I first heard of Garry Hughes back in the 1980s when he was making space music albums like Ancient Evenings and Sacred Cities for the Audion label. He gone on to be a top producer and session musician in England. Andrew T. MacKay is also an English session artist playing keyboards and arranging orchestras. In the mid 2000’s they created a concept called Bombay Dub Orchestra, mixing electronic moods, Bollywood strings, Indian instruments and reggae dub strategies. Their two previous CDs, Bombay Dub Orchestra and Three Cities were both Echoes CDs of the Month. They’ve just released their third full-length album, Tales from the Grand Bazaar and it should have been a CD of the Month pick. The album takes them from India to Istanbul to Jamaica where Reggae rhythm legends Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare recorded with them. It’s an album of serene and soaring strings, seductive rhythms, and gorgeous melodies spun from eastern instruments and voices. Hear tales from Bombay Dub Orchestra when I interview them ECHOES PODCAST
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Hear Bombay Dub Orchestra talk about their wonderful new CD, Tales from the Grand Bazaar tonight on Echoes.
I first heard of Garry Hughes back in the 1980s when he was making space music albums like Ancient Evenings and Sacred Cities for the Audion label. He gone on to be a top producer and session musician in England. Andrew T. MacKay is also an English session artist playing keyboards and arranging orchestras. In the mid 2000’s they created a concept called Bombay Dub Orchestra, mixing electronic moods, Bollywood strings, Indian instruments and reggae dub strategies. Their two previous CDs, Bombay Dub Orchestra and Three Cities were both Echoes CDs of the Month. They’ve just released their third full-length album, Tales from the Grand Bazaar and it should have been a CD of the Month pick. The album takes them from India to Istanbul to Jamaica where Reggae rhythm legends Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare recorded with them. It’s an album of serene and soaring strings, seductive rhythms, and gorgeous melodies spun from eastern instruments and voices. Hear tales from Bombay Dub Orchestra when I interview them tonight on Echoes.
Join us on Facebookwhere you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind whenDead Can Danceappear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.
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Moby’s not that innocent, but Innocents leads the Echoes Top 25 for November.
Haven’t voted in the Best of Echoes 2013 Poll yet? You could do worse than any 10 CDs from November’s Top 25. Of course, Moby’sCD of the Month, Innocentsleads the way, and just 3 away from the top is December’s pick, David Helpling & Jon Jenkins epic Found. You’ll hear that album featured on Monday, 12/2 on Echoes. Juliette Commagere’s entrancing electro-song-cycle, Humanscomes in at number 2. Did you hear her incredible performance on Echoes this past Monday? While veterans like Hammock, Vic Hennegan and Bombay Dub Orchestra are high up on the list, there’s a lot of new names. Among them, London Grammar, Dream Koala, Minor Alps, Darkside and Cosmo Frequency.
VOTE in BEST OF ECHOES 2013 POLL
Don’t forget to vote in the Best of Echoes 2013 Poll where you can win some great Echoes prizes, and contribute to the best year end list on the planet. Here’s the top 25.
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60’s Psych-Progressions, 70’s Krautrock, New World Fusion
and Ambient Chamber music Tonight on Echoes.
I must be feeling a bit nostalgic today. I find myself going back to some of my earliest musical influences and to the early days of Echoes. From the 1960s, I’ve got a song by Donovan, an artist who I think is an underrated influence on contemporary singer-songwriters. His Sunshine Superman, is, song-for-song, a beautiful document of 60s tripped out psychedelia and optimism. We’ll hear a tune from that album that looks to the darkside. Then it’s up to 1969 and the debut from King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King. Unlike the contemporary editions of this band, early Krimson could knock out a few ballads, especially when Greg Lake was singing the words of Pete Sinfield. Moving up a decade, I’ll be dialing up some krautrock by Michael Rother from his second album, Sterntaler, with that beautiful guitar sound, the motoric drumming of Jaki Liebezeit and production from the late-Conny Plank. .
From the early days of Echoes, look for music by Patrick O’Hearn, a musician who has remained a signature artist on the show from day one. Then there’s an album by Roger Eno & Kate St. John. Roger is Brian’s younger piano playing brother. St. John played oboe in The Dream Academy. They made an early album of ambient chamber music called The Familiar before going on to form the chamber rock group, Channel Light Vessel with Bill Nelson. We’ll hear one of many haunting tracks from The Familiar.
