Indie label Amarrass wants to break out of 'generic tunes from dunes' mode, recognise individuals

Banded together in amorphous brackets according to their state, region or caste, folk artistes rarely find individual fame, but an indie label hopes to change all that by giving regional talents their unique identity.

Ashutosh Sharma, who founded Amarrass Records with his childhood friend Ankur Malhotra in 2010, says he wanted to break the trend of "generic tunes from the dunes".

"We went to Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and to other areas. We found it strange when we started that none of the artistes are known by their names. Generally, in the folk scene, they're known by the region, or their caste, like Manganiyars. So we realised we need to break their identities," Sharma told PTI.

The Gurgaon-based label, which attempts to discover, organise and promote folk artistes who remain unknown due to lack of access and contacts, has brought musical acts such as Rajasthani folk veteran Lakha Khan, Sufi-Gypsy beatbox trio Barmer Boys, Palestinian-American band Painted Caves and DJ Ravana to the fore.

While they were scouting for talent in the folk genre, they realised that none of the musicians were identified by name, Sharma said.

"Since we started as a label, we recorded them, and they were all Manganiyars for everyone... So how do you differentiate the sound? They were all Manganiyars, Rajasthani music, and it's like a generic tune from the dunes," the 43-year-old said.

That was the challenge when Amarrass started out.

People called them to arrange gigs, saying "send over some four Rajasthani artistes" as if they were shopping for "potatoes" and "eggs", Sharma said.

"We felt like a shop. Would you ever ask for four 'English' musicians? You'll ask for a band, give a name or something. These people are just reduced to the 'aloo' situation. We used to have a laugh, because Rajasthan is the size of Western Europe. So do you want four artists from Western Europe? Can we be more specific?"
"We stuck to the original composition and then it doesn't feel like you've done fusion or anything, it kind of fits in with the song."