Folk fusion has taken a new meaning with Swarathma, a Bangalore based band, who rocked the night of 3rd june, at Hard Rock Café, Bengaluru. With their quite unique sound, incorporating elements of contemporary rock and traditional music, Swarathma’s show that night at HRC went a long way in capturing the hearts of Bengaluru’s music following public. The highlight of the show was the release of the music video “Pyaasi” featuring Shubha Mudgal on vocals and Suhail Yusuf Khan of Advaita fame on sarangi, a social message to highlight the water scarcity problem affecting the country’s different regions.

The song “EE-bhoomi”, sung in Kannada is already famous in the music circles for its amazing ensemble of music, as well as being one where the crowd can sing along. Accompanied by a thumping bass line and a drum beat to go with, this one song was the cherry on the cake for the awesome night’s performance. However, having listened to the other songs in the album tells you one thing: This is not a one-trick pony(speaking of ponies, the kutchi ghodi is a feature u can’t miss in a swarathma performance ). Songs like ‘Jaana Kahan hai mujhe’ is a sentimental reflection on the dilemmas we have in life, while the rendition of ‘Sur Mera’ left one speechless with its slow kickup and intelligent fusion of indigenous percussion with the strings and the drums.

Originally formed in Mysore in 2002, Swarathma currently features Vasu Dixit on vocals, Sanjeev Nayak on violin, Varun Murali on lead guitar, Jishnu Dasgupta on bass, Pavan Kumar on percussion and backing vocals and Montry Manuel on drums. The band members come from various musical backgrounds, thus contributing to the rich texture in their music. Their passion for music is evident from their backgrounds, with some of the band members sacrificing high flying corporate careers to pursue their passion for music. Vasu Dixit took a 2 year sabbatical from the band to pursue a masters in film and video communication from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, while Jishnu Dasgupta was already popular in B-school circles as the bassist for Bodhi Tree, the band from XLRI, and composer of songs like ‘GMD’, ‘XL ki kudiyan’ etc.

The versatility of Pavan Kumar adds a lot of prowess to the band’s music. Adept at conjuring magic from various percussion instruments like Kanjira, Djembe, Ghatam and Dholak, Pavan also performed as the lead vocalist in one of their songs. Montry Manuel’s flowing drumbeats are dependable and the keen devotee of Pink Floyd and Safri Duo always never fails to miss a beat. The drum solo at the end of the HRC show was testimony to that fact. Varun’s climb to fame in a short time is an inspiration to all budding guitarists. The fact that he started playing only 5 years before was quite incredible, and amazing.

Sanjeev Nayak’s virtuoso violin performance incorporates elements of Carnatic music into the band’s music. A self professed admirer of L Subramaniam and L Shankar’s violin performances, the quiet confidence with which the violinist holds the stage is a lesson for all budding musicians. Vasu Dixit hails from a family with a musical background, with his mother and elder brother Raghu Dixit already in the music circles. A passionate photographer and filmmaker, Vasu’s versatile vocal range and sensitive lyrics form the soul of swarathma. Other than their self titled album released under the Virgin Records label, Vasu Dixit has recently written music for a Kannada film.

Going into HRC made me sure of one thing: We can expect more great things from this band, if the show was a sign of things to come!! A show never to be missed if u have the good fortune to be in the same city

Personal favourite song: EE bhoomi!!

Swarathma website: http://swarathma.com

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Lounge Piranhas performing at a Bangalore lounge.

Lounge Piranhas is a band which gives me feeling that I will be able to tell my grandchildren that I used to listen to Lounge Piranhas when they used to perform in pubs and sell their own CDs. This is a 4 piece Bangalore band formed in 2005 and can be called an alternative/punk band. They are the coolest Indian alternative rock outfit I have seen. They have a distinctive  and very trippy sound.  They are very adept in fusing of different genres of rock and roll. And what more, they have a didgeridoo and morsing player who appears as a guest in some tracks.

