Entertainment For Lively Minds
Fancy an Indian?
I've just got back from two fantastic weeks in Rajastan (double income, no kids - spin on that, breeders!)
I love India (this was my third visit) but however much I like to pretend I'm a deep cover traveller I've never done more than scratch the surface of its fascinating culture or made much effort to appreciate its music. I've mostly been exposed to the kind of faux-folk bands that play after dinner in the hotels. Someone in a hat will start playing a swirly intro on a harmonium with a dodgy back panel he has to keep pulling closed. Then, at some invisible and possibly random cue, eight blokes with assorted drums will drown him out with a shock-and-awe barrage of rhythm and volume which could only be matched in Western culture by a convoy of eighteen-wheelers carrying loose coal over a level crossing, or two toddlers with a Fisher Price activity centre.
A lady will start yelling at the drummers to shut up, but this will only encourage them (or most of them) to suddenly accelerate, often in the middle of a bar, and burst the beats out in all directions, like fireworks. This rolling thunder will unsettle foundations and loosen already-suspect bowels. After more yelling, a semblance of order is restored, and some other ladies will start dancing around, eventually dragging the more amenable tourists up to lope erratically about to the complex polyrhythms like camels on skis. A German lady's sari, bought that afternoon, will slowly unravel and reveal her pants. It's all part of the tradition.
Except it isn't. What I finally realised (duh!) on this trip is that this tourist folk has probably never existed in quite this form in any culture. It's most likely a mish-mash of styles, condensed to suit the nano-second attention span of half-cut oafs like me. Our equivalent would be morris dancing to sea shanties while dressed as beefeaters on Olde England Night down at the Travelodge. And I wonder if anyone in India listens to this kind of music any more than we listen to finger-in-both-ears, arran sweater, shipwrecks-and-burning-orphanages real ale folk music over here.
So I asked around a bit and started a crash course in Indian pop, which quickly led me to this; Dum Maro Dum by Asha Bhosle from Hepworth's Year Zero, 1971. I love this record, and the video's a hoot too. All together now: Hare Krishna Hare Ram!
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Any excuse to post this...
Awesome tune
Great call! Did you ever see that scene in 'Ghostworld' where they had Thora Birch (I think) dancing to this?
Oh yes
It's the opening sequence. Good film.
Heineken
That fine song is also the music for the latest Heineken commercial being shown here. The madcap film bit inspired a similairly madcap commercial, with lots of wild dancing and craziness going on throughout. It led me to download the tune a few months ago, from the Ghostworld soundtrack.
Ted Lyons and his Cubs
If only they could have hooked up with the manager of a local furniture store they could have been huge:
Charanjit Singh: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat
Unremarkable if released in 1995.
This was recorded in 1982:
How did he do it? Falling down a Techno wormhole? A Sikh Billy Pilgrim who came unstuck in time? A Goan timeslip? I don't know, tell me someone, please.
woo
it sounds like Orbital doing a kids' TV theme in the 1980s
I kept expecting it
to turn into Hot Butter's "Popcorn"
Asa Singh Mastana
Ben and Tjinder from Cornershop sat in for Jarvis Cocker on 6music a few months back and played this gem. Really put a smile on my face.
Reminds me of the old Ravi Shankar gag
After strumming his sitar a few times at a festival (Woodstock? Bangladesh concert?) the audience applauded. He leaned into his mike and smiled:
"Thank you, if you like the tuning up so much, you should enjoy this next piece"
He then launched into a blistering raga. What a guy.
When worlds collide......
Mention of Ravi Shankar reminds me of something I watched over Christmas with my boys. There is an American skateboarder, Rob Dyrdek who makes a programme for MTV called "Fantasy Factory". It's a feel good, slapstick half hour usually ending with Rob doing something amazing for the kids of Los Angeles where he is viewed as a hero building skate parks and generally using his enthusiasm and personality to promote a good feeling. He lives a fantasy life with gadgets, gizmos, cars you name it but you can't help but love him. Anyway, he had Ravi Shankar on one episode which was brilliant, the full episode is available on Youtube but this is the trailer.
Try this
Bollywood soundtracks with Hip Hop beats courtesy of DJ Shadow
http://www.amazon.com/Bombay-Hard-Way-Guns-Sitars/dp/B00000HYAK
Can't hope to add
anything intelligent to a discourse on Indian pop, but this does remind me that I once managed an event for a party of 100+ Indian mobile phone salsemen. One of the evenings was spent on a Thames cruiser with a disco. Blimey, I had never seen such frantic and in some cases very artful dancing. They were absolutely bloody mad for it and this is before they had had a drink of even sat down for dinner. In the end I gave up fussing trying to get them to eat and let them get on with it. The night ended in a very English manner though, one of the party challenged a group of drunken teenagers to a fight.
Ooh just listened
to the OP's song there is more than a hint of Frankie Valli "Beggin' You" about it don't you think?
Faux tradition
I go to India quite often and I agree the tourist "tradition" stuff is very different from anything real. However,it is even worse in China where any public event involving foreigners has a very slick cabaret-stylee "folk" performance thrown in. I presume there must be a academy for this sort of thing.
If you like a bit of filmi music, I can recommend the Madlib release Beat Konducta in India. This track and video uses samples/footage from a classic film starring Indian megastar Big B (Amitabh Bhachan):
I've strayed across the border here
But any excuse to post this from the very wonderful "Sound Of Wonder" compilation on Finders Keepers.
I work in a primary school which is 98% Asian heritage,
& we often have fun days such as Eid bazaars &, my favourite, a Bollywood dance. I've come to absolutely love the music played on these occasions, particularly bhangra music.
If I knew how to post I'd recommend Twist from Love Aaj Kahl. Can't remember who it's by I'm afraid.
Could anybody help me out? The video's a bit cheesy but the song is guaranteed to make you feel like screwing in a light bulb in a sari!
Floorfiller trax From Shalimar OST (1978)
And this is great zany 1958 Hindi OST track
There are a couple of cds I love called
Bombay The Hard Way - Guns Cars and Sitars.
It's apparently soundtrack music from Indian gangster films.