When one person in the group decided to shake a leg, many others followed, until dance took over the show. At the launch of Rajesh Murugesan's debut album ‘Ithu Premamo' on Valentine's Day at the Gold Souk in Kochi, the ‘flash mob' did the magic. Dancers dressed in causal clothes (without any special dance costumes) took the crowd by surprise, springing out from among them and performing some cool moves.
A trend that is winning over youngsters all over the country, the flash mob is catching the fancy of people in Kochi, too. It put up a stunning performance at the Oberon Mall in December last year, when the Mullaperiyar issue was at its peak, to spread the message of peace and harmony between Tamil Nadu and Kerala. At the Gold Souk, however, it was just a celebration of music and love. “The idea of having a flash mob was to add a surprise element for the crowd and to enhance the entertainment quotient,” says Rajesh.
Launching his own label, Blow Horn Records, Rajesh said the album was born out of his passion for music. The album has 11 tracks, all of which dwell on ‘love' and the different phases of the emotion. “I have used different genres of music and unconventional combinations to create something of my own,” he says. It has electro pop, jazz, R&B, and even the naadaswaram, which is mixed in a unique way.
Just as any other newcomer, Rajesh, too, had to face a number of hurdles initially, he says. “The industry is not very accepting of new people and it takes time for a debutant to make his mark.” He started work on the album four years ago, composing music and identifying singers. When his friend and singer Benny Dayal showed interest in the album, things began to look brighter.
Though he has released an album with a few friends earlier, the ‘Ithu Premamo' audio CD is his debut as a solo. One of the tracks in the album, ‘Dhaaham' sung by Jyotsna Radhakrishnan, was made into a video, which can be viewed on YouTube, and is receiving a lot of positive feedback.
The best thing about the album, says Benny Dayal, is that all the tracks are in Malayalam. “There is a general perception that Malayalam as a language, has a lot of limitations when it comes to using it for pop and techno music. I wanted to change that,” says Rajesh. Apart from Benny, Jyotsna Radhakrishnan, Sayanora Philip, Vineeth Srinivasan and Anoop Nair have sung for the album. Arju Benn has written the lyrics.
Rajesh, a student of audio engineering from Chennai, has done the music for several short films in Tamil. He has been signed for a Telugu-Tamil bilingual film, which is expected to go on the floors soon.
The audio CD will be available in music shops from February 16.
