Monday, September 16, 2013

The advent of Indian prog- Clinton Cerejo's 'Baina'

Few composers in the Indian music scene have experimented with odd time signatures although Indian classical music has thrived on 7x4 & 5x4 time signatures. Well it is only appropriate that Coke Studio introduced progressive stuff this year with its season 3 and how!
Coke Studio has become a platform for composers to bring out music which is completely different from the mainstream Bollywood stuff and Season 3 has lived upto the expectations. Such avenues have enabled musicians to express themselves rather than help expressing a director’s storyline.
After his mind-blowing compositions such as Madari and Saathi Salaam in season 2, Clinton Cerejo is back with a bang. This composition Baina is different yet equally enthralling. As I post this, the video has just about 40k views while according to me it deserves many more. The track might not be progressive music in its purest sense but the change to a 7x4 time signature for the chorus is just remarkably done. The amalgamation of Veena and Guitar, of Qawwals and untrained vocals, of the Manjiras and the drums is very well arranged. The attention paid to the minutest details such as the guitar feedback note played at 2:40 which then fuses into a Cello is noteworthy.
Watch out for the bass guitar at 2:35, the Veena coming in with the synth playing deep notes at 4:13, Vijay’s Prakash’s vocals and the super guitar tones. Clinton Cerejo’s harmonizing vocals with the chorus totally stand out in your left earphone/speaker.
‘Baina’ has come so close to becoming my favorite track this season. Wish the end were cut a bit short and the drums had more punch to it. Wonder how awesome it would have been to listen to some triplets and quads among the fills especially during the chorus!

It would be completely unfair to not acknowledge Rahman’s mesmerizing compositions. And yet, the most anticipated episode by Amit Trivedi is due this week! If Baina has got you interested, do make sure to check out Marghat from the same episode and Aigiri Nandini by Ram Sampath which also boasts of a little prog inspiration by itself. \m/

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