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Around the World in 80 Songs – Music Aloud’s World Music Day Special!

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21st June is celebrated world over as Fete de la Musique, or World Music Day. This year we decided to join in the celebrations too, like the title suggests. So starting in the morning, we shall be posting song links throughout the day with the hashtag #AroundtheWorldin80Songs. A total of 80 songs that would essentially showcase exotic (and even not-so-exotic) instruments from around the world. And at the end of the day we would compile a playlist of those songs on YouTube for anyone interested (we shall be linking the playlist here too once created). In case you see us missing out any instrument, feel free to point them out to us, with interesting songs employing them. One song per instrument of course. That’s all with the ground rules; Happy World Music Day all!


On Sound Cloud 9 – Volume 3

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After two fairly well-received compilations, we are back with volume 3 of On Sound Cloud 9! Thanks for all the love you have given this series, and hope you continue to do it. This time too we have attempted a pretty eclectic mix; if you like it, do spread the word and help the artists involved. Oh, and if you are yet to check the first two playlists, here’s Volume 1, and this is Volume 2.

And as always, if you know of any artist/track from soundcloud you find deserving to be heard more, do give us a shout on twitterfacebook or response[at]musicaloud[dot]com.

 

EVOLVE 1.0 – Kerala’s Next Indie Hub

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evolveTRR(Posted on behalf of Trivandrum Rock Revolution)

EVOLVE is the brain child of the movement “TRR-Trivandrum Rock Revolution”. In 2010, A group of 3 musicians/college kids -Ashwin (Purple Blood), Ganesh (The Down Troddence) and Hari (Rocksault) came together to put out a platform for musicians in Kerala to come and showcase their skills. This turned and expanded into a growing movement and thus in turn had major acts from Bombay coming down as well.

Now the movement after a hiatus is back to expand its roots to different parts of the state, to spread and inculcate knowledge of ‘Indie’pendent music to all. This resulted in a new property called EVOLVE and has been partnered with Loungevity (Cochin). The Gig starts off with “ALL THE FAT CHILDREN” from Bangalore, headlining their first debut gig in Cochin. We are up with a bi-monthly calendar where we have F-16s and Franks got the funk from Chennai for the next edition of EVOLVE. There will be 2 shows every month under this property.

all the fat children

 

Evolve is not just a live show, it is an experience in all sense. We are working our level best to make every single show into an exclusive model for the artist showcased. Art Direction, Merchandising, Documentary screening, Live Video and much more.

Looking forward to doing more acts in Cochin and turn Cochin into the next hub for ‘Indie’pendent Music. The edition will also have its first Intra state tour in the countrywhich will be incorporatedin the coming months. Bands can write to us at evolvetrr@gmail.com.

Facebook – www.facebook.com/evolvetrr

Best of Coke Studio At MTV Season 3

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coke studio at mtv logoThe third season of Coke Studio at MTV came to a close yesterday. Technically it ended at episode 8 itself since there was nothing new that came on the show in the last two episodes. At the end of season 2, I had done a compilation listing 10 best songs from the season. Of course, these were 10 of my favorites from the season, and the songs I end up frequently rerunning from the season extended beyond this 10. A lot of friends who checked out my list too would invariably ask me later for more songs from the season.

And so..this time I have decided to extend the list a bit, giving you 15 of my favorites from Season 3. The season may not have maintained the high it started off on till it ended, but it did have a fair share of lovely music to offer us from pretty much every episode (though on consistency I would rate Season 2 higher than this edition). So here are my 15. Not saying anything about the songs since that has already been done in the individual reviews. And no ranking either, just like last year. Just the song videos in alphabetical order and a full playlist at the end. Do share your thoughts about the list if you will!

 















 
And finally the playlist.

Music Aloud Playback – Top 25 of 2013

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And another year comes to a close in about ten days. An year that was again very fruitful musically, some composers in particular being in exceptional form through the year. But we have not gone into a composer-wise analysis this time either, due to paucity of time. Instead we have just worked on the various song listings, and have four playlists of 25 songs each for you, one up from last year! Let’s take a look at the music then. The format, as usual, is Song Title (Movie) – Composer(s)|Singer(s)|Lyricist(s). And we have gone by the movie release year in every case.

