Articles of 2009 - #8 India Soundpad / John Leckie

Around the time of Brighton's excellent Great Escape festival this May, I was working on two global orientated musical articles. This was the first one. A bit of background before you read. The India Soundpad album project was dreamt up by The British Council with the intention of using a renowned British producer to choose four Indian bands to expose to the UK public via a download compilation. This meant interviewing the four bands involved (Swarathma, Advaitar, Indigo Children and Medusa) and the well-respected John Leckie, a personal bonus for me as he is the man who produced on of my favourite albums ever, Radiohead's The Bends. The article is meant to capture the spirit of the project as well as the inspiring attitudes of bands from another part of the world, another culture yet also influenced by western musical domination.

You could fill a magazine four times the size of the one you’re feverishly pouring over now with the benefits gathered from artists absorbing influences from different cultures. It’s incredibly important to keep these creative links open and continuously expanding in order for musicians and listeners alike to hear the freshest and most honest sounds being crafted by our global community. No matter what style of music you listen to, it has been doused in liberal amounts of cross-cultural knowledge, either by proxy or intention.
Perhaps the most exciting examples of this willingness to keep such channels open and responsive are overseas. Without a doubt, Western music (or if you prefer, American and British music) has become a massive part of many other nations’ young musical innovators.
The British Council, an organisation dedicated to educational opportunities and cultural relations, recognises this and so the India Soundpad project has been conceived. The premise is they’ve taken four bands from India’s emerging alternative scene and brought them together with renowned British producer John Leckie – responsible for production on such important records as Radiohead’s The Bends, The Stone Roses’ debut, The Fall’s This Nation’s Saving Grace and XTC’s White Music, as well as work with diverse acts like PiL, Be-Bop Deluxe and Kula Shaker. The result is a sampler showcasing the depths of wonderful music inspired by the collision of their own heritage and outside influence.
One of those bands, Swarathma, explain why they think this collision of West and East has resulted in such strong unions. “Our take on this is that the spirit of rebellion appealed to the Indian youth. The rebellion that a whole generation in the West embraced was articulated in various forms, one of them being rock music.”
Advaita have an even more articulate analysis of the Western influence on their country’s rich musical heritage: “Western music has had a huge influence on Indian music and culture for a long time. From a classical perspective, India has not really evolved its own ensemble music, barring some forms like qawali in the Islamic music culture. Indian classical music is extremely sophisticated in melodic movement and rhythmic intricacy but there is very little use of harmony. All the popular music, derived from classical roots, that has developed for the last 70 or 80 years - first through theater and then films and other popular music - has had a western influence be it in terms of orchestration or more contemporary band music. This can be seen clearly in how hindi film music has always picked up the trends popular in the west through the last five or six decades and worked them into an indianised sound.”
The point is that Westernised sounds are no stranger to India than, say, their music is to ours – although no one can ever claim that Indian music, scales, structures and themes have been assimilated in quite the same way ours have in India. John Leckie can’t help but detail this when explaining how the project evolved from his being invited by the British Council to take part.
“We did a lot of research on the internet and myspace to see what was happening, what the buzz was and what gigs were being played. Then I went out to Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore and auditioned about 36 different bands who had all submitted things. So, 12 bands across three cities in a two day period. It was pretty full on!” he admits. “When I went through the audition process, it was difficult because I was looking for something that had an Indian element to it, because, obviously you wanna hear some Indian-ness about them, (but) all the bands I auditioned were doing all they could to get rid of their Indian-ness. They were trying to be Western; singing in English, playing electric guitars and although they wrote all their own songs, they were playing covers too.”
Nevertheless, and upon whittling down 36 to four, John gives his reasons for choosing those that appear on the India Soundpad album:
“One is Advaitar which is kind of a fusion band with electric guitars, drums, keyboards but also tabla and sarangi, which is like an Indian violin - a very ancient instrument, and they have two singers: a singer who sings English, like Crosby, Stills and Nash harmonies and that’s contrasted with Indian classical singing.. Swarathma, who are from Bangalore; they don’t speak English at all. You have to remember there are about 150 different languages in India. They’re a party, celebration band, very energetic, a bit theatrical and use tabla, electric violin, bass, drums and guitar. They’re great and what won me over was their energy, really. Indigo Children are much more a western rock band, like a British guitar band. They’ve got rid of all the Indian elements in their music and that’s the contrast. They come from New Delhi. They were the only band who really rocked out, made a noise and really meant it, they weren’t just putting it on. The last band Medusa, similarly, I really liked their naturalness. They really seemed at ease they were just trying to be themselves.”
The key thing that brings these bands together, apart from their country – which isn’t half as important as the place they come from – is their attitude. Listening to each of the bands, they are diverse in approach, energy and genre. Yet, brilliantly, they are entirely distinctive from Western sounds. It’s exhilarating to hear that influence does not have to become imitation.

