'Rahmania' released 2002

BOLLCD2002

MP3s:

Ishq Bina

Track listing:

1. Mere Yaara Dildara
FILM: Kabhi Na Kabhi

2. Ishq Bina - 861 KB
FILM: Taal

3. Main Albeli
FILM: Zubeidaa

4. Rangeela Re
FILM: Rangeela

5. Hai Rama
FILM: Rangeela

6. Spirit Of Rangeela
FILM: Rangeela

7. Kehta Hai Mera Dil
FILM: Jeans

8. Urvashi Urvashi
FILM: Humse Hai Muqabala

9. Injarango
FILM: Thenali

10. Ek Tu Hi Bharosa
FILM: Pukar

11. Dola Dola
FILM: Dil Hi Dil Mein

12. Ramta Jogi
FILM: Taal

13. Ishk Bina Ishk Bina
FILM: Taal

14. Kismat Se Tum Hum Ko Mile
FILM: Pukar

REMIXES

15. Ishk Bina Ishk Bina
(Groove Road remix)

16. Rangeela
(King Normal remix)

17. Kismat Remix
(Trans Global Underground)

18. Rangeela Remix

Liner Notes:

Since I moved house, I’ve been listening to a lot more Indian film music. Not because I hear it locally, but because it’s my main in-car entertainment, and I do a lot more driving. There’s something about both the style (boisterous and energetic without being too in-your-face, sentimental without being too sloppy) and the tonal qualities (the mixes cut well through traffic noise) that make it ideal drive-time music. Since pre-recorded cassettes are extraordinarily cheap at most Indian music shops, it’s possible to pick up a stack of them for the price of a normal CD, without any prior listening, and be reasonably confident of getting at least one or two gems.

The biggest problem is how to pick them. I buy anything that’s been on the telly, get
recommendations from Indian friends, and ask the guy in the shop to throw in hatever new stuff is out that he likes himself, and the biggest hits of the moment. When I started making notes on what I liked, one name started to crop up repeatedly: A.R. Rahman. Given that I come from a very different musical and cultural background to most Bollywood fans, it was interesting to discover that he is a superstar in the field - probably the most successful and highly regarded contemporary Bollywood composer.

Our first album (The Bollywood Brass Band) was very representative of our standard wedding repertoire, including two Rahman songs. We recorded it live, playing together in a studio, with relatively few overdubs. What’s on the CD is pretty much what you could hear us play on a Sunday morning in the street outside an Indian groom’s house, but with the added convenience of not having to get up at 5.30 a.m. and stand in the rain. For Rahmania, we wanted to stretch ourselves.
A.R. Rahman’s work is extremely varied, taking in the raucous enthusiasm of Injarango, the highly structured and complex tunes of Rangeela, beautiful ballads such as Ek Tu Hi Bharosa and quawaali influenced pieces like Ishq Bina, and the mysterious trance/dance sounds of Ramta Jogi.

On this album we wanted to make full use of the band’s resources. Many of us play several instruments, but there are practical limits to what you can lug around on a long Diwali procession down the length of Ealing Road through partying crowds. In the studio, though, there’s no reason why Nick (usually found on bass drum) shouldn’t play his wooden flute as well as a full complement of odd-looking percussion instruments, and nothing to stop us using alto and tenor saxes as well as our usual soprano line-up. We decided to let Philippe loose on a full drum kit, rather than his street set-up of snare, cymbal and cowbell, have added tabla to the drum section, and on several numbers founder member Johnny Kalsi joins Jas for a two-dhol attack. We drew the line at letting Alice play her full collection of eight tubas, though. A.R. Rahman constantly experiments with his music, using a wide range of sounds, styles and techniques, often to astonishing effect. It seemed only reasonable that we should approach the album in the same spirit, using overdubs and samples where appropriate.

There are striking parallels and differences between Bollywood films and the Hollywood musicals of the 1930s and ‘40s. Both, for example, provide the popular music of their respective cultures. In both, the songs are accompanied by flamboyant dance routines, often with extravagant sets or locations. In both, the lyrics are mostly concerned with love (in Bollywood, of course, the love songs are often squeezed in between battles, detective work, kung fu brawls or slapstick comedy sometimes in the same movie). Most of the songs on this album concern love in one form or another. But the exceptions are telling. Hollywood never threw up anything like Ek Tu Hi Bharosa. A gentle ballad in form, the singer cries out to God in anguish, while the picture cuts between the singer in concert, and graphic illustrations of the death and destruction she describes.

Lyrically, few of the love songs seem to progress the story much. However, sometimes the story is in the circumstances rather than the words. The songs from Taal, for example, illustrate a power struggle between the male and female leads, respectively a Svengali-like producer and a successful singer. While he starts singing Ramta Jogi, she is playing prima donna and has refused to show up
to rehearsal. Half way through, to his astonishment, having made the point that she is doing this entirely on her own terms, she sashays onto the set, takes over the song, and throws herself into his arms. Later, at a major show, she insists at the last minute on dropping the agreed number and replacing it with Ishq Bina, a gentle and wistful song from her village. Forced to agree, but wanting a more dramatic tune, the producer manages to produce (as if from nowhere) an altogether darker and more powerful arrangement of the song than that heard earlier in the film. Both versions are represented here, along with a mind-boggling remix which takes it somewhere
else again.

Both Taal and Rangeela use that well-known Hollywood device of integrating the songs into the film with a plot about making movies or shows. Rangeela was a huge hit for Rahman, and his first Hindi film, so it is appropriate not only that we’ve used three songs from it, but also that it was chosen by two of our remixers. The title means ‘colours’, and we hope that in this album we’ve managed to capture some of the fantastic colours to be found in A.R. Rahman’s extraordinary music.

Dave Jago