Bollywood Top 25

Barring a couple of them, every leading composer had a fabulous 2013, composing at least one soundtrack of note. And below is our top 25 for the year. Needless to say, these are based on personal preferences and not on hit charts. Click on the individual song title to listen to it. There is also a playlist at the end of the section.

1 Manmarziyan (Lootera) – Amit Trivedi|Shilpa Rao, Amit Trivedi, Amitabh Bhattacharya|Amitabh Bhattacharya

2 O Rangrez (Bhaag Milkha Bhaag) – Shankar Ehsaan Loy|Shreya Ghoshal, Javed Bashir|Prasoon Joshi

3 Tere Mere Beech (Shuddh Desi Romance) – Sachin Jigar|Sunidhi Chauhan, Mohit Chauhan|Jaideep Sahni

4 Piya Milenge (Raanjhanaa) – A R Rahman|Sukhwinder Singh, KMMC Sufi Ensemble|Irshad Kamil

5 Manjha (Kai Po Che) – Amit Trivedi|Amit Trivedi|Swanand Kirkire

6 Murshid Khele Holi (D Day) – Shankar Ehsaan Loy|Munnawar Masoom, Javed Ali, Shankar Mahadevan, Gaurav Gupta, Rajiv Sundaresan, Mani Mahadevan, Raman Mahadevan|Niranjan Iyengar

7 Tum Hi Ho (Aashiqui 2) – Mithoon|Arijit Singh|Mithoon

8 Babaji Ki Booty (Go Goa Gone) - Sachin Jigar|Sachin Jigar|Amitabh Bhattacharya

9 Kabira (Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani) – Pritam|Rekha Bhardwaj, Tochi Raina|Amitabh Bhattacharya

10 Mera Yaar (Bhaag Milkha Bhaag) – Shankar Ehsaan Loy|Javed Bashir|Prasoon Joshi

11 Kaun Mera (Special 26) – M M Kreem|Papon|Irshad Kamil

12 Ambar Sariya (Fukrey) – Ram Sampath|Sona Mohapatra|Traditional folk lyrics

13 Sawar Loon (Lootera) – Amit Trivedi|Monali Thakur|Amitabh Bhattacharya20

14 Alvida (D Day) – Shankar Ehsaan Loy|Nikhil D’Souza, Shruti Haasan, Sukhwinder Singh|Niranjan Iyengar

15 Laal Ishq (Ram Leela) – Sanjay Leela Bhansali|Arijit Singh|Siddharth-Garima

16 Gulaabi (Shuddh Desi Romance) – Sachin Jigar|Jigar Saraiya, Priya Saraiya|Jaideep Sahni

17 Dil Ki Toh Lag Gayi (Nautanki Saala) – Mikey McCleary|Saba Azad|Kausar Munir

18 Janam Janam (Phata Poster Nikla Hero) – Pritam|Sunidhi Chauhan|Irshad Kamil

19 Tum Tak (Raanjhanaa) - A R Rahman|Javed Ali, Pooja Vaidyanath, Keerthi Sagathia|Irshad Kamil

20 Sapna Re Sapna (Ek Thi Daayan) – Vishal Bhardwaj|Padmanabh Gaikwad|Gulzar

21 Titli (Chennai Express) – Vishal Shekhar|Chinmayi, Gopi Sunder|Amitabh Bhattacharya

22 Badtameez Dil (Yeh Jawaan Hai Deewani) - Pritam|Benny Dayal, Shefali Alvares|Amitabh Bhattacharya

23 Khoon Choos Le (Go Goa Gone) – Sachin Jigar|Arjun Kanungo, Suraj Jagan & Priya Panchal|Amitabh Bhattacharya

24 Dil Kaagzi (Gippi) – Vishal Shekhar|Neeti Mohan|Anvita Dutt Guptan

25 Shubhaarambh (Kai Po Che) – Amit Trivedi|Shruti Pathak, Divya Kumar|Swanand Kirkire

Five more songs that fell just shy of the top 25 but deserve a mention.