I had been waiting for a Lounge Piranha gig for a while. Last Wednesday, there were playing at a pub near my place and I  decided not to give it a miss. I was there at the venue pretty early, as last time I reached for a LP gig a month late! But then that’s a different story all together.

LP started with a track called Going Nowhere, which is also the name of their album. It is also the first track in the album. Its almost an instrumental piece with a very prominent base line and has a very psychedelic feel to it. There is a didgeridoo sound hovering around and some atmospheric sounds of a radio slightly out of tune. The rhythm guitar reminds me of a Floyd song, but it is the lead guitar which gives the song a Piranha touch. It keeps singing, it’s neither wailing or moaning, Abhijeet Tambe’s guitar kind of sings, that makes Abhijeet a singer with two voices. Later the song loses its Floyd touch, that’s when the lyrics begin and slowly catches tempo and ends in a high note.

After this I lost track of the song order, but I bought a CD after the gig. This review is a based on the songs on the CD. The next track on the CD is called Gun Song. Its my favorite track of the album and will get you banging your head, Kamal Singh (the other guitarist and vocalist and lyricist of most of the songs) voice is at it’s best in this song. The main riff of the song is what makes the song really cool, it has that thing which makes you like a song in the first listen, that magical combination of musical notes.  This song kind of defines the Lounge Piranha sound for me, a cocktail of alternative, punk, grunge and post grunge rock.

The next song is called Snakes and Lotuses. It seemed to me that there is an Indian influence to this song but that was an illusion created by the morsing and the guitar. LP tries to write thought provoking lyrics,  this songs lyrics contains words like emancipate and nauseate and goes to say that “this world is so un-required”

Next song was my favorite LP before I listened to Gun Song. It’s called Ebb and it’s a beautiful song with a nice rhythm. It goes like this “Sugar sweet with a taste of bitter, I couldn’t ask for more!”. This a song which you can sing along. I am pretty bad at decoding lyrics, I need a Wikipedia page to understand song meanings, which sadly doesn’t exist for these LP songs. But that day will come for sure. LP often performs in small venues and is known to do surprise covers and often treats you with some new songs. They did play some new songs at the gig I attended, there was this song on a MES college in Malleswaram and another one on Bajrang Bali, this one was almost a protest song.  The new songs were a bit louder and more of a pop-punk style.

The next song is called Eclat and is a pretty interesting track with a beat which keeps on changing. The next song called Teenage Curse is the most serious song of the album, I mean, the mood of the song is gloomy and serious. The last song of the album is called Hand Hole, its a favorite of mine. I like that part when LP says “Explode, justify, make known! Intensify”

LP’s CD has got the best album art I have seen on an Indian CD, George Mathen the drummer of the band is also an artist, all what you get to see on the album as well as the site is his handiwork. He will be releasing a graphic novel shortly. LP has a fantastic website, all designed by Mr. Mathen I believe, it’s worth a visit. There are some songs available for download as well.

Lounge Piranha is a band waiting to explode and made known. If you are alternative rock kind of person,  and love your Floyd and Coldplay and Radiohead. Go and buy a copy of “Going Nowhere”, you won’t be disappointed.

Indian Ocean Radio

 

Back in 1984, before most Indian Ocean fans in college concerts were even born, Susmit met Asheem…during a concert. He was a fan of Niharika – a Bengali band Asheem played tabla for. They hit it off right away. Asheem was taken up by Susmit’s guitar-playing and his vision to evolve a new sound. Susmit, in turn, learnt the nuances of rhythm from Asheem – not the basic 4/4 beat, but the mysteries of chhand and jhonk and taal.

For the next 3 years, every now and then, they jammed as a duo, Susmit on guitar and Asheem on tabla and drums – no vocals anywhere in sight. After a memorable debut concert at Roorkee, there was only the occasional stray performance.

