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Breezy `Baliwood' tunes
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After the "Neele Neele Ambar" success-story, Nitin Bali bounces back with a sequel album titled "Baliwood 2".
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IN AUGUST last year, Nitin Bali released "Baliwood", a collection of evergreen Kishore Kumar tracks, remixed. "Neele Neele Ambar" became a huge hit, and Bali, who earlier tried to make a mark in the Indipop scene with a couple of mediocre Bhangra albums, ended up creating a niche form of remixing, which maintains the melody of the original song, and concentrates more on enhancing the vocals. With his sequel album "Baliwood 2" (Crescendo Music; CD Rs.150), just out on the music stands, he hopes to take this form of music a step further.
The opening single of the album, "Diwana Hua Badal" (originally from the film, "Kashmir Ki Kali") has a characteristic breezy feel and flow — it is very catchy and one tends to hum the tune along long after the song is finished, but does not feature any hard, loud beats. The flute accomplishments in "Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas" (from "Blackmail") are impressive and the background bass-line adds some life and energy into the song.
A bubbly, hip-hoppish mood revolves around "Kahin Door Jab" (from "Anand") while "Vaada Tera Vaada" (from "Dushman") ends the album on an upbeat, jumpy note. The `tabla' samplers are impressive and adds to the `qawwali' mood of the original song. The other remixed tracks in the album are "Thandi Hawaein" from "Naujawan" and "Tum Pukar Lo" from "Khamoshi" - but "Yeh Zamin Ga Rahi Hai" from "Naujawan" seems to be the one song in this eight-track album, which is unnecessarily loud.
Nitin began his career in the music industry by working as a Production Coordinator for Zee TV, and stuck on for three years before he got a break with Channel V. His musical roller-coaster ride began with his stint with the Amitabh Bachchan Corporation (ABCL) where he was given the chance to co-ordinate the 1996 Miss World pageant. In his words, "My stint at Channel V gave me a chance to watch and listen to a variety of music — most with little or no substance. This led me thinking, and forms the basis for my `Balliwood' albums".
Bali is one of the few artistes in the remix scene today, who seems to be experimenting with not-so-popular evergreen songs, and this seems to give a fresh feel to his albums. His voice has a certain depth and maturity, which seem to blend with the vocals of the late 1970s and 1980s. With two albums in the "Baliwood" series already under his belt, he has created his own space in the Indipop landscape. The `giving new life to the melody, rather than the accomplishments' funda seems to be doing wonders to his musical career. At a time when music stores are overflowing with mediocre remix albums with little or no substance, "Baliwood2" can definitely hope to take home the cake, thanks to its different mellow, breezy flow.
A. VISHNU
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