If you’re on twitter, chances are that you’ve got your timeline neatly categorized into various heads and sub heads – political, news portals, the self obsessed lot, the explicit ones, the Chinese and Greek proverb copier, celebrities and, of course, the funny ones, among others.
Now the trick to getting the best timeline is to have a healthy mix of all of the above – the not so desirable categories like Chinese and Greek proverb copiers, the self obsessed lot and the celebrities just so you can have something to make snide asides about. The news portals to keep afloat the pretense of being constantly updated and the political ones so you can sound intelligent at the next beer tweetup, of course. The funny ones, however, help in making twitter a non-stop laugh riot and a 24 hour party, if you’ve worked the time-zones well enough.
Indian comics on twitter have exploited every socio-political opportunity to poke fun at authorities and audiences alike. Take the Commonwealth Games for example, the opening ceremony saw non stop tweeting of snide commentary about Kalmadi’s speech, Manmohan Singh and Pratibha Patil’s lack of expressions and Sheila Dikshit’s senility at suggesting that there have been no power cuts in Delhi in the last two years. The Ayodhya Verdict, too, led to much inspired commentation – quoting Rohan Joshi (@MojoRojo), “There is only one way to make everybody forget about the Babri Masjid; Make repairing it the BMC's job. Another hot topic, of course, is Arnab Goswami. Rakesh Jhunjhunwaala, who claism to be God and to have invented twitter, and amasses a follower base of over 14 thousand twitter users, once tweeted “Arnab Goswami has never finished a sentence his whole life because everytime he starts to speak he ends up interrupting himself.” No subject is taboo, no issue too sacrosanct for these comics, and they will use all ammunition, from ND Tiwari to Rakhi Sawant, to tickle your funny bone (no puns intended, of course).
A close look at the viral retweets and the most favourited tweets gives you a clear idea about how comics are winning the popularity contest we lovingly refer to as Twitter. A popular name among the twitterati is Gursimran Khamba – known to his followers as @gkhamba. When Khamba started tweeting, he had a modest following of about 150 people, mostly only the people he knew personally. Today, over six thousand people are regularly updated on his irreverent musing on everything topical and a majority of them are retweeted by hundreds of people. “I’ve always had a talent for making snide remarks about everything. In person, people tend to get offended pretty often by those, but apparently when you do the same to celebrities, it’s funny,” says Khamba.
Once on Twitter, Khamba started writing for popular spoof website Faking News. This, he says, is what initially increased his visibility. “Twitter makes it easy to be politically incorrect – sure you lose a few followers every time you touch a taboo topic like politics or religion, but you have to remember that with each unfollow you’re separating the wheat from the chaff,” he points out.
Writer and stand up comic Rohan Joshi (@mojorojo), with about five thousand followers, thinks twitter, “is like an online soapbox, you can say exactly what you want and you’kll end up attracting like minded people.” Wannabe space cowboy, TV professional and suspected Blackberry Boy from the popular Vodafone Ad, Dharmesh Gandhi points out how “sometimes people think I'm funny when I'm just talking about my day-to-day life experiences. Sadly, they are full of misery for me. But as they say, ‘Everything is funny till it happens to you’.”
Saad Akhtar, Site Architecture specialist at Naukri.com by day and maker of FlyYouFools comic by night (with close to 7 thousand followers on twitter), agrees with his fellow comics, asserting that “the quality of comedy depends greatly on the medium and the lack of censorship on twitter makes it an ideal breeding ground for wit and sarcasm.” Rohan Roushan, ex-TV journalist and now Pagal Patrakar of the Faking News fame, thinks that the 140 character constraints have pushed people to become sharper, more articulate and, therefore, wittier. “Even though you have the follower count as a vanity box, twitter has the tendency of being more egalitarian – everyone has the same space to speak their mind,” he adds. In a certain socio-cultural context, of course. But to his 19 thousand odd followers, the pagal patrakars musing and writings provide much food for thought.
Is there, however, a flipside to winning the race to be most liked – the pressure to keep up with your follower’s expectations, perhaps? Twitter is, after all, a strangely personal medium where “relationships” can only be sustained with conversations and regular interactions – this is how you grow your follower base and how you sustain it. “If I don’t feel like making jokes one day, or decide to comment on things in a not so obviously funny manner, suddenly followers will tell me I’m having an off day or that I’ve lost the funny somewhere,” Khamba adds.
The social networking site might just have changed the face of comedy, for professionals and amateurs alike. Even though most of the content on your timeline’s funny alter ego might be too politically incorrect and too edgy to be reproduced in print or on television, twitter is probably making people more open to comic outrage.
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(An edited version of this article appeared in The Hindustan Times on November 13th, 2010)
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Mahabharata Goes Manga
If you've ever read the Mahabharata, or watched it on the big or the small screen, you know that among the many reasons for the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas was the former's demand for five villages from the kingdom. This would seem like a measly request. However, the villages the five brothers asked for were the most strategic locations in the kingdom and effectively constituted Duryodhana's entire share.
Controversial as such alternative versions might be, they are part of the tradition of telling and retellings of the epic. It is this tradition that Shohei Emura, a Japanese graphic artist, and Vidyun Sabhaney, a Delhi-based comic book writer, aspire to create in their latest project to develop aManga Mahabharata.
The duo met at a comic book workshop organised by Sarai CSDS and instantly connected on a shared fascination with the epic, and its many traditions.
A philosophical treatise, a sacred religious text and a moving story. The Mahabharata is many things to many people. "In truth, the epic has grown through the oral tradition of story telling for centuries, the ancient clans' war for power and exploration of dharma was sung and danced to, reinterpreted and appropriated", says Sabhaney.
