The Saawan So Far: In Hindi, as it is in other Indian languages, they are simply the
Nairutya Marut, the Winds from the South West. "Bursting" every year at about June for the last sixty million years, the
Monsoons are the pre-eminent weather formation for the lands south of the Himalayas; over a period of three months, they
travel all over the sub-continent in a north-easterly direction. They are India's meteorological tryst with destiny; as a past Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor
once said,
"If it rains everything is well on earth and cordial in heaven[...] I am once again hostage to monsoon;[...i]f it rains, the monetary policy works. [...] I want you to realise that all of us are 'Chasing the Monsoon'":
[more inside]
posted by the cydonian
on Aug 26, 2012 -
5 comments
78 78s - In Search Of Lost Time - is a streaming mix of beautiful 78s from around the world, collected and curated by Ian Nagoski. "I started sifting through boxes of junky old 78s that no one else wanted about 15 years ago, and almost right away, I made a rule: Anything that wasn't in English, buy it."
[more inside]
posted by carter
on Jan 29, 2012 -
15 comments
This is a story of a young man named Chotu Lohar* from a small nondescript village in
one of the poorest states of India. He dropped out of school to work in the iron mines. Music on a radio was the only entertainment available in his house but
last year he came to national notice on a reality show called
Dance India Dance - where although his untutored enthusiasm and energy captured attention - he was unable to make the cut. His passion, on the other hand,
caught the interest** of the show's producers who took him under their wing and a year later, he's
just made the shortlist for this year's show.
[more inside]
posted by infini
on Jan 7, 2012 -
7 comments
In 1993 in Dharamsala I met for the first time that amazing music performer, perhaps he was a Rajhastan gypsy. Usually he sat on road side from McLeod Ganch to Dhalai Lama residence. This man-orchestra created great atmosphere, sometimes he sang from eternity even didn't notice listeners. In 2004 I came to Dharamsala and people told me that he passed away.
This video is dedicated to him and to people who knew him.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Dec 29, 2011 -
7 comments
Back on
August 15, 2010, Aesop Rock kicked off a sprawling collaboration effort, with input by 28 artists, with
an eclectic collection of videos spanning from
music videos to
odd clips and
a Kimya Dawson recording studio dance party,
works by photographer Chrissy Piper, and
lots of music, from
unreleased tracks,
remixes, and
mixtapes. There's even a post about being
manhandled by a nude model, written by the Dwarvs front-man
Blag Dahlia. Going back to the beginning of the site, the second post was
a collection of facts about bats, and the only obvious connection back to the tragic impetus for the title of this ongoing collaboration (
900 bats) --
over 900 bats were torched to prevent disruption of work on the ongoing
renovations of the historic
Bala Quila (also spelled
Bala Qila) fort in
Alwar, Rajasthan, in north-eastern India.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Dec 16, 2010 -
4 comments
The IDEA - The Indian Documentary of Electronic Arts - Seven somewhat dated collections of essays, music, videos, and thought curated and designed by Shankar Barua, backed by totally awesome early Internet-era graphics, and hosted at
Laurie Spiegel's also-rad
retiary.org.
Please note that many individual pages of The IDEA gazettes are very-very heavily loaded, by [2001's] WWWeb standards, with images/audio/video. In other words, if you can get past ugly old broken HTML and auto-playing music, you may find a lot to like in here.
posted by carsonb
on May 4, 2010 -
3 comments
Van Shipley was the first electric guitarist in India. The name Van Shipley is Methodist, he [was] from Lucknow [Uttar Pradesh, India]. He designed his own electric eight string steel guitar in the 1940's. The reason he did this was that he'd studied Indian classical music under Ustad Alaudin Khan, the leading classical musician in India, who was also a contemporary of Ravi Shankar. He also studied the violin with a German teacher... so he made an eight string guitar, instead of a five string. His guitar was a solid guitar, designed to his style at the time, it was futuristic. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye
on Jun 14, 2009 -
10 comments
Destination: Out, an astounding mp3 blog devoted to mostly out-of-print free jazz and improv records, has been linked a few times on Ask, but never gotten the main-page exposure it deserves.
