One of the experiences that I’m most grateful for is having witnessed the underground Psytrance rave culture from the inside. Spending my nights stomping at secret farmhouse parties under the sky that lasted well into afternoons the next day, were perhaps the most memorable moments of my life. And while things got pretty intense, my favourite part was what was known in the scene as the ‘morning’ set. Usually commenced at dawn, this was when the BPM dropped from 180-200 to 140-150, the music got more melodic and the cinematic nature of the soundscapes went from technological space travel to rainbows & flowers blooming under a glittering sun.
As an ex-raver who still rips a hitech track (180-200 BPM) every now and then as a nod to the glory days, it was the morning and psychill that stole my heart, making a lifetime fan out of me. These days I’m mostly immersed in hip-hop, Brat girl summer and whatever Artemas is doing, but Glass Beams’ latest cover took me right back into the rave mornings that literally felt like hope sonificated. So of course, I shared it on my Instagram story with a sunrise emoji. But it was when I dug a little deeper that I discovered the invisible thread connecting the cover to my rave days.
Glass Beams’ new track is a cover of Charanjit Singh’s Raga Bhairav from his 1982 seminal album 10 Ragas to a Disco Beat. A description under the music video reads, “Created in Mumbai in 1982, the original song is one of the earliest records to use the Roland TB 303 bass line synthesizer – the sound of acid house. Futuristic without intention, the album pre-dates the first acid house records of Chicago.” Now, Charanjit is spoken about widely as the father of acid house. But what I want to bring your attention to is the Raga that Glass Beams covered.
The name alone of Charanjit’s album, 10 Ragas to a Disco Beat describes what it was about to a T. The artist overlayed Ragas over a consistent disco beat which also in turn highlighted how versatile and impactful Ragas could be. Raga Bhairav, was the first track in the album. It’s also the very first Raga in Indian classical music and is considered the king of morning Ragas.
Performed as the opening piece in concerts, called as ‘nature’s morning prayer’ and symbolizing new beginnings, this aesthete and masculine Raga is associated with moods like peaceful, calming, devotional, meditative, and inward-looking. If ‘Raga’ comes from the Sanskrit word translating to ‘colouring’ or ‘dyeing’ , then Raga Bhairavi can be considered that which colours us with the hues of the morning, creating an atmosphere of what it feels like to wake up early to a chilled, crisp air, dewy grass and birds chirping.
I remember when electronic dance music was pitted against live music with statements like “DJs don’t do anything” or “a computer isn’t a musical instrument”. Now we’ve come full circle where artists create dance music, live, like the Glass Beams cover. Throughout the times, The Raga and its effects remained have the same - from 1982 when Charanjit’s album was met with criticism to 2024 where it’s treated like an ancestor worth paying homage to, highlighting how invaluable our musical heritage is with melodic frameworks like Ragas that gives us access to emotions - the exploration of which is both the motivation behind and the purpose of music.
Follow Glass Beams here and Listen to the cover below.
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