Sunil Ganguly and Humshakal

Carol and I went to the Little India area of Toronto yesterday for lunch at Siddartha's, which also called for another visit to the Indian Record Shop. Why? They still have vinyl!

I bought a copy of Rahul Dev Burman's score for the 1974 film Humshakal [Odeon/The Gramophone Company of India]. This purchase was a no-brainer as the vocals are handled by the playback legends Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd. Rafi and Kishore Kumar. The album's high point is the disorienting tune "Dekho Mujhe Dekho" which can best be described as Hindi take on Film Noir. It must be the bongos and the vibes and the smooth horn section. Very cool.

That's the film's poster above and on the left by the by.

My other purchase was an LP by guitarist Sunil Ganguly: Hindi Film Tunes [Odeon/EMI/The Gramophone Company of India]. I hadn't heard of him before happening across a copy of this 1982 album, but thought it looked interesting. My instincts were correct as this turns out to be one of the most unusual and pleasant recordings I've added to my collection over the last couple of months. Mr Ganguly plays the pedal steel and Hawaiian guitars. And he is very, very good indeed.

Brad's page of Steel describes him:

"Sunil Ganguly plays Indian film songs (the most popular Indian music nowadays). And he plays like nobody else does. HE IS GOOD, and he adds his own twists and subtle changes to it, which makes it even more melodious. He is very proficient in Indian classical music and hence can play complex tunes from them. Uses control over volume of the plucking and makes amazing effects. He is the leader, and all else follow him."

Ganguly performs the sort of music I like the best: a mix and match of styles from around the world, in this case Ventures-style guitar instros, 80's video game sound effects, a little Mariachi flavouring and some disco beats. Perfect for music omnivores.