Wannabe Indian Music from South East Asia.

I can definitely see why one might want to be Indian. Indian culture is rich, diverse and multifaceted and its roots run deep.

Another thing is it's one of the best countries, musically in the world, so it's no wonder musicians feel compelled to imitate their styles! And it's not just goras like George Harrison who were inclined that way. In South East Asia, there's been a longstanding obsession with Bollywood in particular. Two fellow bloggers have been kind enough to provide us with interesting examples of such musics.

Over at monrakplengthai we have a great record by Chatri Sichon which demonstrates a nice fusion of Thai sensibilities to 1950's-70's Bollywood-style arrangements.

Meanwhile, at Madrotter we hear a peculiar fusion of Jaipongan, Dangdut and old-fashioned Bollywood which even includes a cover of Lata Mangeshkar's early hit "Aayega Aanewale" from the 1949 spookfest Mahal (check track 4!).

Madrotter also features this strange soundtrack(?) which contains songs in what sounds like Hindi and in bahasa Indonesia. The arrangements and vocals are largely derivative of Bollywood while, still maintaining a certain detectable Indonesian-ness.

Anyway... Enjoy!