26 Khamakha (Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola) – Vishal Bhardwaj|Vishal Bhardwaj, Prem Dehati|Gulzar

27 Slow Motion Angreza (Bhaag Milkha Bhaag) – Shankar Ehsaan Loy|Loy Mendonsa, Sukhwinder Singh|Prasoon Joshi

28 Yaaram (Ek Thi Daayan) - Vishal Bhardwaj|Sunidhi Chauhan, Clinton Cerejo|Gulzar

29 Ajnabi (Madras Cafe) – Shantanu Moitra|Zebunnisa Bangash|Zebunnisa Bangash

30 Out of Control – Choir Version (David) – Mikey McCleary|Various|Mikey McCleary

Playlist for the top 25:

Top 25 Malayalam film songs

So this is the bonus playlist this year. In all my previous roundups, I used to bundle up all film music I had heard outside of Bollywood into one common playlist. Turns out this year I had heard a lot of (good) Malayalam songs, a large enough number to summarize into a playlist of 25. So here goes.

1 Aathmaavil (Amen) – Prashant Pillai|Preethi Pillai, Swetha Mohan, Kavitha Mohan, Sankar Sharma|Kavalam Narayana Panicker

2 Thaazhvaaram (Thira) – Shaan Rahman|Hisham Abbas, Neha Nair|Anu Elizabeth Jose

3 Kaal Kuzhanju (Left Right Left) – Gopi Sunder|Murali Gopi|Rafeeq Ahmed

4 Kaatte Kaatte (Celluloid) – M Jayachandran|Vaikkom Vijayalakshmi, G Sreeram|Rafeeq Ahmed

5 Laalee Laalee (Kalimannu) – M Jayachandran|Mridula Warrier, Sudeep Kumar|O N V Kurup

6 Harthal Punk (North 24 Kaatham) – Govind Menon|Aneesh Krishnan, Govind Menon|Rafeeq Ahmed

7 Doore Doore (Neelaakaasham Pachakkadal Chuvanna Bhoomi) – Rex Vijayan|Suchith Suresan|Vinayak Sasikumar

8 Enithonnum (Celluloid) – M Jayachandran|Sithara|Engandiyoor Chandrasekharan

9 Hey Ithu Vazhi (Arikil Oraal) – Gopi Sunder|Indrajith, Chithra Iyer|Anu Elizabeth Jose

10 Thaazhe Nee (Thira) – Shaan Rahman|Job Kurien, Sachin Warrier, Sayanora Philip|Anu Elizabeth Jose

11 Doore Doore (Geethanjali) – Vidyasagar|Rajalakshmi|O N V Kurup

12 Ponnoonjalil (Aaru Sundarimaarude Kadha) - Deepak Dev|Chithra, Venugopal, Kalyani Menon|Kaithapram

13 Mazha Neertha (Anju Sundarikal) - Bijibal|Gayathri Ashok|Sunil Raj Sathya

14 Vattoli (Amen) - Prashant Pillai|Lucky Ali|Kavalam Narayana Panicker

15 Chenthalire (KQ) - Stephen Devassy|Benny Dayal, Shaktisree Gopalan|Rafeeq Ahmed

16 Porumo Porumo (North 24 Kaatham) – Govind Menon|Raghu Dixit, Bijibal|Rafeeq Ahmed

17 Shalabhamai (Kalimannu) – M Jayachandran|Shreya Ghoshal, Sudeep Kumar|O N V Kurup

18 Oru Mezhuthiriyude (Vishudhan) – Gopi Sunder|Shahabaz Aman, Mridula Warrier|Rafeeq Ahmed, Murugan Kaattaakkada

19 Kaayalinarike (Annayum Rasoolum) - K|Shahabaz Aman|Meppally Balan

20 Neerpalunkukal (Neelaakaasham Pachakkadal Chuvanna Bhoomi) – Rex Vijayan|Saju Sreenivas|Vinayak Sasikumar

21 Solomonum Shoshannayum (Amen) – Prashant Pillai|Preethi Pillai, V Sreekumar|P S Rafeeq

22 Kannaadi Chillil (Natholi Oru Cheriya Meenalla) – Abhijit Shylanath|Arvind Venugopal|Anu Elizabeth Jose

23 Shalabhamay (English) – Rex Vijayan|Neha Nair|Shibu Chakravarthy

24 Veyil Chilla (Zachariyayude Garbhinikal) – Vishnu-Sarath|Vishnu, Jyotsna|Engandiyoor Chandrasekharan

