High horse
Well I don't know much about djs and dance music and all but I do know about John Digweed and I just saw him play a set last night at a club 30kms out of town! Wow it was KILLER - this has been dance/dj week for me! And I was so impressed and happy to see someone like him come into our own little town to do a set. Av thinks my attitude is patronising. "Bangalore isn't some backwater village you know", she said indignantly over a sandwich later that night (or early the next morning), "we've been getting some big-name acts and we'll be getting several more over the next year or so". But it's not about big names is it? If this is such a cool city I'd like to see some counter cultural music scene developing, hell it would be nice to actually be a fan of a couple of local bands who are producing interesting sounds from right here in Bangalore, trying to cross boundaries and taking risks with their music and songwriting, working hard playing regularly at venues around town. It'd be kicking if I could follow them around the city and go crazy at their shows! But if big shows are what defines a cool city (music wise) then I'd be impressed if I saw Radiohead at Maya. Or Bjork at Taika. Or John Digweed at Club Cabana. Not Deep Purple at Palace Grounds. That's just my opinion though. But maybe the city's in transit and we're at brink of something big? Possibly maybe.
posted by abstention at 2:13 AM
2 Comments:
Hey Abs,
Which club is this? And did you get your coakroach? It's such a beautiful world... everybody is doing everything they love!!! I wonder if the world would crash if we didnt stop it, to listen to our hearts.
Hey there, u seem to having wild weekends for sure...nice blog
this one provoked some comments though...I sure do concur that cities like blr and chn (which are relatively higher on the music scene) need some better exposure to counter cultural music...but I think that is kinda already happening...chn for it share has its November fest ...an ensemble of Indian and global artists, western/indian classical, raga, jazz, sufi and all that concoction. My fav band Indian Ocean was there as well. Woof what a crowd at each of these shows! ear for unique sounds is definately headed for a maturity.I think what we need today is higher levels of visibility for these bands and the kinda unique sounds they make…talking of visibility, it took ten long years for Indian ocean to be where they are today…may they wanted to be low profile. but its my take that the clubs and other joints in india sponsor and propagate the sad raghav’s and the mika’s of the world (frankly I get a vicarious kick outta patronizing this kinda music or the lack of it!!!) and ears are therefore tuned for such…firstly we need more bands that make original sounds, secondly they need to be show cased at the types of a taika or 13th floor.this is athe cost of doing away with the “I only make covers””stereotype”,”clone” status of a Floyd, stones or purple. Talk of purple and other big act bands…think you are being a bit hard on them.common,they broadly defined for us the concept of trippy yet profound song writing, anchored many other smaller bands didn’t they? And it makes commercial sense to show case them amongst millions of fans whose acceptance they have already sought doesn’t it?yeah i would agree whats purrple on palace grounds without blackmore?:-)
I’m still a fan of the 60’s and 70’s masters, but the new ones such as Chris martin, dido Washington, Feist (love that Canadian!), wallflowers, red hot chilli pepper,yes radio head to a certain extent have certainly caught my attention. In an ideal scenario would like them to play at places I frequent…but I have two questions to ask…are they as many folks in India who accept unique music they way u and I do? Does it, make commercial sense for these musicians to visit us when awareness and acceptance is low?
The solution completely lies with more localites like u abhi who can attempt to deliver non banal tunes and create visibility for that genre free yet mature form of music!
What say you?
just a perspective,excuse moi!
--harini
Post a Comment
<< Home