Megha / மேகா

The more I listen to "EnnaVaendum", the usage of drums and electric guitar is not his usual style. Especially the kick drum is used at odd beats. Both the kick drum and bass guitar are complementing each other..

Here is my review of 'Megha' album. As usual I have this up at my blog as well. http://onlyraja.wordpress.com

When the cloud partially block the sun, you get a lovely light and shade effect on the ground below. Raja gives the same light and shade effect in the album ‘Megha’. The light being music and the shade being silence. Like an impressionist painting, Raja dabs the light and shades in such a way as to create a superb musical painting.


Raja is always known for the density of his music and the multitude of ideas almost every phrase of his contain. Raja fills the space of his music with backing bass chords, with the harmony of the strings, with contrapuntal melody and other techniques. The ideas flow from one phrase to another leaving the listener breathless. In this album he leaves the breathless not just through his music but also through the silence. There is silence in Raja’s music but no single album of his can claim that he has accentuated the silent parts so much. In ‘Megha’ time and again he draws out attention to silence.


I am not going to do song analysis but rather try and express the pattern of light and shade that I found in the songs. So the focus on all songs is going to be about this dynamic relationship between sound and silence.


Let’s start with the first song, ‘mugilo’ which sort of sets the keynote for all the songs that follow. The prelude is an excellent example of accentuating the silence with a melody. The initial piano chords and the way the strings come in and dissolve almost keep the silence intact. Then the humming done after the drumming starts. Here too the voice never raises above certain volume as if scared of breaking the silence. The first interlude start once again is a contrast to the pallavi and again you have the play of softness of the piano later joined by others. Even though the charanam is fully backed by instruments, the charanam tune has so many fade outs that you can feel the silence even when instruments are going on in the background. The second interlude also follows this pattern of light and shade. If you hear the Raja version, this becomes even more clear.


Now lets take ‘Chellam Konjum’. The guitar and bass guitar provide the needed silence. Observe how softly they play initially and how they stop suddenly when Yuvan is singing and that accentuates the silence. Same happens when Ramya starts singing. The second interlude has wonderful pauses throughout. 
It is the same in case of ‘enna vendum’ as well with instruments pausing and starting. The bass for example pauses and never plays continuously and almost everything other than the drums stop towards end of first interlude.


Nothing highlights this light and shade aspect better than ‘kalvane kalvane’. The song starts as if it will go the ‘niram piriththu parthen’ way but suddenly the piano joins in with the rock chords. Then throughout the song it is a lovely interplay between sound and silence. In the first interlude especially, the strings suddenly stop when the drummer joins in and start when he goes away !! And the charanam has so many pauses. In the whole song you have no clue who will join when and who will leave when. Just try following the piano during the pallavi. He comes with a flourish and suddenly vanishes only to reappear in the background again. This is an amazing song full of unexpected things. This is a song of a man having fun confusing the hell out of us.


‘jeevane jeevane’ is a silent cry of a man deeply in love. While there is some chorus and string work reminiscent of ‘satru munbu’  from NEPV, he ensures this does not turn out to be as dark as that song. The wailing guitar is easily the highlight and the piano which follows with the slow fading contrasts very well with the guitar. This song is like ‘mayilgalin iragugal’ (peacock feathers). Such a soft and silent song.


(I am not writing about ‘putham pudhu kaali’ since this was not composed for this movie, though I will state that I don’t have any problem with that song as recorded in this album)


This wonderful music and silence effect of Raja is outstandingly realized due to two important factors: the recording quality and instrument players. The recording quality is easily the best of any Raja album I have heard till now. As my friend @arulselvan mentioned on twitter, every instrument sounds natural. And as the audiophile @raja4ever mentioned in an Illayaraja forum, the recording is done so as to give us an effect that the orchestra is playing for just us in our room. The way the sound fades is amazing captured and that plays a significant part in enhancing the listening experience.


The Hungarian Jazz musicians have played on this album. From the videos I saw, the drummer is not Nemeth, who played for NEPV. This drummer has soft hands and plays the drums perfectly in keeping with the mood of the album. Unlike NEPV, where every song had to be propelled and the drumming provided the required acceleration, the songs in this album stand still most of the time. The drummer understands this and plays accordingly. What can you say about the guy who played the piano !! Wonderful. Emphasizing the sound when he must and playing with a feather touch when required. Attila, as usual, is superb on the lead guitar. The clarity of tone outstanding and his volume control terrific.


The overall effect of this approach was well captured by @arulselvan when he said that except for ‘jeevane jeeva’, no other song can he heard without breaking into a smile. This is because you don’t know when there will be music, who will play that music, when there would be silence and who would be silent. The whole album is based on unexpected occurrences and in that sense it captures the spirit of jazz very well.


It was but natural that people compare this album with NEPV, both featuring the Hungarians and being recorded in London. In spirit, these are completely different albums. NEPV was a album which tore the heart of lovers and showed your their naked emotions, be it joy, sorrow or anguish. It was the album of lovers who _had_ to express their love to each other loudly and explicitly. ‘Megha’ on the other hand belongs to lovers who feel their love sitting next to each other and keeping quite. Silence is what makes moments memorable for them. That is why, in NEPV, you heard music even when there was silence. In ‘Megha’ you hear the silence even when the music is played.


If you insist on an one word assessment of this album : ‘Outstanding’ 

I could not resist writing about the way the fading is done in all of the songs. It's like the mist appearing(fade-in) and disappearing ( fade-out). Nothing harsh or abrupt... It's silky smooth entry and exit. Even when certain instruments join in the middle of the song. The mixing engineer has done an awesome job here...

kiru wrote: ..IR also uses some of his older techniques/phrases with more confidence ..which were consciously avoided in NEPV.. 

Kiru, 

This is spot on and nails the difference between NEPV & Megha! 

Megha makes me wanting to listen to NEPV and NEPV makes me go back to Megha!
It is a bit exasperating (delightfully)!

However, I think for now I want IR to go back to Veenai, violins, mirudhangam, shenoy & horns for the next treat! I miss them dearly. Also, I can't handle one more Megha for some time. It is too much:)

Gokul

Great.. looks like I am mostly in sync with you guys on the appreciation of this album.
@V_S - yes ..NEPV was a 8/8 and Megha 5/7 . I just notice an ease in the composition in Megha. Maybe NEPV was a challenge and Megha was done in a little bit more relaxed way (enna vendum is typical of an IR mixed bag) . Megha also has jazz integration (dont remember how it was in NEPV). The piano decorations on the charanam lines are very interesting. For that matter, I would say Megha as a whole has better integration of orchestra, rock guitar and jazz playing. Still, I agree, NEPV was an impressive effort. I dont mind NEPV getting a score bit higher than Megha. It was a show of strength, this is a show of finesse. Moreover, I have to say, that NEPV was a ground breaking album.
@Suresh - the start/stop in kalvanE is very interesting. I believe now IR gives a damn about rules. If it make "sense" to him he would do it. And I think we have to trust his musical judgement after the man has done so much work. Maybe in future, these things he does will become "normal/standard" practice
@Gokul - it is very tempting to compare NEPV and Megha. I think Megha will appeal also because it is a little bit more positive sounding. Re: going back to indian instruments. You probably might get it in that telugu historical. If Megha was NEPV++, probably that will be pazhassi rAja++. pazhassi Raja was indian music arranged in a western way - chorus, multi-part vocals etc. If that telugu movie is gonna take that route I am all for it.

"MugilO mEgamO" has that haunting Raja's 80's melodic characteristics and is it not natural for us to expect
somebody like SPB/SJ to do justice? i am unable to relish Raja singing at his age . Yuvan is a gone case and I am tired of lamenting. This time, to my surprise, even Ramya NSK is found wanting. She seemed a bit out of place in a trademark Raja melody.
I cannot help but compare with how SJ/SPB pair had lived in a similar tuned "uyire urave ondru naan sollavaa" from "anbin mugavari"


http://www.raaga.com/channels/tamil/moviedetail.asp?mid=T0002639

@mythila - that was a very good find/analogous tune. While the 80s tunes is driven by bassline, the new tune is almost incomplete in the vocal part of the tune. I dont think, mugilO megamO sol vERu veRu irandum iradO is a complete melody. The charanam are a bit more independent, relatively speaking. Without the strings, the pallavi will have no melodic value in my books. Since the singers are not singing the full tune, it does not matter to me who is singing it. Yuvan sounds stylish, IR is better in the diction depart (aRaigaLil by IR, aRagaLil or something by yuvan) . Lyrics are good to excellent. In my ears and mind, it is mainly the strings that keep playing back again and again. It is possible, if you do not give enough weightage to the orchestration, the song will not have much value for you.

I've posted the review of CNC by "rarefied" blogger in the new albums thread...

Here is the review of mEghA by the same reviewer!

Perhaps wanting to recreate the Saayndhu Saayndhu (Neethaane En Ponvasantham) magic, Ilaiyaaraja ropes in Yuvan Shankar Raja and Ramya NSK not for one, but two duets. The first, Mugilo Megamo, has a gorgeous tune and stunning orchestration (those violins!) no doubt, but Yuvan's rendition mauls the song big time. He is however much more apt and in better form in Chellam, the soft rock touches adorning the lovely melody.


While Yenna Vendum (Karthik, Priyadarshini) is your usual Raja fare, Jeevane Jeevane, sung by Ilaiyaraaja himself, is pathos at its best. Kalvane's interesting tune shifts against a jazzy background are a refreshing departure from the composer's repertoire, and Haricharan's vocals are a big plus.


That leaves us with Puthum Pudhu Kalai, the Alaigal Oivathillai song as evergreen as it was back in the eighties. Singer Anitha too does an admirable job behind the mic, though it's tough not drawing comparisons to the veteran S. Janaki, who had crooned the original.


Isaignani's Megha is greatly satisfying, but could have turned out spectacular if not for those questionable choice of singers!

Like I tweeted, it would have become a spectacular album had IR chosen not to have puththam puthukkAlai in the form it got delivered.

Either the same song with totally revised style (mandrAm vandha to cheeni kum or vizhiyilE to jAnE dO nA are examples of such terrific changes) or an entirely new female solo (with S Chauhan or S Goshal or at least NSK R) would have made this album make up for two Yuvan and two IR songs apart from one weak enna vENdum...

kaLvanE kaLvanE is obviously the most stunning song of the album!

I'm yet to give "proper" listen to this album, still not in a "settled mind"

Make no mistake about it - I love IR's voice (including the current one, love ungappan pEra) !

However, I'm no longer in a mood to listen to ANY pathos kind of singing by him  

Please, please sing only kuRumbu, thuLLal, joy, kEli kind of songs any more! Enough of laments / urugals / ammA / jeevanE/ thaththuvam kinds!

By the same token, while he definitely sounds great in mugilO mEghamO, my preference would have been a ShreyA Goshal solo of the same number!

With just two changes (PPK with revised orch + ShreyA / Sunithi) and mugilO solo by ShreyA instead of IR - it would have been an extraordinary album.

If PPK is replaced by an entirely new, emotional female solo (mudhal muRai / satRu munbu kinds), it would have given a tough fight to NEPV

However, let me say - all these are relative to only other IR scores - mEghA towers above anything by any other TFM MD in the recent history!

It seems like some of the instruments are suppressed intentionally? For example, if you see the teaser video for "Muhilo Maegamo", when IR sings "Maegamo, you could hear the flute.. which is missing the finished product. I can't wait to get the original DVD. I will be able to explore and bring out the hidden treasures  If songs are this good.. wondering about the quality of the background score... I'm sure we are in for a feast... 

raja4ever wrote:It seems like some of the instruments are suppressed intentionally? For example, if you see the teaser video for "Muhilo Maegamo", when IR sings "Maegamo, you could hear the flute.. which is missing the finished product. I can't wait to get the original DVD. I will be able to explore and bring out the hidden treasures  If songs are this good.. wondering about the quality of the background score... I'm sure we are in for a feast... 

I posted earlier about the same thing (flute of teaser missing) but jaiganesh "irukkuppA"nnu kuttinAr

app_engine wrote:

raja4ever wrote:It seems like some of the instruments are suppressed intentionally? For example, if you see the teaser video for "Muhilo Maegamo", when IR sings "Maegamo, you could hear the flute.. which is missing the finished product. I can't wait to get the original DVD. I will be able to explore and bring out the hidden treasures  If songs are this good.. wondering about the quality of the background score... I'm sure we are in for a feast... 

I posted earlier about the same thing (flute of teaser missing) but jaiganesh "irukkuppA"nnu kuttinAr

Its very very faint.. I checked it out couple of times.  Wish the multi-track recording made available to us. Where,  we could focus in on certain instrument or bunch of instruments through a software to hear his music in different perspective. Sort of the features that you find in a "Lytro Camera" where in you take a picture and you can change the "point of view" of the picture taken via the software (sort of zoom in/out and focusing).

app_engine wrote:
kaLvanE kaLvanE is obviously the most stunning song of the album!
..

It is a stunner, but the "most" is basically one's preference for a style or genre. I think mugilO and kalvanE are the top two, but I prefer mugilO as I am an orchestration fan. I am finding it difficult to understand when people pull down the album because of the choice of singers. This album would be impressive just based on sheet music :-) . Since I cannot read sheet music, I am happy there is an audible version. Yes, compositional value is what this is all about. Can you imagine creating mugilO ? It is the equivalent of writing a multi-thread program or a MR job (if you are into Big Data).  Requires a different kind of mind. Not many in the popular music front can think like this, IMHO.

kiru wrote:
I am finding it difficult to understand when people pull down the album because of the choice of singers.

What to do, too much luxury

(Even "those days", even for "EdhO mOgam", I had frequently pulambified for Krishnachandar...pazhakka dhOsham)

@app - neengaLo . madhanO sonna ok. Some critics are using it to not give credit to IR. For a long time, we had bad production quality in IR songs (even now and then it happens). Others with mediocre compositions are getting help from all other depts using collaborators and impressing people with the whole package. Now we have everything (composition, lyrics, recording) and it is the choice of singers that seems to be pulling us down :-(
Note, I am not really a fan of Yuvan or even Ramya. Just that I am impressed with the music, these seem like low-priority bugs.

kiru wrote:@app - neengaLo . madhanO sonna ok. Some critics are using it to not give credit to IR. For a long time, we had bad production quality in IR songs (even now and then it happens). Others with mediocre compositions are getting help from all other depts using collaborators and impressing people with the whole package. Now we have everything (composition, lyrics, recording)  and it is the choice of singers that seems to be pulling us down :-(
Note, I am not really a fan of Yuvan or even Ramya. Just that I am impressed with the music, these seem like low-priority bugs.

Certainly - u1 blame him however much you want - is still a unique voice that connects with youngsters ( i dont have to provide examples).
Now Raaja himself has said countless times that he is not after getting a crystal clear spotless voice - he is seeking a voice that can be unique and represent something - there is no nepotism when it comes to Raja and his sons singing for him. u1's voice fits Saayndhu saayndhu to the T and so it will for MuhilO - Agreed it is not SPB- but for the bachchaa hero - SPB voice will be so wasted. So his voice is a good choice and he has delivered. As Kiru says - these u1 voice hate thingy is being used by folks to pull down what is an awesome awesome album.

Wow, this is a great forum, never knew about it.  I just stumbled on it while searching for some articles on Megha.  So why not start with this topic?

jaiganesh:  I will give you one more reason why Yuvan is a problem.  If I am not mistaken, IR has used auto tune on his voice in the charanam.  It's noteworthy that even after this, he still sounds flat, he's not able to capture the 'curves' of the melody the way Ramya does in the second charanam.  If IR has used auto tune on any singer before, at least I haven't noticed.  I don't have anything against auto tune in a very electronic based dance track but in the midst of Mugilo's lush, beautiful sounds, it's a bit off putting for me.  However, I do agree on one point with you that the music is good enough that he doesn't ruin the whole song for me.  But I only really like Mugilo and Kalvane (superlike!)...Jeevane is good but predictable and the other two tracks don't do much at all for me. 

On another note, I am not sure about this being  a jazz album as some have said in this thread.  Maybe the word jazz is being used in a different use than that of simply the music form jazz?  Imo, Kalvane is the only real jazz track on this album.

irir123 wrote:MEGHA is great - but what would have been a complete masterpiece is ruined by the choice of singers - Yuvan is terrible, to say the least - why is IR insisting on Yuvan as a singer I cannot fathom ?

here is a heartfelt opinion of a renowned Jazz critic after listening to IR's recent works :

"i regret just beginning to explore The Maestro's music at this point in his career, and wish i had heard some of his earlier music.
i really wish i could have heard this soundtrack as purely instrumental music. 

His gift for arrangements and dynamics within songs is exquisite. and it IS very cool to hear his voice on this soundtrack, too.
 
With that said, some of these vocals add nothing of value to this music. i understand that these vocals are important from a thematic perspective (to help advance or comment upon the action in the film). but i'd have loved to have heard some of these tracks in their purest form, before the vocals were put on top.
 
that first piece (he is referring to Saindhu saindhu from NEPV) would have been a beautiful Pat Metheny tune, for example, without the vocals on it.
 

Hi, is there any news on the NEPV review yet?  I am really looking forward to a different perspective on it.  

Interesting what he said about vocals.  I am a prog rock fan and I talk to lot of Western listeners on the net.   Except opera, sophisticated/advanced Western music is generally dominated by instruments and I have observed that listeners of the same too are more interested in the instrumental sections and don't care much about vocals.  I respect that but I guess IR conceived these tracks as SONGS so their pure form also necessarily involves the vocal element.  I can sympathise with his views on Saindhu Saindhu and I too would have liked to just snip Yuvan's voice out of the track...but hypothetically introduce somebody else's voice in his place instead.  It would only sound incomplete to me without the singing.

Welcome crimsonking to the forum with a nice post.

crimson king wrote:If I am not mistaken, IR has used auto tune on his voice in the charanam.

IR and auto-tune NEVER, so far. I have listened to this song umpteen times already, I could not sense any auto-tune in it.

crimson king wrote:Hi, is there any news on the NEPV review yet?  I am really looking forward to a different perspective on it.  

Interesting what he said about vocals.  I am a prog rock fan and I talk to lot of Western listeners on the net.   Except opera, sophisticated/advanced Western music is generally dominated by instruments and I have observed that listeners of the same too are more interested in the instrumental sections and don't care much about vocals.  I respect that but I guess IR conceived these tracks as SONGS so their pure form also necessarily involves the vocal element.  I can sympathise with his views on Saindhu Saindhu and I too would have liked to just snip Yuvan's voice out of the track...but hypothetically introduce somebody else's voice in his place instead.  It would only sound incomplete to me without the singing.

Welcome to the forum, crimson king!

Precisely! It doesn't make sense to replace the vocals with instruments if the music was not conceived as such. The way I look at it, and as others on this forum have said before, for Raja, the voice is another instrument. So the parts he writes for the human voice are designed to, and sound best when sung. I don't think vocal music is in any way inferior to pure instrumental music (I am of course talking only about the music and not lyrics) .It comes down to the fact that Indian classical music is best suited for singing and Raja's music, for all the advanced western idioms it incorporates is still largely rooted in tradition. That is what gives his music such a unique identity. One could also perhaps argue that he had to compromise because of the medium (film), but that is debatable. Raja is definitely a big fan of the human voice!

