Sunday, April 22, 2012
A WHOLE NEW LEVEL OF TREATMENT
Even on paper - trust me this combination is breathtaking.
Yes -Niladri Kumar & Talvin Singh
This is an appealing and a delightful meeting of two noble musicians who have each set out to shake up the Asian music scene. The tabla percussionist, producer, and electronica exponent Talvin Singh won a Mercury prize more than a decade ago, and Niladri Kumar is a classically trained sitar player who also invented the zitar, a mix of sitar and guitar......together they bring you an album.
"Together"
With great difficulty living in the land of camels and sheesha, i managed to get the album from india - through a friend of mine. I am sure you would be wondering, why don't the chap just buy the CD from online.
Well, here goes another secret - i don't own a credit card, so i depend on my friends to get it from wherever they are travelling to. Seeing an original CD is more like a h_ _d on for me, b'coz i dont believe in downloading -as I collect my music.
Talvin Singh and Niladri Kumar combines their rooted Indian classical training, with their modern and contemporary background to create an exceptional sound. The very first week, i noticed something different about this album "Together". Yes, the album was carved to a whole new level of treatment. When i say treatment, i meant the treatment of Tabla in this album.
A Tabla is a percussion instrument which is mostly played in India. It is classical Indian instrument. Tabla is played with bare hands and produces a strong hollow sound. Tabla constitutes of two pieces - one which is called a Baayan (the bass) and the other dayaan.
I doubt, i will be able to express my excitement level when I heard about this album – reasons are many, as I’m sure a lot of you will understand - when u start listening to this.....I was left in pure sublime with the sounds that hit my ear drums. Truly Magical.
A "bayaan" or duggi some call it [the bass element of a tabla]- was so evident, out loud | in your face kind- in this album and i am sure Talvin Singh must have literally hard glided his left hand to create such an impact to the album. Some of the tracks in the album are very Bayaan oriented tracks, and you don't get to hear tracks like that on a daily basis. Couple of them are very boom-boxed rhythms, and slapped bass samples. Some of the threads, brings in a delightful exchange between the pair.
Many of the concords on this album sound deftly simple, but close listening reveals these tracks as complex arrangement. They are absolutely captivating tracks that can only come from strong chemistry between Talvin and Niladri. "Together" displays each musicians shocking talents and thrilling skills of expressing music.
A dear friend of mine who heard a track from this album even thought for a moment "maybe my cd is skipping"
Highly Recommended by JT Habitat
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