JOIN USA range of vocals
Adrenaline rushed, breath grew quicker, pupils dilated, pulse raced, hands swayed and feet stomped as Bauchklang took centre stage in the City recently. Long queue to get in, the nip in the weather, the slight drizzle, the exorbitant prices, all was happily forgotten as this Austrian vocal group pushed the tempo, beat boxing Bangalore into a frenzy.
Bauchklang’s Alex Boeck on vocal bass, Andreas Fraenzl on lead vocals and vocal sounds, Gerald Huber on Beatbox and vocal sounds, Philipp Sageder on backing vocals, vocal sounds and mouth percussion, and Bina on mouth percussion, beat box and sounds were as tight as one would imagine the Israel Philharmonic Symphony would be.
‘Gut sounds’ is what Bauchklang roughly translates to. The perfectly in sync group produced any number of sounds using nothing but their vocal chords.
Drumbeats boomed, electric guitars sang, wind instruments joined in; watching Bauchklang, you wondered, if there was a synthesiser stashed in the back. But there was no such thing. Their throats and clever voice projection were all that they used. They didn't miss a bit. The bass lines were innovative. Every sound created converged in exhilarating harmony.
Bauchklang, the vocal grove project, brings together sounds as varied as hip hop, reggae, trance, folk, ethno and ambient.
Since improvo is at the heart of any such collective, Bauchklang invited fellow beatboxers from Bangalore on stage.
Welcomed on stage with loud cheers by the audience, homeboys Nikhil, Vineet and Likith among others contributed to the evening. Likith introduced Bauchklang to Tapang and the boys from Austria joined in with enthusiasm.
On their first India tour, Bauchklang were in town to promote their first live album titled Bauchklang Live In Mumbai.
The applause was boisterous and cheers broke the twenty thousand decibel limit.
Women swooned and men grooved. Madhuri Isaacs exclaimed, “I have died and gone to heaven.” Her friend added: “Musical heaven. So full of sin, yay!”
The concert venue was a physical manifestation of the phrase ‘a press of people’ and even in the packed hall, people could hardly stop themselves from dancing and since they couldn’t, they just swooshed around like swizzle sticks.
Philipp Sageder won the ‘hot vote’ with most number of women declaring: “That’s the one I’m marrying’’.