In 1990, Susmit sold his electric guitar to raise money for a demo recording of their band, by now called Indian Ocean (Susmit’s dad suggested the name). With Shaleen Sharma on drums, and Indrajit Dutta and Anirban Roy on bass, they recorded the demo, taping an incredible 45 minutes and 7 songs in 1 day. Despite the rushed recording, the quality of the demo tape impressed HMV enough to offer them an album deal.

In 1991, Rahul Ram, a schoolmate of Susmit’s, joined the band, replacing Anirban on bass.
Indian Ocean, the album, was recorded in Calcutta and, despite the crummy mikes and sozzled sound recordist, the band was on a high. They had recorded an original album, almost entirely instrumental, rare outside the world of Indian classical music. The future looked boundless; anything was possible.

But, much to the band’s frustration, the album took a year to get released. But when it did come out, it sold over 40,000 copies within a year of its release – at that time, the highest selling record by any Indian band ever. However, this had no immediate results – in concerts, contracts or money or anything.

In 1994, drummer Shaleen left the band. Amit Kilam, barely out of his teens and, in fact, still taking his college exams, took his place. This has been the line-up since then: Susmit, Asheem, Rahul and Amit.

Money was tight and there weren’t many opportunities to play. But somehow the band believed in themselves and in their music. They kept at it – composing, practicing, playing for themselves, getting better, tighter, more together. Vocals began to be used more and more, and they brought a new dimension to the sound.

Susmit and Asheem left their jobs to be in the band full-time, and kept at it even after they had kids to support. Rahul and Amit did not have salaried jobs either. All four kept afloat by taking on various musical assignments – odd jobs composing music for serials, ads and documentaries. 

New Year’s Day 1997. The SAHMAT concert at Mandi House, Delhi. After waiting 7 hours to get on stage, Indian Ocean played an inspired concert that had the crowd rising to its feet, roaring for more. Quite fortuitously, the band noticed a DAT recorder, bought a tape and recorded the concert. True to their unfailing lack of vision, no music company wanted to release a live album of an Indian band, so a label called Independent Music was formed to release this. Desert Rainwas a landmark album for its time and today, almost a decade later, still continues to sell (Much to the band’s surprise and pleasure, in 2006, it was no. 2 on the iTunes UK world music charts!). 

Meanwhile, the media started getting interested in the album and this ‘new’ band. Radio, TV and press coverage increased. From relative obscurity and a modest group of enthusiastic fans, the band began to be known around the country. First, the gigs began to fall into place – Delhi, of course, but also Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Mumbai. Money began to trickle in. More importantly, new material became more honed, and the playing tightened with every show. 

Times Music signed on Indian Ocean in 1998 and, the next year, the band went to Mumbai to record a new album. Recorded in the hi-tech studio Western Outdoor, and released in March 2000, Kandisa went on to acquire cult status, becoming one of the most important, best-loved albums of contemporary Indian music. 

Kandisa changed everything. The band became a keenly awaited presence on the college circuit, with repeat invites from big cities and smaller towns all around the country. The international scene opened up dramatically. From their first concert abroad in London in August 2001, they went on to play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where they played 18 concerts in 14 days, and were nominated the Pick of the Fringe. They returned to the Fringe in 2002 and 2003. In 2002, the band played 37 concerts abroad across four continents: New Zealand, USA, UK, Japan, Australia and Indonesia, and the next year they toured the UK twice, returned to the Australia, went to Germany and then on to Singapore. In 2004 they flew across the ‘actual’ Indian Ocean, to play on the gorgeous island of Reunion. The next year, they toured the UK three times. Their high point was performing at Trafalgar Square in the heart of London, playing two concerts heard by an audience of thousands. And in 2005-06, they toured the US thrice, playing 26 concerts across thirteen states, and one in Toronto, Canada. Today, as their much-stamped passports attest, they are India’s leading global band. 

Growing recognition has brought Indian Ocean in touch with some of the greatest musicians in the world. Susmit, Amit and Rahul played with the celebrated violinist Pandit L. Subramaniam. Then, Asheem accompanied the legendary American folk singer Pete Seeger in a packed performance. The whole band jammed with the virtuoso Japanese trumpeter Terumasa Hino in Delhi, and played with top jazz musicians during their Japanese tour in 2002. A year later, Rahul and Amit felt privileged to play with Vikoo Vinayakram and his son Selva Ganesh at a percussion concert in Almora. In 2002, on hearing Indian Ocean play in Washington DC, the great cellist Yo-Yo Ma complimented them for doing to Indian music what he had always wanted to do with Chinese music. 

Indian Ocean’s fourth album Jhini was released in 2003, along with the band’s first music video for the title track. The band was nominated as MTV’s Artists of the Month. The album also won the AVMax Award for the best produced album of 2003. 

Indian Ocean’s first major foray into Bollywood was the feature film Black Friday. The soundtrack for the movie was released in 2005 to immediate acclaim. The song ‘Bandeh’, with powerful lyrics by Piyush Mishra, reached no. 2 in the charts and has become a huge popular hit. The music for Black Friday has continued to surge even though the film’s release was stalled by litigation until late 2006. More film offers have now come their way and the band is currently working on a film called Shoonya. 

In November 2006, the band recorded a 3-hour concert for a Live-in-Concert DVD. A full-length documentary feature on the band is also being made and a big-screen release is planned. Both are firsts for an Indian band. So the story continues, towards new horizons, new creative frontiers. 

 

Albums

The first live album released by any Indian band, ever. A concert played at the annual SAHMAT show at Mandi House on Jan 1, 1997, and recorded completely by accident!! No major record label was willing to take the risk of releasing a live album, and so a record company was created to release Desert Rain, thanks to Naresh Bhatia. Released on cassettes and CDs. Recording Engineer: Vikram Mishra; Remastered by K.J.Singh at Fast Forward Studios, Delhi; Photography: Amit Pasricha; Cover Design: A.V. Graphics Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. B/W Cover Photograph: Dilip Prakash. The Ghosh family and Silvy allowed us to run amok at M-6 GKII, and kept us plentifully supplied with tea, eats and love for all of three years.

1. Desert Rain
2. Village Damsel
3. Boll Weevil
4. Going To ITO
5. Euphoria
6. From The Ruins
7. Melancholic Ecstasy

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Recorded at Western Outdoors, one of India’s premier studios, in Mumbai, this is our first “proper” studio recording. We were given two weeks for recording and 5 days for the mix, and actually had a producer!! Recording Engineers: K J Singh, Avinash Oak and Daman Sood; Assistant Engineers: Mr Chitre , Tito Dasgupta and Mr Subhash; Producer: K J Singh; Executive Producer: Pramod Shanker (Times Music). Mastered by K J Singh at Satya Studio, Mumbai. Lyrics: Sanjeev Sharma for Khajuraho, Kaun and Kya Maloom. Kandisa and Ma Rewa are traditional. Hille le is based on Gorakh Pande’s words. Kashmiri lyrics in Kaun by Indira Kilam.Kandisa was made possible thanks to Gurpreet, Orijit and the Sidhus and the wonderful ambience of 16/330 Khajoor Road.

1. Kya Maloom
2. Ma Rewa
3. Leaving Home
4. Hille Le
5. Khajuraho
6. Kaun
7. Kandisa

 

We took fairly long to record Jhini. The Sylvan surroundings of the Kosmic Music Studios in Varadepalyam probably contributed to this, where we would laze in swings hung from mango trees, listen to the jackals at night and gaze at the Milky Way. Manoj was our sound engineer, extremely low-key and hard working. The album won the AVMax award for the best produced album in 2003.

