SOUNDTRACK: DEBASHISH BHATTACHARYA-Tiny Desk Concert #319 (November 12, 2013).
I like how the blurb for this Concert begins:
You’ve probably never seen or heard an instrument like this. The Hindustani slide guitar is the creation of Debashish Bhattacharya, whose creation pairs his first love — a Hawaiian lap steel guitar, a gift from his father when he was only 3 — and the sounds of India. You can see the similarities to a lap steel guitar, as Bhattacharya lays the guitar across his legs, sliding a metal bar to create the fluid, almost vocal melodies. The additional strings (and lack of frets) allow him to slide easily between notes, in the process creating a sound that resonates and drones while remaining attuned to his Calcutta home.
It’s a pretty cool instrument and does evoke Indian sounds without necessarily sounding entirely Indian.
His music incorporates a good deal of North Indian (Hindustani) classical music, but you can also hear the blues pouring out from this stunning creation. I first met Bhattacharya 17 years ago when he was touring with other great slide guitarists, Bob Brozman and Martin Simpson. In those 17 years, his music has become even more astonishing, and his instrument refined even further. This trio includes his daughter (Anandi Bhattacharya) on vocals and his brother (Subhasis Bhattacharjee) on tabla.
He plays two lengthy pieces. It’s clear that the three of them are totally in synch with each other. He often plays off of his daughter as she sings and he follows her (or vice versa). He is constantly kepimg an eye om her to see what will happen next. It’s cool watching him play the drones throughout as well.
“Raaga Khamaj” She sings beautifully. I love the way the little finger taps can create such a great expressive sound on the tabla, but then he really wails later. Two thirds of the way through the song almost stops entirely and then he switches to a really funky riff–its a great transition. At times he’s almost scratching the strings making even more interesting sounds.
There is some tuning between songs and then “O My Beloved!/Pillusion” begins. It’s more mellow overall, goalmouth the middle has an absolutely wild guitar solo which has him sliding his slide all over the place. It’s pretty wild
The current album and some of what’s played here today can be found on two different records, the first with guitarist John McLaughlin and Dobro master Jerry Douglas (titled Beyond the Ragasphere) and the second with his brother and daughter (titled Madeira: If Music Could Intoxicate). These are brilliant recordings — and a good place to start exploring more from this unique artist after his intoxicating Tiny Desk Concert is done causing your jaw to drop.
I really enjoyed this set a lot and would love to check out his studio records to see what those sound like.
[READ: January 19, 2016] Melvin Monster Volume 1
February starts children’s month here. Partially it’s because we can all use the good messages and kindness that children’s books offer. But also because some of the books that I’m going to post about have been sitting in queue for over a year. So let them see the light of day.
Last year I really enjoyed the Moomin books which Drawn & Quarterly reprinted. Another artist that D+Q has reprinted is John Stanley. And they have made the appropriately titled The John Stanley Collection. This collection is somewhat confusingly labelled because there are collections of different characters (Nancy, Tubby, Melvin) each with multiple volumes, and it seems like maybe they are supposed to go in a certain order. And really it’s not that hard to figure out once you know the way it works, but it’s a but of puzzle if you see only a few books on the shelf at the library.
These books were originally printed as comic books. The title page says “Collected from the first three issues of the Dell comic book series” And D+Q has retained that look perfectly. Even the paper that they have used for this beautiful book looks like comic book paper (although it is very heavy stock).
So the premise of this strip is that Melvin Monster is a nice, good boy. But he is raised by literal monsters. Melvin wants to do what normal human kids do, but his parents Baddy and Mummy want him to be more disrespectful and monstrous.
The characters are Melvin Monster, Baddy (his father), Mummy (his mom) and Cleopatra their pet crocodile who wants to eat Melvin. There are a few other recurring characters as well, like the witch and
Even though these books were first, I read them second. And I have to say I enjoyed the long form of these stories a bit more than the short stories of the later issues. Although interestingly the very first strips are short and don’t establish the character at all. They are just thrown right on to the page. Well, it does actually establish that Melvin is a disappointment to his Baddy because he wants to go to school (his father played hooky for 8 years straight).
The next strip sees him going to school and other monsters trying to beat him up for wanting to go. That’s when his demon guardian Damon shows up, although he calls him Medwick rather than Melvin–this mixed up identity results in some good jokes later on. Ultimately Melvin winds up accidentally blowing up the school which makes his parents very proud.
The next strip continues right where the previous one left off, with Melvin sailing through the air after the explosion. He winds up in Human Being Land where everybody treats him very badly–and he thinks it’s so nice that they want him to feel at home.
The next book focuses on the door in the cellar. His parents get mad at him and send him to the cellar. They never go there, but milkmen and mailmen love it so much they have never come out. When Melvin is down there he opens a secret door. The path leads him to the subway which is pretty funny. Incidentally in this book it is called Humanbeansville. Through his good intentions, he breaks up a crime ring and flies home
I enjoyed that the following story introduces us to Little Horror but also continues with Baddy’s adventures in the basement hole.
Some funny scenes include him being captured by a zoo, where a specialist on monsters comes to investigate him.
In the third book Melvin gets in more trouble and Damon is there to rescue him (with a little pain as of course) from a quicksand trap.
He also manages to not die from the witch’s apples–one good one spoils the bad ones. And then there is short strip about him breaking a window, which is deemed a good bad deed.
The final long story is a weird one about the giant rat who lives in their walls and has opened up a 4 star French restaurant (I kid you not).
There’s a few more short ones and then the final strip is about a rock that has been teetering in place for centuries. Of course, Melvin bumps into it and then has to think fast.
I’m not sure how people reacted to these strips when they first came out–if they were considered “bad” or whatever, but it’s funny how sweet and innocent the bad behavior ultimately is.
For ease of searching, I include: Bela Bartok
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SOUNDTRACK: DANIEL BACHMAN-Tiny Desk Concert #256 (December 9, 2012).
Lars Gotrich, an NPR music dude, loves metal and weird music but also amazing Americana folk guitarists. Daniel Bachman was an early-twentysomething when he recorded this Tiny Desk Concert. And he is very impressive indeed. Lars explains:
I Just Read About That... 