when you chance upon it.

IndieReviews «««««

nilankur dutta

Street Stories - The Apple and the Clown This is the pop/alt-rock band from Shillong (if you think this is getting repetitive, you ain’t seen half of it yet) debut album. It comes with some trite back story about the lead singer and his girlfriend. However, once you sit down and listen to the actual EP all this becomes irrelevant, because of the amount of fun it is. As the eponymous title track plays you automatically start bobbing your head and tapping your feet to the power of pop. And what a power that is, the band plays every possible cliché in their musical structure, hitting high notes and low notes and all notes in the middle, and you still enjoy it, because it’s so endearing when somebody sings their heart out. Even if the riffs and most of the words are unabashedly hashed and rehashed. If you want to shoot respectability in the head, and listen to candy-floss gut churning saccharine, I whole-heartedly recommend that you listen to Street Stories.

Top Picks: Nothings gonna change

his mind

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This is the song of your life when you are thirteen and a half and don’t know better. Songs which deserve a :) next to their titles to show how serious they are.

Anirban Bhattacharyya - Impressions He’s classically trained, sings brilliantly and with theoretical perfection. If I had a book to be written about Hindustani music or beard maintenance, I would go to Anirban, but I would not go to him for songs that I’d like listening to. I should though, as a caveat, mention that I did not, at any point in my life, spend years learning Hindustani music. All my opinions about music are formed by listening to it with my untrained ears. But since I am writing this, I feel obligated to say that Impressions is not my mug of beer. The music is so textbook, that is fails the purpose of music: to inspire or to madden, to elicit love, or hatred. He could solve differential equations with his voice but he cannot court enough emotion for me to turn up the volume perhaps. It is pleasant sounding nothingness.

Top Picks: Ecstacy and Harmony

«««««

Top Picks: Specter and Exile

If you are into Hindustani, perhaps you’ll realize that he hits all the right markers. But if you’re into music for the reason most normal people are, you are probably not going to like this album.

Dualist Inquiry - Doppelganger Now normally, my reaction to any kind of electronic music is a prejudiced small-minded hatred, but I got to say: this Dualist Inquiry guy is not half bad. While it is not songs, by the strictest standards, since there are no words and no obviously discernable meanings to it, it is harmonic and it follows a certain musical structure. Most importantly, it is quite pleasant to listen to.

While his ulterior motive might be to get you on the dance floor, at least he’s not saying it overtly. Consider the first track on this album, ‘Specter’. As it starts it reminds one of a Buddha Bar type chill-out music and as you sink into it takes a magnificent turn to what sounds like electro. The tracks on this album are all electronica, house, techno and yet none of them. Another ‘song’ that I really like is ‘Exile.’ I still don’t quite understand what DJ’s really do, but what I can vouch for is the end product which is unlike anything I have ever heard. The effects modulation does get a bit to avant garde for my tastes at some points, especially at the beginning of the track ‘Anathema’ and ‘Isoterra’. However, the highest praise the I can offer Dualist Inquiry is that he can mix a Skrillex track and make it sound, um, listen-able. If you were to list electronic music, you should listen to this album on all accounts.

It is most certainly, the least bad electronic album I have ever listened to.

The

Score Magazine

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