Turntable Redux

Suddenly, remixes are the sound of music all over again, dividing the industry sharply into two: Those who make music and those who mix music.

MUSIC MAKERS

Bhappi Lahiri now quixotically finds himself lumped with the first group. 8216;8216;I will sue Dr Dre for not giving due credit to Lata Mangeshkar or me in his album,8217;8217; huffs the man well-known for his 8216;inspired8217; numbers Modern Talking for Zubi Zubi and Mori Kante for Tama Tama, to name just two. 8216;8216;That is not to say I am not happy my track has made it to the Billboard charts. But I do believe original music has gone out of the market after people like R D Burman, Laxmikant Pyarelal and I left the scene. I think many music labels are getting into remixes only because they don8217;t have any original artistes doing good music.8217;8217;

Anandji, of the Kalyanji-Anandji duo, however, feels positive about this changing trend in music. 8216;8216;Remixes have become a gimmick. Every child in the UK has taken it up as a hobby,8217;8217; he exclaims. 8216;8216;Music works the other way round today, when 60 per cent is rhythm and 40 per cent vocals or melody.8217;8217;

Incidentally, the music director was completely in the dark about the use of a Kalyanji-Anandji Hindi film song in British DJ Paul Oakenfold8217;s remix track Zoo York in the album Bunnka. 8216;8216;I don8217;t even know what the number is,8217;8217; says a flabbergasted Anandji.

MUSIC MIXERS

While most disc jockeys are content remixing tracks at clubs and discs for the party crowd, Harry Anand has 30 remix albums to his name. Brother of music director Anand Raaj Anand, Harry8217;s pop singer aspirations led him down the non-film music route.

His faith in the remix revolution refuses to waver. 8216;8216;My golden rule is to never harm the original melody,8217;8217; he says.

But like Bhappida, he too has a bone to pick when it comes to credit. 8216;8216;Mona Naidu, the model in the video, was the only one who became famous after the song became a hit. No one knows that Dev Kohli rewrote the lyrics or Shashwati Phukan sang the song or even that I have rearranged the song,8217;8217; he cribs.

But most DJ-remixers agree that the West is only following in India8217;s footsteps while picking up old Bollywood tunes. 8216;8216;Bollywood remixes are the only thing that work in the party circuit here,8217;8217; says DJ Amit, whose Rang Barse remix, released last year, is still on a high.

8216;8216;We8217;re slowly moving out of digital sounds and incorporating the warm, bass analog sounds of the R D Burman era.8217;8217;

MUSIC MANIA

So, when you next walk into a music store, don8217;t be surprised to see Kishore Kumars, Amitabh Bachchans or R D Burmans remixed and repackaged. Redux sells, and how 8212; the Instant Karma trio Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonca and Farhad Wadia8217;s latest album Dance Masti Again, for instance, has sold 1,40,000 copies within a month of its release and UM1-10 Volume 3 also reports sales figures of 16,1140 cassettes and 25,564 CDs.