#blackstratblues

[indiangigposterarchive]

Designed by Denver Fernandes for Blackstratblues trio at Todi Mill Social, Mumbai in April 2018.

[indiangigposterarchive]

Designed by Preetal Dongre for The Quarter’s Artist in Residence, featuring Blackstratblues, at The Royal Opera House, Mumbai in November, 2017.

[indiangigposterarchive]

Designed by Preetal Dongre for The Quarter’s Artist in Residence, featuring Blackstratblues, at The Quarter, Mumbai in November, 2017.

[udayvirgarg]

"setting sun never looked so good" #blackstratblues

[thebicyclesong]

March Melody

It rained like Bombay here, a couple of days back. How that city calls out to me.

[eclecticeuphony]

Butterfly Effect Preview Tracks Review - Karsh Kale Collective

Karsh Kale, in late 2011 announced his "collective" project and lineup. We then saw him on Coke Studio on 2012 with 1 song as a tribute for Sultan Khan, another written around a Blackstratblues composition and a third being a his rendition of a classic bollywood number. The other three songs however were composed by "The Karsh Kale Collective".

Since then, he has been playing these 6 tracks at NH7 and other live concerts, along with a fresh song "Shiva" (and once did an amazing cover of U2's city of blinding lights).

In his appearances in TV shows, through Coke Studio, Pepsi MTV Indies: The Ride and Sony Project Resound, he always spoke about and focussed on, "The Collective", and how he would like to compose symbiotically with musicians of different schools. In The Dewarists season 1 as well, he spoke about how he learnt different instruments only to understand the nature of music more holistically. So through all these years, Karsh has now become the grand orchestrator of everything from blues-rock guitars, Indian classical instrumentals and vocals, electronica and soulful keyboard patterns, and needless to say, percussion (The KKC + NH7 all stars set in NH7 2013 was so friggin' cool!). He not only understands all these fields deeply and intricately in isolation, but he commands them and composes using all these genres flawlessly, and still has an eclectic sound that is uniquely his own. In my understanding, the growth from a solo producer and composer to a complete orchestrator is phenomenal, though "the collective" has always been Karsh's grand plan.

Karsh has now written a new album which will be out in 2015, called "Butterfly Effect". What an apt name too! He now released 5 of his tracks online through vimeo (following sunlight) and soundcloud. We have been lucky enough to hear preview tracks and edits from this album before it is release. The hype for it is massive! The way he has built it up for the audiences, almost unintentionally, is another proof of his honest music. Any Karsh fan knows that his aesthete is constantly developing for the better and is going into hitherto unexplored areas, and "Butterfly Effect" is going to be a culmination of all these influences. Let's now talk about the preview tracks. "Thin line of blue" a mellow track with vocals in a carnatic style of music, and ardent keyboard loop and electronic beats is ambient and spaced out. It is fantastic how each of these tracks has such a neo-feel and is very different from the other. This track has a very Sigur Ros like feel to it. Feeling: Satisfied, complete, pure, calm. Colour scheme for this track: (no pun intended, but the song feels very blue to a visual thinker like me)

"Up" features a familiar style of singing that Karsh has had for a while now, doubled up with a Sitar solo that has an electro-heavy output. This track starts intense and goes into a far more intense and explosive electro-rock space towards the end. This sounds so eclectic and dynamic! It is many people's first favourite from the lot of five. Oh and there's Karsh's tabla in this track. Feeling: agitated, revolting, upbeat. Colour scheme for this track:

"Shiva" was heard live by many Karsh fans who have attended the collective concerts in the past 2 years. In the studio version, this song keeps its rock elements intact, (Warren has packed some superb solos!) while the flute parts are far more clearer and defined in the recorded version. The base keyboard and guitar loop itself is immensely catchy and hooky. You think the song ends at a point, when they pickup with a rock intensive climax and let you go. And thumbs up for Benny's vocals. It must be mentioned that Karsh has gotten the best out of him. (That part where the rock guitars raise the tension of the track, and Benny's voice emerging like sunshine from clouds is simply fabulous, even after multiple listenings) Feeling: Soulful, contrasting, moving and dynamic. Colour scheme for this track:

"Following Sunlight" is a fresh and happy-going song that is light on the ears, and is a detour from the other fervent sounds from the album. It somehow reminds me of Karsh's take on "Give peace a chance" by Yoko Ono. The melange between Indian and western elements is seamless and Karsh makes it sound easy. Feeling: light, bright, Sunday afternoon. Colour scheme for this track:

"Butterfly Effect", the titular track features a Charukeshi-esque vocal space to begin with, with a string-section adding to the gravitas of the song, later joined by Sarangi by Sabir Khan. It has an electro-percussive buildup towards the climax. Feeling: grave, serious. Colour scheme for this track:

All in all, this is a superb set of songs and I have been listening to only these tracks since yesterday, when they released. Can't wait to hear what the other tracks are. With the neo-sounding aesthete, the individual musicians at the peak of their talents and superb composition sense and arrangement by Karsh, this album's gonna be the bomb! In my opinion, this album takes fusion and world music to a whole different level. It defines Karsh Kale as a genre by itself. No other musician has such varied influenced funneled into such crazy outputs. I have to think hard to see which other artistes have this level of detail and sound quality.

This album, I am sure will raise the bar of not only Karsh's music but also the entire Indie music scene that we see today. Fetch this man a Grammy or two! I feel we shall see the indie scene change phenomenally. All the big guns of Indie are focussing on making efforts to reinvent themselves: Advaita, Indian Ocean (with Tandanu), and Raghu Dixit (with Nritarutya and other visual elements in their live concerts) to name a few. 2015 sounds like a good year for indie fans with Advaita's new EP, Nitin Sawhney's new album (which he promises is a departure from his previous work) and Karsh's album coming out. I am going to buy this one as soon as possible! And attend the release concert. And try to get Karsh to sign my album CD for me.

Links:

http://karshkale.com/

https://www.facebook.com/karshkalemusic

And of course, his soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/karshkale/sets/karsh-kale-butterfly-effect