For centuries, the Mahabharata was more than the written compiled epic penned by Vyas, and it was even more than the Sunday episodes on Doordarshan. "Through the project we're trying to do three things: first, focus on and develop stories and characters considered peripheral and not included in popular tellings. Second, to explore the space for original writings within the epic and finally, we want to give space to the folk versions of the epic that, again, do not find their way into the popular versions," explains Sabhaney.
The artists have chosen to keep a dying tradition of experimental story telling within the Mahabharata alive through the Japanese art of Manga. According to Emura, "the Mahabharata is a fantastic story, unparalleled in its length and cultural importance. Manga has a history of telling stories that are lengthy, and complicated with several characters and the two match in that way." He adds, "I also feel there is still a lot that can be done to visually experiment with the Mahabharata."
Sabhaney believes that "the Manga form lends itself easily to any cultural contexts, as La Nouvelle Manga in France and the various uses of the form in American culture have illustrated. Its ability to simplify things, yet keep the nuances of sound and light are probably why it's easy to tell complicated stories through this medium."
The form will enable the artist to express the dynamics of the relationships between characters and self-reflective moments equally well. The physical features of characters are fairly within the Manga format with exaggerated expressions and "whimsical images", as the word's literal Japanese translation suggests.
Presented by the Peoples' Tree Arts Trust, the first episode in the project will be published by the Pao Collective in the coming months. Title Chilka, the episode is an off shoot from the story of Karna's death using the voice of the trouble-making Narad Rishi and using a ficticious character of Baba, a slightly forgetful old school warrior who has an obsessive desire to save Arjuna from what he believes is certain death.
"Chilka was a great learning experience but to make the next comic, we need to know where the Mahabharata comes from — about its oral tradition, song and dance based traditions," says Emura. And for that, come December, the duo plan to travel to various parts of the country and explore traditions such as Yakshagana in Karnataka and the oral traditions of Rajasthan, among others.
They also plan to organise workshops next year for comic book artists to connect with each other and learn, and perhaps also learn a bit more about Manga.
(Originally published here in The Hindustan Times)
Ishq-e-Dilli
It's the time of the year when Delhi begins to welcome the winter, with the fresh smell of raat-ki-rani blossoms and a pleasant nip in the evening air. Add to that the overpowering sense of history that the air around Delhi's oldest fort is immersed in. The romance of a 5,000 year old historical tale is palpable. This is the setting of the re-launch of the Light and Sound show at the Purana Qila.
Housed between the Kilkari Bhairon Mandir and the National Zoological Park, the fort is known to be the sixth of the seven cities that make up modern day Delhi. From belief that it stands at the site of the ancient city of Indraparastha from the Hindu epic Mahabharata — a claim that hasn't yet been substantiated — to being home to many Mughal emperors like Humayun, who died here, falling down the stairs from his library, the Purana Qila is central to an understanding of Delhi and its history.
Ishq-e-Dilli, the soon-to-be-launched Light and Sound show invokes an intricate web of stories, from the time of the Pandavas to post-independence India, to bring to life the history of Delhi. The re-imagined Light and Sound show uses state of the art technology — with video projections, lasers, digital drawing and storytelling traditions — and creates images that reflect the man rise and falls the city has seen in its history. The projections are cast from a forty metre distance, mapping the architecture as it illuminates it with colourful illustrations.
Scripted, designed, narrated and produced by Two Is A Film Company for the ITDC, the show will open to the public in November. Earlier criticised for delayed schedule (it was supposed to open for the CommonWealth Games, after all) and for the heavy machinery that will become a permanent fixture at the historical site, the renewed Light and Sound show hasn't been free of hiccups, so to speak. But organisers are hoping that once it's open, they can dazzle the critics into silence.
We only wish history lessons had always been this magnificent.
(Originally Published here in The Hindustan Times)
Housed between the Kilkari Bhairon Mandir and the National Zoological Park, the fort is known to be the sixth of the seven cities that make up modern day Delhi. From belief that it stands at the site of the ancient city of Indraparastha from the Hindu epic Mahabharata — a claim that hasn't yet been substantiated — to being home to many Mughal emperors like Humayun, who died here, falling down the stairs from his library, the Purana Qila is central to an understanding of Delhi and its history.
Ishq-e-Dilli, the soon-to-be-launched Light and Sound show invokes an intricate web of stories, from the time of the Pandavas to post-independence India, to bring to life the history of Delhi. The re-imagined Light and Sound show uses state of the art technology — with video projections, lasers, digital drawing and storytelling traditions — and creates images that reflect the man rise and falls the city has seen in its history. The projections are cast from a forty metre distance, mapping the architecture as it illuminates it with colourful illustrations.
Scripted, designed, narrated and produced by Two Is A Film Company for the ITDC, the show will open to the public in November. Earlier criticised for delayed schedule (it was supposed to open for the CommonWealth Games, after all) and for the heavy machinery that will become a permanent fixture at the historical site, the renewed Light and Sound show hasn't been free of hiccups, so to speak. But organisers are hoping that once it's open, they can dazzle the critics into silence.
We only wish history lessons had always been this magnificent.
(Originally Published here in The Hindustan Times)
Monday, October 18, 2010
Facebook Activists
I like it on the floor or the dresser”. “I like it on the front seat of the car”. “I like it on the terrace”. By the time one got to the third status update of the sort on Facebook, it became more entertaining to read the comments than the posts themselves. One man responded by posting — “I like it everywhere”, another woman was scandalised by the innuendo. On certain discussions on these status messages, there wasn’t even the pretence of referring to a handbag.