But of course, this is Echoes and I have lots of new music for you. We’ll hear from the new album by Bombay Dub Orchestra, Tales from the Grand Bazaar as they continue to be masters of eastern fusion. Morcheeba returns with a new album, Head Up High featuring singer Skye Edwards, and I have new music by Pieter Nooten. You may remember him from Clan of Xymox, an 80s new wave band on 4AD. He went on to record a much loved album, Sleeps with Fishes with Michael Brook. Now he returns with a double CD of ambient chamber music, Haven.
Think of the great artists you love on Echoes. Think of the informative interviews and exclusive live performances. Then, think of a world without Echoes. You can make sure that never happens by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.
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Bombay Dub Orchestra & Emiliana Torrini Release first new albums in five years.
It’s been a longtime waiting for new music by east-west-electronica mavens, Bombay Dub Orchestra. The team of Garry Hughes & Andrew T. MacKay created some of the definitive world fusion music of the new millennium with their self-titled debut and 3 Cities, both of which wereEchoes CD of the Month picks. With electronics and Indian music as the core of their sound, they travel to further flung climes with Tales from the Grand Bazaar bringing in middle eastern elements from Turkey and living up to the “Dub” part of their name with appearances by Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare, rhythm icons of Jamaican reggae. Their seamless blending of orchestra, electronics, global instruments and modern grooves makes them true inhabitants of the 21st Century global village. We’ll hear music from them today.
Emiliana Torrini – Tookah
We’ve also got new music from Emiliana Torrini, the Icelandic singer with the un-Icelandic name. Her father is Italian and Emiliana currently lives in Italy. Like Bombay Dub Orchestra, it’s been five years since her last album of new music although we’ve heard her quite a bit this year on Olivier Libaux’sUncovered Queens of the Stone Age. After moving into abstracted terrain with Me and Arini in 2008, Torrini returns to melodic form with Tookah, a word that looks and sounds like hookah, but has nothing to do with that, I think.
So lighten up yourself and take a toke on the Tookah tonight on Echoes.
Think of the great artists you love on Echoes. Think of the informative interviews and exclusive live performances. Then, think of a world without Echoes. You can make sure that never happens by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.
Echoes is a non-profit 501(c3) organization just like your local public radio station. And all donations are tax deductible. You can support Echoes with a monthly donation that will barely disturb your credit card.
Bombay Dub Orchestra have been fusing eastern and electronic music for several years now and doing it with a grace and elegance that is unparalleled. I still go back to their 2006 eponymous debut album which sounds as fresh now as it did then. Their mix of eastern modes and musicians, with lush strings channeled through electronica and dub transformations, forged a sensual, seductive and enraptured east-west exotica.
So why was I struck with dread when I saw the release of BDO’s album, The New York Remixes? It’s because so many remix albums are just an excuse to use a name and a few exotic touches of an artist’s music to create dance floor grooves that by and large are generic. I still cringe when I think of the Patrick O’Hearn remix album, Mix Up. So does O’Hearn.
So often remix artists take music that is delicate in melody and subtle and complex in rhythm and strip it down to four on the floor tom hits and handclaps. I remember Thrash, then of The Orb, telling me that when they remixed Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, he wanted to speed it up so fast that it would be just a blip that he would use as a drum hit. Inveterate hippie Alex Patterson wouldn’t have it.
“I’m thinking, this is semi-sacred sort of thing. It’s got to be put on. We eventually came to an agreement where we could have a backward one as opposed to a forward one.”
Still, you’d be hard pressed to find any of Mike Oldfields melody in their remix.
There are exceptions. Solar Stone always seems to tap into a more serene aspect of any artist and the album of Ulrich Schnauss remixes, Missing Deadlines, is a wonder of anthemic drive and euphoric ecstasy.
