Thinking of the way we consume music these days made me think of Ketchup, oddly enough that doesn’t even make it to the list of strangest things I’ve said. Music today is the condiment of everyday life, walking to work add music, doing chores add music, taking a shower add music, working out add music, nodding off to sleep add music. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing, it does make everything better. But to me it begs the question, are we really doing justice to the medium?

If you think of ketchup and the tomato sauce in a pasta, they’re effectively the same thing, except the experience of having the two couldn’t be more different. Ketchup is an afterthought, its the robin to the french fry batman, while in the pasta, the tomato sauce is the centre piece, it’s Superman saving an otherwise bland spaghetti Metropolis.

All these thoughts we triggered from a rather simple event, my earphones broke. They were cheap earphones which I got as a “temporary replacement” to my absolutely delightful Klipsch S4i’s that died. It was at that moment I realised that my “temporary replacement” had lasted a whole year . . . a whole year listening to music as a condiment.

So I write this post with a plan to put an end to it. I’ve splurged on a rather nice pair of headphones and have decided to spend time to listen to an album every weekend. Find a comfy spot on the couch and listen to a full album end to end and do nothing else in that time. I’ll call it my #albumthisweek project, and plan to cover stuff I’ve never heard before, stuff I’ve heard a million times, old stuff, new stuff, anything. 

PS: I realise this sounds like a late new years resolution, I’m just hoping that it lasts more than most resolutions do.

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A friend asked why all good things have to come to an end, the answer that my head threw at me surprised me, “because if it didn’t, there wouldn’t be any good things at all”. No matter how life is there are always levels to it which define what’s good and what’s bad, cause at the end of the day its all relative. And if life was always good, you just expect good to be something better.

In solemn moments we all wonder why things aren’t better or happier, in such moments I try to curtail my mind from that tailspin using a simple thought:

If something in life that made me happy a year ago isn’t making me happy today, maybe I should be thankful, cause life’s been so good that I expect more from it now. And if that really is the case, well, it’s something to be thankful for.

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It’s a very rare situation in which a song moves me almost to the point of tears, but out of pure coincidence I found such a song recently. Inherently songs are meant to do exactly that but rarely do songs do it so vigorously that they breakdown the mental barrier that says “Its just a song,” and it becomes . . . more. Sometime the right words come together with the right melody and sometimes the right visuals join in to take things a little further.

I came across a curious song called ‘The Bed Song’ by Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra, it’s a simple song, but often the really great ones are always just that, simple. The whole concept of the song is just a piece of songwriting genius, life pieced together from the perspective of a simple bed. From a sleeping bag, to a sheet, to a lavish mattress and finally the final resting place.

As someone who has attempted his hand at poetry (rather badly) I know the amount of difficulty involved giving the right words to an idea in a way that makes the final product simple, elegant and beautiful. But this song just does just that. It’s these kinds of songs where the final product seems so simple and obvious that you  stop and wish that you came up with them.

If you really want to feel this song watch the video it conveys the meaning of the song literally, but beautifully. If you don’t get the words as you listen, listen to it again but except this time read what she’s saying as she’s singing it (here’s a link to the lyrics). Trust me you owe it to yourself to see, hear and read this song. It’s amazing.

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Sometimes I wonder whether we as a race have undermined music over the years. Music used to be something you relished on its own ages ago, just a person performing in front of an audience and nothing else. Yet when was the last time you listened to music and did only that? Its always accompanied by something, jogging, reading, sleeping, working etc.

All that thought brought me to the act of reading, strangely enough. Reading has remained something you do exclusively, mostly because it requires your complete involvement. You have to look at it to read, concentrate to understand and imagine the words and what they interpret. Sure there is a cursory way to do it, like say the way you browse through a magazine, but true reading is still something you spend time doing.

I’ve written in the past about Resonance on this very blog, and it was under one such occurrence recently that these thoughts struck me. It made me think that we are missing out on a lot of things that music has to offer simply because we don’t LISTEN any more. To put it in a different way we don’t read, we browse.

There are groups who still do listen for music sake, take the classical music concerts for instance. There are no theatrics, its a groups of people looking at a handful of people sit and perform, no weird lasers, no pyrotechnics, nothing. But thats a small percentage of music listeners and an even smaller genre of music overall.

In moments of Resonance, the most innate things about a song strike me. Things that would otherwise go unnoticed, like the faint riff of a guitar in a piano heavy song, like the background vocals and harmony, bass lines etc. Made me think that there are so many layers to music, that in a cursory browse get over looked, all you notice is the striking aspect, the booming vocal or the guitar solo, but you miss the environment, all the other little things going on.

I had written previously that I don’t know what causes this Resonance that I talk of, and I still don’t. But all these thoughts made me think that perhaps I can come close to the feeling if I spend time and just listen to music and do nothing else. Just me my earphones or my giant speakers  and a chair. If any of what I said struck a chord with you, maybe you should too.

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It’s funny how if anything in life is a certainty it is that at any point the one person you’re always going to be around is yourself, yet that seems to be the one person that most people can’t get along with. I took a rather, apparently bold, decision to go on a vacation, a road trip of sorts by myself. Now the reaction to that has been two fold, on one hand, there are the few who thing it’s awesome, then there is the majority who think I’m mad. The primary reason for my madness being the fact that I fail to see that I’ll get bored.

