S/D: Indian Psych

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Tons of psychedelic music has Indian influences, but what about psychedelic music from India? I've got 60s/70s psych pop/rock/folk from Indonesia, Turkey, Korean, Africa, etc. but none from India. It must exist, right?

― Ed Corcoran, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 20:56 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, there were a couple of compilations of Indian groups called Simla Beat actually released in the late '70s and I'm pretty sure they've been reissued. There are a couple of tracks from them on the Asian volume of Love, Peace and Poetry.

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:28 (eighteen years ago)

er, actually released in the early '70s, I meant to say

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:29 (eighteen years ago)

you'd think that with the links to Britain there'd be more of this stuff but I've never been able to hunt down a lick of it meself....

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:32 (eighteen years ago)

Why doesn't the Simla Beat comp qualify?

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:42 (eighteen years ago)

maybe they do! I've just never heard them - I couldn't find any old Indian shit when I was actually there, outside of the odd Ashe Bosle disco record

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:46 (eighteen years ago)

The CD is out on Normal, but I can't figure out how to link to it. Either way it's def. psych and pretty good.

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:50 (eighteen years ago)

Ananda Shankar is teh shiz on this

― Saxby D. Elder, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:56 (eighteen years ago)

kinda confused at this question. pretty much all 70s and 80s (they seem to be around 10yrs behind the trends) bollywood tracks sound pretty psychedelic to me. they do a really nice job of incorporating western song form with indian melodies. tons of fuzzy guitar, sitar (hah), weird jump cuts, funky drums, crazy effects.

does this song not sound like funky psych/freak-beat to anyone but me?
Behroze chatterjee - "Sweety seventeen"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/hb2jjc

and then the whole raga classical stuff. i mean, isn't that just the least bit psychedelic to anyone else?

― jaxon, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 02:02 (eighteen years ago)

seriously, just go through youtube's bollywood videos. you'll find TONS of stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHbG0hOHIZo

― jaxon, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 02:06 (eighteen years ago)

bollywood beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ky5ClIjL8

― jaxon, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 02:08 (eighteen years ago)

I love the Bollywood Beatles. They have more energy than the actual beatles and are better dancers. It's interesting when other cultures try to create panaches of western music because you can immediately sense things that you hadn't before. While watching that I kept thinking "Yeah, pop music does have a stupid amount of guitar in it."

― filthy dylan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 05:39 (eighteen years ago)

ananda shankar and his music!!!!!!!

the simla beat comps are pretty good but nothing really screams "HI, WE'RE INDIAN!" they sound very western as i recall.

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 06:15 (eighteen years ago)

Just about every Indian song is psychedelic , they invented a lot of the signifiers right ? Drones , style shifting , shiny sounds if that makes sense , sitars of course , huge choral masses.. I say listen to modern Indian pop/classical filmi music and see what that does for your perceptions..

― Dimension 5ive, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 06:24 (eighteen years ago)

Behroze chatterjee - "Sweety seventeen" is pretty sweet, but not exactly what I'm looking for. It's too disco. What I'm looking for is Indian bands imitating Western bands that imitated the style (or at least their perception of the style) of Indian music. I really want that second level of imitation.

I'll have to check out Simla Beat & Ananda Shankar.

― Ed Corcoran, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

Got this the other day from the AQ:

Dilip Roy Namaskar

70's style sitar psyche-lounge music(but recorded in '83).
"this record was supposedly produced originally as a promotional item for Air India!"
Worth a spin

― DeeDee, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 19:18 (eighteen years ago)

nothing really screams "HI, WE'RE INDIAN!"

One of the two tracks on Love, Peace and Poetry is actually structured like a gat section of a raga, though it's just guitar, bass and drums so it's easily just heard as raga garage rock. But it starts with repetitions of the theme, there's improvisation, it speeds up, and ends with repetitions of a motif similar to an Indian tihai.

― Tim Ellison, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 19:33 (eighteen years ago)

Until I listened to the track, you almost convinced me I could love Bollywood, jaxon! Seriously, I want to check out some of this Indian psych-rock stuff now.

― Sundar, Thursday, 8 March 2007 21:00 (eighteen years ago)

Dilip Roy Namaskar

yeah, that's nice. he was the arranger for ananda shankar, i think, on and his music. namaskaar is pretty similar but without so much rock influence. both are totally this thread.

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Friday, 9 March 2007 08:23 (eighteen years ago)

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