Serge44
08.09.2009, 03:30
http://www.lossy.ru/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1032&stc=1&d=1252673686
SIMLA BEAT 70/71 is a compilation of East Indian garage bands originally released as a promotional item by an Indian tobacco company.
In the late '60s/early '70s the Indian cigarette company, Simla, held (or purported to hold) a series of rock'n'roll talent contests, and from these came the albums that are reissued in this 2-CD set.
The reissue seems to be pretty much a straight reissue of both albums, with the album art and the original (highly amusing) liner notes reproduced within. The music is pretty cool -- in some respects it recreates Western pop, and even includes covers of oldies such as "You Can't Judge A Book" and "Born On The Bayou". But there's definitely a wild and unruly local twist on the proceedings, an unusual metric distortion that creeps into the music. Even better yet is when the artists sing in their own language (as opposed to English), which usually occurs on the wilder, more psychedelic tunes. I'm not personally that up on the history of Indian pop-rock, so I can't even speculate on how popular any of these bands really were back in the hippie days, but these recordings are a real find.
This is about as obscure as garage gets. For two years, 1970 and 1971, a cigarette company in India sponsored some kind of battle-of-the-bands competition, with the winners going to Calcutta to record for compilations called Simla Beat. Each year an lp was released with no info about the bands other than their hometown. Also issued was this 45 released with two of the better tracks and some silly liner notes on the back of the sleeve.
SIMLA BEAT 70/71 is a compilation of East Indian garage bands originally released as a promotional item by an Indian tobacco company.
In the late '60s/early '70s the Indian cigarette company, Simla, held (or purported to hold) a series of rock'n'roll talent contests, and from these came the albums that are reissued in this 2-CD set.
The reissue seems to be pretty much a straight reissue of both albums, with the album art and the original (highly amusing) liner notes reproduced within. The music is pretty cool -- in some respects it recreates Western pop, and even includes covers of oldies such as "You Can't Judge A Book" and "Born On The Bayou". But there's definitely a wild and unruly local twist on the proceedings, an unusual metric distortion that creeps into the music. Even better yet is when the artists sing in their own language (as opposed to English), which usually occurs on the wilder, more psychedelic tunes. I'm not personally that up on the history of Indian pop-rock, so I can't even speculate on how popular any of these bands really were back in the hippie days, but these recordings are a real find.
This is about as obscure as garage gets. For two years, 1970 and 1971, a cigarette company in India sponsored some kind of battle-of-the-bands competition, with the winners going to Calcutta to record for compilations called Simla Beat. Each year an lp was released with no info about the bands other than their hometown. Also issued was this 45 released with two of the better tracks and some silly liner notes on the back of the sleeve.