Raga: Bhairavi
By Charanjit Singh
“India, Mumbai, 1982. An Indian composer called Charanjit Singh is in his music studio experimenting with Roland synthesizers and drum machines he just purchased. ”
The end result is an album of Electronic music fusing Classical Indian ragas. The use of the Roland TB-303 Bassline in "Raga: Bhairavi" plus a four-on-the-floor straight 808 beat strongly resembles an acid house track, but this song was released in 1982, and Acid House developed only a couple of years later.
It's a subgenre of House Music that prominently uses the Roland bassline TB-303 and Roland Drum machines like TR-808 and 909.
One of the first acid house tracks was Phuture - "Acid Tracks," produced by DJ Pierre in 1985 and released by Chicago Trax records in 1987. Another excellent example of Acid House is "Newbuild," an album by Manchester Techno legends 808 State.
““Raga: Bhairav” is the kind of record to play if you want to challenge those who claim that Acid House came from the USA in 1987!”
But who is Charanjit Singh, and why "Raga: Bhairavi" is considered a precursor of Acid House Music?
Singh was born in 1940 and, unfortunately, passed away a few years ago, in 2015. He started his career in the 60s as a music composer for Bollywood soundtracks and was also the leader of an Indian wedding band that used to perform popular songs at wedding parties.
During a trip to Singapore in 1981, he saw the new Roland Synthesizers and drum machines like TB-303, TR-808, and Jupiter 8 and decided to buy them.
He then returned home and started learning how to use these new instruments, eventually deciding to create an album fusing Classical Indian music with the disco music sounds of the late 70s.
Disco music was very popular in movies at that time, so Charanjit thought about adding some disco beats to some Indian Ragas using only the Roland equipment he had recently purchased and assembled them with a multitrack recorder.
He first had to learn how to operate and sync the musical instruments together, jamming for days. He was so pleased with these experiments that he eventually recorded an entire album with them and released it in 1982 for the Indian market.
"Raga: Bhairavi" is the most distinctive song on the album. It begins with a robotic intro created with a vocoder followed by a steady 808 beat and some acid squelchy electronic bassline sounds produced with the Roland TB-303 that develop into a hypnotic electronic Indian acid trip.
He Recorded the album "Ten Ragas To a Disco Beat" in only two days. In the beginning, it got some interest and was played on different national Indian radio stations. Still, it was a commercial failure, and it then went straight into oblivion, being forgotten for a decade.
In 2002 a Dutch record collector named Edo Bouman, owner of Vintage Voudou Records and Bombay Connection, discovered the record in Delhi and immediately fell in love with it, deciding to re-release it in 2010 on his record label with a new cover.
“The original Indian 1982 vinyl release now sells on Discogs for more than 1,500 USD!”
After the release of this album, many producers from different music backgrounds started to pay homage to this incredible album by playing the songs in their DJ sets.
"Raga: Bhairavi" is a unique futuristic blend of Indian Classical music and electro sounds so far ahead of its time. The concept of using that Roland equipment and creating hypnotic basslines adding Indian ragas to a house beat, is very distinctive.
Charanjit Singh had a surge of popularity in 2012 and started touring the world with his original Roland gear getting a fantastic response. His performances made people dance their asses off to something truly unique. A rare and wonderful gem!
Are you aware of any other albums or songs that first flopped and then released years later and became hits?
Share your knowledge in the comments below!
