Bombay The Hard Way: Guns, Cars And Sitars [Soundtrack]

Bombay The Hard Way: Guns, Cars And Sitars [Soundtrack]

ASIN: B00000HYAK

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The Indian film-soundtrack cassettes that can be had for a couple of bucks at any Indian spice shop have long been one of the best buys in prerecorded music. Despite the fact that hundreds of fresh titles are cranked out assembly-line style each year, they maintain a remarkable consistency of quality. This CD's ostensible mission is to introduce the uninitiated hipster to the sitar-, string-, and synthesizer-laden grooves that characterize the incidental music for most "Bollywood" productions. But album producer Dan "the Automator" Nakamura has heavily tampered with the original tracks, giving the songs inanely ironic new titles and even dubbing in additional drum and sitar in an effort to put his stamp on the music. Easily angered purists should steer clear; for others, it offers entertaining enough background listening. --Charley Gothic

Entertainment Weekly
If the action in these movies is reflective of Hard Way's musical bent, they must be a real howl.

Tracks:

Bombay 405 Miles
The Good, The Bad And The Chutney
My Guru
Ganges A Go-Go
The Great Gambler
Professor Pyarelal
Fist Of Curry
Punjabis, Pimps & Players
Inspector Jay From Dehli
Satchidananda
Theme From Don
Fear Of A Brown Planet
Uptown Bollywood Nights
Kundans Hideout
Swami Safari

Amazon.com

The Indian film-soundtrack cassettes that can be had for a couple of bucks at any Indian spice shop have long been one of the best buys in prerecorded music. Despite the fact that hundreds of fresh titles are cranked out assembly-line style each year, they maintain a remarkable consistency of quality. This CD's ostensible mission is to introduce the uninitiated hipster to the sitar-, string-, and synthesizer-laden grooves that characterize the incidental music for most "Bollywood" productions. But album producer Dan "the Automator" Nakamura has heavily tampered with the original tracks, giving the songs inanely ironic new titles and even dubbing in additional drum and sitar in an effort to put his stamp on the music. Easily angered purists should steer clear; for others, it offers entertaining enough background listening. --Charley Gothic

Customer Reviews:

Funky 70s Bollywood samplers.......2006-07-23

Mesmerising collection of sampler tracks from the composer duo Kalyanji-Anandji. Interspersed with corny dialogues from the movies, which inject humor. Amitabh Bachchan does the honors in Tracks 5 and 9.

The additional beats add to the tempo of the tracks. Good to see such material unearthed from inane, forgotten movies from India. Should be a breath of fresh air to the western audiences looking for something different.

Dont take it too seriously and you will like it.......2005-09-01

Being Indian, I was curious about how a non-indian would interpret our current music. To a serious listener, the music may sound weird and maybe even bad. But if you stay back a little, then the funky twists can be catchy.

Maybe this is part of the Fusion that some people are talking about. If our Bollywood films and music spread over the world, then other people will make their own interpretations and enrich us all.

Still A Favorite 6+ Years After I Bought It.......2005-08-24

I first heard cuts from the CD on the University of St. Cloud (Minnesota) radio station (corporate radio isn't going to touch it!) and was intrigued, so I got the CD in 1999 and have loved it ever since.

A prevous reviewer didn't like the modern remixing of or overlays on many of the songs, but this doesn't bother me (it doesn't seem heavy-handed) and it might make the CD a little more accessible to people who aren't familiar with the genre.

The tracks are alternately "groovy", mellow, James Bond-ish, chase-scene-ish, sinister, romantic...basically a late 60's/early 70s adventure movie extravaganza with an Indian twist and a bit of 90s DJ mixing. Somehow all of it flows together, though I suspect the songs come from different movies.

This brings me to just a couple of minor gripes: although there is a great little booklet in the package that explains the sometimes odd and dangerous world of Bollywood, there are no notes about the movies these tracks came from, which leaves me curious, especially since there are some odd sound bites of actors speaking dialogue in Hindi and English--I'd like to know the context! Actually, I'd rather have the movie notes and no dialogue, because it just disrupts the flow a little for me.

This is one of the most unusual CDs I have, and it's great to work to. People who see it on my CD rack or hear me playng it are inevitably curious about it. I love it! If you're curious about the genre or like sountracks or mod/funk sounds in general, this is a nice compilation.

mellow indian wonderland.......2004-03-18

this album is especially good for it has a variety of sounds yet all similiar to the theme of the album. DJ Shadow and Dan the Automator are the best at what they do and show it on this disc.
the flow is nice and the sounds, although varied, are mellow and an easy listen that is pleasing to the ears. I have yet to see the movie, if one exists. All in all this is one of the best instrumentals if come by, next to the fight club ost.

Not what I expected.........2003-12-04

I thought I was going to hear reel tracks from low budget Bollywood flicks. Instead I get tainted reinterpretations of these songs. I guess I was expecting something like a compilation like the DEEP NOTE series, not a DJ remix.

Album Review:

Album Review

Album Review