Yet as I sit here enveloped in a forest, with nothing but an ornithologists favorite symphony playing in the background and tiny little yellow butterflies to keep me company, I can call myself a lot of things but bored isn’t one of them.

 

Now most of you are probably already half way through to tagging me as a loner, but let me be the first person to admit, company is a good thing. We all need to counter our own thoughts and re-assure our decisions. But at times its good to let the voices in your own mind come to its own decisions. I mean independence means a lot of things to a lot of people, but to me true independence is when you’re comfortable with your own company.

The other thing a lot of people don’t realize is, a solo trip isn’t a trip to a deserted island, you’re never really alone. For instance on this trip, I met an aging yet sprightly forest official who asked me if I could drop him on the way, and all through the drive he went on and on about old jungle stories. Of course since my Kannada is not that great I understood only half of it, but he got a kick out of telling them and I was more than willing to play my part of quiet listener. I also met two rather exuberant north Indian couples who were more than willing to give me company, though for the most part I only played the role of silent observer. Then of course there are the people curious enough to go “ But why alone” expecting a popcorn worthy story out of it, but to which I have to simply reply it’s an experience worth having. So with all that to be frank the amount of time you have to yourself is quite little, but immensely precious.

There are but a few things in this world that you can truly call your own, and your thoughts are perhaps the most sacred. Give them a chance to stew and refine in your mind before giving them away with speech. If you still think that’s mad, well someone once said there is a joy to madness that only a mad man knows. So try your own company sometime, he/she might be more fascinating than you know. After all they are your only true BFF.

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In the past I have written endlessly about the demise of music in recent time. Where music is less about people with talent singing to instruments and more about random people feeding their voice into a computer. I thought the glory days of simple straightforward music was done.

Minor anomalies did occur, for instance Cee-Lo Green’s runaway hit “F*** You”. Now I know the name puts of a lot of people, so I suggest listening to the radio edit version called “Forget you”. Expletives aside the song is simply fantastic, it has this old world charm and genuine-ness about it which made me instantly like it. It’s like seeing an old classic car beautifully restored, it just makes you feel good.

The success of that song was a bit surprising to me cause it sounded nothing like the usual hits that do the rounds. So i thought it was a mere coincidence. But then I heard a rather simple sounding fantastic song on the radio by Adele, also please note when I say simple I mean only in terms of the amount of equipment used.

I also heard that the album had achieved a record in the UK for being the highest selling female artist album ever, beating a rather old record held by none other than Madonna herself. That actually made me a bit apprehensive because I figured if that many people liked it, it could mean that not all songs are that raw.

So then I got the album and listened to it and am very glad to report that I was wrong, Adele’s new album 21 is as raw as it can get. On many of the songs all that is present is her fantastic voice and a piano or a guitar. And when I say fantastic voice I MEAN fantastic, she has such a powerful and versatile voice that can sound vulnerable and strong at the same time. That entire album is a must for any fan of good music and more specifically a great voice.

Though is it a fantastic album? perhaps not, but more than anything its a reassuring one. It tells me that perhaps there is still a place in this world for real music after all. Thank you Adele you are a gift.

My recommendations from the album: Turning Tables, Rolling in the Deep, Lovesong

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I hate new years resolutions, they annoy the hell out of me. The most annoying fact about them is that that I forget how annoying they are when December comes, and end up falling into that trap again.

It begins all bright and cheery, you think its a new year I’m going to do this and that and be a new person blahdy blah. January begins with that enthusiasm and you go through with it all, feeling good and happy about yourself. Then February comes and you skip a day, two days, a week, hell February is a small month (well smaller anyway) lets skip that, March I will get back. Cue the annoying WRONG! buzzer here. And we March straight into exactly what we were like last year, all puns intended.

You know what the problem with New Years Resolutions are, the fact that there’s no incentive. I mean anyone who works knows we do new years resolutions at work all the time, except they are called a more formal, “Year end objectives”. We usually finish most of those, get more money and everyones happy.

The problem with New Years Resolutions are that they have no incentives, and I’m sure there are a million of of you going ( ok maybe not a million) but the way you feel at the end of the year blah blah. To which I have to say, “Who the hell cares??”, human beings (well most anyway) are selfish beings, we will trade later happiness for immediate smaller happiness any day. Plus happiness, unlike money isn’t a envisionable entity ( I honestly blanked out on a better way to say that), you can’t count or say how happy you’ll be, and hence no motivations. And hence new years resolutions last only a month while the thrill of the new years stays alive.

You know what we need, we need a really rich dude to start a fund/foundation that gives people money for keeping new years resolutions for the whole year. I mean think about it, more people are happy, healthy, well read, have quit smoking etc etc , I mean thats usually what new years resolutions comprise of right? On top of that people get money, the rich dude is doing his bit for society, its a win win. Hmm this idea should be patented; on that note I’ve done my bit for my resolution of writing more,I’ll be at home waiting for my cheque.

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Continuing on in the series of reliving the past, here's another one of my earlier scribbles, one of my favorites actually. Sadly still as relevant today as it was earlier, but then again when are we not confused.

Confusion reigns within,
Not righteous neither sin.
So many ways not all right,
Not all wrong provide no respite.
Each one with its dents its pains;
These are rantings of a mindless brain.

Choice is a word I can do without,
No clue whats wrong or right and no way out.
Answers to questions seem non existent,
Appear so simple, might seem redundant.
Through all this I still seem sane;
These are rantings of a mindless brain.

