The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969​-​1972

 

You knew electronic music was being made in Ahmedabad, Western India, at the National Institute of Design, didn't you? Of course...

You didn't imagine it...or even dream it.

Here's the proof. A compilation from state51 Conspiracy. 

This is sound archaeology of the highest order. Yes, the past IS another country. India. Unless you come from India where, sometime between 1969 and 1972, S.C. Sharma made Dance Music I, predicting Minimalist Techno. That's one track. There are 18 others. Two of them are Jinraj Joshipura's Space Liner 2001 1&2, fantastic spatial odysseys reminiscent of earlier electronic/visual dreams of a future in which space flight was not only easily imaginable but clean, precise, romantically optimistic? That said, the second is more brooding, even ominous.

I.S. Mathur's Once I Played a Tanpura stands out, not because it's 'better' than other tracks, but because it sounds like the birth of Glenn Branca. A progressive statement from Mathur? Dismissing the traditional instrument and heralding the era of the electric guitar's potential as a futuristic feedback machine.

Atul Desai's Recordings for Osaka Expo is the only track which does acknowledge traditional Indian music, therefore placing, geographically, the source of all this music. The tradition is fused with (consumed by?) technology, naturally, but done so in a way that both respects and usurps it.

A highly recommended compilation. You can read more about electronic music in India here. And buy the album or download here.