25 En Kani Malare (Philips and the Monkey Pen) – Rahul Subramaniam|Neha Venugopal|Siby Padiyara

And five other honorary mentions

26 Etho Saayaahna (10.30 AM Local Call) – Gopi Sunder|Sachin Warrier|Rafeeq Ahmed

27 Antha Naalil (Pattam Pole) – M Jayachandran|Madhu Balakrishnan, Harini|Annamalai

28 Koodeyirikkaam (Ezhu Sundara Raathrikal) - Prashant Pillai|Haricharan, Gayathri Ashok|Rafeeq Ahmed

29  Otta Thumbi (Pullippulikalum Aattinkuttiyum) - Vidyasagar|Shankar Mahadevan, Chithra|Sarath Vayalar

30 Akale (Left Right Left) – Gopi Sunder|Gopi Sunder|Rafeeq Ahmed

Playlist for the top 25:

Top 25 film songs from other languages

Now that Malayalam has gone into a list of its own, this playlist is comprised mostly of Tamil songs, with a smattering of Bengali and Telugu. The list is compiled from what I heard, so there is a chance this compilation might be missing some key soundtracks.

1 Moongil Thottam (Kadal) – A R Rahman|Abhay Jodhpurkar, Harini|Vairamuthu

2 Yenga Pona Raasa (Maryan) – A R Rahman|Shaktisree Gopalan|Kutti Revathi, A R Rahman

3 Aaha Kaadhal (Moondru Per Moondru Kaadhal) – Yuvan Shankar Raja|Nandini Srikar|Na. Muthukumar

4 Unnai Kaanaadhu (Vishwaroopam) – Shankar Ehsaan Loy|Kamal Haasan, Shankar Mahadevan|Kamal Haasan

5 Nenjukkulle (Kadal) – A R Rahman|Shaktisree Gopalan|Vairamuthu

6 Neela Evaru (Swamy Ra Ra) – Sunny M R|Arijit Singh|Krishna Chaitanya

7 Hey (Vanakkam Chennai) – Anirudh|Papon, Maria Roe Vincent|Na. Muthukumar

8 Kuru Kuru (Vathikkuchi) – Ghibran|Sundar Narayana Rao|Na. Muthukumar

9 Kallaale Senju (Chithiraiyil Nila Choru) – Ilayaraja|Haricharan|Vaalee

10 Ae Le Le (Naiyaandi) - Ghibran|Leon D’Souza, Sundar Narayana Rao|Arivumathi

11 Mor Bhabonare (Hawa Bodol) – Indradeep Dasgupta|Saptarishi Mukherjee, Sahana Bajpaie|Rabindranath Tagore

12 Vaazhkaiye (David) - Bramfatura|Siddharth Basrur|Mohan Rajan

13 Kaattukkulla Kannamoochi (Sutta Kadhai) – Madley Blues|Harish Venkat, Vijay Prakash, Harshitha Krishnan|Subu

14 Yedhukkaaga (Rummy) – D Imman|Santhosh Hariharan, A V Pooja|Yugabharathi

15 Din Khon Mapa (Hawa Bodol) – Indradeep Dasgupta|Arijit Singh|Angshuman Chakraborty

16 Elay Keechan (Kadal) - A R Rahman|A R Rahman, Vijaynarain Rangarajan, Suchith Suresan|Madhan Karky

17 Thuppaakki (Vishwaroopam) - Shankar Ehsaan Loy|Benny Dayal, Kamal Haasan|Vairamuthu, Asif Ali Beg

18 Kanave (David) - Anirudh|Anirudh|Mohan Rajan

19 Kanna Kanna (Vathikkuchi) – Ghibran|Sundar Narayana Rao|Arivumathi

20 Kaatru Veesum (Neram) - Rajesh Murugesan|Haricharan|Pradeep Palarr

21 Innum Konjam (Maryan) – A R Rahman|Swetha Mohan, Vijay Prakash|Kabilan, A R Rahman

22 Ananda Yaazhai (Thanga Meengal) – Yuvan Shankar Raja|Sriram Parthasarathy|Na. Muthukumar

23 Kafer Tomake (Goynar Baksho) – Debojyoti Mishra|Rupankar|Srijato

24 O Naadu Washington (Greeku Veerudu) – Thaman|SP Balasubramaniam

25 Adiyae Enna Raagam (Rummy) - D Imman|Abhay Jodhpurkar, Poornima Satish|Yugabharathi

Another five that missed out.

