<b>NOTE WORTHY</b>

The indie music scene in the country is making the right noise. And the acts to watch out are from down south—in Trivandrum, Chennai and Bangalore. We listened in.
Sleepy, rain-kissed Trivandrum stretches out lazily, anticipating a bandh in a day or two. On a slushy field, young men play cricket, another group kicks the football around. By way of entertainment, the city offers little; even the Lonely Planet mentions only an arts and craft museum and the Indian Coffee House. Which is why when Tony John drives us to his house in Palayam, we wonder where he gets his fix. It’s homegrown, we realise, when he welcomes us to his studio. For the next hour, John and his band Avial play their self-titled album, brought out by Phat Phish records in February this year. It’s a collection of eight Malayalam alternative rock songs. It’s a language we don’t understand. But it is the music that has pulled us here, that had us craning our necks from our window seats as we landed in Trivandrum.

In that crowded hour, in a cramped room in Chennai, an astonishing musical medley was playing out. Kartick Das Baul’s khomok was stringing a duet with Donan Murray’s guitar, while renowned percussionist K.V.Balakrishnan (fondly known as Tabla Balu) and Saravanan on thavil playfully argued on creating the perfect ending to a Baul song. Bonnie Chakraborty’s voice rose to match Baul’s, creating harmonies. Accompanying them was Paul Jacob, the big daddy of southern music. We were in the presence of Oikyotaan, a Baul music collective that works out of Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata. And making such a long journey has never seemed more fruitful.

The sounds filtering out from these studios are telling us something. They are an affirmation that in the last five years, while north India has been gyrating to imported hip-hop beats, musicians in the south have been referencing their roots for an original, yet global sound. And as the indie music scene in India takes baby steps, its soundscape gets some southern spice. Some of the best rock outfits, such as Thermal and a Quarter, have emerged from Bangalore. And with new “jam-based” acts like Lounge Piranha, it’s only getting better.
Last year, Raghu Dixit made waves with the Raghu Dixit Project, a band of musicians who belt out Hindi, Kannada and English original compositions. Dixit’s band was also featured on MTV and today, boasts of fans all over the country as well as abroad. Bangalore-based poet Jeet Thayil has also jumped on the bandwagon with Suman Sridhar. Sridhar/Thayil are a lyrical jazz duo, who’re stringing out melodies influenced by Monk and Madhuri (that’s jazz great Thelonius Monk and the Madhuri Dixit beat for you). While you’re hooked to their beat, there’s no denying their brand of desi funk.

... contd.

Ads By Google

Message*	Maximum characters allowed

Name*		Email ID*
Subject*		Country*

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.