If you’ve been living under a rock — or off facebook — let us update you on what the handbag scandal is all about. Earlier this year, a bra colours meme attempted to spread awareness about breast cancer and was lampooned with severe criticism by the media worldwide. Last week, we saw the campaign come back to life with the “Where do you like your handbag?” meme. A grad student at the University of Western Ontario, Anushree Majumdar, replied to a query about her status by saying “It’s one of those FB games for women only.” Majumdar later went on to add, “However, it does not make sense in what way this game will help to create awareness about Breast Cancer. Handbag = Cancer Awareness? No. It’s just a silly game.”
“At least the bra thing actually referenced breasts, if the intention here [with the handbags] was pro-sex, ostensibly not, then why was it all veiled?” asks Vandana Verma, a Delhi-based journalist. But then, what does NFL players wearing pink shoes and gloves on the field have to do with breast cancer awareness, either? They say social networking has reduced our collective attention span to that of a goldfish. Has that creeped into the nature of our protests, perhaps explaining the pink shoes and meaningless memes?
Back when the Internet was still scary, instant messaging left people gaping in unadulterated awe, it’s been pointed out that there’s a vast disparity between a user’s real and virtual persona — and the two must not be taken as the same. “New media is no longer just a communications platform, it’s also a market — both for products and ideas,” says Dr Amrit Chaudhury, a Sociology professor at IIT Delhi, who isn’t a facebook user. “And in both those roles, it is a most interesting one to watch because it provides a curtain one can hide behind. Perhaps these initiatives are only a way for women to talk about themselves. But is there anything particularly wrong with that?”
But the campaign is not likely to find any support with NGOs and activists working in the field. PK Ghosh of Cancer Care India that’s working to spread cancer awareness, thinks that “the Internet can be used very effectively to circulate information but...they’re futile and do nothing but belittle the cause. If it’s meant to be some sort of metaphor then it’s too convoluted for the message to be understood.”
Delhi-based academic and queer rights activist Gautam Bhan believes that “campaigns” such as these only serve as an “excuse since they allow people to act without agency.” He adds, “One needs to make a differentiation between activism and such facebook games. Technology of various kinds has provided an interesting medium which is going to pull in all directions. But that is no reason to dismiss it as trivial.” The thing to watch, as Dr Chaudhury and Bhan concur, is how the offline and the online will relate as the medium grows.
As seems to be the consensus, social networking has the potential to be than just a popularity contest and a platform for armchair activists who have an opinion on all and sundry but don’t have the time to do more than just lift a finger. “It has opened brand new and fascinating avenues of discourse and has the potential to be a democratising space,” adds Bhan.
Be it the Pink Chaddi Campaign that shook the country out of its pants, the Modolvian Twitter Revolution of 2009 or the Iran election in June of the same year that saw the State Government asking twitter to delay scheduled maintenance, so as to not interrupt tech savvy Iranians as they discussed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Salman Khan’s twitter campaign that raised over Rs 5 Lakh, social media has proved itself to be useful in reaching an unsurpassed number of people. But these initiatives were successful because they involved direct action, and not just a status update.
~
(Originally published in The Hindustan Times on Sunday, October 17)
If you’ve been living under a rock — or off facebook — let us update you on what the handbag scandal is all about. Earlier this year, a bra colours meme attempted to spread awareness about breast cancer and was lampooned with severe criticism by the media worldwide. Last week, we saw the campaign come back to life with the “Where do you like your handbag?” meme. A grad student at the University of Western Ontario, Anushree Majumdar, replied to a query about her status by saying “It’s one of those FB games for women only.” Majumdar later went on to add, “However, it does not make sense in what way this game will help to create awareness about Breast Cancer. Handbag = Cancer Awareness? No. It’s just a silly game.”
“At least the bra thing actually referenced breasts, if the intention here [with the handbags] was pro-sex, ostensibly not, then why was it all veiled?” asks Vandana Verma, a Delhi-based journalist. But then, what does NFL players wearing pink shoes and gloves on the field have to do with breast cancer awareness, either? They say social networking has reduced our collective attention span to that of a goldfish. Has that creeped into the nature of our protests, perhaps explaining the pink shoes and meaningless memes?
Back when the Internet was still scary, instant messaging left people gaping in unadulterated awe, it’s been pointed out that there’s a vast disparity between a user’s real and virtual persona — and the two must not be taken as the same. “New media is no longer just a communications platform, it’s also a market — both for products and ideas,” says Dr Amrit Chaudhury, a Sociology professor at IIT Delhi, who isn’t a facebook user. “And in both those roles, it is a most interesting one to watch because it provides a curtain one can hide behind. Perhaps these initiatives are only a way for women to talk about themselves. But is there anything particularly wrong with that?”
But the campaign is not likely to find any support with NGOs and activists working in the field. PK Ghosh of Cancer Care India that’s working to spread cancer awareness, thinks that “the Internet can be used very effectively to circulate information but...they’re futile and do nothing but belittle the cause. If it’s meant to be some sort of metaphor then it’s too convoluted for the message to be understood.”
Delhi-based academic and queer rights activist Gautam Bhan believes that “campaigns” such as these only serve as an “excuse since they allow people to act without agency.” He adds, “One needs to make a differentiation between activism and such facebook games. Technology of various kinds has provided an interesting medium which is going to pull in all directions. But that is no reason to dismiss it as trivial.” The thing to watch, as Dr Chaudhury and Bhan concur, is how the offline and the online will relate as the medium grows.
As seems to be the consensus, social networking has the potential to be than just a popularity contest and a platform for armchair activists who have an opinion on all and sundry but don’t have the time to do more than just lift a finger. “It has opened brand new and fascinating avenues of discourse and has the potential to be a democratising space,” adds Bhan.
Be it the Pink Chaddi Campaign that shook the country out of its pants, the Modolvian Twitter Revolution of 2009 or the Iran election in June of the same year that saw the State Government asking twitter to delay scheduled maintenance, so as to not interrupt tech savvy Iranians as they discussed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Salman Khan’s twitter campaign that raised over Rs 5 Lakh, social media has proved itself to be useful in reaching an unsurpassed number of people. But these initiatives were successful because they involved direct action, and not just a status update.
