Bombay bassment goes electronic with its latest album vip in collaboration with Randolph Correia aka Func.
Bombay bassment goes electronic with its latest album vip in collaboration with Randolph Correia aka Func.
Best known for its live reggae and urban music, Bombay Bassment has been setting the stage ablaze for the past six years with MC Bobkat (Robert Omulo) joined by Levin Mendes on drums, Ruell Barretto on bass and DJ Chandu (Chandrashekhar Kunder) who brings in percussion and samples.
"As a band, we had plateaued after five years," admits Barretto, explaining their move to sign with agency Mixtape. "It's one of the top agencies in the country working within live music."
It was the agency that pushed them to release VIP, a remixed version of their first album, which Randolph Correia had produced in 2013. "Randolph is a genius. He has mentored so many bands that you see today," adds Barretto.
Back in 2013, the band had found Correia's sound a bit too radical. "It knocked us off our feet," exclaims the bassist. "We nevertheless kept Randolph's stuff because it was too good to be permanently shelved, and we figured we'd release it sometime in the future. Fast forward, late last year, we got signed by Mixtape and when they were going through our catalogue, they bumped into these tracks and got blown away, and felt that this has to come out before another album, and there we were, knocking Randolph's door telling him 'We gotta put these tunes out,'" says Barretto.
For Correia, better known as FUNC from Shai'ir and FUNC, VIP is a "Bombay album" in how the city understands and plays reggae and hip-hop. "We're not trying to be authentic. This is our take on this music," says Correia of the collaboration. "There are a lot of East Indian vibes, Marathi vibes and a lot of subtle local, urban vibes that we decided to put on the album," he adds.
Will their fans be accepting of these radically different electronic sounds, considering the band's initial skepticism? It is a risk the band was willing to take, in the hope of gaining a wider audience. "We've already played two shows on the promotional tour for this album and I feel the risk has paid off. We got a really good response and we cannot be more delighted," reveals Barretto. The 10-track album will be available on iTunes and oklisten.com soon.