Musically Marx

Sunday, October 4, 2009

SUTTUM VIZHI SUDAR THAAN KANNAMMAA

Friday, October 2, 2009

VEN MEGAM KARAOKE

COUPLES RETREAT-MUSIC REVIEW

COUPLE'S RETREAT

Couple's Retreat according to A.R.Rahman is his formal entry into Hollywood. His previous score for Slumdog Millionaire had a more Indianised touch while Couple's Retreat takes a different path slightly embracing Western Classical. Its in Rahman's own way. Its more grand and more symphonic in its structure. Lets get a sneak preview of the songs.

1) Sajna Sajna:

The song(sung by Vince Vaughn??) has everything that one would expect from a Rahman number. Simple, provoking number. A great melody number to start with-this is what "Dreams on Fire" was for Slumdog Millionaire. With the ever appealing piano and well panned chimes section and a mild 'kick' rhythm to accompany, this song is a dream melody. The strings section deserves a special mention. It is mild and not over powering and gives a soothing effect. Though this song reminds another number from "Bombay Dreams" and "Ore Chori-Lagaan", the similarity ends in a single phrase. A very good melody.

2) Kuru Kuru-A.R.Rahman

Wow. This is the vintage Rahman number one was waiting. Rahman actually mentioned in one of his interviews that there is a big surprise in Couple's Retreat. Right!!. Who can expect a full fledged Tamil song in a Hollywood movie?? The wizard is right there with the perfect sounds. With pianos,shakers,neat bass section, guitar plucks and strings, he brings the 80's pop style with reggae right here. Perfect rendition and he rightly brings those whistles towards the end. A great Rahmanish number to a Hollywood movie.

3) Jason and Cynthia Suite:

With neat guitars and strings section, this instrumental has a nice symphonic feel to it. Violins, harps, horns,trombones and Oboes adds majesty to the piece. Its a neat melody and it easily shifts to higher octaves along with cymbals and the hits takes the song to higher crecendos and suddenly timpani section, horns, brass,flutes, solo guitar,bells and pizzicato arrangement project the theme "Sajna Sajna Re" to the fore and again the scale changes and the piece ends majestically.

4) Nana:

On first hearing, one gets the feeling of Carribean beats sweeping our way. With neat calypso beats,bass and trumpets and with an interesting rap section rendered by Blaaze, this is a true native hit number. Rahman's son(Alim Rahman) has done a neat job. He is the one to watch out for in future. Its a true Rahmanish number capsuled in Spanish and Carribean style.

5) Tour of the Villas:

This is another instrumental version of Sajna Sajna with those beautiul strings section.The congo drums(or is it our Kanjira at the start??) along with strings and guitars renders the main theme shifting across the scales. But wait....there is another surprise. In this piece, Rahman brings the Chinese erhu along with the flutes and bass into the main theme. The flute variation and the bassline towards the end along with our tabla is simply mesmerising. Its a mind blowing orchestral piece.

6) Meeting Marcel:

Its sounds like a Chinese meditation piece drawing inspirations from Tai Chi. The previous number had an erhu while this number again starts off with flutes and chants. One has to see the movie to find out if it has any Chinese connection. Suddenly we find aggressive violins, cellos and double bass and it has an indianess' to it.We also find a grand piano(the bass note),horns/orchestral hits/(taikos??) and brass towards the end. Sounds like a serious number.

7) Itinerary:

This lone orchestral marvel is enough to show the world what Rahman is capable of. Even after hearing his brilliant strings work in "Warriors of Heaven and Earth","The Bose" and "Elizabeth", people accuse the Mozart of Asia for his over dependence on synthesizers. This piece rightly shows Rahman's mastery over WCM. With an aggrandized strings section,pizzicato strings, percussions and double bass he has composed a mind blowing waltz. If one closes his eyes and listens to the track, they would think it was composed by a seasoned Hollywood composer. The brass section along with strings section creates magic.

8) Undress:

If the previous one was mind blowing, this is a stunner. Rahman starts with the veena and he brings his favorite Ghatam/mirdhangam, bass and fuses them together and the song ends with a rush of orchestral hits and a perfect manjira/jalra . A perfect fusion number.

9) Sharks:

Its a perfect dark number with all those pianos,hits,violin section and brass falling in place. It seems like an Indian semi classical piece. Suddenly we hear brass, timpani and manjira bit and Rahman's solo high pitched voice at the end. Its a pure situational number.

10) Luau by John O' Brien:

This piece is a true Carribean number. This piece is by John O' Brien. Its all guitars and calypso beats all the way.

11) Salvadore:

This time, Khailash Kher joins hands with Rahman and it looks like a fusion number blending Khailash Kher's voice in Spanish style. It has a deja vu feel to it reminding his previous number "Jumbalaka" from En Swasa Katre".

12) Intervention:

The song starts off with Rahman's voice in the backgroud. Hearing the instrumental from 1.00 minute is pure bliss. He has gained such mastery over the orchestration that the entire strings section sweeps our hearts. Its so pleasing to hear those strings with all those variations along with the melodramatic voice of the music wizard, it ends with horns and pianos.This is easily one of the best pieces in this album.

13) The Waterfall:

A very youthful melody, it again brings the main theme "Sajna Sajna" to the fore. It is a very short piece again with the soulful flute, strings and a solo guitar.

14) Jason and Cynthia-Piano Theme:

In this piece, Rahman brings a Vangelis feel into it by bringing in his trademark electric piano and slowly the horn section with violins elevate this lilting number to new heights. It has a Mandarin feel to it. Sounds like a pathos number.

15) Animal Spirits:

The song starts off with a neat assemblage of strings, percussions, flutes and it easily embraces the WCM and reminds us of the vintage Rahman of Uzhavan days. Again Sajna Sajna is played and it suddenly takes a serious route and transforms into a routine symphony number and again towards the end the tempo picks up and it ends on a happy note. A delight to hear.

VERDICT:

Even when I was hearing the album, Sajna Sajna became my favorite though i would rate "Dreams on Fire" higher. Its a typical appealing Rahman theme number. The music wizard is an exponent in composing themes and he again has delivered the goods here.And hats off to the orchestrator Kaz Boyle. Then there is our own tamil number "Kuru Kuru" and a lot of orchestral pieces. Its pure magic from Rahman. Now one has to wait for the movie(sad thing to note that its a second grade movie)to see if they could do justice to his music.

A must buy for any A.R.Rahman fan.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

BLUE MUSIC REVIEW

1) Chiggy Wiggy-Kylie Minogue,Sonu Nigam;additional vocals:Suzzane

The album starts in a truly pop style with sensous vocals by Kylie. The song has brilliant basslines and a neat beat with various FX effects thrown in..A truly bombastic song. The song however loses steam after Sonu Nigam enters into the track where dholaks comes into prominence and the song lacks the punch. The idea is great but Sonu Nigam's voice lacks that power. Perhaps a Rang De Basanthi title number styled song would have made a difference.
A complete fusion between pop and Bhangra.This song is already a hit.
Rating: 8/10

2)Aaj Dil Gustakh Hai-Sukwinder Singh,Shreya Ghoshal

Wow...This is a true Rahmanish song with the trademark guitar strumming.Sukwinder sounds sensous and melodic and the entire track sounds like a pure jazz/blues styled song with carribean beats. Shreya Ghosal sings her heart out. The first interlude is stunning with great basslines and wind instruments. Watch out for the stunning piano throughout the song and the subtle strings section. Its heartening to see Sukwinder in this avatar. The second interlude is nicely done with all soft synths and pads..Only that "Soya Saa" chorus is distracting. Neat cymbals throughout and pianos make this song a memorable number. Very addictive.
Rating: 10/10

3)Fiqrana-Vijay Prakash,Shreya Ghoshal
Vijay Prakash stuns with his vocals. Its a great party number. Its a surprise how Farhan Akhtar turned down this song. Vijay Prakash' vocoded vocals,basslines and the electric guitar/flamenco guitar riffs throughout enhances the effect. Sometimes it sounds like a Lucky Ali styled song..May be the vocal part sometimes make me think so. Though the song loses steam in between, Vijay rescues it with his high crecendo singing. The song has its own highs and lows. The beat arrangement is not path breaking but it has a nice melody interwoven throughout...Nice but not path breaking.
Rating: 8.5/10

4)Bhoola Tujhe-Rashid Ali
The prelude signals something stunning is going to happen..Wow..The song starts off like a true Broadway styled opera musical..Strings section,harp and percussion sounds out of the world and Rahman fuses Western Classical Music into its interlude. Then the horns follow with guitar strumming and now enters Rashid Ali of JTYJN fame. The neat timpani hits along with strings section is simply stunning.The French Horn in the interlude brings a jingoistic feel to the song. If this song is made as a BGM in any Hollywood movie, he would win another Academy Award.Watch out or the strings variation at the end. A stunner straight from the wizard's heart.
Rating:10/10

5)Blue Theme-Blaaze,Raqeeb Aalam,Sonu Kakkar,Jaspreet Singh,Neha Kakkar,Dilshad
Rahman is a master in composing themes and he has composed an another winner. An bombastic electrifying track with lot of efects thrown in. The beat arrangement brings out the vintage Rahman along with the electric guitar and synth squelch styled bass. Again this track has an underlying Bhangra style. He has fused it again here. A neat track..Should look great with visuals. Suddenly the song picks tempo...But the BLUE chorus turning into "BULUE" is a bit of gamble..Rahman is known for experimentations and this has surely worked out...Finally at the end we hear under water bubble effects bringing the main theme to the fore.
Rating:8/10

6) Rehnuma-Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
Rahman's penchant for jazz continues. Almost all his experiments in Jazz/Blues were hits. Right from "Vennila Vennila","Hello Mr.Ethirkatchi","Sillunu oru kadhal" and "Jaane Tu", he has consistently given amazing numbers in this genre. Rahman loves waltz too.Jazz gives a composer a chance to experiment and our wizard just relishes it. Particularly the point where the singer reaches higher crescendos, its magical..The track seems as if it was composed for a James Bond movie... (Is Rahman experimenting for his much rumoured James Bond movie??)...Only he knows the answers....The percussions and guitars in one of the interludes followed by the strings section is mindblowing...The west must hear this track....Spellbound by the track.
Rating:10/10

7) Yaar Mila Tha-Udit Narayan, Madhushree
Starts off like a Raghav number. Frankly I was reminded of another tamil number "Rosu Rosu Rosu" that had Dhanush and Tamannah in the lead...But the similarity ends there..A pure fun number..Finally Madhushree joins hands with Udit Narayan and the result is amazing..The song has an amazing mischevious bassline throughout.The synthesized shennai/sawlead/AnalagonDarkMoon pad with occassional piano strikes and "tha tha thina chorus" is very addictive.
Rating:9.5/10

BACKING VOCALS: AAJ DIL GUSTAKH HAI:
BENNY DAYAL,HENRY KURUVILLA & SHI MILLHOUSE, RAVEN MILLHOUSE

"BHOOLA TUJHE" YERI VOICE KAVITHA BALIGA
BACKING VOCALS "YAAR MILA THAA"
SHI MILLHOUSE & RAVEN MILLHOUSE
COURTESY OF GREYOLOGY MANAGEMENT
ADDITIONAL VOCAL SUPERVISION BY SRINIVAS

MUSICIANS: "AAJ DIL GUSTAKH HAI" & "BHOOLA TUJHE"
GUITAR: SANJEEV THOMAS
TRUMPET: KISHORE SODHA
SHENNAI:BALESH
DHOLAK: CHINNA PRASAD
MANDOLIN:SEENU
STRINGS: CHENNAI STRINGS ORCHESTRA
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING:T.R.KRISHNA CHETAN, HENRY KURUVILLA, DEEPAK.P.A
STRINGS SECTION CONDUCTED BY V.J.SRINIVASA MURTHY

RECORDED IN:
CHENNAI PANCHATHAN RECORD INN.,A.M.STUDIO
SOUND ENGINEERS: S.SIVA KUMAR,DEEPAK.P.A,KANNAN GANPAT,SURESH PERUMAL,VIVIANE CHAIX,MOHAMMED SAFIULLAH

BLUE FROG SOUND LABS SOUND ENGINEER JOSEPH GEORGE
NIRVANA STUDIO SOUND ENGINEER PUNEET SAMTANI
LONDON(KYLIE MINOGUE) PHIJ ADAMS
MIXED AT PANCHATHAN RECORD INN,AM STUDIO-DEEPAK P.A. AND K,J,SINGH
MIXED BY TAL HERZBERG AT RECORD PLANT(HOLLYWOOD)
MIXING ASSISTANT: GHAZI HOURANI
MUSICIAN FIXER: SAMIDURAI
MUSIC CO-ORDINATED BY NOELL JAMES AND FAIZUDIDN T M
MASTERED BY ADITYA MODI AND SHADAB RAYEEN AT PREMIER DIGITAL MASTERING STUDIOS(MUMBAI)

ALL SONGS PRODUCED BY A R RAHMAN