~
(Originally published in The Hindustan Times on Sunday, October 17)
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Leonard Cohen - Songs From The Road
Artist: Leonard Cohen
Album: Songs From The Road
Rating: 5 stars
Record Label: Columbia Records Legacy Recording
Close on the heels of Bird On A Wire, a DVD of never before seen footage from Cohen's 1972 European tour comes the CD/DVD combination Songs From The Road, a collection of 12 songs from Cohen’s 2008/09 tour. For those of us who only dream of hearing the legendary rock and roll hall of famer live, this is as good as it gets to the second best thing, after Live In London, of course. Not surprisingly, the record starts with Lover Lover Lover from Cohen’s Tel Aviv concert, where he performed to a crowd of over 50,000 people and still managed to connect with the audience in typical Cohen fashion. It’s almost overwhelming to hear a crowd of 20,000 plus people cheering in recognition as Cohen sings opening notes to songs like Famous Blue Raincoat, Bird On A Wire, Chelsea Hotel, and Hallelujah. An interesting thing about the collection is the presence of songs like That Don’t Make It Junk and Waiting For The Miracle that you won’t find on any greatest hits collections, and the almost perverse absence of any tracks from I’m Your Man, Cohen’s masterpiece record from 1988. What is probably most endearing about this new package is the genuine humility and appreciation he shows for the response from his fans. The best part of the package, however, is the 20 minute bonus footage of his band navigating through 195 countries. Recently turned 71, Cohen’s legacy is truly spectacular and this collection proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that his music was wise beyond its years.
~
(Originally published in The Sunday Guardian on September 26, 2010)
Album: Songs From The Road
Rating: 5 stars
Record Label: Columbia Records Legacy Recording
Close on the heels of Bird On A Wire, a DVD of never before seen footage from Cohen's 1972 European tour comes the CD/DVD combination Songs From The Road, a collection of 12 songs from Cohen’s 2008/09 tour. For those of us who only dream of hearing the legendary rock and roll hall of famer live, this is as good as it gets to the second best thing, after Live In London, of course. Not surprisingly, the record starts with Lover Lover Lover from Cohen’s Tel Aviv concert, where he performed to a crowd of over 50,000 people and still managed to connect with the audience in typical Cohen fashion. It’s almost overwhelming to hear a crowd of 20,000 plus people cheering in recognition as Cohen sings opening notes to songs like Famous Blue Raincoat, Bird On A Wire, Chelsea Hotel, and Hallelujah. An interesting thing about the collection is the presence of songs like That Don’t Make It Junk and Waiting For The Miracle that you won’t find on any greatest hits collections, and the almost perverse absence of any tracks from I’m Your Man, Cohen’s masterpiece record from 1988. What is probably most endearing about this new package is the genuine humility and appreciation he shows for the response from his fans. The best part of the package, however, is the 20 minute bonus footage of his band navigating through 195 countries. Recently turned 71, Cohen’s legacy is truly spectacular and this collection proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that his music was wise beyond its years.
~
(Originally published in The Sunday Guardian on September 26, 2010)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Shaa'ir & Func - Mantis
Artist: Shaa'ir and Func
Album: Mantis
Record Label: Blue Frog Records
Rating: 3 stars
Two and a half years in the making, Mantis is the third studio album from Shaa'ir and Func. Arguably, it’s no mean feat for an indie band to release three whole albums. Available for free download on their website, Mantis is a welcome change in the indie music landscape of our country. Again, not such a big deal considering the music put out by a lot of the bands. The album goes from pretty pulsating loops to the breakbeat influences one has grown to almost expect from the band. We’re not alone, the opening track, starts off with a quite reverberation before moving into a bouncy rhythm and Monica Dogra’s quirky – supposedly poetic – vocal delivery. Hyperbole raises the bar a little, very easy to move to. The music has the potential of being anthemic among desi listeners, is catchy and a slight departure from the synth-bass focussed Light Tribe from 2008. Randolph Correia’s excellent skills light up tracks like Take It Personally and My Roots. The choppy beats on When You’re Around and the bass-driven instrumentation work quite well with Dogra’s soul-inspired lyrical play. Goodbye Cruel World is energetic, yet effervescent. The sound is interesting, the lyrics are political. The trouble is, none of that is any different from what we’ve seen of the duo in the last two records – New Day and Light Tribe would both fit that description quite well. And where the first two times the sound was refreshing, the third time around it seems rather affected. Only ever so slightly, though. A most refreshing indie release on all other counts.
~
(Published in today's The Sunday Guardian)
Röyksopp - Senior
Artist: Röyksopp
Album: Senior Living
Rating: 4.5
Record Label: Wall of Sound/ Astralwerks
If 2009’s Junior was optimistic, then Röyksopp’s fourth LP titled Senior is the perfectly aged foil – edgy, moody and brooding. Recorded around the same time, the two very different records are meant to present two different sides of the duo. While Junior was supposed to present a more “danceable” Röyksopp (which is delivered rather efficiently), Senior is about what they call “The darker sibling who lives in the attic”. True to their claims, Senior is a record to get lost in, to kick back to. The duo from Norway has gone entirely instrumental on this effort, quite a departure from their usual vocal-intensive music. Tricky Two, appropriately named for the second track, may create a momentary illusion of a slightly uptempo drift, but listen carefully and you’ll see that’s only part of the story being told through the record. On The Alcoholic, you can almost hear the birds chirping and the rain as if you were on a drunken ride through the countryside. The broody Senior Living is haunting, exotic and delicately layered with an almost angelic choir like feeling in parts. The Drug, on the other hand, effortlessly fuses minimal 90s house synth with a trip-hop beat. Forsaken Cowboy takes us back to the duo’s debut album Melody A.M. with its swinging tempos and restrained moodiness. The soundscape on this record is lush, if at times a bit eerie like on The Fear, and full of 70s synth recalls. Overall, one of the best albums we’ve heard so far this year.
