Sometime back in 1999-2000, one evening, I was playing billiards or snooker at my the-then office. Manas had left some song playing on his PC and I just went out in search of it at the first touch of soul-stirring music... okay, enough exaggerated stories, you may say! :)
It turned out that the unbelievable combination of classical Indian music and western rock playing was of Kandisa, an album from a band called Indian Ocean. I was introduced to the group as: they don't believe in making videos. Ah, I thought, here's something!
It seemed that their earlier album was a recording off some live show that was low quality (obviously) and not easily available. It turned out to be the first live album released by an Indian band, although a record company had to be formed after many a refusal. However, Kandisa was a studio-recorded release of a perfect fusion of tabla and guitar that I'd ever heard. Apart from the instrumental presence that outdoes the vocals temporally, even the mix of Sanskrit, Indian folk, Aramaic, yodeling, etc, strike you. I continued listening to the album in loops for a long time thereafter, voicing out that Indian Ocean is the best band ever formed in India.
Just as great bands are, Indian Ocean too have had their failure and success stories, with the struggle starting with Susmit selling his electric guitar to raise money for a demo recording. Later on, Indian Ocean went on to release Jhini, IndianOcean and music for the movie Black Friday, apart from numerous shows across the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment