The soundtracks of India’s film industry dominate its music business, with the biggest tunes coming from the never-ending stream of blockbusters produced in Mumbai and Chennai. The great Indian composers and singers remain virtually unknown in the West and Western music does not cross-over well in India either. Reissue label Now Again has unearthed some rare music, some obscure music, and now in India’s Atomic Forest some music that the adjectives ‘rare’ and ‘obscure’ don’t seem adequate to describe.
In 1981, Atomic Forest released their album Obsession ’77, to a totally indifferent audience. Disco was yet to be big in India, and crazed psych never had mass appeal on the Subcontinent. Yet Atomic Forest’s band leader Keith Kanga created an album of covers in both a psych and disco style, alongside a handful of original compositions.
For a long time, Atomic Forest lay unexplored. Two versions of the title track, ‘Obsession’, were lifted for Bully’s brilliant Obsession compilation in 2008. Neither sitars nor other Indian classical instruments feature prominently, the group opting instead for the Western drums, bass and guitar combination, and only a passing debt to The Beatles. The results are stunning – raw, funky and frankly odd compositions and cover versions that suffer from poor recordings but are undeniably fresh.
Label boss Eothen ‘Egon’ Alapatt led the sequencing of the record with the cooperation of two surviving founding members, singer Madhukar Chandra Dhas and lead guitarist Abraham Mammen. The location of the band leader, Keith Kanga remains unknown, adding considerably to mystique of the group.
Deep Purple could be a good starting-point comparison for the sound on the original ‘Obsession’ tracks, and they give a great, sleazy cover of ‘Mary Long’ before a heavy version of Jethro Tull’s ‘Locomotive Breath’. Throughout, there’s a depth of skill and style that ranges from rock to jazz to funk to blues, with the band is heavy on the wah-wah and drumming. The recordings, though, are lo-fi, with the hi-hits hissing from tape distortion.
Their version of ‘Windmills of your Mind’ from the original version of The Thomas Crown Affair includes a Theramin solo, while two versions of the funky ‘Butterfly’, owe a debt to Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly soundtrack and could easily grace a modern dancefloor.
If this sounds like a heady mixture, that’s because it is. The band could be several different groups, the sound changing from tune to tune, each with a psychedelic take on the blues, rock or film themes, but the oddness of the choices adds to their appeal. It does make you wonder what Atomic Forest were like live… Handily, a very low-quality but wild live recording of Hendrix’s ‘Foxy Lady’ has been included, with most of the tune dumped in favour of an totally over-the-top guitar solo.
As Keith Kanga’s whereabouts is completely unknown, links to the present are probably completely broken, but now suddenly resurrected thanks to the obsession of a handful of crate diggers and collectors. Their musical archaeology has uncovered some fantastic music, much of which sounds surprisingly fresh and raw.
