Welcome to the show today where we have an exclusive pre-release from percussionist Sarathy Korwar. The top track and FTBOTRB Recommendation features signature Indian-influenced beats with Londonesque vocals over the top by Zia Ahmed. It’s a banger of a track so let’s spin up the show and get cracking. You’ll learn more about Sarathy Korwar later on. If you, like us, hate commercial music then you are in the right place. We’ve got musical conversation and also New Music from Tobin as usual, which is more than likely divisive. This week’s New Music is certainly a nod back to 80’s cinematography and gets us remembering back to some high fashion.
The Shiftless Rounders provide the bookend this week with beautiful mountain harmonies, exquisite resonator guitar work and a clarinet! An unusual pairing for sure but listen on to hear how good a pairing it really is. The bookend at the bottom of the show is also a live performance from The Shiftless Rounders (unusual name there) which showcases brilliantly their guitar mastery. Following their slightly jazzy, rag-time sound comes Jolie Holland with a similarly old-fashioned song dripping with nostalgia.
Tobin reacquaints himself with his own prophecy that the US doesn’t do indie very well and finds that he may actually be wrong. Lord Huron are the ones doing the damage to Tobin as he reevaluates his position on US indie. And last but far from least is Ivy-Jane Browne bringing up the rear. Let’s dive straight in.
Track Listing
- Big Round Moon The Shiftless Rounders
- Old Fashioned Morphine Jolie Holland
- Mango Sarathy Korwar feat. Zia Ahmed
- WKND Elle Belle
- Ancient Names (Part I) Lord Huron
- The Archer Ivy-Jane Browne
- Over The Water The Shiftless Rounders
Sarathy Korwar – tell us more
Sarathy Korwar was born in the US but raised in India by his parents who were trained classical Indian singers. He lived an Ahmedabad and Chennai before taking up residence in London, UK. Learning to play tabla at age eight, Sarathy Korwar soon moved onto jazz and as a teenager began bringing his traditional tabla technique to the Western drum kit. Best described as a musicologist, composer, percussionist and field recorder Sarathy Korwar studied Indian classical music. Soon after, he emigrated to the UK to consider a career in music. His tabla studies paid of and he graduated with a Master of Music in Performance from the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Sarathy Korwar’s epic field recording project
Sarathy Korwar used the skills he’d gained from his studies by playing with a variety of popular acts on the London scene. He quickly gained popularity from his performances and started working on an idea he’d held for a while. The project was based around field recordings he wanted to make in his native land of India. Korwar wanted to record the music of the Sidis, descendants of African tribes who arrived in India in the 7th Century. The Sidis were a rough collection of slaves, traders, sailors and mercenaries, however, their vocal style, dances, songs and rhythms are the only remaining link to their culture.
He soon learnt about the Steve Reid foundation, a charity whose mission it is to help emerging musicians. Sarathy Korwar approached the charity with a 3-minute video and was immediately accepted into its development project. With the help of the foundation and its patrons he eventually travelled to Gujarat to record his Sidi masterpiece. He recorded the Sidi Troupe of Ratanpur in the field and later also managed a studio session with them. The resulting single Indefinite Leave to Remain was released in 2016 and followed later that year by his first LP Day To Day.
When is More Arriving being released?
If you liked Sarathy Korwar FTBOTRB recommends…
Here are a few ideas if you liked the content of the the show this week.
- Exclusive Sarathy Korwar Patron only content coming July 2019
- Listen to our January 2019 show featuring KOKOROKO
- Listen to our November 2018 show featuring Laura Marling, Mumford and Sons and The Dharohar Project
