Program for Aug 14, 2005
Independence day for India tomorrow (and Pakistan, today). So a few patriotic Indian songs thrown into the mix. Lata Mangeshkar’s ‘Aye Mere Vatan‘ is a total classic, but the one that stirs my soul up the most is AR Rahman’s ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam‘. And a nice instrumental rendering of ‘Jana Gana Mana‘, the Indian national anthem, to round off the show.
Program for Aug 7, 2005
Program for July 31, 2005
Mostly old favorites today, nothing too new. Need to do that, sometimes!
Program for July 24, 2005
Couple of brand-new tracks: Rebirth by MIDIval PunditZ, from their brand-new album MIDIval Times. The track features some awesome sitaring by Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the one and only Pandit Ravi Shankar. Another one is Ghazal by Niyaz from their self-titled album. And of course, the evergreen Asha Bhosle with track Rafta Rafta from Asha, her brand-new album. This one’s a rendering of the famous ghazal by Ghulam Ali. IMHO, she shouldn’t mess around with classic ghazals, though, her stupendous voice lacks an essential quality for ghazals: nashaa (intoxication), but that’s just me 🙂
Program for July 17, 2005
Lots of relatively slower bollywood songs, and more lounge-y music today. I guess that’s in accordance with the mental makeup of a DJ after 3 hours of sleep, following a late drinking/dancing night! 🙂
Program for July 10, 2005
Some interesting new stuff: a chutney track called Dhania Remix by The Juniors from Surinam. Chutney is an interesting genre originating from the caribbean, from the desi community who were originally brought from Bihar, India as labour. The music is really crazy, with high-energy calypso and soca beats set to very folksy Indian tunes and lyrics.
Other than that, a cool hip-hop track by Karmacy (Music Knows from The Movement), with sitar and tabla backdrops.
Program on July 3, 2005
Got a very positive response to today’s program! The secret was – I just played the best tracks from my playlists in the last 6 weeks or so, with a few new additions thrown in. It seems that it might be a fine way to go. Keeps everyone happy.
Played some recent Bollywood hits, including Piyu Bole (Parineeta), Minnat Kare (Paheli) and Kajra Re (Bunty aur Babli). That kept my desi friends happy.
A lot of listeners dig the fusion/underground music. The ones like Garbarek+Fateh Khan’s Saga (Ragas and Sagas), Karmacy’s Passage to India and Midival Punditz’ Ajmer.
I’m planning to throw in some chutney (Caribbean desi) music in future sets.
RajB