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(Published in today's The Sunday Guardian)
Monday, September 6, 2010
Ashutosh Phatak - The Petri Dish Project
Artist: Ashutosh
Album: The Petri Dish Project
Record Label: Blue Frog Records
Rating: 2 stars
When there’s so much buzz created around an album pre-release, it would only be fair to be a little sceptical of what’s on offer. But that’s how indie music seems to work in India, and the irony is not exactly lost on us. One possible theory is that the releases are so few and far between that the listener just eats into all the hype created by “artist managers”, “promoters”, club owners and the like. Such is the story of Blue Frog co-owner Ashutosh Phatak’s latest album The Petri Dish Project. Now, Ashu has been dabbling in electronic music as an independent producer and as part of a few other collaborations for a while now and his music has never quite made an impression, and for good reason. The Petri Dish Project, unfortunately, doesn’t put any big dents in that reputation. The opening song, Petri Dish, is easy listening and a damp squib as an opener, reflecting well on the rest of the record. The album’s highlight, beyond doubt, is the large number of collaborations with interesting female vocalists like Anushka Manchanda, Monica Dogra, Suman Sridhar, Ashima Aiyer and Saba Azad. The smoky Saba Azad on Immaculate and the quirky Ashima Aiyer on Miss Understood are probably the high points of the album, and the only two tracks that have any recall value, too, perhaps. Overall, a decent effort but nothing particularly interesting. The album makes one wish musicians would stop creating soundscapes to a perceived lower expectation of the “desi” audience.
~
(Originally published in The Sunday Guardian, September 5th, 2010)
Album: The Petri Dish Project
Record Label: Blue Frog Records
Rating: 2 stars
When there’s so much buzz created around an album pre-release, it would only be fair to be a little sceptical of what’s on offer. But that’s how indie music seems to work in India, and the irony is not exactly lost on us. One possible theory is that the releases are so few and far between that the listener just eats into all the hype created by “artist managers”, “promoters”, club owners and the like. Such is the story of Blue Frog co-owner Ashutosh Phatak’s latest album The Petri Dish Project. Now, Ashu has been dabbling in electronic music as an independent producer and as part of a few other collaborations for a while now and his music has never quite made an impression, and for good reason. The Petri Dish Project, unfortunately, doesn’t put any big dents in that reputation. The opening song, Petri Dish, is easy listening and a damp squib as an opener, reflecting well on the rest of the record. The album’s highlight, beyond doubt, is the large number of collaborations with interesting female vocalists like Anushka Manchanda, Monica Dogra, Suman Sridhar, Ashima Aiyer and Saba Azad. The smoky Saba Azad on Immaculate and the quirky Ashima Aiyer on Miss Understood are probably the high points of the album, and the only two tracks that have any recall value, too, perhaps. Overall, a decent effort but nothing particularly interesting. The album makes one wish musicians would stop creating soundscapes to a perceived lower expectation of the “desi” audience.
~
(Originally published in The Sunday Guardian, September 5th, 2010)
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Matthew Dear - Black City
Artist: Matthew Dear
Album: Black City
Record Label: Ghostly International
Rating: 3.5 stars
Matthew Dear’s fourth full length studio album has left us a bit confused, and we’re not certain how we feel about this record. That is no surprise, really, if you’re any follower of the man with more aliases than one can count (Audion and False, for instance). In continuing tradition from his 2007 release Asa Breed, Dear delivers vocals on Black City as well. One minute, we are completely in love with his deep, droning – slightly disconnected if not robotic – Nick Cave reminiscent vocal delivery, and the other we’re not very sure how we feel about the 1980’s throwback of the Grace Jones kind. However, the sonic peculiarity of this record goes beyond that. Dear has taken Asa Breed’s gauze disco feel to a darker place and draws beautifully from the playfulness of Zappa, Bowie and Eno – and if deconstructed long enough, the daddies of them all, Kraftwerk (particularly in the swamptronica track Shortwave). But that’s not the end of the 80’s influence – You Put A Smell On Me brings back the New Beat with its hard-hitting industrial dance sound. Slowdance, on the other hand, is a bit disturbing with a dark vocal pattern in a peculiar retro-futuristic way. In Black City, Dear has produced a very engaging album, thoroughly enjoyable and most fun to dismember into all its various constituents. The latter, however, is what keeps us from being generous with our love for the record – once all the elements are separated from the tracks, there isn’t much left to love.
~
(Originally Published in The Sunday Guardian, Delhi: August 29, 2010)
Album: Black City
Record Label: Ghostly International
Rating: 3.5 stars
Matthew Dear’s fourth full length studio album has left us a bit confused, and we’re not certain how we feel about this record. That is no surprise, really, if you’re any follower of the man with more aliases than one can count (Audion and False, for instance). In continuing tradition from his 2007 release Asa Breed, Dear delivers vocals on Black City as well. One minute, we are completely in love with his deep, droning – slightly disconnected if not robotic – Nick Cave reminiscent vocal delivery, and the other we’re not very sure how we feel about the 1980’s throwback of the Grace Jones kind. However, the sonic peculiarity of this record goes beyond that. Dear has taken Asa Breed’s gauze disco feel to a darker place and draws beautifully from the playfulness of Zappa, Bowie and Eno – and if deconstructed long enough, the daddies of them all, Kraftwerk (particularly in the swamptronica track Shortwave). But that’s not the end of the 80’s influence – You Put A Smell On Me brings back the New Beat with its hard-hitting industrial dance sound. Slowdance, on the other hand, is a bit disturbing with a dark vocal pattern in a peculiar retro-futuristic way. In Black City, Dear has produced a very engaging album, thoroughly enjoyable and most fun to dismember into all its various constituents. The latter, however, is what keeps us from being generous with our love for the record – once all the elements are separated from the tracks, there isn’t much left to love.