26 Angyaade (Raja Rani) – G V Prakash|Shaktisree Gopalan|Pa. Vijay

27 Pistah (Neram) - Rajesh Murugesan|Sabareesh Varma|Jagathi Sreekumar

28 Osaka Osaka (Vanakkam Chennai) – Anirudh|Anirudh, Pragathi Raviprasad|Madhan Karky

29 Megh Dutam (Satyanweshi) – Debojyoti Mishra|Srijan Chatterjee

30 Biriyani (Biriyani) – Yuvan Shankar Raja|Tanvi Shah, Bhavatharini, Vilasini|Gangai Amaren, Tanvi Shah

Top 25 Playlist:

Top 25 Non Film Songs

Since we already made a top 15 list for Coke Studio India, we have avoided that in this compilation. The non-film scene has seen a lot of top quality music this year; in the form of new albums and in TV shows – Dewarists, Sound Trippin’ and a new entrant to the scene down South, Music Mojo from Kappa TV. And while we know it is not the best thing to be ranking songs from totally different genres, there had to be some sort of a pecking order. Hence here it is. Not all songs are available for streaming online, so relevant links have been provided wherever possible.  And we have considered only original songs that came out this year.

1 Jag Changa (Jag Changa) – Raghu Dixit

2 Barsan Laage Nain (Attuned Spirits) – Vasuda Sharma

3 Khirama (Dewarists) - Lucky Ali, Prashant Pillai

4 Kodagana Koli (Jag Changa) – Raghu Dixit

5 Chekkele (Epic Shit) – Sanjeev Thomas, Baiju Dharmajan

6 Nain Matakka (Sound Trippin’) - Sneha Khanwalkar, Sneha Pandit

7 Soleil (Doppelganger) – Dualist Inquiry

8 Shaitaan (2) – Sifar

9 Alchemy (The Crossover) – Baiju Dharmajan

10 Yahweh (Big Big Joke) - Tough On Tobacco

11 Whole (The Tattva Trip) – Suraj Mani

12 Kaanaan Kannu (Music Mojo) – Job Kurian

13 Bliss (Bliss) – Arun Shenoy

14 Dhola (Attuned Spirits) – Vasuda Sharma

15 Saanware (Single) – Rushi Vakil, Aniket Khandekar

16 Baawri (Farida) – Abhijeet Sawant

17 Saiyon Asi (Shah Hussain Project) – Vasundhara Das

18 Longing (FluteTronics) - Naveen Kumar, Karsh Kale

19 Kaalan (Music Mojo) – Neha Nair

20 Amma (Jag Changa) – Raghu Dixit

21 Love Love Love (Big Big Joke) – Tough on Tobacco

22 Exile (Doppelganger) - Dualist Inquiry

23 Fish Rock (Music Mojo) – Thaikkudam Bridge

24 Tipush Tapush (Sound Trippin’) – Karsh Kale, Nucleya

25 Zamzayo (Epic Shit) – Sanjeev Thomas

The playlist:

And that rounds up the 2013 music scene for us! Here’s looking forward to an equally awesome 2014!

World Music Day Special – On Sound Cloud 9, Volume 8

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on sound cloud 9 logoToday is World Music Day, and we thought this would be a perfect day to come out with volume 8 of our soundcloud series, On Sound Cloud 9. This time we have gone for some of the more established independent artists we love, most of whom we have featured in the past. The mix is cross-genre as usual though, albeit with a mostly Indian classical/folk orientation. OK then, enough said; enjoy the music! Happy World Music Day all!