Mind is a thing that separates us,
But what it is, is a question that plagues us.
Imaginary entity masked with conscience,
But exists or what keeps us righteous.
That brings me back to confusion again,
So these remain the rantings of a mindless brain.

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So here’s the first of the bunch, one of my earlier poems, and one that I think the most people have read. This is one of the few that I have given to more than a couple of people to read.

And before the question comes up let me answer it - No I am not the Unsung Hero, the poem came out of a single image of a man rowing into a sunset, the rest kind of wrote itself.

 

Oh! Unsung hero where do you go?
Why mournfully into the sunset do you row?
Why look of anger of confusion do I see?
What answers far away do u seek?
Care not do you of your people no more?
Leave will you while their hearts still sore?

Care? care is a word I once knew,
Without that word now I can do.
Your wrongs I've made right, kept you from what might.
I have been your beacon, I have been your light.
So much so I have done,
Why am I still the unsung?

Questions all wrong cloud your head;
Answers to those are in no book, in no sunset.
Of the title which you hold only some are worthy,
Look unto only one word do you, the other dont you see?
A word that overshadows the rest,
A word that you brandish on your chest.

Wise words you speak oh unknown counsel,
Lead to light do you from where I dwell.
Who are you who brings the light?
Protect me from my own demise.
Who is it that knows whats done?
Who is it that sings the songs of the unsung?

I am the light, I am the truth.
I am your conscience, I am you.
So say with me the words you wish,
So this guilt I carry I can rid.

Hear this all living under the sun,
I'll be your hero I'll be your unsung.

Hear this all living under the sun,
I'll be your hero I'll be your unsung.

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Poetry, I’ve always loved it, it seems to add a sense of artistry to the otherwise ordinary. It always has a way of blending together words and expressions to bring together a thought, or way of seeing things, that otherwise would not have occurred to me.

There was a time, long ago, that sitting in the back of class, staring at a blank piece of paper, I could write something that had some semblance of rhyme with reason to it. Not all good mind you, but it was something. And it always brought about that joy of creation that comes with creating something vaguely artistic (even if the final result might not be). That feeling of I made this and if I didn’t it wouldn’t have existed.

Over the years I’ve sort of fallen out of the habit and I’ve always attributed that to everyone’s favorite scapegoat, Time. But when I really thought about it, I figured out that that’s not really true, there is a lot of time that I sit around doing nothing of any real significance that could really be put to better use. But unfortunately that so called time is never really practically available, it always exists only in theory in our mind.

But then again poetry isn’t something that is really that easy to get back to, well not to me atleast. For me I need to be in that groove of sorts where you recognize a series of thoughts or feelings as something that can be penned down as a poem. It’s like your mind needs to remember what it’s like to think like that again. Either that, or you need to be hit with something profound, which was the case with my most recent endeavor into poetry, my ode to Gokarna.

But I miss those times and I figured now is as good a time as any to get back to it while these thoughts are still afresh in my head. So as a result I have decided to publish some of my older works occasionally, for everyone who reads my blog to see. There aren’t that many just a handful but its something. The hope is that perhaps revisiting some of the older poems can get me back in to the flow of writing poetry again. So for all those who commented on my Gokarna post asking for the older stuff, here you go, hope you don’t regret what you wished for.

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My disdain for Hip-Hop has been rather well documented in the past on this very blog, but I have a confession to make. There are a couple of artists who I do pay attention to, and while one may not surprise anyone to a large extent the other might need some explanation. Though before you drive me out with pitchforks, let me just say I like them simply because they do show semblances of music at times. I’m not saying I’m a die hard fan, all I’m saying is some of their songs have found a place in my iPhone (yes I have to mention that).So who are the chosen few? Lets get down to it, Eminem and Kanye West.

Now while the first might be a little easy to explain I’m afraid explanation on the latter might take a while. So lets get the easy one out of the way, Eminem, you got to give credit to a man whose not afraid to say whatever the hell he wants to say and excel in a genre almost devoid of white folk, I don't mean to be racial but that's the honest truth. On top of that he has a twisted sense of humour that he’s more than willing to use, listen to the start of “When the music stops” (the whole song would work too) to get what I mean, never fails to make me laugh.

 

Now coming to the tough one, Kanye West, the perpetual bad boy of Hip Hop. The man has an ego the size of the Statue of Liberty, is probably a little more than cuckoo in the head and at times can be a total jackass. But you know what, you can use that line for a lot many musicians, and I’m not talking Hip Hop here. With Kanye somehow there is a mad sense of genius somewhere in that head of his.

The fascination with Kanye began when I first heard Flashing lights while playing one of the Grand Theft Auto games. The use of violins with the synth and the beats was something I hadn’t heard in Hip Hop before, it was musical. Then came Homecoming, Stronger (based on Daft Punk’s song), Welcome to the heartbreak etc., and what fascinated me most, was that most of these songs were produced by Kanye himself, meaning the man has talent!

So when Rolling Stones gave his latest album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 5 stars and named it the album of the year (2010), I had to take a listen. So is it a 5 star album in my book? Well no, I didn’t really expect it to be either. But is it good? Its listenable and saying that for an entire Hip Hop album is saying something! The album is classic Kanye with the crazy cranked up, catchy beats mingled with surprisingly musical bits, using instruments ranging from Cello’s, trumpets and paino’s to guitars. While the album might not have been a 5 star album in my book I did find a song that is.

