This isn't the kind of music the Sea Of Tranquility usually covers. But some
time ago we reviewed a piece called
Ilayaraja's Music Journey, which was being distributed by prog-meister
label ReR Records. It was a pure Indian piece - complete with sitar and that
distinctive melodic Indian singing style with its long warbled notes; and not
being very familiar with that genre of music, reviewing it was a challenge. That
review led to us receiving a review copy of another, very different Ilayaraja
piece, Where Crime Meets Confusion,
a far more approachable but nevertheless very Indian album. Very different from
the previous record we reviewed - this one is the
soundtrack to a Bollywood movie made by Kamal Hassan. (In case you aren't aware,
Bollywood is the nickname given to the Hindi language Mumbai - aka Bombay -
based film industry in India. It is the biggest film industry in the world with
over 1,000 movies a year.)
Click here to see a review of the movie - with its convoluted and lightly
humorous plot.
Where Crime Meets Confusion contains a bit of everything. There's a
very jazzy section in "Monkey Chatter" with a synth-pop rhythm and staccato
piano style, that could have been at home on any continent. There are pure movie
sound-track atmospheric sections, "Bander Ki Dug Dugi" is an interesting
vocals-oriented piece with a lilting rhythm carried by upbeat singing in a
not-quite-western style - that isn't quite Indian either. There are plenty of
spoken-voice sections, but not knowing the language, and because the CD comes
with the bare minimum of artwork, and no booklet, we don't have a clue about the
storyline.
One of the highlights of the album are the very pretty female vocals
in a soft, midrange soubrette-like style. Some of the female spoken-voice
sections are quite attractive as well, with an accentuated and unusual (to
Western ears) sing-song lilt often associated with the Gujarati languages.
The album ends with 9-minute piece with three minutes of what sounds like an
unskilled child actor in dialog with older actors, and develops into a soft
ballad with barely a hint of the Indian vocal style - a sort of 50/50 fusion of
Indian and Western styles.
So we're very much out of our element with this one, and we probably won't
delve into this territory again - preferring to stick with our more familiar
progressive genres - but you just might get a kick out of it. Not progressive,
and certainly not rock, but the compositions are solid, the performances are
very professional, it's more Western-oriented than most Indian music,
and you might find it enjoyable.
Track Listing:
Aila Re (Part 1)
Pyar Chahiye (Part 1)
Bandar Ki Du Dugi
Monkey Chatter
Aila Re (Part 2)
Pyar Chahiye (Part 2)
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