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The indie scene in India is building up to a crescendo, di Satarupa Paul, pubblicato da Brunch nel numero in edicola ieri, articolo dedicato alla scena musicale indiana indipendente, alternativa, non correlata con l'industria cinematografica e con le colonne sonore, né con la tradizione classica. Festival, locali, concerti, nuovi gruppi, nuovi generi, testi in lingue regionali, video: il pezzo analizza e illustra il fenomeno in modo piuttosto accurato. Di seguito un estratto:
'Winds of change
In the last five years, India has become a cauldron of a steaming, brewing independent music scene - scores of bands, acts and artistes are emerging from every part of the country, and they’re experimenting with sounds and cross pollinating genres like never before! The credit, in part, goes to the many music festivals mushrooming across the country, an ever-increasing crop of venues promoting live gigs, big brands sponsoring indie-exclusive TV channels and programmes, and a growing social media presence of the bands and acts. But behind such organised marketing initiatives, what has really changed is the passion and dedication of the artistes themselves, to push the envelope just a little further. And the mindsets and attitudes of people towards an alternative culture. (...)
Rewind, Stop, Play
The newly-independent India of the 1950s was just beginning to come of age. Its small population of westernised urban citizens was trying to find ways of expressing itself and music was one of them. In his book India Psychedelic, the Story of a Rocking Generation, journalist Sidharth Bhatia writes, "The music of choice in the 1950s was either jazz or soulful songs by the likes of Frank Sinatra... Jazz, for all its working-class, ghetto origins in the US, had morphed into the music of choice of the urban upper classes." By the turn of the decade, the Beatles were setting off a storm in England that would sweep the entire world. "In socialist India, too, youngsters put on their dancing shoes to groove to this new sound, so different from anything they had heard till then," writes Bhatia. "Some were sufficiently inspired to grow their hair, put on their bell-bottoms and pick up their guitars. And the Indian pop and rock revolution was born."
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| Madboy/Mink |
When everybody danced
Rock and its many derivatives - soft, hard, metal - continued to rule the non-Bollywood music scene in India over the next decade into the ’70s. In the early 1980s though, rock began to be overshadowed by disco - a movement started almost single-handedly by a musician from Bangalore named Biddu. (...) Simultaneously, there was another influence entering the Indian indie scene. According to an essay by electronic music producer Samrat B in the 2010 HUB yearbook, India’s first and only anthology of electronic music, “The late ’80s in Goa saw the rise of tourism... Electronic music and sound was arriving to Indian shores via DJs, writers, filmmakers and tourists... It is in this socio-cultural melting pot that the popular, psychedelic electronic music form now known as ‘Goa trance’ was born.” With the arrival of music channels on television in the mid-90s, music enthusiasts in India started getting influenced by Western rock sounds again - but this time the sounds were harder and rapidly changing. Bands that formed during this time evolved their styles from rock to alternative rock, progressive rock, metal and others. It was only natural for the independent scene of the ’90s and 2000s to take these musical influences forward and lead up to this current decade - a time of widespread popularity of electronica and its many sub-genres, and of a resurgence of older genres like disco, cabaret, jazz, blues, rock and more - all permuted, combined, mixed, remixed and fused with each other, with a garnishing of traditional Indian influences. (...)
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| Prateek Kuhad |
Brunch recommends - Seven promising new indie music artistes you should listen to:
- Tritha Electric, Formed in: 2011, Based in: New Delhi, Genre/Sound: Indian classical-folk-Western psychedelic-punk
- Madboy/Mink, Formed in: 2013, Based in: Mumbai, Genre/Sound: Funk-nu disco
- Prateek Kuhad, Started performing live in: 2011, Based in: New Delhi, Genre/Sound: Indie folk-pop
- DJ Kerano, Started performing live in: 2015, Based in: New Delhi, Genre: Progressive house
- Alobo Naga & The Band, Formed in: 2010, Based in: Nagaland, Genre: Contemporary progressive rock with pop sounds
- The Ganesh Talkies, Formed in: 2011, Based in: Kolkata, Genre: Alternate-rock-pop-Bollywood kitsch
- Peter Cat Recording Co. (PCRC), Formed in: 2010, Based in: New Delhi, Genre/Sound: Gypsy jazz-cabaret'.
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| DJ Kerano |
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| Alobo Naga & The Band |
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| The Ganesh Talkies |
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| Peter Cat Recording Co. |
