Tell us about the new album.

First of all, it’s mad. We thought the last one was crazy, this is way beyond that. There’s been a gigantic leap since the year 2008 in the field of electronic music, and we’ve kept abreast of it, the technology that allows us to basically generate the sounds that we imagine. So there’s better electronics, more elaborate instrumentation, we’ve involved Iranian musicians as well – that wasn’t there in the last album.

We’re a quartet, and our last album had about 15 musicians from different countries, this time around the same amount – maybe 18-20 musicians will be collaborating on the album. We’ve gotten a lot of Eastern musicians from Iran, the Middle East, depending on what artists we can book. We have an Iranian percussionist playing with us. The electronics as I told you will be far more elaborate, so will the percussion – much more layering. We basically treat our live shows and our studios differently. When we go into the studio, we utilize the whole technological capability of the studio without thinking so much of live. And when we go live, we try to harness the raw energy that we get on stage, and we open up the songs to jamming. So any of the musicians could take the song to any direction. But that’s not possible in the studio. So it gets down to harnessing the advantages of the different styles that these musicians have. With an album, the advantages are that you can do a lot of work even as a single musician. Like I’m a percussionist, and I might call up the track of the cajon, and then say I want to put some cymbals on it, and then I think okay, I want to add some woodblocks, and I add some woodblocks. Now I can’t do that live, because I have only two hands, so I have to choose what I play.

So that’s the disadvantage of the studio – whatever you hear on the album, you’re going to hear on the same song every time; however, your listening experience might be different. Each time you listen, you hear something new. Like on the last album Jet Lag, on one of the tracks we had 57 layers of sound. Obviously, if you listen to it on a dabba, you’re not going to get those 57 sounds – you might get like say, 20 to 30. When you listen to it through your headphones, you might hear around 40-45 different layers.  And the brain can’t assimilate 40 different sounds at the same time, so each time you listen you’ll pick up something new. So that’s how we treat our albums.

With the live act, it’s pure energy, the raw power, it’s the poetry, the lyricism, the jamming on stage. We also have a very elaborate stage getup, I don’t know if you’ve seen one of our shows but sometimes we wear wigs, sometimes we wear costumes, we’ve shown up as Napoleon, we’ve come as Beethoven, we’ve come as a tennis player, we’ve come as skeletons, etc so we do these crazy costumes. One of us even has a fish costume! The band is actually the rest of the time pretty normal people, as normal as musicians can be. But when we’re on stage, it’s quite crazy.

We started to record the album in 2006, now it’s 2010. Obviously if I started in 2006 and am still performing in 2010, as a musician my work is going to be that much more mature, that much more developed. Those are subtle things, the big things are the high quality of electronics, the programming, also at a later stage we’re bringing in an expert to mix the album – Alain Chanel from Switzerland

All in all it’s quite an effort, it’s going to cost more than the previous album, that album cost us 12 lakh – this one is costing about 18.

Our contract is finished with Phat Phish Records, I don’t know what the scene is to be really honest – the label itself had gone through its ups and downs, but we are very happy with what we got out of them. Whatever anyone else might say, Da Saz is one band that is very very happy because we got a fair deal monetarily from them, we got a video out of it, we got the album released. Our second album is about to come out and our contract with Phat Phish has expired, we did not renew it. The decision was mutual. For us, releasing independently freezes up the way that we want to do artwork – we accepted their artwork, which wasn’t bad but which wasn’t really what we wanted in hindsight, we felt that we would’ve wanted to do something different. Their approach was a little bit mainstream, but that’s understandable because they are looking at numbers. They printed 5000 and the 25000 copies of the album, and they’re all long since finished. That’s why we’re offering it for free, there is no possibility to reprint, the label is not interested since the contract is over. We are not interested since we want to make new music. Our work is definitive, if you look at the work that Da Saz has done in comparison to other artists in India and around the world, I think there is something. Anyway, since the rights are back with us, we’d like to distribute it for free.

We haven’t really talked about it, we need to somehow come up with the money also. Last time we had a financier in Switzerland and we sold it to Phat Phish for the same amount so we didn’t lose anything. We’re currently in negotiations to find a financier, I don’t think it’ll be a problem. Today this is something path-breaking, but tomorrow this could be the standard.

More Da-Saz

We spoke with Suchet Malhotra, the band’s percussionist, about their upcoming album

First of all, it’s mad. We thought the last one was crazy, this is way beyond that. There’s been a gigantic leap since the year 2008 in the field of electronic music, and we’ve kept abreast of it, the technology that allows us to basically generate the sounds that we imagine. So there’s better electronics, more elaborate instrumentation, we’ve involved Iranian musicians as well – that wasn’t there in the last album.

Stay tuned for a full interview with Da-Saz. Meanwhile, check out one of the tracks off their debut album Jet Lag.

Those are the facts. And then there’s the website. A treasure trove of kvlt gems, Global Groove’s official website is, well… here’s the first line from the General Information page

In the past few years India has seen a steady growth in Clubbing Culture, fuelled by rapid economic growth, which has brought new found prosperity in young people, and a profusion of clubs have sprung up in the country to cater to this demand.

The largely incomplete website is rife with such awesomeness, and typos (Midieval Punditz anyone?). And then there’s the convention that promises such riveting topics of discussion as ‘Indian Club Scene’ and ‘Club Scene in Germany’. With several such asininities we’re inclined to think this first started out as an April Fools joke, and then, happened.

The artist lineup looks pretty solid though.

Indian Artists
Da-Saz
Jalebee Cartel
Kartick & Gotam
MIDIval PunditZ
Shaa’ir + Func (pictured)
Teddy Boy Kill
Tempo Tantrick

German Artists
Ada
Bobby and Blumm
Mathias Schaffhaeuser
MIT
Modeselektor
TELE
The Notwist
Tobias Thomas

No word on tickets yet, though the Facebook group does say “Special packages covering flights, accommodation, convention and festival registration are available at 500 euros* per head.” More from Global Groove when we hear it.

(Pic: Vikas Munipalle, from this gig)

Rocktoberfest comes just a week after RSJ’s Great Indian Rock (whose website has finally been fixed). Tickets for the Rocktoberfest at Rs 400 a pop per day, which includes three pints of Kingfisher. For more details, check out the event’s Facebook page.

Dates + lineup

Friday 30th October

Amphitheatre (4PM – 10PM)
Fire Exit
Bandish
Da Saz
Skinny Alley
Midival Punditz

Stage 2 (7PM – 10PM)
Divij K

Stage 3 (11PM – 1AM)
Leon Russell & Doktor Daniel

Saturday 31st October

Amphitheatre (4PM – 10PM)
Lazy River
I am the Boombox
Half Step Down
Mrigya
Them Clones
Raghu Dixit Project (TBC)

Stage 2 (7PM – 10PM)
BlueOrb (Audio Aashram)

Stage 3 (11PM – 1AM)
TeddyBoyKill

Sunday 1st November

Amphitheatre (4PM – 10PM)
Blank Noize
October
Five8
Faridkot
Advaita
Thermal & A Quarter

Stage 2 (7PM – 10PM)
Doktor Daniel

Stage 3 (11PM – 1AM)
Boomarang

‘Fire Bon’ is an older Da-Saz track released as part of the Sahi Bol compilation. It’s minimal, fusion-y electronica in the vein of early MIDIval PunditZ, with a smattering of Nitin Sawhney-esque synth-pop. The Delhi Sultanate-ish vocal on the track gives largely facile commentary on the Indian socio-political scene, but is helped by the restrained desi instrumentation which complements the baritone particularly well.

Download: ‘Fire Bon’ – Da-Saz

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