Just Get It!

And It here stands for the soundtrack of the film Black Friday!

The music has been scored by Indian Ocean; I enjoyed their album Kandisa - an outstanding blending of rock flavor with Indian sounds. But Jhini, which followed, had left me a little cold - a feeling of too much of the same thing, which is not bad in itself but leaves one wistfully looking around for glimpses…. not of the goddess, but of imagination! :o)

Had a few minutes free, so popped into a music store a couple days back and found this album on the shelf, along with that of a film called (delhiiheights) which has been scored by Rabbi Shergill. I’d heard about this one too, but had heard neither. And the Black Friday cover proudly mentions ‘includes the smash hit Bandeh’. And I hadn’t heard that either, or didn’t know if I’d heard it and not realized, which is not quite the same thing. In fact, if I’d heard it and not registered, it could even mean that it wasn’t interesting, and therefore I hadn’t taken the trouble to find out more. You know what I mean?

None of the store staff had anything to offer by way of reccos, one of them even called one of the bands Pakistani…. the conversation caught the ear of another shopper who strongly recommended Black Friday and dismissed Rabbi. It also happened that some track from Black Friday was what was playing….. anyway, if the dilemma is whether an album will prove to be worthwhile, then the only way to find out is by picking it up. And after all, I’d liked Rabbi’s earlier album enough to gift it to some people…. and I have a weakness for Indian sound…. so went to the counter with both albums firmly gripped in hand.

And thus this posting. Get the album. ‘Smash hit’ Bandeh is certainly good, but my personal favorites are Opening/Pre-blast followed by Chase and Bharam Bhap Ke. There’s a quality of tension in Opening that’s hard to describe, even the flute has a quality that seems to convey that all is not well while the percussion builds a tempo that sets your heart pounding. I wonder though about why there’s so little bass across the tracks - even on my famous-for-punchy-bass speakers at home, the sound was mostly mid and high…. so you can imagine what happened on my PC-speakers. And while I’m definitely a mid-range freak, I’d have thought a little more bass would have ‘grounded’ the music well.But then, these things are personal, so listen and figure it out for yourself.

And since I did bring in (delhiiheights) and Rabbi, let me not shirk the task of trashing it. Poor on virtually every front - poor sound, pathetic arrangement and mixing with the mid-range turned into a pav-bhaji of sound and almost devoid of imagination. If you really want to pay tribute to Deep Purple, do not do it like Rabbi. And save yourself 175-rupees for something else…. I look forward to any other views who would like to take up cudgels on this score! :o)