Until now. The editors' selections are always interesting and written about well, and they're ready to
go to the mat for the music. (The
interview with Marsalis by the Bad Plus to which that's a response is also well worth reading.) But the real impetus for this post is only tangentially related to jazz: recently they got
saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa to do a
guest post on Indian (mostly Carnatic) music, and it won't be long before the links expire. Fall to!
[more inside]
posted by kenko
on Mar 9, 2009 -
18 comments
Rare Kishore Kumar Songs is a website dedicated to the music of legendary Bollywood
playback singer and comic actor
Kishore Kumar. There are hundreds of songs, many with other Bollywood legends, such as Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar. There are also songs by Kishore's son Amit. All songs and videos are in Real Player format and in low quality.
posted by Kattullus
on Jun 16, 2008 -
9 comments
Queens of
Carnatic singing:
Nithyasree Mahadevan:
1,
2 and
3.
Sudha Ragunathan:
1,
2,
3 and
4. And the legend of the legends,
M.S. Subbulakshmi, in her film appearances from decades past:
1,
2 and
3, and as an elder stateswoman of Carnatic vocal artistry:
1,
2,
3 and
4.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Mar 15, 2008 -
13 comments
Introduced to Western culture by the Beatles in their single
Norwegian Wood, the
sitar has featured prominently in North Indian classical music for centuries. Princeton-based computer scientist Ajay Kapur updates the instrument with his
ESitar, an audio and video controller that uses
gesture input (PDF) and
machine learning algorithms to facilitate joining the computer with Ajay in his sitar performance. Undergraduate engineering students at the University of Pennsylvania work from the other direction, building
RAVI-bot, an
award-winning, self-playing
robotic sitar (YouTube) programmed to generate music from classical
Raga scales and melodies all on its own. For those in the Philadelphia area, be sure to check out a live performance of RAVI-bot at the local
Klein Art Gallery.
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Apr 19, 2007 -
32 comments
Bollywood Dreams. Bollywood in a nutshell: Bollywood is the name given to the Bombay (Mumbai)-based Hindi-language film industry in India. Bollywood films are colorful, crammed with
singing,
dancing, loads of
costume changes. In the past there were often absurd and hilarious take-offs on Western films or superstars, such as the
Beatles,
Michael Jackson ,
Elvis,
70's music and
hair styles. Spectacular collection of
Bollywood posters and
vintage original poster art for sale and
t-shirts.
Stats and
faqs. The
history of Bollywood, brief
chronology [pdf]. The main
actors,
images. The main
actresses,
images. Some of the
renowned songs and the
singers who sang them. Bollywood
song lyrics and audio at the excellent Music India Online. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye
on Jan 27, 2007 -
74 comments
While you compose that incisive comment, or scour the blogs for an interesting post, or photoshop your latest masterpiece, or whatever you do on your computer, perhaps you'd like to do it to the mellifluous strains of some
enchanting Indian vocal music. Learn more
here. Listen to more Indian music of almost every type
(including historic film music from decades past) here.
[previously]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jan 4, 2007 -
15 comments
The tabla is the most popular and widely used drum of North India.
Origins (embedded sound and mp3) of the tabla and tabla bols, the fascinating
spoken sounds of the percussive beat. [more]
posted by nickyskye
on Aug 12, 2006 -
19 comments
Chutney Music :"For these people, Chutney was more than just
music (
.asf files), it was their life, it was their culture. For a people twice removed from their native land, Chutney was their connection to the traditions they might have otherwise never known." [
via]
posted by dhruva
on May 29, 2005 -
6 comments
Raaga: streaming Bollywood soundtracks.
[warning: realplayer, popups, and realplayer popups]
posted by eddydamascene
on Oct 28, 2003 -
4 comments
Stones 'fail to rock' young Indians The Rolling Stones have failed to sell out their first concerts in India - amid reports that many young music fans are simply not interested in them.
[ the best part is the quote " Tell me how many college kids are into Rolling Stones? " by a guy called Brucelee Mani, Bangalore rock musician ]
posted by turbanhead
on Apr 4, 2003 -
24 comments