1. Bhor
2. Torrent
3. Jhini
4. Nam Myo Ho
5. Let Me Speak
6. Des Mera
7. After the War

 

Black Friday is our first full-length Bollywood film. Recorded over three months in Delhi and Mumbai, with KJ of Kandisa returning as co-producer and sound engineer. This album is quite different from our other albums as it features, in addition to three songs, six instrumentals with extensive use of brass, woodwinds and digital sounds. The song “Bandeh” reached a peak position of #2 on the film charts.

1. Bandeh
2. Badshah in Jail
3. Bharam Bhap Ke
4. Opening / Pre Blast
5. Bomb Planting
6. Memon House
7. RDX
8. Training
9. Chase

 

 

The band’s first album, recorded in just 10 days at HMV’s Dumdum studio, Calcutta, in December 92. Shaleen Sharma played the drums on this album. Released only on cassette. Recording Engineer: Raja Mukherjee; Cover concept: Manas Chakrabarti; Graphic Design: Navin Shiromani. The Durgapal family gave us all their time, patience and space while we prepared for this recording.

1. Village Damsel
2. No Comebacks
3. Going To ITO
4. Brisk Lonely Walk	-
5. Torrent
6. Out of the Blues	-
7. Melancholic Ecstasy

 

Concert History 

Performing all over india for the past 15 years, the band has played at several of the country’s most prestigious venues including the Red Fort, the Gateway of India, Vasanthabba (Bangalore) and the Temples of Khajuraho. Indian Ocean is a hot favorite at college venues, having performed at almost all the IITs and IIMs. Their concerts typically last over two hours , with audiences refusing to allow them to leave the stage. 

The band first played outside india in 2001 in London and then at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a city returned to thrice in 2002 and 2003. They played at the New Zealand Arts Festival in 2002, at the Melbourne Arts Festival in 2002, the Smithsonian FolkLife Festival ( Washington DC) in 2002, Tokyo in 2002, Indonesia again in 2002, the Golden Jubilee Year of the Perth Arts Festival in 2003, Germany in 2003, Singapore in 2001 and 2003 and the Festival ArtKenciel in Reunion in 2004. 

In 2005 , Indian Ocean is slated to play in Glasgow, London, Birmingham, Italy, Dubai and return to Reunion.

 

Upcoming Concert 

Date: Friday, March 13th 2009 
City: New Delhi
Venue: British Council, Kasturba Gandhi Marg
Tickets: Contact British Council

The Band 

Susmit has virtually invented a new style of playing the guitar – an uncannily Indian sound where purity of scale reigns, strong melodic lines woven around the drone of open strings. This guitar sound forms the basis of Indian Ocean’s unique sound. Not very fond of verse-chorus formats, Susmit’s personal vision is towards finding a new vocabulary for his music. His virtuoso talent never overshadows the big picture, but serves the song immaculately, strengthening it, embellishing it, giving it a distinct character. His demeanour on stage – lips pursed in fierce concentration, enigmatic smile half-forming, a look of utter contentment flashing in and out – gives him a stage presence focused entirely on the music coming from his direction.

Pretty much a militant atheist, Susmit is convinced that destiny is created on earth, not written in heaven or hell. Self-motivation and direction make lives, according to him, and he has certainly lived as per this dictum so far. Entirely a self-taught musician, he believes music springs directly from experience, so all experiences are pretty much grist for the mill as far as he’s concerned. So he’s a foodie, chef, wilderness junkie, ornithology and dog breeds enthusiast, football fan…and lots else. He is an accomplished athlete and was into swimming, football and cricket. Classical music interests him more than jazz or rock.

Indian Ocean fans call him “the man with the golden voice”. Amazingly, Asheem sings and plays the tabla simultaneously with remarkable clarity and ease, a difficult feat almost never achieved by Indian percussionists. Asheem’s rhythm structures are uniquely his own, contributing in large part to Indian Ocean’s signature sound, while the melodies he creates are wonderfully different. He loves improvising vocal lines on stage. He plays traditional Indian percussion instruments in completely innovative ways. Brought up in an atmosphere of Indian classical, folk and other Indian forms, Asheem showed his rhythmic spark at an extremely early age.

