Cinemaazi remembers Charanjit Singh on his death anniversary
5 Jul 2015
One of the progenitors of the acid house genre, Charanjit Singh passed away on 5 July, 2015. His interest in music grew from his family's musical equipment shop. Becoming a part of a band which covered popular film songs, he soon got offers to become a session musician for some of the Hindi film industry's top composers, mostly R D Burman. He also went on several international tours with leading singers like Kishore Kumar. It was on these trips he would pick up equipment that were pre-cursors to the electronic sound. He was the man behind the drone sound in Dum maaro dum from Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971). He was also inspired by another synth-pioneer, Kersi Lord. What really changed the course for him was the purchase of the Roland TB-303 from Singapore. Inspired by the disco music in Hindi films, he got the novel idea of putting ten raagas to the tune of disco, using the 303 to synch tabla beats. The resultant album Ten Raagas to a Disco Beat was a commercial failure, but in later years as acid house music developed through the work of musicians based in Chicago, interest in Singh's work was revived. Today the album is regarded as a key piece of the pre-history of modern electronic dance music.
