Ashwin Batish was on tour when he was invited to perform his special brand of Sitar Power for "Musique Plus" in Montreal, Canada. Ashwin is playing a live version of the song Bombay Boogie from his album Sitar Power #1 - "a fusion of rock and Indian music." Please read on with some of the reviews this music has garnered over the years.
Ashwin's pioneering efforts have truly made a place for such fusions to be considered a mainstay in today's musical world. He is presently working on new tracks for his upcoming release Sitar Power 3!
This video is an edited version of a 25 minute interview performance by Ashwin. The interviewer is Natalie Richards. A DVD of the full program is available through Batish Records. Please call us at 1-800-RAG-MALA to order your DVD.
"best raga rock you've heard since Ravi Shankar played Madison Square Garden in '71." BAM
"The song turns out to be a toe-tapping "raga rock"- a high-energy dance number he calls "Bombay Boogie". Christian Science Monitor
"His music has a unique sound. He fuses raditional ragas with the sounds of electric guitar, bass, drums and synthesizers to create songs such as "Bombay Boogie" and "New Delhi Vice." Hinduism Today
"Classical Indian sitar music can be mellow and spiritual. But in the hands of Batish, a master player, the sitar is an instrument of versatility
and great charm." Idaho Statesman
"California-based sitarist Ashwin Batish gives listeners an explosion of tantalizing musical sounds the sweet strains of the sitar fused with
rock. Caribbean, jazz and afro-cuban forms .... wild, foot-tapping medley" India Worldwide
"Don't bother sitting down. You'll just have to get right back up on your feet anyway. Ashwin Batish, the man who is bringing a new meaning to
the term "fusion" and new respect to the instruments of India. New Times, Miami
"His latest album, Sitar Power, launched him into infamy. Batish took spirited sitar lines that borrowed equally from Indian ragas and Californian surf-guitar riffs, and set them to rock based electro-drums, bass, and guitars. Then he fused everything with his offbeat, quirky sense of humor (Bombay Boogie and New Delhi Vice are just a couple of song titles)" Montreal Mirror, Canada
"Sitar Power" is a wild fusion of traditional Indian music and rock." Michael Snyder, San Francisco Chronicle
"Certain musical collisions seem like such strange bedfellows; they'll stop you dead in your tracks the first time you hear them; Bob Wills
(country/jazz), Los Lobos (Mexican/rock). Add dance pop/Indian fusion to your list, the invention of a Santa Cruz, Calif, based sitar player named Ashwin Batish...... Batish rips on the sitar, he's equally at home with Shankar and Chuck Berry." Tower Records, Pulse
"Ashwin Batish has been a man with a mission, and his mission has been to make the sitar into a contemporary electric instrument as relevant as the electric guitar. Based in the U.S., he's made the albums to back up his thesis, showing that it can rock as hard as any stringed instrument on the planet." Chris Nickson, All Music Guide
"Sitar Power is one of the few breakthroughs that happened on the American continent, courtesy of a talented and charming gent ..... beyond the instrumental virtuosity, his joy with what he is doing comes across as a specific within the general sense of his exuberant personality." Eugene Chadbourne, All music Guide
Tags: sitar tabla music raga rock classical fusion india indian pop jazz upbeat ethnic dance dancing high energy instrumental