 

The song is called All of the lights, and its interlude alone was enough to melt me and its on the back of that song that that entire album tilts to good in my book. The song features a piano and violin riff that is to die for, featuring Elton John on the keys. The song also has a total of 11 guest artists of whome, other than Rihanna, you can’t pick out any of em! They are all layered one over the other to form a vocal texture that is completely unique to the song, who’d have thunk it! That song is brilliant and I have no qualms saying that. And if Kanye is the one who came up with that then I have no qualms in saying he has talent either. I’m not condoning anything he says or does, all I’m saying is when it comes to music the man knows what he’s doing. It’s like Ron Artest, I mean that guy is plain mad (hilariously so), but put him on defence on a basketball court and he can do no wrong.

One of the best lines I came across from last year was from a Hip Hop song and I never thought I’d say that, it went “Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars, I could really use a wish right now”. All I’m saying is in all the madness that is the world of Hip Hop I concede that it is possible that a couple of good artists do exist and manage to slip through the cracks. Is Kanye’s album the best of the year, I don’t know, I haven’t really listened to much of the competition. I’m just saying that considering the way the rest of the music industry is at this point . . . stranger things have happened.

PS: As for the rest of the money hungry talentless mongrels, I still hold my disdain.

PPS: I recommend hearing a better quality version of that track too, you can’t really hear all the layers in this one.

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I'm a bonafide geek, if you don't believe me, and even if you do, you can visit my other blog for proof. So that should mean that I love technology in all its forms, but there is one area where I rather dislike technology and that is in Music. Don't get me wrong I don't mean that I dislike iPods and the like, but rather what those devices end up playing.

Technology essentially is meant to make whatever area they are applied to better and easier. Take medicine or science or aviation or that thing in you pocket for example. But when applied to the areas of art such as music the result can tend to get not so enticing.

Which is sad, cause at its start the result was quite enticing, in my opinion the peak of musical prowess was when both technology and music were used together rather than one overpowering the other. Greats like The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd all introduced technology to music to produce some rather exceptional results. The kind of sounds used in conjunction with their regular music was phenomenal.

And the reason I think, is that there was a balance to things. In a song or even in an album, music never got dominated by technology. The equation always was, so I have this idea, I have these instruments and these toys (i.e. the technology) what can I conjure up. Music always constituted alteast half of the effective volume of the piece.

But being humans the easy tends to overtake the better over time. As music got more commercialized, technology was used to make the music quicker and faster as opposed to better. The equation became, I have this beat and this effect and this tune, what can I do to make it sell. So much so that these days you don't really need a voice to sing, that statement seems so wrong to me. Products like auto tune and pitch and tone correctors will make your voice better for you if need be. This is most true in the "popular" genres like Hip Hop and Rhythm n Blues (RnB). T-Pain is a prime example, I don't really get what he does, more importantly I don't see what possessed anyone to buy an album or even make one for that matter.
The rate of deterioration is quite scary, will we come to a day where human beings won't be involved at all? Is the following really far away?

What you see above is a Japanese concert, by a band whose lead singer is an anime character, (cartoon for the anime uninitiated) Hatsune Miku. She (it?) is quite the sensation in Japan and has performed in sold out concerts as you can obviously see. And its no background singer singing the songs either, its a Yamaha Vocaloid Synthezizer of some sort, so the song is being sung, technically, by a computer and people actually like it. Do I think the people who like this are weird? No, what makes this too different from what most of Hip-Hop does. If scores of people listen to that I’ve no doubt even more will like this.

Being a geek I appreciate technology, but in this case unlike making me feel like a kid with a new toy, tech makes me feel like an old man who wants the old days back. So I for one want no part of it, I’m going to stay in my beloved world filled with a Purple Haze and a sky filled with diamonds.

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You know how some things become such an integral part of what we do that we don’t think about it at all. And in those fleeting moments in which you might accidentally think about it once, everything unravels, and you start to question everything. Like blinking for instance, we do it, but if we actually sit to notice it we start to question it, am i blinking? is it too fast? slow? should i blink now?.. no now.. no now.

I had that kind of moment with language the other day, I was talking and suddenly instead of focusing on the words coming out of my mouth I started focusing on the sounds. And it all seemed... weird. Language to me is a funny thing, driving along it sort of struck me as to what any language actually is. At its root, any language is a bunch of noises put together in a way that makes them coherent. And the only reason it sounds coherent is because we are trained to make sense out of it. The difference between languages? simple; the sounds, and the way those sounds are put together. Its like ages and ages ago people in a region decided this is how we are going to do it and people in that region caught on.

But looking at language through sound and not words or grammar didn’t make me ponder about  human languages at all, but rather animals. What’s the difference between what we do and what they do? A dog barks, a cat meows (for lack of a better word), a cow moos these are all the characteristic sounds that they make. We all agree that animals communicate but what makes what they do any different from any other language. In which case why can’t we atleast understand it? Replicating it would be tough I agree, owing to physical limitations that we all have, but shouldn't it be possible to make sense out of it.

One could attribute it to the lack of a translator perhaps, no mode of communicating one form to the other. But then how did people in the ancient times communicate? English is fundamentally different to Chinese and Japanese, sound wise, yet there are people who speak both today. Can we not do that with animals too? I suppose again physical limitations exist which restrict us, maybe we cant exactly replicate a bark no matter how much we try because our vocal chords can’t do it. But then can’t technology do it?

