Today after a span of about six years, I travelled by bus route# 81 from Santacruz to Metro. It was (as a friend once used the metaphor) like meeting old friends - travelling along roads that one travelled in the past, bringing back some real fond memories. :-). I had gone to Metro to check out the new CD section at Furtados & Sons - the music store. I had heard they had setup a special CD section selling only Indian rock music, which I wanted to have a look at. It turned out that they have a good (although still limited) collection. The collection ranged from albums of early Indian bands/artists such as Gary Lawyer, Pentagram (We are not listening) and Brahma to those of newer bands such as Cassini's Division. The CDs were moderately priced in the Rs. 20 - Rs. 200 range. While the current collection is great, I hope that soon albums (CDs or cassettes) of pioneering Indian rock bands such as Rock Machine/Indus Creed, Agni will also be available. I have been searching for 'Wind Dance with Fire' (Agni), 'Indus Creed' for a while now. Unfortunately most of the major music stores in Mumbai/Bangalore don't have them in stock. If Furtados can contact these bands/band-members and stock remastered copies of these vintage albums, it will be amazing. But do check out the store if you are in Mumbai. The address for the store is:
B X Furtado & Sons, Jer Mahal, Dhobitalao, Mumbai 400002, IndiaI picked up a few CDs myself:
- We are not listening - 1996 Remastered (Pentagram)
- Procrastination (Zero)
- Cassini's Division (Cassini's Division - the 'Featured Band' at
Furtados this month)
- 9/11 (Kismet).
While I was at the store, I met Mihir
'Musicman' Joshi who is responsible for Artist Relations and Cororate Communications at Furtados & Sons. Mihir also hosts a program on 107.1 FM Rainbow (Mumbai) that plays a lot of Indian rock music. Mihir recently launched
emusicpost.com, a webzine that covers predominantly the Indian music scene. emusicpost.com in addition to its periodic articles also hosts a forum for discussing music especially Indian rock music. The forum is quite active and members of several Indian bands frequently participate in them. For instance, last night Demonstealer (vox and guitars for Demonic Resurrection) was online. Its a great informative source for music loves especially those interested in exploring Indian rock music scene. Also Mihir told me that soon people will be able to order CDs from Furtado's through this forum. So if you are a music lover, register as a member of the forum. You can receive information of upcoming gigs and other music related news as it happens. Mihir and I were also discussing the music scene in India - about how fan following is important to make sure Indian rock bands get the recognition or at least the visibility they deserve. Without that a lot of great bands go unnoticed without even getting a label. Furtados' CD section as well as Mihir's efforts (the FM program as well as emusicpost.com) are steps in the right direction. Keep up the good work, Mihir!
At the store, Mihir introduced me to Vijayan Almeida who is the vocalist, lead guitarist and song writer for
Kismet a progressive fusion band from Goa. Kismet has just released a single called 9/11 (available for purchase at Furtados), which is really good. Vijayan said he called the genre his band plays as "progressive fusion rock" band as he couldn't come up with a more specific label. Talking about fusion/progressive, its good to see a lot of progressive bands coming up in India. I remember talking to Suraj Mani, the vocalist for
Motherjane, one of the top rock bands in India, about how progressive their album 'Insane Biography' sounded. Suraj remarked that one of their major influences was Kerala's traditional music. Today Vijayan also mentioned to me that they (Kismet) use a lot of ethnic rhythms - hence fusion/progressive. They have a ghumat and kanjira player (Sathish Krishnamurty) in their band. So it seems like Indian ethnic and traditional music is offering a new direction to a lot of new rock bands and they are not afraid to experiment with these instruments/scales. One other recent band that seems to have derived some inspiration from Indian traditional music is
Metakix, a metal band who I first heard a couple of days ago at Underground 2005. One of their tracks (You're Bloody Right) has a segment which sounds very Eastern and "progressive". Of course, we had bands before that used a lot of Eastern instruments/scales such as Indus Creed, Shakti, Parikrama, Agni. But this seems like a new wave and I have become a big fan of this genre. Lately I have been listening to a lot of progressive and alternative bands such as
Dream Theater and
Alice in Chains. So its been good that there is a constant source of great progressive music coming from Indian bands as well. The only regret is that there is so much good music coming lately that I can't concentrate on one single group much. But thats only temporary. I'm going to be listening to them a lot in the next few weeks/months...