“To be honest, we do not believe that music has a native territory. Musicians do, but the expression, or artistic expression of any form, does not “belong” to any place or time. Our music, and music anywhere for that matter, can crossover, only if we create it with courage, honesty and conviction.” – Swarathma

“For us, music is most definitely a way of enriching life. I do find the dreariness of a lot of the popular music in the west a bit strange at times)” – Advaita
“We were a band before we were musicians. So, the start was an entire process of trying out ideas as they came to us. Somehow, in the process of giving those ideas a shape, we discovered that we liked a whole range of sounds, artists and musicians.” – Medusa
“We escape the monotony of life by doing what we love the most and simultaneously enrich our lives with it through the personal satisfaction we get by playing music.” – Indigo Children
Perhaps what also threads these bands together is their struggles with being taken seriously in their native country, let alone their willingness to get to as wide an audience as possible. “In India there’s no real infrastructure for gigs; there’s no college circuit there’s no Barfly circuit,” explains John. “They have a lot of major outdoor festivala, a lot of metal festivals: metal in India is huge! A lot of international bands tour, of course. Other problems are that in India, TV is Bollywood driven. It’s very difficult to get anywhere whithout their music in Bollywood films. So, they play wherever they can. They tend to have talent competitions often, battle of the bands, that sort of thing. The same names kept cropping up. In a way, the Soundpad project was a battle of the bands, but at least it’s an opportunity to play. They will jump at any opportunity.”
Swarathma confirm the difficulties of the past, but highlight the hope that seems to have spilled over as a result of progress: “Over the past few years there has been a decisive shift in the way the Indian music listener has treated music coming out of India. Indian independent music - non-Bollywood if you like - relegated to the back burner for years has now started to be recognized. This has probably happened because more Indian bands have started to write music fearlessly, honestly and with conviction. When you do that, it’s hard not to get noticed.”
“It seems people only want art which is escapist and we have to really work extra hard to spread our more thought provoking brand of music,” explain the collective members of Advaita. “Having said that, due to the inherent ‘Indian-ness’ of our sound we have had a bit of success, we released our first album on EMI, a major label, though not a mainstream label in India.”
The overall opinion seems to be that things are improving, and the results of the India Soundpad project have been extremely positive. As well as Advaita, Swarathma have also released music on a major label, Virgin, in India. This is despite each of the bands recognizing that rock music is not a popular genre in India. As John points out: “The development is that there are young people with disposable income. For once there’s a population with money to spend beyond surviving.” This surely bodes well for the growing discontentment with Bollywood superiority.
More than anything, quite apart from the exotic confines of our imaginations, India Soundpad represents four great bands making music they all believe in, each doing it against the odds of being discovered, making a living and being heard. One can’t help but be cynical about British bands and their approach, while the refreshing slant that Swarathma, Indigo Children, Advaita and Medusa lend to real passion and commitment to music makes this even more transparent in UK counterparts. Not to criticise the efforts made and the obstacles we face here in the West, but India Soundpad proves to be a window into how music can be the driving force without sacrificing ambition. As much as they’ve learned from us, we can learn just as much, if not more from them. In the end, Indigo Children say it best: “Good music will be appreciated anywhere, whether coming from India or Mars.”

Brad Barrett

Gig Etiquette - Politeness Forgone

Gigs are rough n tumble kinda places to hang out. The volume is too high for genial chatting, there's not enough room for elaborate dancing and personal space is a precious commodity. That's okay though, because in general gigs are enjoyable experiences. There's something almost tribal about how we all crowd together, absorb body warmth, embrace physical contact and grin widely at each other when a crowd surfer topples to the ground or and incredible chorus breaks out across the entire room.

Unfortunately, and this is certainly not a new thing as veterens will know, there is almost always a cause to get a little angry or jaded with people attending such gatherings. The whole issue of manners and respect seem to be accepted as optional. Last night's No Age and Gentle Friendly gig at Scala was exceptional. A lot of flailing crowd surfers, a couple of 'rebellious' stage divers and a lot of brilliant indie head nodding and dancing. In these situations, with No Age's fierce, and occasionally soothing, assault bellowing across the faces of 700 odd people, you excuse a lot of accidental shoves, beer showers and other minor misdemeanours. WE'RE HAVING A GOOD TIME, YEAH?!

