Living through these long years of life, I’ve experienced a lot of drama, emotion and music. And I’ve realized that somehow the music that you listen to during the phases, periods and times of life gets ingrained into those moments and memories.
I purchased this melodious music album in the cloudy days of the year 2000. This is one of my favorite albums at these times of the year. It reminds me of the nostalgic, depressed, gloomy days with cloud-covered dark skies. Depressing yet pleasing. the world turns into a never imagined dreamland with the contrast of dark clouds against the clear blue skies, the playful rays of the sun and the momentary rainbow, the clarity of the water in the puddles reflecting the clear skies.
Piya Basanti is an album which reflects all this and much more. It reflects the blooming love and the lovely virtue nature is. Incidentally, the title video of the album to a large extent portrays the exact feel of the music. The vocals have been beautifully rendered by two famous artists viz. Ustad Sultan Khan - a renowned classical musician and a sarangi exponent and Chitra -the nightingale and melody queen of the south.
The prince of vocals - Sonu Nigam has come up with another everlasting marvel. Its called “Classically Mild”. The album comes after a long era of Sonu’s silence on the pop front and has been almost three years. While it has been a punitive wait for the millions of fans out there, one listening proves that it has been worth it. The work is best in the class and a first attempt of its kind on the pop front. Sonu has made a strong statement with the album and that is that he leads creativity when it comes to vocals and music. When one reaches a stage where they have ‘been there done that’, seeking challenges is not always fruitful. And one has to set milestones and wander into realms where none has been ever before. Read the rest of this entry »
Here are some screenshots of Sonu’s latest album coupled with a teaser/medley. Hope you like it. Review in progress. Click on the pictures for full size (readable).
It’s the onset of summers but not yet. The breeze still carries the fragance of spring in the morning… and the evenings. Its dry and warm. The sun has already set.
There is a kind of familiarity in the breeze. Its been years. It feels changed but the breeze is still the same. I listen to the music of Pukar. I’ve listened to Pukar since it’s release.
The music is from A. R. Rehman and is arguably one of the best from Rehman. Lately though he has been experimenting with different sounds which sound well… awkward at first. Its not easy to understand the music of Remah at the first play. It takes time to come to terms with the melody contained within. And sometimes there’s no melody at all.
This is a gem in my collection. While an audio compilation may be more enjoyable for the connoisseurs of the classical music to listen and appreciate, there’s quite nothing that can match a live performance. For those who are quite not as lucky, this title brings alive the feel of a live performance. The ” The Gurus of Bandish: Ustaad Rashid Khan” is a DVD containing ten different bandishes in various ragaas by Ustad Rashid Khan. It was never the same again after I stood a witness spellbound by the amazing renditions in this album.
It actually was this one that inspired me to start this blog. I always loved music but didn’t have quite enough in my pocket back then to pursue my affairs with music. So then I came up with the idea of building up my own music system which I could use as a personal machine to listen to. I was 12yrs back then. I started slow and build a cheap one using ICs LA3161 and LA4440. I then kept on modifying it. By the time I had been into my profession for 7 yrs I had plugged in a pair each of tweeters, mid-ranges and subs. I measured up all the dimensions for the perfect resonance and got the speaker boxes built from a local furniture shop.
Later when I got married, my wife had problems handling my rig bulging out of nowhere on the desk (ya, the actual machine and PCB weren’t even placed inside a cabinet because… it simply worked for me out-of-the-box :)… Read the rest of this entry »
The prince of vocals - Sonu Nigam has come up with another everlasting marvel. Its called “Classically Mild”. The album comes after a long era of Sonu’s silence on the pop front and has been almost three years. While it has been a punitive wait for the millions of fans out there, one listening proves that it has been worth it. The work is best in the class and a first attempt of its kind on the pop front. Sonu has made a strong statement with the album and that is that he leads creativity when it comes to vocals and music. When one reaches a stage where they have ‘been there done that’, seeking challenges is not always fruitful. And one has to set milestones and wander into realms where none has been ever before. 
