An Ocean Of Music

Let's skip the fifth beat - get straight on to G." That's conversation for you, Indian Ocean style. The place is a funky old disused building in New Delhi's Karol Bagh area, better known for used car dealers. Familiar sounds in this part of town are car engines being revved up, and furious honking of horns. The sounds of tablas and acoustic guitars in this milieu sounds nothing short of surrealistic. But then, the sounds of Indian Ocean are nothing short of surreal anyway, because they're like nothing you're likely to have heard.

No fewer than ten years after the group came into being, they're scouting around for a film-maker to make the all-important video for their just released album, Kandisa, brought out by Times Music. The sheer effort that's going into the process leads one to believe that it's the single toughest project they've encountered so far. By comparison, composing music, finding a congenial place to practice, finding a music company to sponsor them, performing at shows and recording their music have all been a cake-walk.

 

"All along, we've fought shy of being slotted into pigeon-holes," says long-haired bass guitarist Rahul. "That's why, when film-makers refer to us as "all you rockers", we feel we're being short-changed. And if they don't see individuality in us, how will they do justice to a video on us?"

The gang of four do not feel obliged to typecast their music to would-be film-makers. But that's partly because, as Susmit Sen says, "We ourselves don't know what slot we fit in." With a normal configuration of bass and acoustic guitars, drums and tabla, Indian Ocean typically weaves folk and Indian classical with overlays of jazz and rock. Vocals are used as chants rather than conventionally amplified voices.

"We're patently not Indi-pop, or rock, classical musicians hate us, and we're not fusion either...whatever that is," declares baby-faced drummer Amit. Not fusion? You venture that it sounds suspiciously like it, and all hell breaks loose. "Does our music sound like Hindi film music?" argues Asheem, tabla/percussionist. Should it? you counter, blandly. "Hindi film music uses a lot of western instrumentation just as we use guitars in an Indian context. So why doesn't Hindi film music position itself as fusion?"

For a band that fights shy of being stamped with a label - all the known ones are ill-fitting, it must be said - is a music video the answer? "Yes," answer the gang in chorus. "It helps getting us promoted over the music channels and introduces us to projects for which we'd like to work." It also has its own shares of nightmares. For one, the music channels on TV accept only films shot in 35 mm format. "Formerly, it was the far cheaper 16 mm and U-matic," informs Rahul. The problem is that the band is based in Delhi but there's not a single producer of 35 mm films in the capital. "It's all in Mumbai," laments Amit.

Film-makers in Mumbai tend to have the cut and dried approach. "No need to hear your music. We've got you all figured out" and much else in the same vein.

So when Indian Ocean's music video finally hits the TV channels, watch it with reverence. A lot of blood, sweat and tears will have gone into it.