Argh the Hairy Beats: August 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Bookmarking

Mixtaped! 007 with Argh The Hairy Beats (Gautam Muralidharan)

P.S.:- I have been seriously lagging on my blog posts due to my other commitments. This one was due 2 weeks ago :( Sorry Gautam..

They say that you don’t choose your friends, they happen to you. And that’s exactly what happened between Gautam Muralidharan & I, way back in 2008. Back then, I had heard this myth about this guy in Bombay who grows plants & mushrooms (sorry.. no magic, only tragic) and with an immense vinyl collection at his place, way too many times from some of my closest friends. Finally, we met one day & hung around at his place sifting through an odd 800 records & cutting them up on his Technics 1210s & Vestax PMC06 mixer. Apparently, he also happens to be pretty good at scratching & has most of the Ninja Tunes (my favourite label ever) discography on vinyl. That more or less cemented our friendship for good. Since then (& till date) there have been numerous parties/after parties, themed events, bonfires, ciphers, events & excursions where the both of us have been involved together & we have always picked each others brains (sometimes for days) by simply making each other listen to beats & breaks from all over the world. Besides running his small eco-development firm (Oikos), Gautam has been one of my favourite music selectors in his after hours. Being an outsider in the music fraternity, he was the perfect candidate for the Mixtaped! series. After a lot of persistence he agreed to spin some of his favourite records at The Den under his Argh The Hairy Beats moniker (Why the name? Well peek into his shirt when you meat him). This is what he had to say when I asked him the same 5 questions….

1) What is your name?
Gautam Muralidharan. But you can call me Argh.
2) Best known for….
Jungle, the regeneration of forest around man and on him. And my beautiful long eyelashes. *blink* *blink* See?
3) What can we expect from you this Wednesday?
Very much in keeping with the Mixtaped! concept, I’d say everything from Paul Simon and CCR to DJ Shadow, some jungle, drum & bass, maybe some Beethoven or Tchaikovsky, and a lot of Hip-Hop and electro-weirdness.
In return though, I do expect an open mind, thats all you should really need.
4) Which has been the most influential mixtape and/or album in your life?
In a universe of music, a few come to mind -
Projecto 2501, a hip hop education and something that keeps me centered when I feel I’m losing my touch with the world of humans.
Paul Simon - Graceland
Amon Tobin - Supermodified
DJ Shadow - Private press and Endtroducing have been all time favourites
A Compilation called Points in Time, atmospheric d&b, always refreshing and positive.
Anything Ninja tune, often changes the way my brain is wired and allows me to explore strange new landscapes in sound.
DJ Danger Mouse - The Grey Album
Atmosphere - The Lucy E.P.
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince did some great stuff.
Recently I’ve discovered an album by Themselves, different and unique and i’m not sure what will come of me listening to it often, but i expect something cool.
5) Who would you like to listen to as a featured artist in any of the upcoming Mixtaped! sessions?
Im just glad that this event even exists.

I have enjoyed the lineup and the music that the artists are bringing to these gigs. Would love to hear all the mixtaped sessions as a compilation, so I can make a more informed choice of who I would like to see featured next. I wish I knew more of the people in the scene.
However, Felix Mesenburg, Boris Austin, and Nick Heilig/DJ Kanga would be my additions, if there are possibilities of people from abroad.
Click here to listen to microlist007 compiled by Argh The Hairy Beats. microlists are 8 track playlists/samplers compiled in advance by the featured personality performing at Mixtaped! each week. Here is the track list….

DJ Shadow - Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain
Del Tha Funky Homosapien - Mastermind
Bob Dylan - Jokerman
Prince Fatty - Gin and Juice
Amon Tobin - Drum and Bass for Papa
Kylie Minogue - The Locomotion (The Abbey Road Sessions 2012)
Video Game Breaks - Super Mario Bros
The Vogado Projects Vol. 1. Feat Lucy Gale - Mas Fuerte Que el Sol

For more info on Argh The Hairy Beats visit:-
Website:- http://www.oikos.co.in
Argh The Hairy Beats - YouTube Playlist:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dLPsw3i_P8&list=PLZnBsk3v3JQLIyu7DYNKq6HMcVOabHYzG
Catch Argh The Hairy Beats do his thing on Wednesday, June 26th 2013 at Mixtaped! - 9pm onwards at The Den (Bandra, MUMBAI) - Click here to RSVP to the FB event page.
For all up to date information on Mixtaped! follow #mixtapedmumbai on Twitter & Facebook.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Second coming.