~
(Originally Published in The Sunday Guardian, Delhi: August 29, 2010)
What started as a club night in a London’s 93 Feet East in 2002, hosted by Groove Armada, has quickly grown into one of the most looked forward to alternative music events in the UK. In a span of eight years, the event has expanded to a span of 3 days and attracts some of the best Indie acts from across the world – a variety of acts from various music genres – electronic, rock, folk, etc – as well as circus performers, cabarets and other fringe acts.
Since it started, Lovebox has hosted acts like Goldfrapp, The Flaming Lips, Duran Duran, Simian Mobile Disco, N.E.R.D, the New York Dolls, and of course, Groove Armada, among others. Its 2009 edition marked a special event in the life of the Indian indie music industry with Raghu Dixit becoming the first Indian artiste to be invited to perform at the festival. Following in Dixit’s footsteps this year is folk band Swarathma, who played at Lovebox and two other music festivals – Larmer Tree and the Bedford river Festival – in the UK last week. Fresh on the return from their international sojourn, Swarathma is full of excitement at the prospects of Indian bands in the global market. Their second visit to perform in the UK, the band’s management at Only Much Louder has been stepping it up with the promotion – getting them a cool new iPhone application as well recently.
A folk band, Swarathma is possibly more widely known for the “act” they bring on every time they take the stage. What with a typical Rajasthani puppet Ghori and all the colourful clothing, and all that. The folk elements they use on stage – and in their music – know no regional boundaries. They might be from Bengaluru, but they’re open to using baul instruments and Rajasthani props along with drums and bass to create an act they think represents their music and their sensibilities. “We think making folk art contemporary by fusing it with the western influences most of us have grown up with is the most effective way to keep the folk alive” says Jishnnu Dasgupta, who plays the bass and delivers backing vocals for the band.
Swarathma believe that the response from an international audience is always interesting and mostly follows the same three step course – first, there’s curiosity, then comes the warming up as crowds begin to get on their feet and move a little and finally appreciation, since by the end of the show everyone’s swooning to the music, even if they don’t understand the language. And that’s exactly what they felt at Lovebox as well.
Ask them about the stage act that manages to get them a fair amount of accusations of banking on exoticism, and the response is crisp: It does help in the beginning but listeners wouldn’t stay if they didn’t like what the music. “It’s no longer possible for us to separate the act from the music. International audiences particularly appreciate if you carry an essence of who you are and where you come from with you” Jishnu points out. Straight from the horse’s mouth, as they would say.
~
(Originally Published in The Sunday Guardian, Delhi)
Since it started, Lovebox has hosted acts like Goldfrapp, The Flaming Lips, Duran Duran, Simian Mobile Disco, N.E.R.D, the New York Dolls, and of course, Groove Armada, among others. Its 2009 edition marked a special event in the life of the Indian indie music industry with Raghu Dixit becoming the first Indian artiste to be invited to perform at the festival. Following in Dixit’s footsteps this year is folk band Swarathma, who played at Lovebox and two other music festivals – Larmer Tree and the Bedford river Festival – in the UK last week. Fresh on the return from their international sojourn, Swarathma is full of excitement at the prospects of Indian bands in the global market. Their second visit to perform in the UK, the band’s management at Only Much Louder has been stepping it up with the promotion – getting them a cool new iPhone application as well recently.
A folk band, Swarathma is possibly more widely known for the “act” they bring on every time they take the stage. What with a typical Rajasthani puppet Ghori and all the colourful clothing, and all that. The folk elements they use on stage – and in their music – know no regional boundaries. They might be from Bengaluru, but they’re open to using baul instruments and Rajasthani props along with drums and bass to create an act they think represents their music and their sensibilities. “We think making folk art contemporary by fusing it with the western influences most of us have grown up with is the most effective way to keep the folk alive” says Jishnnu Dasgupta, who plays the bass and delivers backing vocals for the band.
Swarathma believe that the response from an international audience is always interesting and mostly follows the same three step course – first, there’s curiosity, then comes the warming up as crowds begin to get on their feet and move a little and finally appreciation, since by the end of the show everyone’s swooning to the music, even if they don’t understand the language. And that’s exactly what they felt at Lovebox as well.
Ask them about the stage act that manages to get them a fair amount of accusations of banking on exoticism, and the response is crisp: It does help in the beginning but listeners wouldn’t stay if they didn’t like what the music. “It’s no longer possible for us to separate the act from the music. International audiences particularly appreciate if you carry an essence of who you are and where you come from with you” Jishnu points out. Straight from the horse’s mouth, as they would say.
~
(Originally Published in The Sunday Guardian, Delhi)
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Cows for Kalashnikovs
“Remember one thing: cows for Kalashnikovs” said a friend through layers of alcohol induced haziness the night before I left for Kenya. I turned to him, as best offended as I could be after four drinks and said, “I’m going to Kenya and Tanzania, which is the safest country in East Africa, thank you. ”
When I finally reached Sofia, the village in Eastern Kenya I was going to stay at for the next month, the first order of business for my hosts was to sit me down and establish some ground rules. I should not walk alone after dark, I should not board any form of public transport and I should not even think about going to any other vilage or town or city without a chaperone.
My eyes were rolled as far back as possible in my head.
