Disco Ragas house music from Bombay
- Thread starter hucks
- Start date
Actually, it was this that made me come back to dissensus after a while away, to see what the opinion was here. Then I forgot all about it and voted in the asterix v tintin thread instead.
I'm deeply sceptical, for what it's worth. I just don't trust boomkat, where I heard about it first. If it is from 1983 in bombay, it's astonishing.
edit: just listened to more clips at that site. It's very, very good. It's basically just a guy jamming with a synth over an 808, but doing it very well. I've just paid out the 24 euros to get a copy in the post.
I'm deeply sceptical, for what it's worth. I just don't trust boomkat, where I heard about it first. If it is from 1983 in bombay, it's astonishing.
edit: just listened to more clips at that site. It's very, very good. It's basically just a guy jamming with a synth over an 808, but doing it very well. I've just paid out the 24 euros to get a copy in the post.
Last edited:
do you guys remember this?
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=164564
similar deal of "oh really?".
i'm skeptical as well - just seems too perfectly conceived. but lately i've been into a lot of nigerian electronics from the 80s, some of which are just as squiggly as western boogie or patrick adams or whatever else, and so bollywood prefiguring acid doesn't seem that far-fetched.
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=164564
similar deal of "oh really?".
i'm skeptical as well - just seems too perfectly conceived. but lately i've been into a lot of nigerian electronics from the 80s, some of which are just as squiggly as western boogie or patrick adams or whatever else, and so bollywood prefiguring acid doesn't seem that far-fetched.
hucks
Your Message Here
What Nigerian stuff is that? Sounds great
that is amazing! don't really care if its not genuine its still great. Does seem a bit polished though and almost too unlikely. But from hearing Israeli/Hasidic Disco I guess its influence had spread pretty wide and the affordability/accessibility of the 303/808 means its totally possible.
<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>
<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>
not prefiguring anything, but definitely in tune with the west.
Ness Rowlah
Norwegian Wood
"Is it some elaborate prank?"
Too good to be true I guess having just checked the wikipedia entries for
the Rolands synths, spec the TB-303 which was released in 1982.
So my vote is for false nostalgia.
(video linked off wikipedia piece - ha and "pranksters KLF "
are in there)
Too good to be true I guess having just checked the wikipedia entries for
the Rolands synths, spec the TB-303 which was released in 1982.
So my vote is for false nostalgia.
(video linked off wikipedia piece - ha and "pranksters KLF "
are in there)
Last edited:
1982 is totally feasible. There's that CTI record supposedly recorded in 1982.
http://www.discogs.com/CTI-Elemental-7/release/95646
Woebot's mentioned the Charanjit Singh on his blog with a picture of the original sleeve.
http://www.discogs.com/CTI-Elemental-7/release/95646
Woebot's mentioned the Charanjit Singh on his blog with a picture of the original sleeve.
Ness Rowlah
Norwegian Wood
I stand corrected. This is from Jan 2007.
http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/6521-found-sound-2006/
"Charanjit Singh: Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat [EMI India; 1983]
This is an electronic disco album from India that came out in 1983 that my friend Ryan Junell passed on to me. Though the "what the hell is THIS?" factor is high, it's not a campy novelty record, nor does it resemble the full-dress kitsch Bollywood classic Disco Dancer (Bombay's must-see response to Saturday Night Fever). It turns out that a nonstop Roland drum machine pulse and sleek Moroder-esque arpeggios make a killer bed upon which to play classical ragas on analogue synthesizers. On "Raga Meghmalhar", a monsoon raga drizzled with crispy white noise storm sound effects, the endlessly spiraling melodic patterns of synthetic santoors and veenas click so seamlessly with the Munich-style bassline chugging and lockstep kick drum that Singh's antique futurism feels completely inevitable. PS: Reissue labels take note, this thing is ready to take a cosmic disco dancefloor to a higher plane. --Drew Daniel
http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/6521-found-sound-2006/
"Charanjit Singh: Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat [EMI India; 1983]
This is an electronic disco album from India that came out in 1983 that my friend Ryan Junell passed on to me. Though the "what the hell is THIS?" factor is high, it's not a campy novelty record, nor does it resemble the full-dress kitsch Bollywood classic Disco Dancer (Bombay's must-see response to Saturday Night Fever). It turns out that a nonstop Roland drum machine pulse and sleek Moroder-esque arpeggios make a killer bed upon which to play classical ragas on analogue synthesizers. On "Raga Meghmalhar", a monsoon raga drizzled with crispy white noise storm sound effects, the endlessly spiraling melodic patterns of synthetic santoors and veenas click so seamlessly with the Munich-style bassline chugging and lockstep kick drum that Singh's antique futurism feels completely inevitable. PS: Reissue labels take note, this thing is ready to take a cosmic disco dancefloor to a higher plane. --Drew Daniel
echevarian
babylon sister
Is it wrong that the first thing this music made me want to do was play Sonic the Hedgehog?
It really really reminds me of that YMO influenced sound on some of the soundtracks for the games (particularly Sonic and Knuckles).
Great stuff regardless, doesn't matter if its a fake, its brilliant.
It really really reminds me of that YMO influenced sound on some of the soundtracks for the games (particularly Sonic and Knuckles).
Great stuff regardless, doesn't matter if its a fake, its brilliant.
grizzleb
Well-known member
I've noticed that similariry too. I love the rigid jazzyness/lounge music notation but in total bright synth stylee.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Totally. The obsession with authenticity (see Black Devil Disco Club 'controversy', etc etc) threatens to slightly overshadow such great music. Having said that, it's interesting to ponder why (synth specifics apart) it's such a leap to suppose that it's real.
Listenign further, must agree with massrock though - the crispness of the sound recordings themselves does seem to place it outside the 80s.
Aaaargggh fallign into the authenticity trap as I speak!
Fucking great music.
Last edited:
Course people were making loopy repetetive music with drum machines but this is a very early release using those synths as they'd just come out. Also I guess 303 wasn't used that much on records as it wasn't seen as a 'serious' instrument.
I'm not bothered about the 'authenticity' or otherwise at all but if we're going to talk about a record like this then the fact that it a) seems sort of stylistically prescient and b) hasn't really been heard, except by mms and his friend and Drew Daniel, is an obvious point of interest and discussion. I wouldn't feel bad mentioning that at all, it'd be weird not to. And there have been similar 'pranks' done, which is fun too.
Wonder if the label got access to the tapes.
I'm not bothered about the 'authenticity' or otherwise at all but if we're going to talk about a record like this then the fact that it a) seems sort of stylistically prescient and b) hasn't really been heard, except by mms and his friend and Drew Daniel, is an obvious point of interest and discussion. I wouldn't feel bad mentioning that at all, it'd be weird not to. And there have been similar 'pranks' done, which is fun too.
Wonder if the label got access to the tapes.
Last edited:
i would imagine they mastered it off the tapes
808 and juno 8 had been around for 2 years. the 303 was that year though.
it was on emi india and originally called synthesising - 10 ragas to a disco beat, i imagine he worked in the emi india studios, - emi had lots of local worldwide subsiduries for local markets, he also did a few calypso experiments.
my friend spoke to the japanese inventor of the 303 over email - who asked for the emails to not be printed, in classic Japanese style he was full of regret and shame about the 303, and it's failure, he didn't regard the credit it had got for being the instrument of the acid house era to be of any real merit, he still works at roland.
Last edited: