Streets of Calcutta
The opener of the 1975 album: a fast city portrait that became a rare-groove classic in the 1990s.
Ananda Shankar, from Ananda Shankar and His Music (1975)
- Released
- 1975
- Album
- Ananda Shankar and His Music
Scroll's Nate Rabe described an early composition in tribute to Calcutta, fast moving, with funky guitar rhythms, dervish-like flutes and squawking synth, in which the sitar "pushes all traffic aside along Chowringhee." Alan James first heard it in the mid-1990s and was blown away, and Blue Note put it on its 1996 compilation Blue Juice Vol. 1. MTV said it and Dancing Drums made the rounds on the British rare groove and trip-hop scenes in the 1990s, and its writer found the album in Calcutta.
Alan James was surprised to learn that tracks like this one had been recorded on very basic equipment. A live version of Streets of Calcutta is on Walking On.
More songs by Ananda Shankar
Jumpin' Jack Flash, Sagar (The Ocean), Raghupati, Dancing Drums
Sources
- Five psychedelic sitar classics by Ananda Shankar, Scroll.in (2015-07-12)
- Ananda Shankar's enduring genius, Scroll.in (2017-12-11)
- Crate digging for Indian disco on the streets of Calcutta, MTV Hive
- The Ananda Shankar Experience, Real World Records