Ultra Sound

Rai and Gaurav Raina collaborated to form Midival Punditz in 1998,when the country was still reeling under assembly line,forgettable remixes. “We were brushed aside by several producers and music companies who liked our sound but would want us to do Bollywood remixes,” says Raina. But the duo stayed put,never playing to the galleries. “When we look back,electronica music seems to have come a long way in the past five years,” says Raina.

Hello Hello promises to be a sound experience with eclectic inspirations. Though several tracks of the 30-minute album shows strong classic rock influences,Raina and Raj,who collaborated with tabla player and drummer Karsh Kale for the album have experimented with a gamut of Indian and international genres of sound. “The album is equally divided between prominently Hindi and English tracks. But then there are a lot of infusions. Like we have introduced dhol in an English track,” says Raj. And the experiments don’t end at just that. A Shankar Mahadevan semi rock number is presented with a strong Carnatic classical base,there’s a Sufiana number by Malini Awasthy with some progressive beats,interplay of Hindi-English vocals etc.

However,the band sets apart their version of Led Zeppelin’s Four Sticks as a favourite and the most difficult. “There’s the whole album on one side and there’s Four Sticks on another,” laughs Raina. The Led Zep classic has been given a refreshing twist by the band and Noa Lembersky from an Israeli electro jazz band,J.Viewz. “We decided to rope in Noa because we thought that a female vocal would turn around the Robert Plant number remarkably. And she has very nice jazz-rock feel to her singing,” says Raina.

The band,which scored a song for Mike Nichols’ 2004 Julia Roberts-Jude Law-starrer Closer,is looking forward to a Hindi film to be directed by a debutante director,and hopes that more Hollywood projects come their way. “We are optimistic. Especially after Rahman’s success,I think the West has opened up to the idea of Indian talent,” says Raina. We have our fingers crossed!

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