It wasn’t many days before I had to head to Nairobi, a 100kms from Sofia, for work. By 6.30 in the evening, I was on my way back, in a matatu – a means of public transport in Kenya that can seat 12 people – with a member of my host family, her constant worryign that it was already dark and how we should’ve just stayed in Nairobi overnight began to make the threat real for me. A little diversion on the road and we’re on to a no-road, when we’re suddenly stopped by about 6 men with big guns. Robbed, within my first week in Kenya. Thankfully only of very little money and all my silver jewellery.
The next three weeks are spent quitely adhering to all the house rules and yet, loving every minute of my stay – working with the kids, interacting with the community. The area has just recently emerged from a 6 year long drought, and the population is half what it used to be, I’m told. Even now there is very little water and most houses don’t have electricity. And then there’s HIV, the village seems to have decided to refers to the infection as “sickness”, and nothing more.
As my four weeks draw to a close, I prepare to head to Tanzania, to the safety of a friend’s house. Finally, the vacation starts. The first weekend is spent in Zanzibar, with it’s pristine beaches and breathtaking sunsets. Freshly returned from heaven, and then from a great seafood dinner, my friend and I are driving past the lonely streets of Dar Es Salaam. A few minutes later, we drive past the Tanzanian President’s house. Before I know it, there are big sickles and a group of men around me and my friend. We don’t want to hurt you, just give us all your stuff. And we oblige, this time we lose more than petty change. Phones, camera, laptop, all our cash, my passport.
Even so, I left my heart in Africa, along with a lot of my stuff.
~
(Originally published in The Sunday Guardian, Delhi)
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Tracy Bonham - Masts of Manhatta
Artist: Tracy Bonham
Album: Masts of Manhatta
Record Label: Lojinx
Rating: 3.5 stars
Since her first album in 1996, Tracy Bonham has been delivering fine alternative pop while maintaining an artistic difference from legends she one wrote songs for. Masts of Manhatta is her fourth album, five years in the works and definitely worth the wait. Bonham’s songwriting and her skills on the violin are no surprise to anyone, but this particular album shows a kind of light hearted maturity that makes it a lot more endearing than her previous records. The record shows a deviation from norm, and from 2005’s haunting Blink the Brightest, in the cleverly defiant song structures and skilful arrangements. Beck’s ex guitarist Smokey Hormel delivers an interesting counter to her otherwise jazz roots creating a delightful urban-rural sound bridge in her music. It is exactly this that she put on the table with what is arguably one of the highlight of the album – We Moved Our City To The Country, a satire on the young fleeing to the cities in search of a faux hip factor. Songs like Big Red Heart make the Beck influence apparent with the angular guitar work in combination with Bonham’s violin. Moonlight and Angel and Won’t You Come Down are perfectly examples of what the record has to offer – wry, witty lyrics combined with an effortlessly bouncy sound.
Album: Masts of Manhatta
Record Label: Lojinx
Rating: 3.5 stars
Since her first album in 1996, Tracy Bonham has been delivering fine alternative pop while maintaining an artistic difference from legends she one wrote songs for. Masts of Manhatta is her fourth album, five years in the works and definitely worth the wait. Bonham’s songwriting and her skills on the violin are no surprise to anyone, but this particular album shows a kind of light hearted maturity that makes it a lot more endearing than her previous records. The record shows a deviation from norm, and from 2005’s haunting Blink the Brightest, in the cleverly defiant song structures and skilful arrangements. Beck’s ex guitarist Smokey Hormel delivers an interesting counter to her otherwise jazz roots creating a delightful urban-rural sound bridge in her music. It is exactly this that she put on the table with what is arguably one of the highlight of the album – We Moved Our City To The Country, a satire on the young fleeing to the cities in search of a faux hip factor. Songs like Big Red Heart make the Beck influence apparent with the angular guitar work in combination with Bonham’s violin. Moonlight and Angel and Won’t You Come Down are perfectly examples of what the record has to offer – wry, witty lyrics combined with an effortlessly bouncy sound.
Friday, July 30, 2010
The Radio Dept. - Clinging to a Scheme
Artist: The Radio Dept.
Album: Clinging to a Scheme
Record label: Labrador
Rating: 4
There is something to be said for being worth the wait and with Clinging to a Scheme, their third album since they first came on the scene in the 1990s, The Radio Dept. seem to be making a case for the adage. Clinging to a Scheme comes after four long years of frustrating anticipation since the Swedish band’s 2006 album Pet Grief with it’s claims to be influenced by “minimalist post-punk, krautrock, repetitive motorik beat and ambient noise”. For the uninitiated, The Radio Dept. is a fairly conventional indie pop outfit with glazes of electronic soundscape. And yes, the influences only preempt the peculiarity of the 10 track long record with hard to deconstruct layers of guitar riffs, overlapped with speech samples and Saint Etienne like dance pop that the albums has to offer. WithClinging to a Scheme, The Radio Dept gives us an album that, in all likelihood, will turn into a cult offering in a decade. The shimmering clarity of Heavens on Fire is echoed throughout the album as it opens with Domestic Scene, the melancholy lyrics are well juxtaposed with the consistently cheery music on the record. Tracks like This Time Around, David and A Token of Gratitude – even as it borders on the histrionic – emerge in new layers on each spin. A long time in the waiting as it may have been, the band delivers a high fidelity, textured album – with The Radio Dept.’s trademark dreamlike ambiance –that will continue to unravel its myriad layers with each listen.
Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be
From a while back, but I quite liked the album.
