New Delhi, June 23 (IANS) Music bands in India are growing by the day. No longer willing to be bracketed in set genres, they are experimenting, fusing entirely different formats and breaking musical barriers to ensure that their tunes and rhythms truly rock.
Milli Bhagat, Jalebee Cartel, Oritus, Radius and Cyanide are some such bands and their music is as inimitable and innovative as their names.
“There are a lot of bands like ‘Frequency’ that are experimenting and playing some great music,” Rohan Solomon, lead vocalist of Delhi-based band Cyanide, told IANS.
“The unique selling point of our band is our guitar tones and melodic choruses,” he said.
Jalebi Cartel also loves experimenting while creating music.
“We basically do electronica. But we also experiment with a lot of house music and progressive music,” said Ash Roy, vocalist and percussionist of Jalebi Cartel.
Asked what sets their band apart, Roy said: “We put in a lot of energy since ours is a dance act. Also, since all of us were DJs earlier, we know and understand the mood of the crowd.”
The audiences these bands usually cater to are school and college students, who are more accepting in terms of changes in music and mixing of varying genres.
Roy pointed out that another band “Midival Punditz” had done some path-breaking work. “They have mixed electronica with Indian classical!” he said.
The boundaries of music are being broken in India and it is a welcome change for artistes and people alike.
“Boundaries are created by the human mind … there is no need to put music into any category,” said Amit Kilam, drummer of Indian Ocean, the band that created its own genre of fusion music 18 years ago.
“Experimentation is all about breaking out of the mould, music should be flowing,” he said.
Music labels like Sa-Re-Ga-Ma and Mummy Daddy Records now see an opportunity to cash in by encouraging young talent and giving them a chance to establish themselves.
Sa-Re-Ga-Ma’s new album “The Underground” has tracks by a number of young bands that have gone on to experiment with music and create numbers that have a wide appeal. And these groups are touted to have what it takes to be the ‘next best thing’.
There has definitely been a drastic change in the music industry outside of Bollywood that Kilam describes as a “new style of music”.