However, bar etiquette doesn't need to go out of the window. If I'm not sure if I was first, I'll offer it to others ahead of me. If I'm standing behind someone, then spread out along the bar before they are served, I make sure they go first. I do not simply request my single pint, avoiding the confused gaze of the person who had been waiting longer than me. Neither do I, when waiting for the band to play, attempt to walk THROUGH someone's physical being to get to somewhere else in the venue and not say sorry, or attempt to be excused so that person has time to step out of the way for me in the first place. If someone steps aside for me, I will say thanks. If someone holds the door for me, I also say thanks. If I accidentally hit someone in the face during the gig, I will make sure they're ok. These are simple enough things to remember to make the whole experience better for everyone involved, right?

Maybe it's just me.

Oh and Adam & Joe of course!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzadXCsY9fo

Buying Things - Converge: Axe To Fall

Sure I feel your pain. You used to buy so many records - as did I - and actively enjoyed parting with that hard-earned (or pleadingly borrowed) cash in exchange for a circular disc or rectangular cassette, which you would fleem home with like you'd done something naughty. The delight in pressing play for the first time was something that we'll never recover. Now, you're spoilt for choice. You download free albums, mp3s and watch videos all the time, consumed by music you used to consume. However, there are reasons still to buy. One reason is aptly and eloquently explained by Mr Andrew Falkous of Future of the Left here:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=62653487&blogId=485944356

So with that overwhelming opinion in mind, while you steal musician's work, why not reward a few of them along the way? It's only fair right? So, this week I implore you, beg you, plead with you to purchase Converge's Axe To Fall.

Why?

Well because of this:



No don't worry they won't just put you into Saw like devices and tear your flesh from bone a la solving the Lament Configuration if you don't buy. That's just the video to the title track.

If you just found yourself reeling from the onslaught of sheet metal across your face, then may I suggest you calm down and listen again. Then try listening to the entire record here: www.myspace.com/converge

Converge's seventh album deals in the same wrath, retribution and savagery we're used to. The huge amount of effort needed to perform these songs, let alone bleed their energies into their creation and arrangement, should be enough to convince you to part with a fraction of your income. Utilising the use of special guests from a variety of hardcore and metalcore backgrounds, this Converge album can be seen as their most undulating. The moods range from pure, unadulterated rage to maudlin contemplation. It's a fascinating record that pummels as it burns as it soothes as it aches. The atmospheric brutality, incomparable delivery and surprisingly fresh ideas lurking within these writhing metallic anthems are certainly worth both your time and your money.

So do it, please.

Articles of 2009 - #9 Micachu

As a celebration of both me cleansing my blogging slate and starting afresh AND it almost being the end of 2009, I'd like to share with you 9 of my favourite published articles wot I wrote this year. This is mainly because a) it's a slightly less complicated way of looking back at the year than writing about each album I enjoyed (apparently one shy of a 100, though I doubt I've remembered them all) b) it's a way of sharing my work which isn't readily available due to the perishble nature of print magazines. This also means that rather than having the edited articles, I'm giving you the full, unedited, raw copy straight from these hard working fingers.
So with the intention of plastering one a week across your eyes, here's the first: Micachu.
Having delivered one of my albums of the year, 'Jewellery', and completely mutated - with her band The Shapes - into a formidable live act (as witnessed a few days ago at Kings Cross Scala - Artrocker review due soon), she's one of my favourite musicians. Without further ado, here is the article in it's resplendent glory.


21-year-old Mica Levi has hit upon a type of pop music that has been described as “the lost and found sound of a new UK”. With homemade instruments, a classical background and interest in any musical idea, her disparate, exhilarating music has certainly redefined some people’s expectations of music in 2009.