Lovely new TVC by OLX. #LetWhatYouLoveLive

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Been wanting to start sharing singles on the site again, preferably with more focus on TV ads since a lot of lovely music gets missed in that area. Found the perfect candidate to start with today morning, this new spiel from OLX (link thanks to @beastoftraal). Almost 4 minutes long, but totally worth the length for the poignant storyline and the way they tie it to the brand. And more importantly, a very fittingly done – almost Udaan-esque sounding – jingle (in fact a proper song, given the duration) by composer Abhishek Arora and lyricist Arko Provo Bose (creative director at Lowe Lintas), and Agnee’s Mohan Kannan for vocals is a splendid choice. Video directed by Vivek Daschaudhary (full credits here). Special props to OLX for including lyrics and music credits in the video description.

Excellent covers of ARR’s Mann Mohana & SLB’s Laal Ishq!

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Two very nicely done covers in case you are looking for some good music on Easter Sunday. First one has singer Shweta Mohan jamming with singer-bassist Aalaap Raju and saxophonist Maarten Visser (and a few other uncredited musicians too I believe, unless all the other sounds were programmed). Shweta chooses the sublime composition AR Rahman did for Jodhaa Akbar with Bela Shende on vocals, Mann Mohana.  Shweta chooses a thumri based on the same theme, Lord Krishna, to mix with the film song and combination works like a charm. My favourite bit is the one minute segment from 3.30 where Aalaap picks up the classical guitar and goes bossa nova with Maarten, while Shweta launches into an amazing raag pilu based alaap!
 

Second cover for the day is from Sanjay Leela Bhansali‘s Ram Leela, to me the best song of the soundtrack, the raag yaman based Laal Ishq that was originally sung by Arijit Singh (thanks to @harishk for the reco). Here the vocals are done by Harshavardhan Wavare and very commendably at that, with Kasturi Tambat Wavare, Karan Wavare and Aditya Patekar on accompaniments. Enjoy the cover below!
 


Songs you should hear: A kajri and a carnatic fusion piece

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Two more song videos for you, like last week. Thinking of making this a weekend-ly thing.  First of the two videos today comes from that wonderful show from Kerala called Music Mojo. Ghazal/playback singer Gayathri Ashokan‘s new band Gayatri & The Seventh Note does a serene cover of the kajri Saawan Ki Ritu originally composed by Ustad Ghamman Khan (in raag mishra tilak kamod), known to most for tutoring classical exponent Shobha Gurtu. Apart from Gayathri’s singing, the main highlight of this cover to me is Rajesh‘s work on the flute. Rest of the band is Ben Sam Jones on bass, William on keys, Sandeep on guitar and Sunil Kumar on percussion. Good band; do check out their other songs from the episode too.

Second video is slightly older, that of a carnatic fusion piece. People from Chennai-based Krimson Avenue Studios do a reimagination of violinist Embar Kannan‘s composition Dheem Dheem written by Krithika Arvind who has in the past written guest articles for our Carnatic Corner section. The raga is a Hindustani one incidentally, bhatiyar (remember Purab Se Surya Uga?) but the treatment is very carnatic. Being Embar’s composition it features some splendid violin solos by the man, but V Deepika is quite fab with her thillana rendition too. On keys is Prithvi Chandrasekhar who also produced the track, and Yash Pathak does percussion.

 

Songs you should hear: Coke Studio, Music Mojo & Skrat

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Sorry about missing this last week. Hence this time there are three videos.

First one is from the second episode of Coke Studio at MTV, headed by Sachin Jigar. After a rather ho hum song from Amit Trivedi in episode 1, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The episode turned out to be quite good, there were three songs all of which were well done, and no music video which was a bad idea to begin with. This one happens to be my favourite from among the three. Has a slight Amit Trivedi feel to it in the general use of instruments. Not to mention the fact that Tochi Raina is leading the vocals. The Rajasthani folk based fusion has been tried on the show in the past too with good success, works very well here too. Bhungar Khan Manganiar‘s group takes care of the Rajasthani section this time, while on the other side Tochi Raina has lyricist Priya Saraiya and Ronkini Gupta for support with some neat chorus bits. Shirish Malhotra and Tapas Roy rule the background with their sax and mandolin respectively. Do check out the other two songs from the episode as well, they are worth it.

