Ever wondered what happened of Apache Indian, that blah-bleh-blook-spewing rapper-whatever? No? Me neither. Apparently, he is still around and I found him mentioned on a Screenhead post today. Armed with a spanner and a hairstyle borrowed from the lady who sold us fresh fish years ago, Apache mumbo-jumbos as only he can about Indian Spice and all that. The song is kinda catchy though. A remixed version of Desmond Dekker’s old hit, ‘The Israelites’. Ok, so I was just typing that info off of the original post. I have no clue who or what all that is.

I’ve recently discovered a good site for the latest Bollywood music and find myself listening to more Hindi albums these days. Mp3 ishtyle. Not that it makes any difference to the overall likeability of the songs, but atleast it’s better to download 6 songs in under a minute, than having to wait for Firefox to get over its “browser rage” everytime I try to load up a Real Audio stream. Being obsessed with Shreya Goshal, I try to listen to most of her songs and got to listen to a song from the film Revati called Mil Gayee Khwaabon Ki Manzil. The music by Jatin-Lalit (remember them?) is reminiscent of the Khamoshi sound in parts, and is overall passable. As usual, the music is nothing to write about, but Shreya’s voice makes the song immensely listenable. Atleast a couple of times.

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Available from TamilBeat.com

Yeah, yeah I’ve only listened to it a coupla times now and don’t intend to rush to conclusions like I did on ‘Mumbai Express’ (I can’t seem to get enough of the saranam of Yele Nee Etti Po and the cool interludes of Poo Poothathu these days). So, the following are first impressions that might undergo radical changes upon the 18th listening and have me acknowledge this as his best effort ever. Or not.

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The Mutineers’ subliminal tactics to hook me on M.I.A have worked, and now I’m officially pissed that her current tour will not cover any city south of the Tri-State Area. I wonder if my obsession will last until the next one.

Meanwhile, thanks to SambharMafia, I’ve discovered that Chinmayee can write as well as she can sing. If you think you’ve heard the name before, it’s only because she sang the best Tamil song of 2003. A lovely duet called Enna Idhu Enna Idhu, as well as the next best song that year – AR Rahman’s En Uyir Thozhiye. And it’s no wonder she aced the latter, cos’ she mentions that Suddha Saveri is one of her favorite raagams.

Ever wondered how Raajavin Paarvai (Anbe Vaa) would sound if SPB & Chitra sang it with er… some tacky beats as accompaniment? Well, a Mallu director/composer Sonu Sisupal gave it a shot. The movie is ‘Vaamanapuram Bus Route’ and the song is in it cos’ the hero is a hardcore MGR fan (Mohanlal in a rather bored performance).

Raajavin Paarvai – SPB, Chitra

‘Rjay’, a TFMpage regular wrote this rather insightful analysis of a personal favorite of mine, Yedho Mogham from Kozhi Koovudhu. A delightful read!

I noticed that the mp3 links on the page did not work anymore (he wrote this a good 4-5 years back I think), so I cut up my copy of the song and uploaded it as an 8Mb zip file to Rapidshare(click on the Free button at the bottom and wait a few seconds for the download ticket to appear). I also happen to have the entire background score of the movie, so I’ve added two more mp3 files.
– The first file is called ‘Building up to Yedho Mogham’, which is a variation of the song played in the background when Suresh & Viji (for those familiar with the movie) have that interesting episode in the lake which sparks off their love. :)
– The second file is called ‘Climax version of Yedho Mogham’, which is of course a sadder version of the song played towards the end of the movie.
Update: I’ve also included the analysis by Rjay as part of the id3 tag, so you can read it as it plays. Works with Media Player.

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This time the influence is subtler, but it is obvious the Black Eyed Peas listen to their fair share of Desi music.

This is their new single – Don’t Phunk with my Heart. Check out the intro that is totally lifted from Yeh Mera Dil from Don. And I’m sure the beats are also just a resynthesized, more “funked up” version of the original. Though not as blatant as their previous inspiration, the BEP seem to be getting some mileage from our 70s-80s music.

While AR Rahman is off testing international waters, Tamil moviemakers loyal to him are faced with the dilemma of having to choose from the set of second-tier composers available to them. Thus, Shankar was probably left with Yuvan, Vidyasagar & Harris Jeyaraj and he decided to go with the best Rahman clone in the lot. HJ has come up with 5 songs for this album, not including the mandatory Theme music.

While I labor through the album, I’ll also try to guess which song matches the song locales described by Shankar on the Anniyan website. Just for kicks.

[sic]We have painted 350 houses beautifully in ThenKasi for a song. We have shot a song in Malaysian Airport for the First Time. We have conducted a Carnatic Cutcheri – Almost people would feel the Thiruvaiaru Cutcheri Festival while viewing that song. [/sic]

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XL Recordings had this invitation for remix enthusiasts to come up with their mixes using acapella versions of 3 M.I.A. songs. The first batch of uploads are on the site. Check it out!

I should’ve seen this earlier, but for anyone going to be up early tomorrow ;), you can still catch her hoppity-hop Galang video on MTV tomorrow.
OR.
Just watch it from here.

Sneak preview of one of the songs from Anniyan.
You’d have thunk Harris Jeyaraj would have completely revamped his act for Shankar. But it sounds like any of his other songs. In fact, not just the style, even the tune took familiar HJ turns once in a while. Hopefully, the rest of the album will make up for this.

Edit:
Original Link – Kaadhal Yaanai
OR
Mirror 1
Mirror 2

Update: All songs now available from the first link above.

What I won’t give for another Rahman or Raja to save the Tamil industry from what is obviously a freefall into mediocrity. Clueless morons like Devi Sri Prasad, who would’ve once just seemed adequate for a latter-day, unfunny Pandiyarajan movie, has now composed for two mainstream movies in the past few months. While I’m not going to review either Maayavi or Sachin, which I consider an incredible waste of time, I did feel the need to vent my frustration at having had to listen to songs devoid of any hint of musical ability. Songs born from an unholy alliance of hackneyed tunes, hastily mish-mashed rhythms, non-existent orchestration and sometimes horrid singers. Songs that would give the talentless MDs up in Bollywood an instant superiority complex.

If history has taught Tamil Film Music followers anything, it’s that the Music gods have never let us down for a good 40 years. So, here’s hoping that this is just a temporary phase and that the next MSV, Raja or Rahman is already honing his talents to soon deliver us from this onslaught of half-baked musicians.

Friday night at the local concert hall watching Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt kick Hindustani ass for 3 hours. And front row seats no less. (“Kick Hindustani ass” is probably a description that purists would frown upon, but that’s the best my illiterate self could conjure up). Luckily for us, Panditji announced what he was doing before every recital, so I deluded myself into thinking I knew what he was doing. For instance, I know he started off with Raag Maru Bihag which I later googled to discover was the Hindustani equivalent of the Kanada Raagam. He explained the concept of Aalaap, the slow start. Ok, alright…got it. Then things get more hectic in the er, um…the second part. And finally, the tabla joins in the, well, lets just say, the third part. Oh! it’s also where he said he’ll play everything in a 16/3 taal. And upon reading the looks of 500 befuddled short division experts, the Panditji quickly clarified that he’ll be working out the Math on that one. Their collective sighs of relief set aflutter the little hairs on the back of my neck.

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