I don't think the day is far where what we saw in the movie Up is actually possible, collars on dogs that translate a bark to human language. Logically this does not seem impossible and I’m sure there are bright minds somewhere in the world working on something like this, I commend them, it seems fun.

So what am I getting to with all this, is possibly a thought running through your head right now? Well nothing really. This blog is called Music n Mayhem and to be honest it was getting too Music and less (nearly no) Mayhem, I just wanted to bring the Mayhem back. So mindless rambling on something that struck me and seemed interesting, was the thing to do.

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To avid readers of this blog and to those of you who know me well, I probably come across as a guy who doesn’t particularly enjoy Indian pop. Well you wouldn’t be too far from the truth, but on an innocent question from a very good friend I dwelled into the world of Indian pop music and lo and behold I actually ended up missing it.

Now before you go ahead and read assuming there is a catch of some sort, there isn’t, I truly miss it. You see Indian pop is, sadly dead. Think about it, when is the last time you saw a song on TV or heard it on radio that wasn’t associated with a movie of some sort. Gone are the days when we saw Shaan, Lucky Ali and the likes belting out rather wonderful songs with actual music videos associated with them. Gone are bands like Strings, Silk Route etc who gave us some lovely music.

That to me feels wrong, I’m of the opinion that the process of creating music should be, for all rights and purposes, free. And that can never TRULY be the case with a song from a movie. You see movie songs are requests, a request for something that can fit into the perspective of the movie, a request that needs to conform to what the director or the producer wants. Something that gets the public interested and that’s it. This is completely different from an artist sitting around with a guitar or a piano humming something and thinking to himself that he might have something on his hands. The artist in that case is free to say what he or she wants to say through that song. These days “music” channels such as MTV and Channel V only play reality shows or some other load of crap most of the time, and half or less, “a teaser”, of a song from a movie the other times.

This in a country with some great Indian pop/rock talent out there, what do those do? They play college competitions, clubs, pubs and the lucky ones get recognised and tour in parts of the world like Swarathma and the Raghu Dixit Project, the rest either move into some music related work or just fade away into obscurity. There is no other way to put it but that is WRONG, and for that I feel bad.

We need a music channel that plays music, and not just the crap the bollywood brigade doles out. We need our bands to be recognised and played all over, signed and touring by recording labels that are not just happy having them playing some clubs but put some money behind them and have them sell concerts and albums. What the hell makes Swarathma and the likes any less good than that doctored bubble factory stuff the US roles out in droves? Heck I feel bad even making that comparison (watch Pyasi and you’ll understand what I mean).

So it was that on one innocent question that i reminisced and this post came to be. What will come from it? Probably nothing but what needs to be said, needs to be said. For now I take solace in the fact that the music existed in the first place. And thank God or Google (hmm same thing?) for Youtube.

 

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Someone once said the best things in life are free, but lets face it, the guy who said that was either high or just plain didn’t have the money. In todays world you rarely get to find rare gems for free. Which is why I consider myself quite lucky to have stumbled upon one of the most interesting new bands I’ve heard, or seen in Bangalore, at a free concert.

First and foremost I need to give credit where its due, Alliance Francaise organised a series of concerts over five days for free, for their Fete de la Musique, that I had the pleasure of attending. Among the names where the usual headline acts of Thermal and Quarter and Galeej Gurus etc and a whole load of other bands, many of which I’d never heard about. Among the new bands (well new in my book anyway) were The Bicycle Days, a band claiming to be rock group thats, psychedelic, alternative, electronica, “psychobabble” among other things, now if that’s not a confused bunch I don’t know what is.

But then again the lack of a label gives them the freedom to be, well, anything they want to be, and oh boy do they do that well. The band consists of Shreyas on the drums, Rahul on guitar, Paul on Bass, Karthik Basker on vocals and rhythm guitars and Nikhil on Samples. To the uninitiated to simply put it Nikhil is the guy who does the bulk of the effects for the band, everything from whooping echoes to the haunting vocals are all handled by his trusty mixer and Mac. But a good effect is impossible without good raw product going into it, and I’m glad to say the raw product in itself is worthy of standing on its own.

Shreyas was great on the drums, and with all the madness going on around him, without a good beat to keep everything in the same dimension their songs could’ve easily fallen apart. Rahul on guitar is on some level Tool influenced, those riffs were all too reminiscent of the great Adam Jones. Paul on bass was one of the stand outs of the night for me, his precise, elaborate bass lines had the whole crowd in a daze. Then we come to the front man, Karthik Basker, Karthik was a junior of mine from college, he was a friend of a friend, always seemed a little lost in his own world. To be honest when the show started off I had my doubts about him as a front man for a band. But between his flashy “look-at-me” t-shirt, calling the crowd perverts and downright collapsing on stage he makes a great front man; wacky, unpredictable and at the end of the day downright good. His haunting vocals fit perfectly with the mood of the songs and combined with the dark echoes and effects from Nikhil, created long lasting impressions.

The lighting, which now seems like a forgotten art, was also very well done, they were dark and moody keeping in tone with the kind of music that was being played. But unfortunately the acoustics of the auditorium had some room for improvement, to say the least. And in a band where effects and the likes are so focused on, you need a place with good acoustics. The show at Alliance was good, but to me it merely acted as a taster, like a trailer for good movie. It just made me want to go back and hear what those songs actually sound like in the studio.

