Aki Kumar, mostly known for his take on Chicago blues, journeys back to his Indian roots on this appropriately titled release, \u201cAki Goes To Bollywood.\u201d A Mumbai native transplanted to the Silicon Valley in search of tech work, Aki truly found his calling delving into his love for blues music and making a name as a top notch harmonica player and singer. This release however seems like the perfect amalgam of his blues stylings combined with a more traditional Bollywood sound creating a quite unique listening experience.<\/p>\n
Almost all the songs are sung in Hindi, with the exception of two, the Howlin\u2019 Wolf sounding \u201cMy Home Is A Prison\u201d, a minimal acoustic dirge heavy on the reverb and the album closer, \u201cBack To Bombay\u201d. The opening track \u201cBadan Pe Sitaare\u201d really sets the tone for Aki\u2019s vision melding his heritage with his blues passions by combining an a Bloomfield-esque guitar burn with the upbeat bounce needed to pull off this revisiting of a Muhammad Rafi classic. Potentially turning off the purist blues crowd as well as the Bollywood classicists is a gutsy move. And it works.<\/p>\n
There is a lot of variety within \u201cAki Goes To Bollywood\u201d however. It\u2019s not just only a complete blues revamp of old Bollywood jams. The jump-swing, call and response number \u201cEena Meena Deeka\u201d, the funky as hell \u201cJaan E Jaan\u201d with its soaring chorus and nimble yet propelling bass line are two highlights. Aki\u2019s secret weapon on this record is the crack and whip-tight band behind him. Guitarist Kid Andersen (who also co-produced the album) is a versatile badass able to vamp chords with ease, yet peel off a piercing solo that strikes the ear like an aural snakebite. The rhythm section shifts throughout these different styles seamlessly, but with a playful energy which is needed for the meshing of musical worlds. \u201cKisi Ki Muskurahaton Pe\u201d seems almost like 3 songs in one, a forlorn heartbreaker combined with a Western swing vibe with some absolute ripping guitar work from Andersen. Aki sings his ass off on this one with the right combination of bravado and vulnerability making for a truly classic track. \u201cAki Goes To Bollywood\u201d is a very ambitious and innovative release and Aki and the band pull it off in a stylish yet organic way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aki Kumar, mostly known for his take on Chicago blues, journeys back to his Indian roots on this appropriately titled release, \u201cAki Goes To Bollywood.\u201d A Mumbai native transplanted to the Silicon Valley in search of tech work, Aki truly found his calling delving into his love for blues music and making a name as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":0,"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/needletothegroove.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/needletothegroove.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/needletothegroove.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/needletothegroove.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/needletothegroove.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/needletothegroove.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/needletothegroove.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/needletothegroove.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/needletothegroove.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/needletothegroove.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}