THE SINGING VOICE

Opening

The Prithvians had a great showing on July 17, 2004 where they wowed the audience with a mix of Hindi and English numbers.

They opened with the Mission Impossible theme. Mixing had some problems , but the purpose of this was probably to exercise & tune the mix.

Then they started off with a pink floyd song which they performed pretty well. The singing was top notch, the guitar leads were excellent. Keyboards weren't exactly memorable.

The team

The practice the team puts in throughout the shows. The members have a good equation amongst themselves and very good coordination and beat sense.

Sanjay Subramanyam, the lead singer/guitarist is exceptionally talented. The man can sing, guitar, and engage the crowd pretty well. Such stars are a rare find, and this band must hold on to him dearly. :)

Suparna is a great singer and exceptional in classical based songs. Her voice sounded really good in the hall, and the mixing person has credit due for ensuring that. She however tends to try for high pitched passages where she tends to go off key. She also has a tendency to go off key in unexpected passages.

Rahul has great voice quality - a solid powerful voice. But the lack of extended singing practise shows as he goes off key very often. The man is multitalented - playing the guitar, percussions, keys and singing. Yet another great find.

Ajit Sutar was flawless on the bass, but didn't have songs that could really show up the bass like their past shows. 'Aye Udi Udi' comes to mind where he did exceptionally well in reproducing the song.

Hemant in the past has produced very good percussion. This time, maybe because of his handicap of losing their congo player, the drumming was very lack lustre. A few songs that had great potential didn't shine coz of insipid drumming. In this show, it looked like he paid very little attention to the nuances in the original tracks and was content in keeping the beat. On the positive side, he seemed to conduct the show more, talking to the audience, getting the volunteers in for the final dance, etc. I was pleasantly surprised by him when he went over to the accoustic drum kit. He sounded much better on them than on the V-drums. Maybe he needs work on the V-drum sounds more, or just the mixing wasn't good for the V drums.

Silvy on keyboards was pretty subdued. He was better than their last show, but songs that depended on keys (eg. Tanha Dil) fell flat. Maybe the fault lies with the mixing here.

On the whole, this team despite being very compact does so much so well. There are many bands in the bay area filled to the brim with people that don't come up to this level in their performances. Hopefully the team stays together in good harmony and produces this kind of music for us.

Singing

The singing was definitely a big plus in the show. Sanjay's range is mind blowing. The guy was giving choral support to Suparna ! And except in the 'pretty woman' song, he never glaringly went off key. Suparna's best was the classical number she sang. If she avoids very high notes in the beginning of the show, she may well touch them once she's warmed up.

Instrumentals

Guitars were probably the best. Keys came in second, and the percussion the last. Many RD songs are replete with some great chords, but the group ignores the nuances - like they have done in the past. Their past number 'yeh mera dil' was a prime example.

Their composition 'titli' is a sweet melody, but the song gets monotonous after a while. Maybe they can add some interesting variations either in vocals or in the instrumentals. Again, Rahul was going off key pretty often.

Their other composition Sandhya (Evening Sun Dance) had a very sound base - the classical piece sung exceptionally well by Suparna. But the group did not add much value to the song other than a 'Tom Tana Tom' chorus. The instrumentals or the additional touches were entirely forgettable. The audience that were captured by the splendid start, and were waiting for the rest of the team to do some magic with it, were disappointed. This song has great potential, and can really be a chartbuster provided the team puts in some work. Bhoop as a raaga is a simple major pentatonic, but the team isn't necessarily bound to keep with just the pure notes of the raaga. They could have experimented with multiple raagas, or atleast straying to the parent thaat (kalyan) and coming up with some interesting variations.

A small technical detail : The chord they were using when the 'dhom' came to the major 2nd note, was a minor chord. This leads to the perfect 4th note 'ma' being played which doesn't exist either in the pentatonic Bhoop , or its parent thaat. They could have played a sus4, 2nd or even a major chord (resulting in the interesting Tritone note - the second 'Ma' ) there.
The reviewer is no expert on raagas

Great songs

Jawaani Jaaneman
The guitaring was excellent and the singing also was great except for initial hiccups.

Joom Joom Joom
Suparna was absolutely great here - great attitude. Sanjay's seconds were perfect. Rest of the instrumentals, guitars ..were all great here.

Humma Humma
This song was done on V drums. Maybe it was just the mixing that was better, or maybe it was the V drums but the percussion sounded great. The song was very well done. The male vocals could have been better in the backing vocals.

Dum maro Dum
Another great reproduction of a great oldie. Suparna was great here too. The cool touch was bringing in a line from 'Aa Dekhe Zara' as if was part of the same song.

Its the time to Disco
Very well rendered.. though the characteristic tablas were missing. The bass lines were pretty good.

Some not so great songs

Dum
I was thrilled at hearing this song start. The singers also started with great energy. But this is a song where the vocal notes are sudden and harder to be exact . Rahul who has the right kind of voice for it, was having trouble hitting the notes right. The drumming also was not providing the energy needed for this song. Part of the problem maybe the mixing - the song improved towards the end.

Laila O Laila
Reproducing the percussion for this faithfully is a little hard, but with the V drums I've seen a good job being done. But the opening roll was nothing like the original. The 'rasputin roll' in the middle of the song was passable.

Pretty Woman
The opening guitar lines accompanying 'maine jise' and others weren't heard at all. The drumming tracks here have many layers, and it would have helped if Hemant stayed at the V drums. When the song moves to the paragraphs, the drumming changes to a 'ghatam' effect which contributes greatly to the change of the tone of the song, but percussion here didn't vary. Even Sanjay was unimpressive here. The guitar had too much distortion on it - rendering the lead rather unclear. The rap needed more attitude.

Other aspects

Bhajia Productions
Prithvi did a smart job by using a production company. This team seems to have it together. The videos, lighting and screen effects, , the mixing, and the mimicry interlude were great. The mimicry has to be singled out for additional praise.

Dancers
There was a 2 girl-1 guy team that did a dance. While the girls were pretty good, the guy didn't do anything right other than keeping up a smile throughout. He was fumbling through half of the item trying to follow & follow the girls

Summary

It is a 1000 times easier to sit in the audience and critique a performance than get up there and present something likeable. Prithvians practise well, and have put up a great show. Their showmanship more than makes up for their lack of precision.

If they keep up with what they are doing -esp. with their compositions, they can go places.
They should hookup with organizations that are good at promotions and ticket sales. They definitely deserve more audience numbers than were in the program.
They could use with some additional members for percussion. They also should try to use the V-drums to full effect.
Their second male singer Rahul could use some voice training to put full use of his strong voice.
Their mix setting is more suited for a college band/ or a western band. Hindi songs usually have the guitars at a lower volume, and other instruments (keys) higher.

About the author

Natraj Gujran is a mostly self taught guitarist. He has played for a number of bands both in India and abroad. He has performed with various bay area groups such as Roshni, Raaga and Dhun. He is a perfectionist in approach and is a keen follower of various forms of music.

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