Ezl’; Ejl’i .‘JUM l; TRILOK GURTU Arches, Glasgow, Thu 23 Oct
By the time Trilok Gurtu finally got around to touring his own projects in the late 903, he had already established a major reputation as an extraordinary percussionist through his
association with artists like Don
Cherry, Oregon and the John McLaughlin Trio. His own experiments in fusing Indian music with jazz and rock have been acknowledged as major influences by the likes of Nitin
Sawhney, Asian Dub Foundation
and Talvin Singh.
His latest visit brings him to Glasgow as part of Big Big World, with his current four- piece band, featuring his own drums, percussion, tabla and vocals alongside Ravi Chary on sitar, Celia Reggiani on keyboards and programming, and Sanchita Farruque’s vocals.
The eclecticism apparent in his approach to his own recent musical fusions set in early in life. He grew up in a musical family in Bombay (his mother, singer Shoba Gurtu, is featured on a couple of his albums), and he began playing in the strict discipline of Indian classical forms at the age of five.
‘We always had music around us, it was like food, and I discovered it naturally, as a source of pleasure, but also as something which I had to give
something of myself to. Training
I" v-.;'.‘.”
. d‘vaJL
How deep is his love?
is training, and I think you can adapt what you learn to any music. Jazz musicians learn the standards and so on, and it is all the same. The important thing isn’t what you learn, it is that you have to be honest with yourself to learn to play.’ He acquired a taste for western music while still at an early stage of his development, and the broad base of his current stylistic explorations was laid as a teenager in the late 605 and early 705, when he was exposed to a range of music which included not only John Coltrane and Miles Davis,
but also James Brown, King Crimson, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Yes.
‘I had to really search around to hear these records, but I grabbed anything I could get. I loved that music, and I felt I really wanted to learn about it as a way to express myself. Whatever I played, I’ve always tried to be honest with my music, and play it with the deepest love I can.’ (Kenny Mathieson)
EXPOSURE
The magic musical nuggets of tomorrow come today with our ready reckoner of rock. This issue: Funeral for a Friend.
Who are those baggy trousered kids crying in the corner? Why it's the erno rock-loving followers of ‘.‘.'e|sh ouintet Funeral for a Friend who are causing Such a stir in the "‘USlC industn. that they're even had a "xile movement Created for them
What is this extremo lark anyway? It sounds like a deodorant. Explain yourself, young bass player Gareth Davies?
Ha ha. yeah it does doesn‘t it. Lynx extreme? don't like to think of us as part of any scene. l mean. basically we're a rock band with e'notiOnal and hard rock oxertones can't exen spell extreino. let alone know what it is. and for people to invent a whole genre for us is kind of funny?
Loving the walls from Wales
Your debut LP, Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation, has only just been released and already you’ve built up an incredibly devoted fanbase and are the toast of the music press. That's pretty good going.
It wOuId be very big headed of us to
be unappreciative and not abSOlutel‘,’
ShOCked ab0ut how confrnitted everyOne has been to us. We're eternally in even was debt f0r it.
really. We were talking in rehearsals the other day abOut how this tour starts a year to the day that we '.'.’(:l‘.T on our first ever tour. and to have an this SuppOrt is totally humbling l n‘lean. we're just five bricks from: the Sputh Wales valleys, We s have been and we al‘.'.’a‘,'8 '.‘.’lH be. Word has it your fans like a bit of a sing-along, and there's nothing us Scots like better than belting out a bonnie melody.
There are a few moments in the set that are Quite anthe'nic and tearjerky front the stage point of new al‘,‘.'.’a‘, It's like. how l0ud can ,Ou people sing?! We're Just really looking forward to playing the new stuff and seeing pepple's reactiOns. and the Scottish are great. the, always been good to us. Ever, trne c0me up l have a drink filth someone in the CrOWd.
iCar‘nilla Pia
I Funera/ for a Friend p/ay the Garage. Glasgow, Tue 27 Oct. Liqwd ROOms. Edinburgh, Thu 23 Oct.
Music
5 to see
THE BELLRAYS
1 They're ‘maximum rock'n'soul’ That's what their biog says. Here's what else it says: ‘Listening to the Bellrays is like getting kicked in the balls by James Bron-tin.‘ And this: 'lntagine a bus full of Motown artists being steam-rolled by Black Flag. and you have a pretty good idea of what the Bellrays sound like.' SOunds great. dunnit'.’
2 They think the Man can take a running jump ‘The music industry has done just about everything it can to squeeze all the life out of everything.' says bassist Bob Vennurn. ‘lf it wasn't Just a really heavy explOitation thing. liVing off artists. there's no way they could sun/lye. because they kill their product. they drill it into the ground. they don't really foster new talent, and they Just scavenge.‘ Say it, brother
3 The brothers and sisters are doing it for themselves They record and produce their own records and have set up their own label, Vital Gesture. to release it in the US. Get it up you, the Man. “It's unrealistic for bands to rely on record labels to do all their work for them.' says Vennurn. “Most of the time bands get screwed anyway. so you might as well do it yourself.‘
4 They ain't no hype-merchant bullshitters 'We were in the UK just after the Hives and there was a lot of media on us. total saturation and overkill," says Vennum. “Once that blew over. all the real rock'n'roll fans showed up. They knew it wasn't all about the hype. that we were really trying to do something, and that we weren't buying into that whole thmg.‘
5 And if it‘s good enough for Alan McGee... lri the UK the Bellrays' new album. The Red. White 8 Black, is released thr0ugh Poptones. 'Alan McGee lS just a fan of musc' says Vennum. ‘And that really comes across. Those kind of people in the industry are very few and very far between.’ Aw, shucks.
(Doug Johnstone)
I The Bel/rays play Klflg Tut's. Glasgow, Sun 79 Oct.
, l.’ 1 THE LIST 47