To any one whose a fan of music that’s a bit out of left field, like that of Porcupine tree etc, I say try The Bicycle Days. Circles is a personal favorite of mine, and TBD if you ever do end up reading this, I NEED that song in my iPod tell me how I can make it happen.

It is truly refreshing to see a band that’s not just playing just classic rock or metal, these ears were aching to here something different. And The Bicycle Days have more than fulfilled that thirst and given me the hope that there might be more like them out there. I hope they continue to make great music, cause this is a band with immense potential and I’d hate to see that go to waste. Keep up the good work guys.

You can find The Bicycle Days on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/thebicycledays
And you can find their music at http://soundcloud.com/the-bicycle-days

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A tribute to a place, that I am to this day, completely enchanted with, Gokarna. I hope I do it justice...

 

 

A silent haze covers me,
Passing sand tickle my feet,
The sea sings me a lullaby,
As my mind roams free.
A silent rain keeps me company,
Along with friends equally carefree.
Our bonds lay severed in the hills behind,
At long last making us free.
I look at this life like never before;
Life it seems is easier lived vicariously.
Memories play out like vivid stories,
The future like an unfinished book
Unsure but expectant.
Paradise I found on a deserted shore,
But have since been left wanting.
Forever yearning that isolation 
In a world all to social. . . . .

 

Now to a majority reading this, poetry might come as a surprise but I used to write a long time ago. And this was as good a reason as any to return to the habit. All comments and critiques are welcome.

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Fusion, the name implies the bringing together of two components to bring forth something entirely new. In music too, for the most part, the word has a similar formulaic meaning, no matter how "innovative" and "improvised" fusion music gets, in its core the formula remains the same. Take a contemporary and popular form of music and mix it with a rather classical and less mainstream form of music. The unfortunate thing is that the reaction to Fusion also has a rather typical formula associated with it, the contemporary fans tend to like it, but not enough to buy an actual album, and the classical folk more often than not tend to dislike it, but keep it in wraps as, at the end of the day, it’s an opportunity for them to reach out to a new audience.

The problem in my book is the lack of identity to the final piece of music that comes out of fusion. The goal for most fusion artists seems to be the actual mixing of the two or more art forms involved rather than the music itself, in doing so, unfortunately the music tends to lose any semblance of form and personality. The thing is, great points exist in both forms of music, but they exist because of they have an identity associated with it. An identity that is defined by the set of rules and quirks that define the form of music and fusion usually tends to break these rules. And while that might be the "cool" thing do the final outcome also suffers from the same short comings, it'll be "cool" to some people for a while,  but nothing that will truly last in the memory.

I have heard two truly great fusion albums though, one of which is "Symphony & Metallica" (better known as S&M) by Michael Kaman and Metallica and the other is Electric Ganesha Land by Prasanna (better knows as Guitar Prasanna) and the thing that sets both of these albums apart from nearly everything else out there is their sense of purpose. Both those albums have a clear picture in mind on what they are trying to achieve. And by having this sense of direction both the forms of music are involved, intermingling rather than clashing with each other and the one that dominates is the one that the song demands, rather than the artist associated.

Michael Kaman was one of the all time greatest composers in my book, and not just because he was a part of what I consider as one of the greatest live shows ever conducted. He introduced the element of classical western music to a wide variety of musical genres, working with great artists from the likes of Pink Floyd to Queen. But the live album with Metallica and the San Francisco Orchestra, for me, takes the cake; and it’s also one of my favorite albums of all time. You see Metallica's songs are a lot of things they are loud, they are brash, the are angry, they are full of power and Kaman didn't try to change any of that, he in fact accepted that and sought to seek what he could provide to enhance that. All he was focused on was enhancing the experience, increasing the grandeur of the songs, providing a gorgeous canvas as a base for Metallica's music. And the effect is nothing less than profound, the songs are beyond great, they are truly epic. It's the difference between reading an action packed book to watching an accurate reproduction made by Quentin Tarentino. And it is this sense of vision and purpose that makes this such a great album, Kaman wasn't concerned about combining classical music and metal, all he was concerned with was using the tools he had at his disposal to bring a new element to Metal and Metallica.

The same applies to Guitar Prasanna, I had the pleasure of seeing him perform live with Victor Wooten where he performed many of his songs and it was after that, that I went back and heard some of his works. And I must say that his homage to classical Carnatic music is phenomenal. His form of fusion is different, he isn't trying to blindly combine jazz or blues with Carnatic, but its a case of paying reverence to an art form he loves with the instrument that he knows best. And that in itself brings such a new element to the music, while still keeping it true to the rules of the original art form. He does sometimes combine Carnatic with funky jazz but only when the music beckons it, in the middle of solo's etc. His mastery is at such a level that he actually gives full Carnatic classical concerts armed with his trusty electric. By bringing such a new sound to traditional classical music he introduces the beauty of the six stringed instrument to the classical folk and introduces the wide range and smoothness of Carnatic to the western. Its this kind of music that feels like an exquisite creation from a master chef rather than like a Indian version of Chinese dish.

I really hope that some day Fusion gets its well deserved place in main stream music, because it's a genre that has such supreme potential. It can provide such a new perspective to existing music and provide for such novel experiences. I mean where else can an electric guitar fan hear its tone being used in such an achingly beautiful way (Bowling for peace by Prasanna, highly recommended in this context) and where else can a metal fan be exposed to the sheer power of full scale orchestra on full tilt? Now riddle me that.