Second video comes from Kappa TV’s Music Mojo. Yeah I did share one from the show last time too, but the show does produce a lot of quality music. And Masala Coffee is one of the quality bands that have appeared on the show. They have only done covers of songs so far, but they have done a fabulous job at each of those covers. They have covered film music, but they have been extra good with folk songs. Do check out their Kaanthaa and Vadakkan Paattu at some point. This song though is a carnatic one, 17th century composer Narayana Theertha‘s neelambari raga based Mamava Madhava Deva. A raga that lends itself very well to such minimal covers it would seem. I have another beautiful neelambari cover that I will share at another point. The song’s mainstay, as has been the case with the band’s songs in general, is the immensely talented singer Sooraj Santhosh. Nice use of guitars too.

The best thing about the song Mutant Macha is the fact that more people will now know about Chennai band Skrat, thanks to names like Farhan Akhtar, Vishal Dadlani and Star Movies associated with the song. The singing could have been better, but trippy song otherwise. On an aside, Skrat had featured on volume 2 of Music Aloud’s OKListen mixtape series. :)

Happy Mother’s Day! – A playlist dedicated to all mothers

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A playlist dedicated to all mothers on this Mother’s Day. Songs from Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam themed on mother or the mother-child relationship. Have avoided lullabies though. Made it in a hurry so apologies if I have missed some key song. Enjoy the music then!

 

Songs you should listen to: Voctronica, Dewarists & Aasma

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We missed another week. Therefore we have three songs this time too.

First one is an a cappella cover of Ed Sheeran‘s blockbuster song from last year, Sing. This Mumbai band Voctronica (Avinash Tewari, Meghana Bhogle, Raj Verma, Arjun Nair, Warsha Easwar and Clyde Rodrigues) have been producing some impressive works these last couple of years. Earlier this year there was this wonderful cover of Alt J’s Fitzpleasure, and about a year back was the tribute to the 90s Indian ads which probably is their most viewed work, courtesy the AIB association. Coming back to this song, very well done yet again. Particularly liked the occasional experimentation they have done with the rhythm, wish there was more of that.

Dewarists does not continue to be the rage it was when it started off in 2011. It does however produce some good music even now; case in point is this trippy song from Episode 6 of Season 4, featuring Shruti Pathak and Nucleya. I have been a fan of Nucleya for his use of the bass; you should check out his Bangla Bass from last year’s Dewarists season if you haven’t, it is mindblowing! Here too, the best thing to do is to connect your headphones and brace yourself for the moment he says Drop the bass! The electronic elements meld well with Shruti’s classical-tinged rendition of Heer’s pining for Ranjha (Dub Sharma‘s lines, inspired by Waris Shah’s Heer Ranjha). Lovely singing. In short, best song from the season so far (at least from the ones I have heard).

In my interview with Vasuda Sharma in 2010 I had asked her about a reunion of her former band Aasma, and she had spoken of a comeback “soon”. Well the soon seems to have taken five years, but it did eventually happen. Ten years after their last album, the band came out with a Mother’s Day special single yesterday titled Maa Meri. Nice soulful melody rendered well by the band members (Vasuda, Neeti Mohan, Sangeet Haldipur, Jimmy Felix) and Sangeet’s missus, playback singer Anusha Mani. In the background Sanjoy Das‘s guitar work stands out. The song has a sweet video too, featuring the band members’ respective mothers. Nice comeback this!

Songs you should listen to: Part 6

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Over a month since the last one in this series, so five songs this time.

Mother Earth – Sharreth/Chithra (The Green Symphony)

Found this thanks to @SoundtrackIndia, first single from composer Sharreth‘s album The Green Symphony released by singer K S Chithra‘s official music label Audiotracs. Over 13 minutes in length, the song features some mindblowing progressions typical of the composer, testing the vocal range of Chithra. The shuddha dhanyasi raga based song has Balabhaskar on violin and Balasai on flute leading the arrangement. Video directed by Deepak Fain expectedly features a lot of green and sprawling scenery juxtaposed with studio shots of Sharreth and Chithra. I hope they make this album available online!