Asheem is Mr Tangent, king of the non-sequitur. Nobody (including Asheem) understands how his brain works, and he’s won many an argument hands-down with his unique brand of logic, and statements such as: ‘Has Pele ever sold chole bhature? No!’ Asheem is the founder and resident guru of the “Soch mat” (Don’t think) school of thought. Permanently in search of a permanent residence, we’re still trying to decide if he’s incredibly determined or incredibly flaky. He’s into Osho, numerology, astrology, naturopathy, yoga, meditation – you name it; Asheem’s spiritual quest for the truth is as perennial as his quest for a house. His cheerful philosophy is ‘Sab badmash hain’ (They are all scoundrels). He reads books that nobody else reads – sometimes not even the author.

Rahul’s bass playing moves smoothly – from melodic enmeshing with vocal and guitar lines to the more standard laying of foundations over which the band soars. His riveting stage presence is an essential part of Indian Ocean’s electrifying live concerts. His vocals have a raw power, an uncompromising edge that emphasizes the folk roots of the band. Rahul also ends up doing most of the talking at live shows. His experiences as an activist/supporter with the Narmada Bachao Andolan and during his four years studying in the US have exposed him to a variety of musical styles from all over India and the world, and have strongly influenced his musical expression.

Unlike Asheem, Rahul is the total non-romantic. He is Logic Baba, the guru of rationality, and doesn’t suffer fools gladly – this despite his head-banging extrovert party-animal attitude to life and hair-styles. He has the shortest temper in the band, and is also called gyandev (lord of knowledge) based purely on his own feeling that he knows a lot (Yeah, right!). By far the sloppiest dresser in the band, he wastes inordinate amounts of time reading bad literature and doing sudokus. By training an environmentalist, he’s also into ornithology. He’s an irreverent atheist and a stand-up comic whose addiction to puns has driven others to untimely suicide. Rahul is into jazz, rock and reggae – and sometimes Hindustani classical music, if the melody takes him, as it does… frequently.

Amit’s drumming is a happy balance between the conventional and non-conventional. He believes in layering rhythm rather than heavy drums, and prefers simplicity over technical wizardry. He incorporates Indian rhythms into his drumming in a unique fashion, moving in cycles of 8, 10, 12 14, 16, rather than simple 4/4 or ¾ styles. He goes easy on the skins, yet his playing is very dynamic. Amit was introduced to music at the age of 4 by his parents, learning the guitar (hawaiian – Indian classical). He is an instinctive musician, picking up all kinds of instruments with ease, and he sings well too!

Amit is into metal machinery. We suspect that his first love affair was actually with his drum kit. He’s into technology in a big way, but also loves traveling, driving, doing jungle-stuff, taking pictures and going to the movies. He’s an actor and a keen observer of personality quirks and accents. He also knows the price of every make and brand of white goods on the market, as well as the price of every single camera in every single country in the world. He’s probably the only business-oriented person in the band. Unlike the others, he attends every single religious festival invented, or to be invented. He’s by far (though there’s really no competition here) the best dressed and best-looking guy in the band. For a non-smoking, teetotal, patriotic family man, he’s always surrounded by women (not that we’re jealous or anything). According to Amit himself, he’s “a guitarist by nature and drummer by profession”, but we feel he can pretty much get a tune out of anything that doesn’t move fast enough. Amit loves listening to various kinds of music – Hindi filmi, rock, pop – his favorites are A R Rahman, Trilok Gurtu and Deep Purple.

Indian Ocean,
1224, Sector 37, Faridabad,
Haryana – 121003, INDIA

Phone: 0-9810138921, 0-9811466634

Business Enquiry:
mail@indianoceanmusic.com,indianoceanmusic@gmail.com

Feedback: contactus@indianoceanmusic.com

For Bookings in Canada:
Nomans|Land Promotions
info@indianoceantoronto.com