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In spite of being a big fan of music in general and also of Metal, I’m usually a bit apprehensive when people suggest Metal bands that I “must” listen to. This apprehension is primarily due to the very thin blurred line between the kind of Metal I like and the kind I don’t. Metallica has long been my staple hallmark in metal, they mixed the aggression and chaos of metal with harmony and melody almost seamlessly, it also helps that most of their songs are usually pure energy. There are other great metal bands out there, but Metallica has held the mantle of the best in my book and nothing anyone suggested so far has come close, not Pantera, not Maiden, not Megadeth. Don’t get me wrong they’re all great bands but I’m just not into 'em. Add to that the fact that most bands coming out of college these days are so obsessed with HEAVY Metal and Death Metal, that they just seem to lose all semblance of music and even the smallest amount of growling in a song drives me up the wall.

So sadly it was with the same disregard that I treated a friends* suggestion of the band Tool that he said I absolutely must listen to. That was until one one rather fateful day that he actually made me listen to the song Lateralus by Tool, I was, to say the least, hooked. It had everything I looked for in music; power, emotion, beautiful bridges and melodies, it was mind blowing. So the next day I went to another friend of mine in office** whose a huge Tool fan asking for Tool’s discography in search of other gems like Lateralus, little did I know what I was in store for.

Tool is one of those bands that comes along only once in a few decades that make music of such exceptional quality that its genuinely hard to appreciate them till you are truly LISTENING to their music, and nothing else. Its a band that is composed of such exceptional talent, that there isn’t a weak link in there. The singer Maynard James Keenan modulates his voice so well to truly express his words, exactly how it should be expressed. Speaking of the words, his lyrics are inspiring, not sad, not morose or angry or anything, it's just what the song needs to be. He has a clear message that he wants to express in his work and that shines through really well (the lyrics of the song Lateralus is something I really recommend reading). The guitarist Adam Jones’ tone is exceptional and the clinical precision of his guitaring in such complex time signatures is truly amazing. Speaking of time signatures, wiki Tool and you will see they also belong to a genre all their own called “Math Rock”, they mix such complex time signatures so well that it blends together seamlessly and doesn’t at all seem enforced, each instrument in some songs play in different time signatures. Which brings me to, for me, the strongest unit in the band – Justin Chancellor on the Bass and Danny Carrey on the Drums, the thing with time signatures is you need great Bass and Drums to hold it all together and my God do they go far beyond just holding it together. Justin on the Bass is so exceptional with the mastery of his instrument and its effects that at times I have a hard time figuring out if its him or Adam Jones I’m hearing. Danny Carrey on the other hand is plain mad; he uses such a wide variety of percussion instruments that his setup in itself is a site to behold. Everything from digital drumpads to Tabla’s are present in his setup and if you listen to just his drumming you would find it hard to imagine that just one man is doing all that.

But the greatest thing about the band is that inspite of consisting of such great talents none of them stick out in a song, it’s the song overall that stands out. All the instruments, including the voice, gels so well with everything revolving around them that they act as one single piece, one unit. And I think if even one of them were to be replaced the whole thing would fall apart.

Then comes my favorite fact about this band, they don’t just make songs they make Albums, and I have long stressed my affections to Albums as a whole. In my opinion art in all its forms are means of expressing a thought or an emotion, and songs have the wonderful ability to do that and capture a persons attention for the entire 3 minutes that they are with that song. Now when you have the chance to do that over the period of over an hour or more, why wouldn’t you make use of that. The structure of the songs, the order of the songs, the build up to the songs are all such important tools in doing that. A song can capture your attention but an over all album can convey meaning and emotion and seem more complete as a package. A song should always remain a piece of the jigsaw that is a part of a bigger picture, a piece that makes sense on its own but feels so much better blended into the overall picture. Tool does this exceptionally well, their albums are fantastically structured and all of them sound unique, you can pick a song at random and almost tell which album it came from. Many other bands also place a signature sound on their albums and songs , but that’s usually just the bands signature sound, Tool takes that a step further and gives the album itself its own signature sound. While you can listen to Tool songs independently they just have so much more effect when heard as part of the complete album. And once you finish that album head to toe buried deep in it, you get that sense of awe and satisfaction, like the one you get when you finish a fantastic book. That sense of how fantastic it was and that it was sad that it had to end, but at the end of the day you know it had to end.

But through all their good points there is one rather minor downside of Tool. While they do make fantastic albums and music, their albums come through only once in a while. A Tool fan has to wait a fair few years before getting a fresh album from Tool. But at the end of the day when the music that comes out of this wait is of such exceptional quality it is easily forgivable. The sad part of truly great things are that they are also scarce.

A friend*** of mine said that Tool is like the Led Zeppelin of this generation where they have that same sense of greatness and mystery and where each member is just so talented. And that comment really struck a chord with me, it was summed up quite well, Led Zepplin is not a band that everyone gets, it’s quite an acquired taste. But the thing with them is they aren’t out to please crowds or anything, they are out to say what they want to say in the best way that they can say it. They needn’t be popular, they are not just brilliant, they are so much more, they are. . . Influential.

Credit where credits due:

* Mahesh for recommending and introducing me to Tool.