Ae Rab – Dhruv Ghanekar/Master Saleem (Coke Studio at MTV Season 4)

Coke Studio at MTV’s latest episode featured the very talented (but underrated, like a lot of genuine talents) Dhruv Ghanekar. And among his three songs from the episode, this happens to be my favourite. The sufi bit of the song apparently draws from a Bulleh Shah work, and Dhruv sets to a loosely raag bhairavi based tune and gets Master Saleem (haven’t heard him in a while) to deliver along with him. The way the song starts off isn’t particularly impressive, but wait till about 2:40 when the flamenco elements kick in and from there on it is a heady ride! The guitars, bass, claps, all gelling with the dark tune brilliantly.

Papa Hai Na – Shamir Tandon/Neeti Mohan (SBI Life)

Balancing out her single on Mother’s Day in a reunion of erstwhile band Aasma, singer Neeti Mohan released another single for Father’s Day titled Papa Hai Na, composed by Shamir Tandon. The song comes under SBI Life’s banner and the video features Neeti and her father, lyricist Brij Mohan Sharma. Sweet song that would rate among Shamir’s better compositions, it features some lovely violin by Manas Kumar.

Barsan Laage Nain – Vasuda Sharma (Attuned Spirits)

One of my favourite songs from Vasuda Sharma’s debut album Attuned Spirits from 2013 (even featured on my top 25 non film songs of the year) recently got a swanky new video that features her new band called Sharma & The Besharams. Interesting video that matches the structure of the song itself – while the song has jazz elements providing the backdrop for Vasuda’s classical-tinged (shades of brindavana saranga) rendition, the video switches between visuals of the band performing in an old school jazz club sort of setting and a bharatanatyam performance (by Lakshmi) in the same venue.

Palli Vaathil – Sanjeev Thomas/Sayanora Philip (Epic Shit)

Another 2013 song to get a new video this week was Palli Vaathil (still don’t know why it is titled so when the actual song goes Palli Vaalu), Sanjeev Thomas’ adaptation of a Malayalam folk song for his album Epic Shit. A video celebrating womanhood apparently, to go with a song that extols Goddess Kaali.

Songs you should listen to: Part 7

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Trying to once again become more regular with this series. Three songs this time, two of which are pretty old but still worth listening to, or revisiting as the case maybe.

For video 1, I decided to pick up something suited for the season, given that Wimbledon 2015 kicked off today morning. And the best one I could think of was this video that was apparently released as a promo for the 2008 men’s singles final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, one that the latter one in a record-breaking five-setter (my favourite final though is the one from the year after, also a brilliant five-setter; I happen to be a Roddick fan). Coming back to the video, this one has Federer and Nadal reciting excerpts of Rudyard Kipling‘s famous poem If,  lines from which are inscribed above the entryway to the Wimbledon Centre Court. There is a certain charm to hearing the two champions read out those lines, especially with that majestic background score. Music which happens to be the piece from Shekhar Kapur‘s Elizabeth: The Golden Age called Destiny Theme, composed by Craig Armstrong along with A R Rahman!

Song 2 is from two years back, a video that I happened to revisit recently (thanks to a prompter from @kitha_n) and fell in love with. So the video is of singer Sid Sriram (famous in India for his renditions for ARR, Adiye in Kadal and more recently Ennodu Nee from I) singing one of his original compositions called Loveshine (he hasn’t credited the pianist in the video, unfortunately) at Rockwood Music Hall in New York. It is a nice song, that draws a lot from his characteristic singing style. Where it becomes awesome is around the halfway mark, where he launches into a carnatic ad lib; the transition is smooth, and the rendition exceptional.

The last song is the only current one (thanks to @giri1208 for the tip-off); from Aakash Gandhi who in a manner of speaking, launched singers like Jonita Gandhi and Sanam Puri. This time he picks up Jeet Gannguli‘s title song from Hamari Adhuri Kahani. And singing the song is Aditya Rao, whom you might remember from Shankar Tucker’s cover of Mann Mohini (Yuvvraaj). Aditya’s Raghu Dixit-like voice and style sort of contrast with and are not as effective as Arijit’s original rendition, although there is no doubting the fact that Aditya is a competent singer. What makes the cover really tick is Sahil Khan‘s work on the flute, everything else basically milks the charm of the original piece.

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