Rahul Sharma’s Confluence III – Review

Confluence III – A Meeting By The Nile is, as the name partially suggests, an Indian-Egyptian fusion album and the next in the Confluence series of fusion albums centered around Rahul Sharma. The Egyptian part of the album comes from Georges Kazazian, player of an instrument called the Egyptian Oud, which sounds like a deeper Sarod and looks like this.

The first track, titled Marhaba Jaanam is actually a full-on pop song by Sunidhi Chauhan, with some vaguely Arabic sounds provided intermittently by Sharma and Kazazian. Sunidhi performs in a shrill voice that I didn’t quite know she had in her, and not always to the song’s advantage. Presumably, Marhaba Jaanam is meant to be the star track of the album – a representative of the fusion between the santoor and the oud. The problem is it sounds like a pop remix with too much percussion – which, to my annoyance, blocks out the gentler sounds of instruments like the santoor and the oud. The album then goes and overdoes it by including an Instrumental version and a Remix (!) version of Marhaba Jaanam.  Pyramids, Sunrise On The Sphinx and Nights in Cairo follow the same format – more emphasis on the percussion than on the fusion.

Listen to Marhaba Jaanam

Google Discover Music – any good for desi music?

Not really. Not yet, anyway.

One reason might be that Google is simply linking to the search results of music indexing services like Imeem, Rhapsody, Pandora and American media giants like EMI, Sony, Universal & WB – none of whom are known especially for carrying desi music. Or, perhaps, the prolific uploading industry responsible for the multitudes of [insert your Indian language here] mp3 files out there may not have bothered to tag it well enough for the Google spiders to find them.

We’ll see. If we know anything about Google, we know they’ll be in everyone’s music business given a few years.

Here are some links for your enjoyment. [Google Music Search] [CNet Article Link]

And some sample queries.

Missed the boat on Shankar and Sonu…

Searching for London Dreams and Jodhaa Akbar didn’t get me anywhere either, music-wise. I just got the official websites for both.

Getting hotter…

Home run!

London Dreams – Music Review

Phirte hain hum khwabon ke sang liye London Dreams… Khanabadosh…

Overall Album:

Picks: Actually, all of them. The vibe of this album is of one big concert. Either you’ll like the vibe and enjoy the entire album or dismiss it as monotonous. I’d recommend giving it a try because you’ll hear some promising new male singers on whom Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy have built a lush, high-energy album.

Dusting off the cobwebs…

I am very aware of how long it has been since I’ve put forth a single thought on this blog.

And my excuse is entirely unoriginal, but ultimately true. It’s… erm.. work. I know! How could I possibly neglect my duties towards musical goodness while doing something so blasé as a job, right? Well – to be honest, my work actually got really interesting. I might tell you about it sometime, but let’s just say I got to indulge in a lot of geeky fun (read: data analysis). In my other life, I have degrees in business and finance, and I work in the financial industry. So, numbers + analysis = fun in my twisted world.

Okay, okay, getting back to music, here’s my ‘mea-culpa’ gift to y’all. Technically, it is courtesy of this very nice online retailer called Amazon, but since it’s free and I’m bringing it to you, please consider it my gift.

It’s a sampling of Turkish Hits (not Nits – eww – as you might think from looking at the cover. Those doggone graphic artists), for FREEEEE. The songs sound great, and if one of you knows how to pronounce the question marks, I’ll be eternally grateful. Download for free here.

PS – If you come by the site, you’ll notice a Twitter Feed on the right panel. That’s the new Music This! Twitter Feed - the primary purpose of which is to aggregate all the free, legal music out there. Go here for a complete list of websites and feeds that you can check out and subscribe to in your RSS reader. Or, just follow my Twitter Feed (@musicthis).

Toodles!

Update: The question marks become actual letters once you download and add them to your iTunes. I still don’t know how to pronounce them.

New Features on MeraMood

An update on this previous post:

MeraMood.com has now added social networking features and made it possible to filter songs by actors and movies. Ability to filter by lyricists is, wisely, gone. The latest movies are now available for playback. MeraMood debuted an iPhone-compatible website a while back that, I must say, works impressively well. They’ve also added the ability to view videos as mentioned in one of the comments on the previous post. The site now takes feedback via a link on the top right, and has buttons for rating songs (thumbs up or down) and reporting songs that are not playing or are in the wrong category.

Since wishing aloud seems to work, I’d now like the ability to filter by jazz and classical-based songs, and by the film director. Perhaps filmi khandaans too? And while they’re at it, world peace.

While you wait for that to happen, I definitely recommend you check out the website for some sweet Hindi-film goodness.

Making of ‘Twist’

This video is gold.

You might have heard me express my dismay at the violent movements that the choreographer, apparently a man named Bosco, put chhote Nawab through for the filming of the song ‘Twist’ from Love Aaj Kal. Well. It turns out Bosco and Imtiaz Ali may have bitten off more than they could chew. Still, they made a valiant effort, and so did Pataudi. The best part of the video starts at 03:24.

More ‘Making-of’ videos from the film are on Eros’ Youtube Channel here, here and here. Must say, Saif looks bilkul dashing as a Sardar. His bhangda-paa-ing, in the promotional video for ‘Aahun Aahun’ is worth a mention. Before you say anything about one particular step in the video – in Saif’s defense, the roti-belan step (you’ll see) would make the best of the dancers look ridiculous.

Quote of the week? Saif, sipping coffee in a dimly lit green-room, thinks about his day trying to Twist. “I wish I’d rehearsed it.” Pause. Puzzled expression. “I did rehearse it…”

Short Kut – Music Review

Kal Nau Baje …

Overall Album:

Picks: For the enjoyable qawwali+Gujarati+item number vibe, Mareeze Mohabbat. And, Kal Nau Baje for the beautiful singing, the cute lyrics and the stunning Khuda-Jaane style picturization. Is that the same beach as Khuda Jaane?

Love Aaj Kal – Music Review

Chor Bazaari Do Nainon Ki…

Overall Album:

Picks: For the charming country riff, Chor Bazaari. Good effort for a fresh remix of the Nagin anthem on Twist (Remix). Mohit Chauhan for belting out a real smooth Dooriyan, and any time Raahat Fateh Ali Khan so much as appears in the liner notes, it’s a yes yes yes. This time around, for the jovial, Punjabi-flavored Aaj Din Chadheya.

New York – Music Review

Yaaron, jee bhar ke jeele pal… hai, junoon.

Overall Album: 

Picks: For a light, breezy effect in the same vein as Life in a Metro, Hai Junoon, Mere Sang and Tune Jo Na Kaha. For fans of haunting instrumentals, try Sam’s Theme.

Independence Day links

Happy 4th of July, everyone! While I get ready to go see a fireworks display in the evening, here are some of my favorite renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner and few other links I found interesting.

A Jimi Hendrix version that leaves me speechless. Whitney Houston belting it out like no one else. Dixie Chicks with those harmonies. Some very brave men and women singing for the country they serve – beautiful and simple, like mom’s daal.

Yahoo News talks about how other countries celebrate their Independence. EatPes makes a unique fireworks video that’s a must see. So are a lot of other videos on his site. NatGeo has a one hour special on how major fireworks displays are organized – I especially enjoyed this bit about the anatomy of a firework and the computer chips that can now be used to time the firing.

For numbers aficionados, the U.S. Census bureau has some fun facts (with a typo, there’s a ‘B’ where there should be an ‘M’ – you’ll see), so does CNN (a short video and an article). The lesson to be learned it seems is that close to $1 billion is goin’ up in brilliant colors and smoke tonight!

Have a good weekend.