Notes from inside Africa

They are vocally and visually a treat, be it their loud outfits or their style of playing African percussion. The Indo-African instrumental band, ‘Beat Gurus’, have taken the City by storm with their trance music and psychedelic rhythms. The band’s current line-up includes Prashanth and Adarsh on the ‘djembe’, Ganesh on ‘dharbhooka’, Sunil on the flute, Prasad on side percussions and drums, Ganesh on percussions and Kanaihya on an Indian folk instrument.

The band is Ganesh’s brainchild and had its origin seven years back. His primary aim was to spread the love of music, connect people through percussions and liberate one through sound.

‘Beat Gurus’ has performed at festivals like ‘Oktoberfest’, ‘Wine Festival’ and ‘Ganesh Utsav’. But Ganesh loves to perform at colleges. He feels that the energy and the vibe that youngsters have are like none other.

He says, “Name any college in Bengaluru, and we would have performed there at least once. We interact a lot with the audience and help transfer our energy to the crowd. Our beats depend on their responses and vice-versa. They clap to our tunes and most of the time, it works well as our sound is very earthy and connects with them. It’s easy as we use no electrics. I often feel that the audience are the best musicians.”

Initially, it was quite a task for the band to understand what the audience expected out of them. Ganesh laughs and says that it took seven years of experience and four-hour jamming sessions for the band to decipher this.

But it’s not only their interactions and mode of music that make them stand out. Their genre itself — instrumental fusion — is a conscious decision by the members as they felt it had a universal, mass appeal. “It was challenging to promote Indo-African folk music in the beginning but now, this form of music has many takers.”

He recalls that initially, they didn’t have much of an audience but now they perform to packed auditoriums. He conducts workshops in various  colleges on African music and teaches ‘djembe’ too. It’s a form of music which, he feels, is easy to learn. “Even one who has no experience in African music can take to it very easily. It’s like your friend. It responds to the audience like how a musician responds to it.”

Their concerts are based on various themes, like nature in its pristine form, and help communicate easily. “African music is very deep and vast. Each community has different styles and there is a lot to learn from each one of them.”