Akhiyaan

Got tired of waiting for it to be perfect. Just right. Every layer and every note in place. Now my computer can’t handle any more layers of sound, and I need more RAM :)

But then, here it is. Akhiyaan. Music, voice and arrangement by me. Lyrics by Saint Kabir. All music recorded and rendered on one laptop with Ableton Live and Audacity.

Next revision will be after the magician Rohan plays with the song. It will be transformed into something totally zOMG awesome with his music and talent. Until then, comments welcome.

Akhiyaan [Click to Play]

Lyrics:

Ankhiyan To Chhayee Pari, Panth Nihari Nihari
Jihadiyan Chhaala Parya, Naam Pukari Pukari
Birha Kamandal Kar Liye, Bairagi Do Nain
Mange Daras Madhukari, Chhake Rahe Din Rain

Translation:

My eyes have developed black spots, Watching the path whence you may come
Blistered has become my tongue, chanting away your name
Separation pangs fill my begging bowl, Void is all in the two eyes
Anxious for only a glimpse delight, Waiting patiently day and night.

Download here.

(8 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)

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Michael Jackson. What a genius, what a voice, what a career. I am not particularly fond of pop music (of the Boyband-girlband variety) but this man is something else. He has been an inspiration in composition, voice, performance, and sheer creativity. And he turns 50 today. A tribute is due.

From the time of the famous Jackson 5, who were the biggest names in Motown in their early teens, Michael was something special. I remember the first time I saw his video when he was about 8 years old: in complete control of the stage, and more importantly, of his voice, and the crowd as well. Such energy, and the voice too powerful to ignore. A voice that overpowers the wonderful accompanying instruments and voices of his brothers. He was the star, clearly.

Quincy Jones and ‘Off the Wall’ happened, followed by ‘Thriller‘. My oh my. What an album. Multi-platinum, multi million selling, multi-Grammy winning and whatnot. Every song is a fricking lesson in song arrangement, voice modulation, instrumentation, bass lines and clarity. And then the ‘Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever‘ TV special happened where he first performed his Moonwalk. And the rest was not just history; it was Michael fever everywhere. And then, to follow it up with Bad, Dangerous and HIStory. How much great music one has to have within himself to come up with albums like that.

I have a lot of personal favorites: Lyrics arrangement and Van Halen’s guitar in Beat it; the rhythm pattern in Jam (the first English song I ever heard); powerful chorus in the live version of The Way You Make Me Feel; beatboxing in Stranger in Moscow; Liberian Girl, Invincible, Bad, Billie Jean, Earth Song, They don’t really care about us; and I’m not even talking about any of the videos. Just the bleddy songs. Unbelieveable!

Almost all his songs are genius material; hence no point listing all of them. He is a true legend, in the sense that he has been the material of public paranoia many times over; has been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice); 13 Grammy awards, 13 number one singles, 750 million albums sold worldwide; the Moonwalk, the Crotch Grab all becoming parts of the repertoire of many budding dancers world over.

Sheer Musical Genius.

But there’s one thing I would like to say to Michael.

Stop whatever the fuck you are doing. Sleeping with children, dangling your baby from your balcony, painting your face, drafting skin from your ass onto your chin; Stop all that for fuck’s sake.

And get back to making your music. That’s your only emancipation. That’ll save you from yourself.

[Pic courtesy: Yahoo.]

Update: And he dies before he hits 51. What a shame! What a loss to music! How I wished he would re-discover himself. He was almost on his way back to stardom, with his new tour. And then, history loses the true superstar. Sigh. I am really pissed at fate for once. He deserved another chance.

One of the reasons I love fingerstyle guitar. One of the reasons I think genius can actually make an instrument come to life in a way that mere talent struggles to imagine. One of the reasons I discovered Chet Atkins and one of the reasons I own a TE thumb-pick even though I can’t even play basic chords on the guitar.

Discover Tommy Emmanuel. I present two videos here. Angelina, recorded from a Korean TV station, and Somewhere over the rainbow, again a live recording.

Angelina: Notice just one thing. How much he is in love with the instrument, how he caresses it, how he enjoys his song. The mix of melody, chords and harmonics are second to none.

Somewhere over the rainbow: Beautiful harmonics, speed and incredible life in a song played on just one instrument.

Yes, there are many fingerstyle guitarists who are really good. Many classical guitarists who are also brilliant. But this is the first of the geniuses that I discovered, so the first I will write about. Read more about him here. And yes, go listen to the rest of his videos on Youtube.

Poignancy. As the name says; moving, emotional, a feeling that reverberates a sadness, a plea, almost.

Composed 2 weeks ago. Comments welcome.

Download here.

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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Something I composed last Sunday. Done entirely on FL Studio on my comp, and damn I need to buy a keyboard soon! It is really tough to put together such music note-by-note, layer by layer…

Tranquility

Made with a piano base and a flute overlay, this song plays on the soft moods of a tranquil seashore and more piano layers before moving into a bit of classical flute towards the end.

Listen

Download mp3

Vaishnava Janato

Something I recorded a long time ago, when I was at L. Tanpura and Pad recorded on FL, voice arranged and noise-filtered on Adobe Audition. A simple rendition (not a great one, I admit) of the lovely Vaishnava Janato.

Listen

Download mp3

(5 votes, average: 4.8 out of 5)

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First it was the synthesizer that changed the rules of the game. It made possible sampling and converting any sound and any instrument, thus enabling the sound of any instrument, even human voice to be played on a keyboard type interface.

Then we moved on to turn-tables, virtual mp3 turntables, loop machines, Studio emulators and personal sound factories. All this was a gradual progression, organic steps in music composition technology.

Until now.

The interface of generating music is moving from notes, layers, loops, samples and channels to something much more complex, intuitive and interactive. What if music was made visual, and the pattern of composition, itself as beautiful visually as aurally?

Here I present two of such next-gen devices that I have come across. Watch and be amazed. The first, and the more recent one, is called Tenori-on. This is, according to the makers Yamaha Inc,

“a unique 16 x 16 LED button matrix performance instrument with a stunning visual display. The TENORI-ON 16 x 16 LED button matrix is simultaneously a performance input controller and display. By operating and interacting with the LED buttons and the light they produce you gain access to the TENORI-ON’s numerous performance capabilities.”

The next one is a more colorful, more glamorous, and more rich sounding contraption called the Reactable.

Positioned as the “Musical Instrument with a tangible musical interface”, it provides a musical universe that is limited only by one’s creativity.

The Tenori-on, to make a simple observation, is much more user friendly, compact and musically inclined. What I mean by that is, since it is based on patterns and set to a 16 beat grid, it naturally aligns to a 4-beat rhythm and hence, sounds musical more easily. My money is on Yamaha making a lot more dough than the geek-dudes playing with the Reactable. Time will tell.

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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