Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga!

Seminar: Aesthetic Expressions of Psychedelic Funk Music in India 1970-1983

As a general rule, I try to stay away from Bollywood music.  I have been increasingly intrigued by a lot of psychedelic funk music from other parts of the world though, so thought that maybe this collection of twenty tracks from the sub-continent would be worth checking out.  I wasn't completely sold however, until I realized that the ninth track, 'Dharmatma Theme Music' by Kalyanji Anandji is the basis for the classic Jaylib song 'Champion Sound'.

That piece is the best on the disc, perhaps for its familiarity, but the rest of this cd has really grown on me.  Tracks like Asha Bhosle and RD Burman's 'Dum Maro Dum Live' and Atomic Forest's reworking of Deep Purple's 'Mary Long' have become favourites, and there are blissfully few tracks with that piercing, high-pitched female voice I always think of when I think of Indian music.

I won't likely be returning to this particular well again any time soon, but I have been enjoying this disc.  Like all compilations of this kind, the liner notes are exhaustive, and are written in the form of a course syllabus, which is kind of amusing.