sheila chandra

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have vague recollections of hearing abt her and nothing more. then I wz browsing through a few records last night and didn't know what to pick so skool me.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 11 March 2005 14:38 (twenty years ago)

hah, coincidence? I came across a Indipop Compilasian from 1982 yesterday while browsing in a store, 't was a bit too pricey to buy spontaneously and I didn't have time to listen so I left it. When I searched for some info this morning, most google hits directed me towards Sheila Chandra and I wondered "who she"?

Other than that, no skooling I'm afraid. But I'm curious, like you, so I'm hoping for more accurate answers... :-)

― willem (willem), Friday, 11 March 2005 14:55 (twenty years ago)

sheila is pretty much the ONLY good thing on that indipop comp sadly (actually there wz maybe one other good thing)

julio for um historical reasons i have like SIX or SEVEN sc recs: i haven't listened much recently and i can't remember which is good, which not so good

QUIET! is the famous one - i gave it a good review MORE THAN 20 YEARS AGO eep, i don't know what i think now

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 11 March 2005 14:58 (twenty years ago)

I have one of her albums, I forget the title (googles) nada brahma. It is actually very good, though there's a bit I don't like in it somewhere, I'll have to listen to it again. She is incredibly talented, and I think vastly under-apperciated (see also: virginia astley) I was also really into Monsoon when they were going - they did a good cover of whatever it's called, george harrison song, the meaning of within one. It had a good bill nelson e-bow guitar solo! I seem to remember liking what I heard of "A bone crone drone". I would just pick up any of her solo albums, to be honest. I think I will, heh.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 11 March 2005 15:05 (twenty years ago)

I was looking at the four CDs I have of hers the other day! Something must be in the air. Very good though admittedly I don't listen to her much; ABoneCroneDrone is, indeed, the most droned out and moody of her releases. It's weird and fun that the thing people will know of hers best now will be a sung sequence in The Two Towers (not on screen -- that's her doing the singing in the part where Aragorn washes up on the riverbank and Arwen bestows some sort of psychic kiss but it's really the horse and etc.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 March 2005 15:07 (twenty years ago)

she is a curious mixture of crisp out-there sound-sculpture vocal manipulation and VERY sugary pop (def too sugary for some tastes)

i think i agree w.pash: any of her LPs will have SOMETHING good on it

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 11 March 2005 15:07 (twenty years ago)

'hah, coincidence? I came across a Indipop Compilasian from 1982 yesterday while browsing in a store'

we LIVE in record shops i tells ya...thanks everyone. fear me I have record TOKENS!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 11 March 2005 17:43 (twenty years ago)

I've always wanted to check her out. OTM about Virginia Astley being under-appreciated as well...I need to see if there are any threads on her.

― Ian Riese-Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 12 March 2005 00:04 (twenty years ago)

the LPs i still have:

Quiet! (1984)
Nada Brahma (1985)
The Struggle (1985)
Roots and Wings (1989)
Silk 1983-1990 (1990)

plus i have ABoneCroneDrone somewhere on CD but can't find it at the moment

i love this pic (she is holdin a spanner):
http://www.islandia.is/helgakr/chandra/images/strugglecov2.jpg

(though this is a poor renderin of it)

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 13:24 (twenty years ago)

someone shd write a study of how anti-tolkienesque the music used in LotR is (in terms of JRRT's deep beliefs)!!

(or vice versa if that's what they think)

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

shame 'the struggle' wasn't among the records I saw last week.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 13:30 (twenty years ago)

Weaving My Ancestors' Voices was a big favourite of Laura's - abstract but reasonably accessible, though I note the use of some SME/Maggie Nicols trademark voice improv techniques throughout.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 14:27 (twenty years ago)

got a copy of 'roots and wings' -- made after a four-year sabbatical.

From where I'm coming from an album full or 4 minute drones with indian sounding vocals to match - a cpl of tracks DO fit that template - wd've been sufficient. But sheila does something else and that's rearranging her vocals to fit different templates: one track is british folk sounding (hey it reminded of ENYA and HIGHLANDER!!), another arabic, and it works really well. another cpl that don't quite do it but I may grow to like 'em.

is this what Bjork aims for at times?

this is indi(e)pop and its actually ok!!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 25 March 2005 10:48 (twenty years ago)

i used to love sheila chandra

that is all

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 25 March 2005 15:08 (twenty years ago)

i still love some things of hers
i dunno whether that's "all"

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Friday, 25 March 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

amor omnia

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 25 March 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

amor omnia lux, even, perhaps :)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Friday, 25 March 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

sheila chandra!

― ☭, Thursday, 8 November 2007 23:08 (seventeen years ago)

six years pass...

Found out today she retired from music bcz she has been rendered mute by a condition :-(

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 23 February 2014 11:32 (eleven years ago)

In 2010, Chandra developed Burning Mouth Syndrome which has rendered her unable to sing or even speak, laugh or cry without suffering intense pain, rendering her "effectively mute".

Fuck, that's a bit harsh.

― Slight damage to cover on top corner (chewed by a kitten) (Craigo Boingo), Sunday, 23 February 2014 12:33 (eleven years ago)

Yeah heard this a few weeks ago when somebody upped a live set by her to Dime. I knew I'd heard something negative about her health before but thought it might have been that she died.
This sounds like it might be even worse. So hope it does clear in some way. It sounds really nasty and she had a great voice so hope it will be usable at some future point.

I've enjoyed her work since she appeared on TOTP with Monsoon and maybe even before that when she was 'the Indian girl on Grange Hill' in its early serieses. Unfortunately not kept up with her work since.
I think that set upped to Dime was an acappela Festival set and an accompanying workshop from elsewhen in the Festival.

― Stevolende, Sunday, 23 February 2014 12:49 (eleven years ago)

x-post -that's sad about her condition

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 23 February 2014 21:12 (eleven years ago)

two months pass...

Gosh, I'd missed that news earlier this year. Terrible stuff.

Perhaps on the brighter side, here's a new interview with her about her work on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Tone is hard to read in print sometimes but she seems content enough, and doesn't mention her current condition at all, though that is reconfirmed on her own site.

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2014/05/17/89401-torn-exclusive-interview-with-sheila-chandra/

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 18 May 2014 15:19 (eleven years ago)

three months pass...

Just searched for her here to say ABoneCroneDrone is great and now I read about her condition... Hope she gets better.

― StanM, Friday, 12 September 2014 20:47 (eleven years ago)

yeah what the heck? that's awful

― john wahey (NickB), Friday, 12 September 2014 20:53 (eleven years ago)

eight years pass...

Sheila Chandra has given an interview to mark the expanded reissue of Monsoon’s sole album, 'Third Eye'. She's sadly still got Burning Mouth Syndrome.

It was revelatory for younger Asians: Monsoon’s Sheila Chandra on her hit Ever So Lonely

― Portsmouth Bubblejet, Tuesday, 29 November 2022 20:10 (two years ago)

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