** Swarit for giving me the entire discography, it is now a prized possession.

*** Vikas Rao Pejavar for the Led Zep comment, well said my friend.

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Living in a country where "new music" is produced every single week with the release of each new movie, it is more than easy to forget the true music of our beloved country lying hidden behind all this fluff (to put it incredibly lightly). What am I on about? No not the Indian Rock band scene, I'm actually talking about Indian classical music. Now I shall wait a bit while you adjust your jaw back in place as its no doubt fallen to the floor, but yes I do enjoy classical music, more importantly I have tremendous amounts of respect for Indian classical music. I especially enjoy the instrumental music that it has to offer, not that I'm undermining the vocalists in any way but its just the way I'm wired, I always tend to focus on instruments rather than vocals.

I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful concert by the great Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia at NCBS, organised by the very admirable organization that is SPIC MACAY. It was a small affair at the quaint open air theatre at the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and the setting was to put it simply, beautiful. But I'm actually not here to talk about the concert at all (which was great by the way) but rather to talk about Indian Classical music itself.

I have had the great opporunity to learn about the intricacy's of western music thanks to the good folks at Nathaniel School of Music and that I must say has really helped me appreciate Indian classical music much more. You see music albeit an art has its fair share of rules. These rules, as I see it, are primarily meant to make the music more discernible to the average listener. The big jumps in notes, the placement of some notes over the others are all meant to make music more accessible to everybody.

Indian classical music on the other hand actually has a completely different set of rules, which are more focused on making music more grand, complex and intricate. But you see complexity and intricacy are great words but they do make the music harder to appreciate. Because you have to concentrate, pay attention to the minor changes in notes, the little vibrations and the like. And in this age of shorter and shorter attention spans its sad to see Indian classical music suffer. Which is why I appreciate organizations like SPIC MACAY who are trying to instill some of that attention back in us.

But to those of us who do pay attention, such kind of music does present a very rare quality which isn't seen often enough in music today. . . . Potency. The power to emote and move and to force those vibrations through your body is incredible in such music. Only this has the capability to move you to tears or instill awe in someone by the sheer level of complexity involved. In comparison you could say it is like fine wine, it is an acquired taste, it may not be for everyone but for those who get it is quite simply brilliant.

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia was asked by members of the audience what his song was about and he simply replied that it was a prayer. It is a musical submission to God who he said, we might have missed it but, was in the audience. That to me is quite reassuring because in this age of remixes and Hip-Hop, to hear such genius, may be only God is worthy.

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Simple everyday pleasures amplified to such an extent that they cease to be mere everyday pleasures and morph into rare experiences that you'd want to hold onto forever. That is what I describe as resonance, not in its scientific sense, but rather, it is a word I've given to this little fantastic thing that happens with music and me sometimes. And before the question creeps into your heads I'll answer it myself, this NOT under the influence of drugs of any sort.

You see in my opinion your body, or mind to be more specific, wants, and I mean really WANTS to hear a specific sound or a specific type of song and if you happen to get that sound it resonates through your entire body and begins a chain reaction where nearly every song that comes along after that sounds great. All the notes are amplified and you can feel each change in note and tone, to the extent that it gives you goosebumps. And you can't help but swoon your head to the music, or head bang or air drum or air guitar frantically in search of an outlet for all that energy coursing through you. And on days like that parting with the earphones becomes the hardest thing you'd do all day. Unfortunately like all great things in life there is a catch, figuring out what that song is that your mind wants to hear is tricky. Contrary to the belief in your head right now, it isn't always your favorite song or that song stuck in your head through the day.

To find the kind of song that sparks off resonance has long been my aim and after a long time I've come to the conclusion that it is a great song that you like, a lot or even a little, maybe even only some parts in the song perhaps, but its that song that you like and you haven't heard in a while. So its kind of like the feeling of seeing a great friend after years purely out of the blue, the feeling of happiness is insurmountable. The same is the case with the mind, once it hears the song that it hasn't heard in a while a feeling of jubilation takes over, as if your mind is remembering all the good parts of the song, just like you remember all the fond memories of the old friend.This too is purely in theory at this point but after lot of speculation, I think thats about as close to the reason as I can get. That being said there usually is a host of songs that you like and haven't listened to in a while so knowing this doesn't necessarily make it any easier to start the process.

Many of you might read this and question as to, what the difference is, between this and just listening to a playlist of songs that you really like? And the answer is quite simple when listening to a bunch of songs you really like often, the process tends to end at the point where you hear it. You hear it, you like it, your brain acknowledges the fact that you like it and thats it. But in the case of resonance thats merely the start, you start to remember the great parts of the song, anticipate it and feel it in a much deeper level. Which is why I love it so much and that feeling is the reason that its always the thing I'm searching for the second I whip out my beloved iPod Touch.

It is at about this point in the blog that I'm sure many of you are thinking to yourself that I am a teensy bit cuckoo in the head (especially for using the phrase "teensy bit cuckoo in the head" :D ), but let me explain as to why I wrote this post in the first place. You see I am quite convinced about this Resonance phenomenon, I have experienced it too many times for me to ignore it. This post then is a mere plea to the many who read this (... ok handful who read this) to ask whether they have ever felt the same. Maybe they have and have given it a different name, or may be reading this you might remember a time where you REALLY enjoyed your music and asked yourself as to, what made that day so special? So this post is essentially me just sharing my experience of this phenomenon, asking people if they've ever felt the same about their music (I should really stop referring to it as a phenomenon, sounds like I've been abducted by aliens or something). At the end of the day it's because this is the ideal place for me to even try to explain this thing cause as the name states, its Music 'n Mayhem.

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