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When ghatam meets guitar
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A new band promises to take Indian fusion music to newer heights.
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IT'S NOT very often that someone attempts to fuse the sounds of the mridanga with a bass guitar or a khanjira with other percussion instruments, but in the rare event of such a fusion, it makes for a highly elevating musical experience. Five guys, who call themselves Om: The Fusion Band, have done precisely that.
Fusion music in India brings names like Karunesh, Silk Route and Colonial Cousins to mind. The Colonial Cousins duo was probably the first popular band to introduce the concept of East vs. West in its music. Hariharan's classical vocals and ragas blended with Leslie Lewis' punk and hip-hop sounds appealed to the audience who were highly impressed with tracks like "Krishna" and "Sa Ni Dha Pa". Silk Route, on the other hand, was more mellow and had jazz and soft rock influences in its sound. It shot to fame with "Dooba Dooba", which featured a soothing flute accomplishment. More recently, Karunesh incorporated folk tunes in his world music tracks like "Punjab". But Om: The Fusion Band takes a different approach altogether.
Debut album
What is remarkable about the band's debut album is that the tracks (at least most of them) don't follow the regular mukhda and antara (that's pallavi and anupallavi in Carnatic music) pattern. This means that the song begins with an instrumental intro and proceeds with vocals. But in the middle, it does away with the vocals and proceeds as a jugalbandi between Indian and Western instruments, and in some cases, a jugalbandi between two vocalists. This is something not many musicians have tried.
Om was formed in November 2002 and consists of Amit Trivedi (keyboards), Amartya Rahut (guitarist and composer), Ramnarayan (percussion and ghata), Vishwanath (percussion and mridangam), and Shriram Iyer (vocals). The band, before releasing its album, has performed at over 25 live concerts. According to the band members, the versatility in their music arises from that of their musical backgrounds, and each song is a result of the many jam sessions.
The eight-track self-titled album (Times Music, CD, Rs. 195) begins with "Maula", a powerful, anthemic number that has instant appeal and stays in your head long after the song has ended. The guitar sounds are highly impressive and share honours with the ghata as the song proceeds. The second track "Piya" is soft and has a lilting feel to it. Though it has a feel-good flavour running through it, the lyrics speak of longing and sadness. While "Son Chiraiya" has a Bengali folk music feel to it, "Baadal" recreates a l south Indian kacheri atmosphere and as the song proceeds, the Indian marriage flute takes over along with the keyboards.
Knockout
But it is a track called "Tum Tana" that is a knockout. Its unbelievably high tempo and energy level makes your fingers snap and eventually you find yourself dancing to the classical Carnatic vocals, which leads to a jugalbandi between Shriram and Vinay Venkatesh (both on the vocals). Five guys sporting saffron kurtas, goggles, and gelled hair with mridanga in hand, is definitely an arresting sight. And after this album, one can say, that goes for their sound too.
A. VISHNU
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