… and amidst all of this madness, I almost forgot that I have to thank The Great Indian October Fest, for getting to see the most amazing musical performance I have seen in a long, long time. On Sunday night, a large group of musicians called The Manganiyar Seduction played, and we had been told by a number of locals that it was a performance well worth watching. So I got myself a glass of red wine from the bar upstairs and awaited the beginning of the show with impatience. The stage set up was quite unique: there was a massive vertical construction of 36 man-size cubicles, stacked on top of one another; 9 in one horizontal line and the whole thing 4 columns high… and in each individual cubicle, a musician was sitting cross-legged behind red velvet curtains, illuminated by a frame of light bulbs when he was performing. At the beginning of the show, all the curtains were closed, and one by one, they were flung open, as the respective musician started to play - and closed again, once his part was finished. At the same time as the curtains were opened and closed, the light bulbs came on and off. The show started with one sole singer, sitting in the center cubicle, singing and gesticulating a meditative mantra. It didnt take long until 3 tablas drummers joined, underlaying a hypnotizing groove to his eery, out-of-this-world vocals. A sitar quartet came in next and added another layer, more players joined in while others hushed… tablas players, sitar players, flutes, other sections of singers; soprano, alto, bass… finally, a derwish came up on stage, dancing in trance to the clapping of hands and the beat of the tablas, giving the players cues, directing this otherworldly orchestra as it gained momentum and speed, as it was heading towards the cliff, and over the edge, down the abyss… Sometimes 10 curtains were flung open at the same second, while 6 singers started to chant in unison. It was an incredible performance, theatrical but not pathetic, very well executed, not only from a musical, but also from a visual perspective: the dimmed light bulbs created the perfect ambiance, and the topography of the players arrangement was spectacular - the music was mainly altering between instrumental parts carried by sitar and tablas drums on the one hand, and parts carried by the vocalists on the other hand. The sitar section was sitting in the bottom left corner, while most of the vocalists were seated on the right and in the center, so the transitions between the performances of those musical sections were dramatic, not only musically, but visually as well. The whole arrangement with the light bulbs and red velvet curtains has apparently been inspired by the red light district of Amsterdam. People around me were screaming like mad, men and women started to dance, noone could resist this… and when the bass drum player in the top rows rightmost box first hit his massive drum (at 6 minutes into my video), it was heavier than the heaviest double bass attack in any metal song, though the people around me were screaming so loud that you can barely hear it on the video. I started out filming this with my phone, and ended up capturing 17 minutes of their performance, until my phones storage space was used up. I want to share this with you in its full uncut glory, and I strongly recommend watching through this entirely. It keeps getting better and better. I have not felt as excited, tormented and uplifted at the same time, at any rock or metal show I have seen in the past few months as here, forced into a discomfortable state of trance by these incredible singers and musicians from Rajasthan. All hail THE MANGANIYAR SEDUCTION BY ROYSTEN ABEL. An incredibly inspiring, gut-wrenching, mind-boggling performance. A religious experience for the non-religious. Watch out, the next Ocean album may have just taken a serious push into a new direction ;-)
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 11:56:53 +0000
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