Pardon the puns, I don’t mean to swear as much as I do.

Watching someone with a case of the nerves so bad, it takes me back to exam time at school. Funnier still is when that person is well into their sixties. And he is referred to in your circles as ‘your dad’. The image that immediately comes to mind when I think of it is Chief Inspector Dreyfus of the ‘Pink Panther’ series.

Don’t be harsh, lets start at the top

I wasn’t surprised by the venue. Well, if I was, I didn’t notice. The Egmore Museum Theatre is such a wonderful venue for a concert. Superb acoustics and a very well designed space for small music shows, it exemplifies what I look for in music venues. I wish there were more place like this in India, and even more , perhaps we could have some open air concerts once in a while? Would certainly make me a less grumpy young animal. Music lovers must have chosen this place for us to check out their gig.

Few such spaces remain where music is the real draw and the show IS the show. Everyone is scrambling to make a club or music space that can include bar sales, and usually that takes over as the bottom line, a fact that ive come to live with, albeit a little sulkily. Hot little tarts in teeny dressings would be the secondary draw at these venues, not something I would complain about too much.

But lets not get too far from the actual reason for writing this piece. A show. A music show that had the makings of a beginning. A second beginning for some involved for sure.

The show in question was a concert put together by the Madras Musical Association (MMA for short, not to be confused with the more familiar andfor more brutal tournaments of the MMA-Mixed Martial Arts. They have different effects on the ears for sure). Proceeds go the Sathkarya trust, a foundation to support underprivileged women and women in need.

This show is special also because its been 45 years since the now hopefully more mature young men, all 60 plus, have played together.

The men (or ‘boys’, really) in question are here to perform, and their names are Kash, Allan, Murali and Vaidhy. The crowd is as motley as this crew. IIT Alumni, family, old friends, children, locals, even a few musicians are strewn about the venue. Small enough that any audience is a family, and large enough that you can put on a good show, this is the perfect setting for the concert about to begin, a folk rock medley with everything from Abba to the Beatles, Crosby, Stills and Nash to Queen and a few between.

And it begins. The Choir is amazing, performing pieces that you know they are not trained for, but nonetheless carry of with elan. A whole Beatles medley sprinkled with tidbits from every popular song from the band. Then some Abba and a Bohemian Rhapsody like a cherry on top.

On come ‘the boys’. IIT graduates from the 1970s these guys had a band when they were in their teens, some 45 years ago. At the time, CSN, Simon and garfunkel were big, and the band of sometimes 2 sometimes 3 and maybe even 4 were so good at the harmony, they even got to hold girls’ haa-a-a-aa-aands. Big deal back then, my friend.

Fast forward through the introductions on them, hard days nights and raising families, running businesses and being bosses, and the boys are back in town. Madras town. And the fans are screaming for more.

With the band (Blue note) backing them, they bang out Cecelia and the audience digs it like they did back when. They chatter on the mike, letting us share their nervousness, catching us up to now, jibbering about their lack of practice. Really? No one complaining in the back. Of course if they are, its hard to hear it above the whistling, cheering and hooting of the raucous crowd who feel transported back to their teens as well, seems like.

And back…to the music, the songs they love doing, classics we love hearing. Hearing CSN done this way, and a ‘leaves that are green’ in the harmony they make, makes you think maybe these guys need a second career. Rockstars.

After all that and the cheering and the star treatment, the afterparty and the evening after, I sit down and think about it. And I feel so proud. That’s my dad. There’s my uncle and their friends. The ‘boys’ from IIT did a gig, and man are they awesome!

So maybe the adults get nervous, maybe they don’t always know what’s best. Sometimes they need us to teach out parents well, their children’s hell. But that show was so great, it reminded me of a saying, a little modified for the children in the audience…’don’t teach Papa how to rock’.