#Hindu music

[cultreslut]

naushad & shakeel badayuni, dil diya dard liya, 1966

archive / discogs

[mywifeleftme]

268: Laxmikant-Pyarelal // Dosti

Dosti Laxmikant-Pyarelal 1964, Angel

Composing partners Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma worked together for 35 years and, per Hindustan Times,composed about 2,900 songs for 750 different films during that span—a level of productivity basically unfathomable outside of the specific context of the insanely prolific Bollywood studio system. 1966’s Dosti soundtrack was their artistic and commercial breakthrough, and as such it occupies a significant place in Indian music history. I’ve never seen the film, though its cover features two crying boys hugging so it may be up my alley. The Wikipedia synopsis makes it sound like a melodrama without parallel (aside from several hundred others made by Bollywood that same year). The movie opens with a boy’s father dying in an industrial catastrophe, his mother fainting and falling down the stairs (to her death), and then the boy getting disabled in an accident of his own. He then makes friends with a homeless blind boy, and the two chums are then rigorously wedgied by life itself for the next three hours until a happy ending imposes itself.

Working with lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri (a notable leftist poet), Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s songs are strongly credited with Dosti’s enduring success, and while I’m neither an expert in their oeuvre nor Bollywood music as a whole, I can tell you this is beautiful music any fan of adventurous vintage pop should adore. The songs all strike my ear as happy, but with a tear welling in their eyes. It’s more subtle stuff than I associate with contemporary Bollywood: “Gudiya Kab Tak Na Hasogy” twinkles and minces to a gentle dance rhythm, leaving room for soulful flute and harmonium (or accordion?) solos and the melancholy lilt of a mandolin. Both members of the duo had a strong education in Western and Indian classical music, and these sentimental songs find the sweet spot between the traditions, with vigorous tabla rhythms and droning strings meeting melodies that evoke spaghetti western scores (“Janewalo Zara”) or practically quote “Ode to Joy” (“Rahi Manwa”).

It was the convention at the time for a reliable cadre of vocalists to dub over the singing voices of the lead actors, and Laxmikant-Pyarelal established long-standing relationships with their favourites. Dosti features two of their standbys, with Mohammed Rafi handling five of the six songs on the 10” soundtrack I own, and Lata Mangeshkar taking the other. Both absolute legends on the subcontinent, while Rafi and Mangeshkar were each well into adulthood by the time they recorded these songs they give such naively haloed performances that if you can squint (your ears?) just a little it’s easy to imagine they might have originated from the lips of children.

The scope of my expertise in this area is extremely limited, but if it’s not clear, Dosti gets my highest recommendation. If you should come across a ‘60s record with the Laxmikant-Pyarelal imprimatur at your local used shop, give it a shot.

268/365

[mysticalblizzardcolor]

Rama Raghava

Jai Uttal Was/ is one of the best Kirtan/ Bhajan artists that I’ve ever heard. 

[ltc-henry-blake]

[zeherili-ankhein]

ও বেহুলা

আমি মরলে

আমায় নিয়ে ভাসাইও ভেলা

Ok, I love this song so much...

[enigma-the-mysterious]

I was trying to analyse the music and OST of RRR and 24 hours later, I am somehow deep into the rabbit hole of the very specific music genre of Sanskrit stotrams mixed with rock/metal instrumentations

[witchcraft-system]

Do you think that when Kama was killed, that Vasanta grieved for him, not knowing that Kama was cursed to be killed by Shiva and reincarnate

[helpmeimblorboing]

So, I've been thinking - and I've narrowed my list of post-Crimson projects to only some, but I would like your opinions

[theartofmetal]

18. Leviathan - Mastodon (Prog./Sludge Metal, 2004)

Art by Paul A. Romano

"Romano combined his inspirations in a 52-by-52-inch oil painting that deifies Melville's white whale, Hindu-style. "That crown of cobras on the whale's head is called Ananta," he says. "When you see images of Vishnu [the Supreme Being in Hinduism], you'll see the crown of cobras behind him that represents the endless and the eternal. Vishnu is essentially the creator: He dreams us, and we dream him. Going back to ideas in Moby-Dick and the book's references to God, I made the whale a god." (part of an interview with Revolver Magazine 2013)

[platypusundercover]

Kali - The Protectress

Screenshot redraw from the Dana Dan music video from Bloodywood. This song is about SA and the need to get rid of it, and I loved their use of the hindu goddess Kali as the center figure.

Kali is the goddess of death, time and she's associated with violence and feminine energy. And this fits perfectly with the song and the theme. She was portrayed by Prachi Rastogi in the music video.

Also the lighting used was delightful, I had to do a study. First time messing around with layer blending modes and it is so much fun wtf

[ritish16]

Shiva Tandav

[mysticalblizzardcolor]

Vithala tu veda kumbhar Kalyani Deshpande Sitar विठ्ठला तू वेडा कुंभार

[sarayu-sunrays]

Indian Classical Music moodboard

[murderoticwoman]

Ohm Suite Ohm - Pink Floyd :: U.S. bootleg vinyl record of the live performance for KQED TV broadcast at Fillmore West (San Francisco, CA) on April 29, 1970. Vinyl released in 1975.

Tracklist:

Side A: Cymbaline | Grantchester Meadows | Green is the Colour | Careful With That Axe, Eugene

Side B: Atom Heart Mother | Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

[2mysticmoons]

[dreamconsumer]

Saraswati, goddess of knowledge, education, learning, arts, speech, poetry, music, purification, language and culture.