Take Five: Bromances

There are plenty of solo artists and producers working on their own projects in the Desi music industry. Occasionally they team up and make brilliant music together. Today's Take Five celebrates men who have a very special working relationship.

Talvin Singh & Niladri Kumar

These two classically trained fusion artists collaborated on an album called Together. Anyone lucky enough to see Talvin Singh and Niladri Kumar on their tour will remeber the way they interacted with each other on stage. There was a real musical connection between the two which was thrilling to watch.

Bikram Singh & Navdeep - Electro Love Boliyan

Bikram Singh is usually associated with Tigerstyle, but he worked with producer Navdeep early in his career. The few tracks they made together were unique and magical. Navdeep chose to concentrate on medicine rather than music, but got back into the studio to create an understated version of Bikram's Electro Love Boliyan.

Bobby Friction & Nihal

These two didn't make any tracks together, but this bromance did so much for Desi music. Put together by the BBC, Bobby and Nihal presented a pioneering show on Radio 1 together for seven years before hosting their own shows. Nihal still has the slot on Radio 1, but it's not the same without Bobby. The duo also played around the world at festivals and club nights and I've never seen two DJs so in tune with each other.

Jay Sean, Rishi Rich & Juggy D - Dance With You

A combination of producer and two singers each with their own unique style, this bromance appeared on Top Of The Pops. They may have moved onto bigger international projects, but Dance With You was what started it all.

Dhamendra & Amitabh Bachan - Yeh Dosti

No bromance list could be complete without Yeh Dosti from Sholay. The entire blockbuster film celebrated friendship, but this song is the definition of a bromance.

The Bilz and Kashif - My Ride

The Bilz and Kashif have released their new album called The Trinity. To celebrate, they have released a video for My Ride.

The video consists of shots of the group, girls and a white car. Desi music videos are often criticised for having the same unoriginal themes of cars, scantily-clad girls and alcohol. If you sing about cars and girls, then you have a valid excuse to use them in the video. But just having girls hanging around one car occasionally looking into the camera is boring.

The group have made good videos in their career. But for me this one isn’t one of their best. There is no interesting storyline or humour. The monochrome minimalist set was uninspiring and made the car blend into the background. The whole video felt rushed to coincide with the album release and could have been better if they had allowed more time to come up with interesting concepts.

Shweta Subram - Saadi Galli Aaja (Breezer Mix)

 

Shweta Subram, a singer who was born in Dubai and grew up in Canada, has released a cover version of Saadi Galli Aaja from the film Nautanki Saala. The song is a collaboration between Shweta and Jai-Parthiv at Studio Unplugged in Mumbai. 

 

Along with Shweta's wonderful vocals, this Breezer Mix has Sandeep Thakur on violin and Premil Parikh on guitar.The added instruments give the track a soulful kick and complement Shweta's voice. It's not easy to cover a song successfully, especially one that has had so much airplay, but this version works brilliantly. The track takes enough inspiration from the original, but has it's own elements to make it unique and special.

Saadi Galli Aaja (Breezer Mix) can be downloaded from the Studio Unplugged SoundCloud page. 

Nindy Kaur Is Doin' It Big With RDB

Nindy Kaur, who used to save up her lunch money to buy bhangra records, has released a version of RDB's We Doin' It Big featuring her vocals. The release is a Vaisakhi present to her fans and the original video has also been edited to include her.

Nindy's vocals are a nice addition to We Doin' It Big and bring a female touch to what was a very male dominated track. The shots of Nindy in the video are recycled from past performances and music videos but I would have liked to see some new footage.

 

Why didn't Nindy feature in the original release of We Doin' It Big? Earlier this year in an interview for Sari-Clad Speakers, Surj said that We Doin' It Big had been composed and recorded with Nindy's vocals. However, she was not available for the video shoot so it was decided to leave Nindy's vocals out of the original track. 

We Doin' It Big feat. Nindy Kaur is available to download for free from the Three Records SoundCloud page.

Superjones - Girls Clap

Superjones, a producer who has worked with DCS and remixed Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's vocals, has released a new track on Sound Cloud. Girls Clap is a mix of dubstep and traditional Punjabi vocals. 

It's a good track with some dark moments, which sounds very different to the teaser. The contrast between the electronic bass and the timeless giddha boliyan is huge but Superjones has made it work. I would have liked an extra verse in the track for some variation. The dubstep in Girls Clap is extreme. Despite the celebratory lyrics, this is not a track to play at a family wedding, unless you want to raise Aunty's blood pressure with all the bass!

Girls Clap is available to download on Superjones' SoundCloud page.