But from the opening thud of Bombay Dub Orchestra’s “Compassion – Pivotal Movement Remix,” it’s clear that subtle will go out the window. Three remixers take a whack at brutalizing this song. They all have something of merit. Pivotal drops in swooning bass, loops several voices of the song into a canon and has some startling pressure drops, but the beauty of the original is lost. For point of reference, here’s the original:
Likewise Force of Change makes some interesting dubstep moves on “Monsoon Malabar”, but in the process ruins everything that was beautiful about that song. With “Junoon,” remixed by EarthRise SoundSystem, The New York Remixes hits its nadir, with a generic hip-hop groove and forgettable raps by no less than three MCs. Why does anyone think this is a good idea?
Sound Shikara seems to understand the moods of “The Berber of Seville” for a minute. Not surprisingly perhaps, he’s from Oman, not New York. But it isn’t long before he launches into a ferocious dub-step groove of doom. The original “Berber” strings have little to do with the rhythms he’s created making it almost a Cagian “Indeterminacy Music” effect. But I don’t think that was the intent.
Of course, you can go the other way. Moby frequently, if not always, creates remixes of his music. And frequently, if not always, he strips out everything that made the song interesting and turns it into vaporous ambience. We went 5 or 6 songs deep into his Wait for Me album, but I could barely find a piece to play off Wait for Me, Ambient. Same thing with DestroyedRemixed, even though both original releases were Echoes CD of the Month selections.
When you’re handed someone else’s music to remix, I think there should be an obligation to respect the original spirit of the song, to draw upon the best elements of the composition and production, but also bring something new or discover a hidden facet. Just turning a song into a dance tune just isn’t enough, and is not interesting.
Surprisingly Bombay Dub Orchestra have done some cool remixes themselves like their take on Juno Reactor’s “Pistolero,” Miklós Rózsa’s “Love Theme from Ben-Hur” and Azam Ali’s “Abode.” You can hear several of these on the BDO website.
And completely aside from its intrinsic artistic merits, there’s no Echoes on this disc. Where are the chill mixes guys? Meanwhile, I eagerly await a new Bombay Dub Orchestra album.
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The Best of Echoes 2008 Listener Poll is over and the results are in. You can hear them tonight on Echoes and you can see them below. Bombay Dub Orchestra’s3 Cities, the November Echoes CD of the Month topped the poll and it led a list of eclectic music from across the Echoes spectrum. I don’t know that there were any surprises.
Six of the selections were CDs of the Month. Fourteen of the artists appeared on the show with interviews, performances or both.
Echoes listeners were a bit ahead of the curve. Many year end lists will have Ludovico Einaudi’sDivenire on their selections. But we had that in 2007. Instead, you selected his Live In Berlin CD, which isn’t even out in the US yet.
Your love of Urlich Schnauss continues, voting in Stars, which is only an EP, with only one track played on Echoes. Will Ackerman made a surprise showing at #3 with his understated Meditations CD, which is only available at Target.
There were only 5 albums on the list from major labels. Sixteen CDs came from small independent labels ranging from Lotus Spike to Six Degrees. Four CDs were self-released.
Thanks for voting. If you’re looking for CDs to add to you collection or iPod, you couldn’t find a better place to start, except maybe the 25 Essential Echoes CDs of 2008 😉 You can also read more about this year’s music with 25 Essential Echoes CDs for 2008: A study in confluence
THE BEST OF ECHOES 2008 LISTENER POLL
1
Bombay Dub Orchestra
3 Cities
(Six Degrees) read a review
2
California Guitar Trio Echoes
(Inner Knot)
3
William Ackerman
Meditations
(Compass Productions)
4
Sumner McKane
What A Great Place to Be
(Don’t Hit Your Sister Records) read a review
5
Ottmar Liebert
The Scent of Light
(Spiral Subwave Records Int’l) read a review
6
David Arkenstone
Echoes of Light and Shadow
(Gemini Sun Records)
7
R. Carlos Nakai
Talisman
(Canyon Records)
8
David Gilmour
Live in Gdansk
(Sony)
9
General Fuzz
Soulful Filling
(Self Released)
10
Ludovico Einaudi
Live in Berlin
(Ponderosa Italy)
11
Ahn Trio
Lullaby for My Favorite Insominac
(Sony BMG)
12
Fripp & Eno
Beyond Even (1992-2006)
(DGM)
13
Hammock Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow
(Darla Records)
World music fusions bookend the Echoes Top 25 for November as electronic artists and acoustic revisionists dominate the list. Bombay Dub Orchestra, our November CD of the Month, tops the list, (read a full review) followed closely by the independent release from Vic Hennegan, Aqua Vista his homage to space music. You can find out more about that CD in Hennegan’s Echo Location. Fernwood’s global Americana chamber music came in high based on their wonderful live performance for Thanksgiving. You can hear and read more about them in an Echo Location. Expect to hear more about John Gregorius, whose #5 CD will be number one in December as our Echoes CD of the Month (read review and Echo Location). Sumner McKane remains strong as does General Fuzz. Check out the Echoes Blogfor profiles, music and Echo Locations on many of these artists.