Regarding jazz, I agree that only Kalvane really has definite jazz elements to it. Also perhaps, some parts of Chellam konjum?

fring151 wrote:....I don't think vocal music is in any way inferior to pure instrumental music (I am of course talking only about the music and not lyrics) .It comes down to the fact that Indian classical music is best suited for singing and Raja's music, for all the advanced western idioms it incorporates is still largely rooted in tradition. ...
Regarding jazz, I agree that only Kalvane really has definite jazz elements to it. Also perhaps, some parts of Chellam konjum?

Very good points, I think Indian thinking is - the voice is the best instrument. Control the vocal chords from the mind. No mechanical or electronic :-) translation in between. Yes, my amateur theory is the language itself is broken up phonetically and they are able to write lyrics much easier for the notes. We can easily identify the meter using tha na na etc (sa ri ga ma pa da ni is a latter day nomenclature). So music and language have much integration in our culture.
Another amateur theory of mine is - IR is doing ICM in a "parallelized" format, which makes it sound like WCM. Easy but not perfect example is brighas. The singer may not end the line, the instruments do. Some of these techniques have been there before IR. That is the reason my tweet for Megha was - Indian Film music as a genre reaches its zenith. Note, IR is the kind of composer, who just not "adorns" the tune, in his own words "orchestravukku pirichchu kodutha ippadi irukkum" (in the context of the 3 note composition in Italy).

fring151 wrote:
Regarding jazz, I agree that only Kalvane really has definite jazz elements to it. Also perhaps, some parts of Chellam konjum?

There are a little bit of piano runs along with charanam lines in mugilO and jeevanO. Maybe, this is jazzy. I dont know, but it does not sound like IR's usual well-planned , tight harmony either.

kiru wrote: While the 80s tunes is driven by bassline, the new tune is almost incomplete in the vocal part of the tune. I dont think, mugilO megamO sol vERu veRu irandum iradO is a complete melody. The charanam are a bit more independent, relatively speaking. Without the strings, the pallavi will have no melodic value in my books. Since the singers are not singing the full tune, it does not matter to me who is singing it. Yuvan sounds stylish, IR is better in the diction depart (aRaigaLil by IR, aRagaLil or something by yuvan) . Lyrics are good to excellent. In my ears and mind, it is mainly the strings that keep playing back again and again. It is possible, if you do not give enough weightage to the orchestration, the song will not have much value for you.

Kiru,
My view on "MugilO" was more directed towards choice of singers rather than paying much thought to the way melody is constructed . But now I agree with your observation that the 80's melodyhad more flourish and a completeness when compared with the current which has denser orch. At the same time I also tend to think Raja's hands are tied when it comes to composing melody lines for limited to poor singers like Yuvan , which he cleverly covers up with his orchestral opulence. Dead simple tunes like "sAindhu sAindhu" or "chellam konjum" and now to add, "mugilO",seem to point to that. May be that is the reason why one segment of his fans prefer strong melodies with good singing like "viLaiyAttA padagOtti" Dhoni or "kAlaiyile mAlai vandhadhu" of CNC, inspite of minimal instruments. Well, if you ask me, the greedy me would like to have both.

BTW, "Chellam konjum" has fabulous drumming like "kAtrai konjam" of NEPV and a very brisk, captivating first interlude.
Ramya NSK in her elements once again 

V_S wrote:Welcome crimsonking to the forum with a nice post.

crimson king wrote:If I am not mistaken, IR has used auto tune on his voice in the charanam.

IR and auto-tune NEVER, so far. I have listened to this song umpteen times already, I could not sense any auto-tune in it.

In the first line of the first charanam, there is a strange metallic quality in his voice, in fact just as he lands.  That does sound like autotune to me, or maybe it's some other recording technique.  But its intention seemed to be to mask Yuvan's vocal limitations, not really to add anything to the music because that metallic effect jars with the rest of the music.