“There’s just something that makes sense about starting from scratch.”
It’s hard to express how much impact this statement has without at least exploring the person who said it. Mica Levi is a 21 year old composer, currently releasing records and touring with her band under the name Micachu and the Shapes. On the phone she’s a lively, enthusiastic voice who seems almost embarrassed by her ideas and afraid of not being able to sufficiently express them in words. Starting from scratch seems the only place to begin.
“It’s been really helpful,” Mica replied vaguely to my opening question, about how her upbringing and where she came from has helped her musical goals. “I’ve been exposed to a lot of different types of music which, I guess could be a hindrance in that sometimes, I don’t really sure what I’m doing. Too much choice or whatever.” This modesty shows consistently throughout our conversation, so it makes sense for me to stop here and explain why this is significant.
This write really believes Micachu’s debut record Jewellery to be one of the most exciting collections of music he’s heard. Full stop. A bewildering blitz of toy-like sounds at home with being swathed in discordance, liable to change speed, tact and texture every few seconds or so. Mica’s London accent comes across as both tender and bolshy, perfect for the ambiguity present in all aspects of her music. It’s pop music for sure. It’s just unlike any pop music you’ve ever heard.
“I guess the thing at the moment is that it’s best to forget all that stuff really.” That stuff being her classical music education from a family she admits are “really obsessed with it.” So, while unlearning what she’s learnt has become important in the creation of her current musical angle, it certainly hasn’t gone to waste. She has actually written a score for the London Philharmonic Orchestra which was performed last year.
“Yeah it was like a Young Composers project I was involved with. It was really fucking hard man,” she says, laughing. “Really hard. A massive challenge. It was a very intimidating project. I hadn’t really written an orchestral piece before, so it was really scary and difficult. Amazing though, I feel very lucky to have had that opportunity.”
Just to add a bit more depth to her musical dimensions, she’s also author of a hotly-traded grime-slanted mixtape called Filthy Friends, which she’s looking to follow up this year.
Some might say that she can’t seem to focus on one thing at a time, and listening to Jewellery further confirms that.
“It’s part of the trying to forget things and that not really happening. Just hearing so many different things and not wanting to milk things and also my attention span is pretty bad. When you’re working on something, producing it and hearing it over and over again, you get sick of it. It’s the lack of being able to develop things properly really.” This seems incongruous with the elaborate, exhilarating lo-fi debut that’s currently spinning as I write this. It’s as soft as it is ragged and sharp, as melodic as it is noisy – it revels in it’s flaws and makes them part of it’s ramshackle perfection. Saying this isn’t a fully developed work is the sign of some harsh self-criticism. Surely this ADHD-like approach is a way of keeping things exciting for Mica?
“Yeah, I do (get bored easily). It’s something I’m trying to work on. I think part of it is that the songs are quite textural, they’re not groove based so it’s not the sort of thing you can let carry on. Dance music can be quite free-streaming and just carry on because there’s an ongoing pulse there. The minute you’re breaking things up it’s a different sort of area.”
Continuing with the theme of keeping things exciting, Mica’s band The Shapes – AKA Raisa Khan on keys and Marc Pell on drums – have been initiated into the songwriting process for her next work.
“I’m doing a lot more writing with The Shapes now. A proper band thing. That’s really exciting, something different. I’ve never really done that before, so that’ll be cool,” says Mica eagerly. So what are they bringing to your music now? After an amused giggle she answers.
“An incredible amount of commitment! Everything! At the moment we’re doing loads of gigs so Marc and Raisa are trying to interpret the record and everything is divided by three.” She admits it should be more together come time to record a new record although: “They’ve both got quite wild imaginations so maybe we won’t develop in that way at all. Maybe we’re just a bad combination. I don’t know. We’ll find out!” Isn’t that the point? Starting from scratch and finding out what works, what doesn’t – it keeps things fresh and new.
Speaking of such things, Rough Trade have recently come aboard, taking over where Jewellery producer – and renowned electronic artist in his own right – Matthew Herbert’s Accidental label had stepped in originally.
“We’re really excited. We’re sort of quite shocked. Matthew who runs Accidental is really happy about it. It’s really nice. They seem like a really nice family of people. They’re really excited about music and they really hate music as well, which is good. We feel pretty honoured, yeah. When we were talking to them they were very adamant, they were very realistic. They didn’t think we were gonna take the world over at all.”
Although this is indeed unlikely, the overwhelming response to music that, in all honesty, was not made for the masses has been extraordinary. Magazine covers, Rough Trade, mass music press plaudits: “I don’t wanna get too ahead of myself. It’s really nice when you’re working on things if you’re getting a positive response.”
For this cynical, sometimes fatigued, music fan, Mica Levi is a breath of fresh air. As with the majority of my favourite artists, she builds up from Ground Zero. “Just partly satisfaction in DIY stuff,” says Mica about her homemade instruments used to make her music, such as the three stringed guitar, The Chu, and a bowed instrument made from a CD rack. She even uses a vacuum cleaner on final track, Hardcore. “It’s off the back of this Harry Partch guy and his philosophy and attitude towards music which is an inspiration for me. The instruments I’ve made have been pretty shoddy. I need to do more planning. There’s just something that makes sense about starting from scratch. If you’re gonna write music then you’ve gotta make things to write the music with. It seems to be quite an obvious thing to do, doesn’t it?”
Only to those of us who believe in pure expression and making sure we don’t get bored too easily. Fortunately, with artists like Mica, there’s no chance of getting tired with music of any kind. Wiping the slate clean and creating what you want to create is a brave move, especially if it doesn’t work. When it does, it’s worth all the false starts and fleeting ideas.

Brad Barrett