~
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Artist: Dum Dum Girls
Album: I Will Be
Record Label: Sub-pop
Rating: 3.5 stars
The Dum Dum Girls – their name a clever take on the name of an Iggy Pop album called Dum Dum Boys – started out in 2008 as singer Dee Dee Penny’s (real name Kirstin Gundred) solo project. Since then they’ve released a home recorded CDR and a 12” EP. The now four-piece garage pop band has just released their first studio album titled I Will Be, all of eleven songs. The Dum Dum Girls, in their previous recordings, took low fidelity 60’s girl band brand of pop and a cocktail of catchy lyrics and terrific harmonies. This time around, by buffing up the band with three other members, including Frankie Rose from their suffix-sake girl-group Vivian Girls, Dee Dee has – almost fiercely – turned the Dum Dum Girls into a bonafide rockband. I Will Be was originally slated to be an album about a woman in prison, but in the final product has only one track that keeps to the theme – Jail La La, released as a single earlier this year. Oh Mein Me, sung in German, and a delicate rendering of Sonny and Cher’s Baby Don’t Go, are irrefutably hip with vocals that easily shuttle between fierce, coy and mysterious. The record’s production by Richard Gottehrer is the perfect foil to Dee Dee’s lyrics and the girl’s harmonies, creating mature and latered pop pleasures.
Morcheeba - Blood Like Lemonade
A review I wrote for the newspaper I work with.
~
~
Artist: Morcheeba
Album: Blood Like Lemonade
Label: Play It Again Sam
Rating: 4 stars
Morcheeba is often referred to as the music to which one would escape the “Decade from Hell”. Their carefree yet decadent sound when they started off in the mid-1990s rightfully earned them this reputation. Syke Edwards’ vocals had defined the band’s sound with an almost ethereal quality. Seven years after she quit the ensemble – and seven years of fading fortunes for the Godfrey Brothers, incidentally – Edwards returns to the band in their latest release Blood Like Lemonade, and it’s almost like they’re making up for the last two albums they put out. There is a feeling of the lost years being retold, in both their laid back musicality and in Edwards’ breezy vocal renditions. The opening track Crimson takes one back to the late 1990s and is the perfect welcome wagon for Edwards, even if it’s slow burn-like quality makes one wonder if it’d be more at home somewhere in the middle of the record instead. Even Though might not be one of the album’s highlights, but it makes for a good lead-in to the title track Blood For Lemonade. The lingering vocal quality Edwards brings back to Morcheeba’s music seems very at home in the album with the light pacing. Clear picks for favourites on the album have to be Mandala, I Am The Spring and Recipe For Disaster, with that familiar dreamy ambience that makes this – in typical Morcheeba fashion – perfect for a lazy summer day.
Album: Blood Like Lemonade
Label: Play It Again Sam
Rating: 4 stars
Morcheeba is often referred to as the music to which one would escape the “Decade from Hell”. Their carefree yet decadent sound when they started off in the mid-1990s rightfully earned them this reputation. Syke Edwards’ vocals had defined the band’s sound with an almost ethereal quality. Seven years after she quit the ensemble – and seven years of fading fortunes for the Godfrey Brothers, incidentally – Edwards returns to the band in their latest release Blood Like Lemonade, and it’s almost like they’re making up for the last two albums they put out. There is a feeling of the lost years being retold, in both their laid back musicality and in Edwards’ breezy vocal renditions. The opening track Crimson takes one back to the late 1990s and is the perfect welcome wagon for Edwards, even if it’s slow burn-like quality makes one wonder if it’d be more at home somewhere in the middle of the record instead. Even Though might not be one of the album’s highlights, but it makes for a good lead-in to the title track Blood For Lemonade. The lingering vocal quality Edwards brings back to Morcheeba’s music seems very at home in the album with the light pacing. Clear picks for favourites on the album have to be Mandala, I Am The Spring and Recipe For Disaster, with that familiar dreamy ambience that makes this – in typical Morcheeba fashion – perfect for a lazy summer day.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
My first week in Sofia, a small village in Northern Kenya, left me entirely confounded by the number of people who were “sick” around me. I heard people talk about so-and-so being sick. I heard the pastor ask the gathering at Sunday mass if anyone was “sick” and needed praying for. I saw men and women in the congregation raise their hands, and lower their heads. I met orphans who were “sick”. How did their parents die? I asked, in all my naiveté. They were sick, I was told. Then I saw a “sick” man die in a hospital bed. That’s when I understood what being sick meant around here. The young doctor under whose watch the old ailing man we had driven to the hospital – my host being one of the very few individuals with a car in the area – had died explained it to me. He shot me a baffled look and said “AIDS” in a drab tenor, one that hadn't yet transformed entirely into the unaffected, disinterested monotone that many of his seniors projected.
The man had come into his clinic a few months ago, complaining of illness after illness. Saying he had had no relief from his flickering health for the last two years, or maybe even a little more. The young doctor knew, in his gut, what ailed the man. His blood culture confirmed the suspicions – the man was HIV +ve. He went on to, as he has been trained to do of course, advise a course of treatment and a prescription of medication the man should immediately be put on. Turning to the wife, he suggested, in much the same breath, that she had better get tested, too. The thanked him for his advice and got on a bus that would take them home. They travelled the five kilometres or so in complete silence.
And that same silence would haunt them till their last moments together. That same silence will hold on to her desperately even after he leaves. Soon, she’ll start showing signs, getting sick. Unless one of the many churches has changed its view on the disease that must not be named by then and decides to get her help in procuring the medicines she so urgently needs. That silence will be her sanctuary when she’s rejected by her own parents, widowed and orphaned in the same breath. It will be her defiance as she sits, week after week, in church, dodging callous whispers about her husband, his other wife and her only inheritance from him – the sickness. It will be her fuel as she spends night and day and everything in between trying to get that one acre of land to cough up a few kernels for her to feed her family. It will be her regret when she puts her son to work when he should be put through school instead, partly because she can’t afford it and partly because she needs an extra hand to feed the mouths looking at her, every waking moment.
Her part in this losing battle might be mute, but it’s on no account silent, like her life.
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