Indian Ocean - Desert Rain

Sitting down in a recording studio with the best of equipments and having the most technically proficient staff at your disposal is one thing. But, playing live is another ball game all together. The on stage challenge is one which can give even the best musicians in the world, sweaty palms. Yet some musicians thrive on the experience and opportunity to play in front of a score of fans, using the audience’s energy as a substitute to their own. 

The joy of witnessing a live act in an Indian context has largely been restricted to the classical side of Indian music, where improvisation is such a vital aspect. But, one of the greatest things to happen in the Indian music industry outside from the classical arena would be the emergence of the Indo-Jazz-Fusion band Indian Ocean.

The Delhi based band has established themselves as one of the finest live acts in the country. One can comfortably say that the enjoyments received from hearing their music gets multiplied many times over when compared to their studio recordings.

A decade ago, when the band was yet to attain a cult fan following amongst colleges around the country, a live recording of one of their live performances at the Mandi House in Delhi, titled Desert Rain was released. The album didn’t find the greetings of any major labels because of the low commercial viability of the album, and it was deemed to risky to be provided a major release. It isn’t difficult to see why the labels ignored the album. The sound on the album was not anywhere near the requirements for a high quality audio experience, the form of music itself didn’t have a market and the band didn’t have a marketable name than. Desert Rain, had everything against it in terms of record sales, but from an artistic point of view it is a great incite to the band’s foundation years and a great study into the confluence of artists with both similar and at the same time contrasting influences.

There is a lot of spontaneity involved with the album, which at times becomes hard to believe, owing mainly to the perfect synchronization between the band members. The album as end result is rooted more heavily in Hindustani Classical in its approach than any other release by the band. Asheem Chakravarthy, the versatile tabla player of the band is perhaps given his better performance on the album, at least from what has been heard on record. Perhaps the artist’s creativity gets caged while in the recording process, so while on stage he is provided more freedom to work his way around the track. On the track ‘Going To ITO’ Asheem touches a wide spectrum of sounds from the petite instrument, whose effect is magnified by Amit Kilam’s jazzy drum fills. The track could be truly classified as fusion; even Susmit Sen touches both the jazz world as well as the Indian classical territory, both in the same song.

An interesting point noticed on this album, is how the band switches moods instantly which is quite a task when performing live, and is more manageable on a studio album. On ‘Village Damsel’, both the guitarists Susmit on the acoustic and Rahul Ram on the bass, create a very jolly and lively mood, while on just the next track ‘From The Ruins’, the whole atmosphere is given a make over is reminiscent of sky filled with grey clouds.

Desert Rain is an album that should take a novice listener by surprise, that too a pleasant one. The album sounds so fresh and full of youthfulness, event the singular problem of the sound quality seems only to add an uncanny charm to the album, making it more comparable to the humility associated with the band.