I am retiring Madras Bee

This will probably be my last post on Madras Bee. After more than three years of blogging on Madras Bee I will not be posting any more reviews. However the site will exist with the old posts.

Managing multiple blogs and social networking accounts has become difficult. My music reviews will continue but they will appear on my personal blog Subash's World. They may not be as frequent as I did here on Madras Bee but they will appear as I was and will always be passionate about music.

I am also stopping my movie reviews on Amazon.com for the same reason and the fact that Amazon edits and bans reviews but movie reviews will appear on my personal blog as well.

I may start another blog for these reviews but for now I am pretty busy.

I thank you all for reading my posts and offering your comments all these years.

Dharan and Laadam

"Laadam" could be the turning point for music director Dharan. The song "Siru Thoduthalile" is lovely and so is its flute instrumental version. Most of the other songs are either Rap or Techno based. An unusual album but you cannot afford to miss the the best song.

Check it out at Hummaa.com

Why you should be listening to this album from Mithoon

Oh yes, the guy behind songs such as "Woh Lamhe", "Maula Mere Maula" and "Tere Bin" is back with an album "Tuhi Mere Rab Ki Tarha Hai" full of slow songs. Though it can get monotonous here are some songs you must be listening to.

1. Har Jagah Mein - beautiful number whose rythim reminded me of "Yeh Dili Naadan" from Razia Sultan.

2. Tuhi Mera tarah - a duet and its good.

3. Tuu hai - starts well but is ok because it's a long song.

4. Kuch dard - slow and sweet but the monotony is broken with instrument solo's.

Good four songs but you may like the rest too. Worth listening to.

Yuvan has a rocker to offer

The way music directors in the south like A R Rahman, Illayaraja and Yuvan Shankar use singers from the North (most of them who hardly can pronounce South Indian languages clearly) has to be truly lauded.

Who else would imagine Adnan Sami to be singing a Tamil hit. Check out "Oru Kal" Yuvan's offering for the Tamil movie "Siva Manasula Sakthi". Yuvan's version of the same song is not bad either. I wonder if Adnan Sami could have composed a hit as this. In fact it's been quite a while since we heard a hit from him.

"Oru Adangapidari" sung by Shankar Mahadevan is also bound to become popular. So is the reggae influenced "Eppadio Mattikiten" though it could have sounded better had it been a faster number.

"Oru Paarvayil" by Ranjith is a good tiny number.

Meanwhile Harris has a good one in "Nenje Nenje" in the up-coming Suriya-Thamanna movie Ayan.

Mahaleela by Sivamani, A surprisingly good album

I took time to review this album but it is surprisingly so good that I thought it was worthy of a review. You can actually listen to a lot of other instruments besides percussion from Sivamani whose work seems to be more in the background. "Mahaleela" easily qualifies for a good World Music album.

The good songs:

1. Aadhar - Lovely sitar on this one, actually an incredible solo.
2. Vasi Vasi with Shankar mahadevan, Sivamani's background percussion in the beginning of the song is good, Shankar's good singing. Sivamani does his bit well for this one.
3. Basin Bridge - Is it Prasanna on guitars here? Prasanna and Sivamani have been friends for a long time and have been on various stages together. Lovely guitar solo whoever the guitarist was. Vocals heard too but not for a long time. Some drum solo towards the end.
4. Infinity - Marimba/xylophone used by Sivamani, female group vocal sounds very Illayarajaish and a lovely Saarangi solo
5. Mother's land - Lovely flute solo's that is worth the listen, veena heard too.
6. S M Anandan - A song dedicated to his father? Good and a nice portion of Sivamani's drumming heard.

..and the Ok songs:

1. Abbhaji
2. Dancing on the moon
3. Jam packed

... and the lousy ones:

1. Kriya
2. Thank you (could have avoided this one and simply mentioned details on the CD sleeve)

It's raining A R Rahman hits

One thing I forgot while watching Ghajini at Aynikkal Movies in Chalakudy was the song I heard before the show began. I was tempted to ask people from which album the song was playing.

As I was browsing A R Rahman's official site it hit me like a shot from the blue when I heard "Meherbaan" from the movie "Ada" play on his site. A must listen if you haven't heard it.

A R R sings it in an unforgettable romantic style. It felt romantic in the cinema. We went to see it alone, unlike the usual crowd we take to the movies.