January 10, 2007 | Posted by Blair at 4:07 PM

India is pop

scary

Govind Naresh - Dance Music from Ghamandee

and

Anand Prayag & Chorus - Pretty Pretty Priya from Priya

Where the hell has this music been all my life?

Oh wait, that's right. I don't live in India, and haven't seen much in the way of Bollywood films. Damn.

It is too bad, because this stuff is totally amazing, and completely out of control. The two songs I've included here are from part 1 & 2 of a new series of CDs, complied by Bollywood historian and collector, Edo Bouman, called Bombay Connection.

The first is called Bombay Connection: Funk from Bollywood Action Thrillers and covers a time span from 1977 to 1984. It is super heavy on the synthesizers, and this instrumental jam, from the 1981 film 'Ghamandee' (tr. 'The Proud One') - from the liner notes, I guess the film is an obscure B-grade thriller with a hero that dresses in white late-era Elvis suits who falls in love with an actress who hates the poor (WTF?). Based on both the time-period and the sound itself, one can assume the movies are a Bollywood take on America exploitation films of the 70s - funky, gritty stuff, but done up Indian-style.

Volume two of the series is titled Bomshell Baby of Bombay: Bouncin' Nightclub Grooves from Bollywood Films and covers the time span of 1959-1972 - as such it runs the gamut from late swing era through swingin' Beatles-style pop rock and roll like this. This song comes from the 1970 film 'Priya', about a young woman trying to live a "modern life" (ie: women's rights, bikinis and short skirts), but who is shown up by conservative Indian society. Solid stuff.

Both CDs will be available via our friends at Forced Exposure in a couple of weeks, or you can order them direct from the Bombay Connection website. Also worth noting on Bombshell Baby (though just about all of it is pretty amazing) is the song "Jan Pahechan Ho" which you may remember from the opening scenes of 'Ghost World' - I've been looking for that song for a minute now, so what a find!

Highly recommended if you have any interest in the unusual synthesis of musical styles that is Indian pop music - plus, there will be at least four more Bombay Connection CDs to be released this year, including one called Gun Master - Disco Master - I mean, hellooo, could that sound any more amazing?!? The packaging on all of these is perfect, with a huge booklet containing stills from the films, and lots of information on the musicians and the movies, and song lyrics. Totally cool stuff.

Comments

oh man you make me miss my motherland! I grew up on the Bombay Conneckins - its weird how Bollywood was able to capture the booty shake of funk and add even more curvalicious shake to it! Looking for the bollywood funk afficianados you gotta check out everything by Bappi Lahiri, and fans of Bollywood in general there's a great Rough Guide comp on Amazon. yaaaaaaaaahoo!

Posted by: su at January 10, 2007 4:55 PM

For a crash course in Bollywood, i'd have to recommend Word The Cat (more about the actual movies, but hey, they're awesome anyway!)

http://www.wordthecat.com/goku/2006/12/07/bollywood-youtube-omnibus/

Posted by: martin606 at January 11, 2007 6:25 AM

you DEFINITELY need to check out Music from the Third Floor.

check out his blog description: "A box of some 150 Bollywood soundtracks on vinyl; classics, duds, and those with one or two good songs on them. The plan: Make MP3s and upload them all here, on a semi-regular basis. And keep going until I've done the whole box, or otherwise been asked or told to stop by convincing parties. So enjoy, start dancing, go mad, whatever."

Posted by: dj empirical at January 18, 2007 10:42 AM

Check out this new website, over 6,000 bollywood lp's in stock!!

Posted by: raj at March 1, 2007 4:39 PM

Ah, looks like you miss Indian music a lot. You can check out http://www.hummaa.com/index.php, it's got an awesome collection of old Indian melodies.

Posted by: Pradeep at April 26, 2007 8:23 AM

Hi, If you like,the Music from the Third Floor blog, and are looking for more vintage bollywood soundtacks, check out my blog, Parties, Sarees and Melodies. Come get some music! http://partiessareesandmelodies.blogspot.com/

Posted by: Stella_1 at June 29, 2007 10:58 AM
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