East-west fusions have been going on since at least the early 1960s when Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar sat down with musicians like jazz saxophonist Bud Shank and classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin. That cross-legged crossover hasn’t stopped and one of the latest iterations comes from the Bombay Dub Orchestra.
Bombay Dub Orchestra put out their first album in 2006, and it redefined the east west landscape. It was created by two veteran English musicians. Garry Hughes and Andrew T. Mackay. Hughes had put out a pair of solo electronic CDs in the 1980s and went on to work with Björk and helped launch the band, Euphoria. Mackay was a journeyman musician playing keyboards and doing orchestral scoring. They got together on a session that took them to Mumbai, India and the idea of Bombay Dub Orchestra, to combine Bollywood string orchestras, Indian solists and electronics, was born.
There are a lot of acts sampling world music, but Bombay Dub Orchestra’s compositions are played by live musicians, 70 or so on their new CD, 3 Cities. Bansuri flutes, sitars, and santoors float through a landscape of lush Bollywood string orchestras arranged by Andrew T. Mackay. Bombay Dub Orchestra set these acoustic instruments in an electronically percolating backdrop mostly provided by Garry Hughes’ from his collection of vintage synthesizers. Garry creates the soundpool where east and west, ancient and modern converge.
The new album by The Bombay Dub Orchestra is called 3 Cities. The name is a reference to their travels to London, Mumbai and Chennai to record the album and it has a cinematic expanse, like one of those exotic 1950’s road movies transferred to the 21st century.
Bombay Dub Orchestras 3 Cities is the Echoes CD of the Month for November and I’ll be featuring it next Monday, November 3 and we’ll hear an interview with Bombay Dub Orchestra the following Monday, November 10 on Echoes. This has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music. You can hear an audio version of this Echo Location with music. You can also read a full review of 3 Cities. John Diliberto ((( echoes )))
Go directly here for BDO Podcast
Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club. Hammock’s Oblivion Hymns is our January CD of the Month. You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time. You can do it all right here.
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The Echoes Blog 
Echo Location: Bombay Dub Orchestra
October 29, 2008A journey into exotica with Bombay Dub Orchestra
You can hear an audio version of this blog with music.
East-west fusions have been going on since at least the early 1960s when Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar sat down with musicians like jazz saxophonist Bud Shank and classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin. That cross-legged crossover hasn’t stopped and one of the latest iterations comes from the Bombay Dub Orchestra.
There are a lot of acts sampling world music, but Bombay Dub Orchestra’s compositions are played by live musicians, 70 or so on their new CD, 3 Cities. Bansuri flutes, sitars, and santoors float through a landscape of lush Bollywood string orchestras arranged by Andrew T. Mackay. Bombay Dub Orchestra set these acoustic instruments in an electronically percolating backdrop mostly provided by Garry Hughes’ from his collection of vintage synthesizers. Garry creates the soundpool where east and west, ancient and modern converge.
The new album by The Bombay Dub Orchestra is called 3 Cities. The name is a reference to their travels to London, Mumbai and Chennai to record the album and it has a cinematic expanse, like one of those exotic 1950’s road movies transferred to the 21st century.
Bombay Dub Orchestras 3 Cities is the Echoes CD of the Month for November and I’ll be featuring it next Monday, November 3 and we’ll hear an interview with Bombay Dub Orchestra the following Monday, November 10 on Echoes. This has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music. You can hear an audio version of this Echo Location with music. You can also read a full review of 3 Cities.
John Diliberto ((( echoes )))
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