Music for a Trip to India

Grunfeld

A good mate of mine is off to India for August and he wants a soundtrack and he's asked me to sort him out, but I'm after ideas.

The brief is quite narrow, which is good:  half a dozen genres with an album's worth in each.  His tastes are broad but I know he's not into  experimental noise.

I can handle the
1)  Reggae

2)  Downtempo

3)  Indie

Where I'm stuck is that he wants some:

4)  Blues

5)  World (although I've got ideas so maybe not that stuck)

6)  Random "Just bloody ace music to listen to in India"


I don't think he's in to Jazz; Country; Taylor Swift

Any suggestions gratefully received cos I have to sort this out this weekend.

ICBM

Get a radio and listen to Indian music.

What's the point in going to a place with such an amazing musical history and listening to the same stuff you can at home?

Panama_Jack666

The Beatles.

Obviously.

Moss

Songhoy Blues - Music in Exile covers both world and blues

Grunfeld

ICBM said:

Get a radio and listen to Indian music.

What's the point in going to a place with such an amazing musical history and listening to the same stuff you can at home?

Fair enough and I've got some Indian sounds.

But the reason why he's asked me, rather than just do his own mix tape (though he's probably done that too) is because he wants different stuff to the things he usually listens to, but of course his musical ear will be tuned to Western sounds.

Roland

In which case he needs to tune his ear to Indian music. There is some excellent stuff coming out of Bollywood nowadays, all of it using Western scales and instruments.

RobDavies

Would it be entirely predictable to put in "Govinda" by Kula Shaker?

Or The End by The Doors?

Both have an Indian vibe going down...

boogieman

Indian with a twist. There's a great crossover album called Mustt Mustt by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, with Michael Brook on guitar.

EricTheWeary

Freddie Mercury and Cliff Richard obviously. Iron Maiden are randomly big in India. +1 on Songhoy Blues. Hissing of Summer Lawns by Joni Mitchell - I know it has an African influence but I find Joni profound when listened to in odd circumstances. Walter Trout - Blues for the Modern Daze, easily the best blues-rock album in a decade. Acoustic Classics by Richard Thompson, excellent songs excellently played.

not_the_dj

PolarityMan

Whack Rob Dougan's "furious angels" under the ace music category.

RobDavies

....you could put this in, as a bit of fun at the end... it's got an Indian thing going on at the start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szz14WWlo5A

Grunfeld

Brilliant!
That Raghu Dixit is very cool too.

xSkarloey

Can I suggest the utterly sublime albums 'Inside' i and II by Paul Horn? 

They're improvisations on flute (Inside) and flute and sax (Inside ii) recorded standing underneath the dome of the Taj Mahal itself. Inside I includes some chant provided by a friendly security guard. 

Listen to the notes at 25 secs. I've never heard reverb like that out of a pedal! 

I suppose you could file it under 'New Age'/ experimental, but it's also a field recording of sorts.

dtr

Take some UK stuff.  Anything here take your fancy?

http://www.radiomastfm.com/uk-talent

XWulfhere

I worked in India on many occasions 2010 - 2014 and I listened to a lot of music, but a few albums always seemed to come up again and again

Kraftwerk - Techno Pop/Electric Cafe
Alice in Chains - Dirt
Prince - Very Best Of (Pre TAFKAP)
Prince - Dirty Mind
Wild Nothing - Nocturne
Little Feat - Dixie Chicken
Rolling Stones - Grrrr! (Second Disc)
ACDC - Highway To Hell