‘BREATHING UNDER WATER’ Wider Listening
Wider listening
Indian Ocean Band
One of the first Indian fusion bands formed in the 90s. Indo-rock fusion with jazz influenced
rhythms. Mix of Indian and Western instrumental forces: bass guitar, indian vocals, tabla, electric guitar.
Electric guitar plays modal riffs infused with rag and pitch bending.
THE BEATLES – ‘ACROSS THE UNIVERSE’
Collaborated with Ravi Shankar (Anoushka’s father) in the late 60s and incorporated Eastern practices and musical styles into Western popular music. Track was taped with acoustic guitar, percussion and tambura, it also featured an overdubbed sitar. Transcendental Meditation: mantra “Jai guru deva om” included in the piece.
SUSHEELA RAMANSALT – ‘RAIN’
Western influences: Western chord structures, jazz extended chords, low ‘whispered’ vocal tessitura in thestyle of jazz, use of guitar. Most of the songs on the album are ancient Indian devotional songs in Sanskrit, Hindi, or Tamil. “Ganapati” features a percussive tabla section, blues guitar riffs and cello melodies with pitch bending (meend).
R. RAHMAN
Bollywood composer. Fuses Western popular and Indian styles for film. ‘Jai Ho: Uses exaggerated tuning effect on long notes in the chorus through technological means, emulating microtonal singing. Combination of Hindi, Urdu, Punjab and Spanish lyrics. Achieved more global success when a version was recorded with The Pussy Cat Dolls. ‘Million Dollar Arm’: Punjabi elements and Iggy Azalea rapping over a tabla beat.
TALVIN SINGH- TOGETHER
Collaboration between London based Tabla player and electronic musician Talvin Singh and virtuoso sitar player Niladri Kumar, who modified the instrument for a rock music audience, creating the ‘zitar’,
Indian influence: Long intro ‘alap’ like section. Tabla plays rhythm section.Western influence: Functional harmony, use of strings. ‘River’: Uses electro backbeat, where Kumar plays expressive melodies with pitch bending.
Memorise the Wider Listening composers and main features of their pieces. link them all in your essays.