Before “playlists” entered the collective lexicon, people used to survive on these antiquated freaks of nature called “mixtapes” or “compilations”; you’d have as many songs as possible crammed on to a tape, and take it from there. “I’ve grown up on them,” says Rishu Singh, the man behind events company/management agency/independent-all-in-one-organisation Ennui.Bomb. Under that banner, Singh has diligently been releasing an annual compilation called Stupiditties . Its tenth edition, titled — appropriately — Once A Dick… , came out last week . “There’d be 25 bands you’d hear [on those tapes],” recalls Singh. “You might like five of them. Then you’ll go out and find those bands, buy their music, download their albums.”
That, in a nutshell, has been the purpose of Stupiditties since its inception in 2004. Barring the first edition, the albums have always been free, and the latest version is no different. “It’s always been around to, you know, promote fresh music, younger acts, fresh sh*t,” says Singh. “It’s what’s there. Fokat mein lo, yaar . Go home, hear some new music. That’s all we’ve wanted to do; there was no ‘plan’ or anything behind it.”
As for how many downloads the album has had, Singh says, “F**k knows, man. Khatam ho gayi baat. Here, take it and now f**k off.” Like most of his ventures (including annual indie music festival, New Wave), Stupiditties has an air of incendiary, almost-obnoxious, finger-to-the-man irreverence to it, held together by Singh’s persistent punk ideology and DIY approach.
Through invited entries, Singh wades through 100 or so songs. “Please, please stop sending songs titled ‘Final Master V83.02 2043!” he says in exasperation. After deleting all the existing music on his phone, Singh listens to the entries on a loop. Playlists are created, then sub-playlists and sub-sub-playlists, till he feels he has an album’s worth of material. That’s it; that’s when he decides to put it out.
In the past, the number of songs on the compilation has been high; Singh claims it’s gone up to “80, 900, five crore songs”, but we’ll chalk that up to hyperbole. However, this time he’s kept it much shorter and scaled down. Stupiddities 10 has a total of 17 tracks, including songs by Mumbai’s Finest, Donn Bhat, The Vinyl Records, ViceVersa, and several newer acts. Singh makes no bones about the fact that it’s entirely up to him to pick who makes the cut, and the focus, as always, is on young acts, with his own tastes dictating the flow of the album.
There’s no exchange of money, no business transactions involved in the making of Stupiditties . It serves purely as a tool to help listeners find new bands to listen to, and for bands to reach newer audiences, facilitated by Ennui.Bomb.
In general, compilations differ markedly from conventional ‘albums’, all the more when they’re meant to function as a multi-genre ‘showcase’ of sorts, like here. It helps to have a narrative thread tying the music together, but it’s not essential to the experience. Listeners aren’t expected to like all 17 songs. In fact, it’s even OK to disregard most, and still find something of value. The focus, really, is on the act of discovery.
An underlying rawness runs through Once A Dick , exemplified in the shout-out energy of a song such as ‘The Mumbai Cypher’ by rap collective Mumbai’s Finest. ‘Connected’ by Donn Bhat is one of the rare polished pieces (and also a highlight of the compilation), in stark contrast to the also-brilliant ‘The Man In The Black Suit’ by Mommy’s Not Home, a two-minute-and-a-bit song that barely keeps it together with its bursting-at-the-seams jumpiness courtesy Offspring, Pennywise, and other just-about-pop-punk bands. Added to that is an entertaining vocal delivery that seems, at times, to invoke the best and worst extravagances of Johnny Rotten, as the vocalist repeatedly questions: “What the f**k is wrong with you?” There’s a heavy sprinkling of punk bands through the record, offset by just as many singer-songwriters discussing their lives in verse.
The author is a freelance writer
Stupiditties 10will be launched at Raasta, Khar (West), tonight at 9 p.m. and will feature acts by Ferry Tales, Bianca Love, Laxmi Bomb, Ramya Pothuri and Ronit Sarkar, and Aarifah Rebello
Stupiditties serves purely as a tool
to help listeners
find new bands
to listen to
