I'm quite consious of the fact that new posts have been thin on the ground over recent months. Really, I've been posting less and less frequently over the course of this year, not because of 'blogger fatigue' or anything like that, but more because I seem to have less spare time, work seem is taking up more of my time than ever before - difficult as I'm naturally a pretty lazy, workshy person. Luckily my local car boot sale continues to provide regular suprises so here is one of this weekend's nice finds.
R.D. Burman's soundtrack to this 1980 Indian/Russian movie production is a total pleasure, a hugely enjoyable funky romp with fabulous percussion, bubbling basslines, some fuzzy guitars, huge over the top strings and all your favourite playback singers. Each track is full of surprising turns and unusual, inventive flourishes that I'm sure will keep me listening over the coming months. Hopefully you too will find plenty here to pique your interest.
If you have the time and inclination, here is the whole lavish movie for you to feast your eyes (and ears) on. Just maximise the screen for the English subtitles:
Tracklist
01 Aa Ja Sar-E-Bazar
02 Music
03 Khatouba
04 Title Music
05 Jadugar Jadu Kar Jayega
06 Qayamat
07 Sare Shaher Men
Jai Santoshi Maa is a low budget 1975 Hindi film that was the surprise hit of the year and which brought Santoshi Maa, a little known Hindu Goddess, the wider attention of the Indian public. Usha Mangeshkar, sister of both Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, sings many of the beautiful devotional songs on C. Arjun's great soundtrack.
Tracklist:
01 Main to Arti Utaron
02 Yahan Wahan Jahan Tahan
03 Mat Ro Mat Ro Aaj Radhike
04 Yahan Wahan Jahan Tahan
05 Karti Hoon Tumhara Vrat
06 Mada Karo Santoshi Mata
It's strange how elastic time has become, or maybe has always been. I've been posting here at Snap, Crackle and Pop for just over three years now so I thought it was HIGH TIME for a little mix - around my musical world in 75 minutes or so.
Here is the tracklist, and you'll find that clicking on the artist's name will take you to the original post. Handy eh?
I picked up a few cds of Tamil film music at a boot sale about 6 months ago and was lucky enough to find this one which came in the case of a completely different movie soundtrack. What we have here is 18 songs of wonderfully demented Kollywood sounds from Sri Lanka. Expect wild guitars, crazy synths, jarring percussion and impossibly high pitched singing. As the cd came without a cover, I have no idea what the titles of the songs might be so any help with identification would be wonderful. The films though are:
The excellent record label, Finders Keepers has just released two volumes of film music by Dr Ilaiyaraja (which you can buy HERE), and this is what their website has to say about this chap's wonderful music:
"Ilaiyaraaja, Ilayaraja, Ilayaraaja, Isaignani, The Maestro... The undeniable prince of Kollywood cinema, India's second largest film industry, Ilaiyaraaja is more than equal to his forward thinking contemporaries in Bollywood and Lollywood in both productivity and experimentation. However, once you have exhausted all possible leads using his various names (and the numerous misspellings) you're faced with the unenviable task of sifting through a 34-year career spanning more than 900 film scores in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada in order to unearth some the heaviest dancefloor friendly electronic pop to ever emerge from Southern India.
Impossible to pigeonhole and characterised by his own indefinable style the man is a genre in his own right."
This is a cassette of fantastic bangra style remixes of songs from the 1991 Bollywood movie, Naag Mani which starred a former Miss India.
Compare and contrast the movie original with the SUPER JHANKAR BEATS version that follows:
Tracklist:
01 Mera Long Gawaacha 02 Dil Toot Gaya Tha 03 Chann Pardesi Mere 04 Aashiqon Ka Naam Hum 05 Parbat Ki Unchaai 06 Dushman - E - Jaan Ko Hum 07 Dil Jo Hamaara Aahen 08 Zindagi Men Jeete Jee 09 Pal Pal Meri Jaan 10 Aao Khelen Sanam Sanam
Laxmikant Pyrelal were a duo who composed over 500 songs for Hindi films between the early '60s and the '90s. They worked with all the great Bollywood playback singers over the years. This compilation album that I picked up at a local boot sale features songs recorded between 1969 and 1974 and features great singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh and Mohd. Rafi, but its Asha Bhosle who takes my top prize with this inspired piece of musical mania:
Tracklist:
01 El Pyar Ka Naghma Hai
02 Sharafat Chhod Di Main Ne
03 Mere Dil Men Aaj Kya Hai
04 Sa Re Ga Ma Pa
05 Khilona Jan Khar
06 Bindiya Chamke Gi
07 Chabi Kho Jae
08 Hangama Ho Gaya
09 Yeh Jeevan Hai
10 Achha To Hum Chalte Hain
11 Jal Bin Machhli
12 Sawan Ka Mahina
Okay, the poorly recorded tracks have been replaced with nice clean recording which you can get HERE. My apologies to those of you who downloaded the first attempt.
During the 1970s, R.D. Burman was the Bollywood dream factory's most popular composer of film songs. His music drew heavily on Western pop styles and so, on this compilation, we're treated to a healthy dose of fuzz guitars and echo chamber effects to complement the Bollywood strings and tablas. Here is the first song on the album, the classic 'Dum Maro Dum', from the 1971 movie 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna':
If you watched the video, then it should come as no suprise that the title translates to something like 'Puff, take a puff'. One of the reasons I find old records so endlessly fascinating is that they often offer us a window through which we can get a novel view of the world. This fabulous piece of film seems to be saying something about the invasion of India by disaffected Western kids in search of 'authenticity', enlightenment, and of course great drugs. This invasion started only twenty years after India was given independence from British colonial rule, and I think its worth pointing out here that much of Britain's colonial wealth and power was made during the 19th Century through its monopoly over the trade in opium.
In the 18th Century the colonial government of India expropriated land and used some of the displaced population as labour power to work the poppy plantations, increasing the production of opium for export to the lucrative Chinese market. In this way, the British government and the East India Trading Company established and maintained an opium monopoly that helped prepare the ground for capitalism in Asia by creating massive consumer markets. The trade generated enormous cash flows, while at the same time helping to establish trade routes, reorder class structures, change productive practices and create new political and economic structures throughout Asia (Fitzgerald, 2005). Even at this early stage opium was a controversial commodity subject to politicization, frequently modulating between official monopoly and contraband commodity (Fitzgerald, 2005). By the 1830's, the Chinese government came to realize it was trading away its wealth to pay for the population's growing love of the pipe; subsequent attempts to prohibit the trade led to the Opium Wars of 1839 and 1856 (Chambliss, 1977; Davenport-Hines, 2000). Marx pointed out the hypocrisy and ruthless profiteering of the British Government in correspondence for the New York Tribune. While highlighting the inflated profits resulting from the 'contraband character' of the trade, Marx also predicted the causes of the decline in British involvement in the opium trade:
"...the Indian finances of the British Government have, in fact, been made to depend not only on the opium trade with China, but on the contraband character of that trade. Were the Chinese Government to legalize the opium trade simultaneously with tolerating the cultivation of the poppy in China, the Anglo-Indian exchequer would experience a serious catastrophe”(Marx, 1858).
After 1859, the Chinese government did indeed legalize opium enabling them to levy a tax, while at the same time allowing farmers to cultivate their own poppies (Chambliss, 1977). This did not however, cause the catastrophe Marx envisaged, for the money capital generated during the opium boom flowed back to England and was used to fuel the growth of industrial capital, which by the mid 19th Century had already emerged, “...dripping from head to toe, from every pore, with blood and dirt” (Marx, 1990: 926).
Chambliss, W.J. (1977) “Markets, Profits, Labour and Smack” Contemporary Crises 1: 53-76
Davenport-Hines, R. (2001) The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics 1500 – 2000 London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Fitzgerald, J. (2005) “Illegal Drug Markets in Transitional Countries” Addiction Research and Theory 13 (6): 563-577
Marx, K. (1990) Capital Volume I London: Penguin
Marx, K. (1858) “Monopoly or Trade” in New York Tribune
Regardless of all that, I hope you enjoy these groovy sounds.
Tracklist:
01 Dum Maro Dum
02 I Love You
03 Na Koi Umang Kai
04 Rampur Ka Bassi Hoon
05 Aaj To Meri Hansi Udai
06 Kahin Karti Hogi
07 Duniya Mein
08 Biti Na Bitai Raina
09 Deko Re Hua
10 Bangle Ke Peechhe
11 Jeena To Hai
12 Piya Tu Ab To Aja
Great album of songs from Hindi films by some of Bollywood's best known singers. Nice crackly, charity shop sounds from the films of 1968 and 1969. Here is a clip from the 1968 movie, Shikar featuring Asha Bhosle's song 'Parde Mein Rahne Do':
Tracklist:
01 Lata Mangeshkar & Mohd. Rafi - Main Hoon Saqi Tu Hai Sharabi 02 Mohd. Rafi - Likhe Jo Khat Tujhe 03 Lata Mangeshkar - Parai Hoon 04 Mohd. Rafi - Na Aadmi Ka Koi Bharosa 05 Asha Bhosle & Chorus - Parde Men Rahne Do 06 Lata Mangeshkar - Mere Jeevan Saathi 07 Mohd. Rafi - Aaj Purani Rahon Se
08 Asha Bhosle & Mohd. Rafi - Aulad Walon 09 Mohd. Rafi - Mere Pairon Men Gungharoo 10 Lata Mangeshkar & Mahendra Kapoor - Ye Kali 11 Mohd. Rafi - Babul Ki Duayen Leti Jaa 12 Lata Mangeshkar - Rama Duhai 13 Mohd. Rafi - O Nanhe Se Farishte 14 Mohd. Rafi & Sulakshana Pandit - Jab Jab Apna Mel
The music is, of course, for evaluation purposes only. If you like what you hear then go out and try and buy stuff...or something, give money to a down on his luck musician, or sponsor a good busker, it may be the start of something beautiful.
If any of the zips die, then post a comment and i'll try to repost. And leave comments, abuse, name calling, any response is welcome.
I think all of the albums posted are currently unavailable, but if this is not the case we'll remove the offending files.