ITS HIGH F*@#ING TIME!

Hey senors and senoritas, today I decided to really get into the whole music blog thing real seriously. So Ive picked a Delhi based band that sets a whole new bar for Indian music. These guys are different from pretty much every other band on the scene right now, even veterans like Parikrama. Im referring to HFT, a band whose members have played in a virtual plethora of bands for many years and as far as Im concerned fall into categories that include the likes of Clapton and the Stones (though not as big, obviously!?) Whats curious about these guys is that they are pretty a new band, having started only last year, but the band members are true veterans who have come together to form a potentially brilliant combination.

At some level they remind you of when Eric Clapton left Cream and hooked up with Steve Winwood and Ginger Baker to form the inimitable “Blind Faith”, a one album band that is still unsurpassed in my humble opinion. Enough reminiscing, back to business. HFT is a 3 piece band that has a unique sound and the experience to carry it off.

The band comprises Arjun Sen on the Fender Stratocaster and a snarling dog Wah, a guy whos been in five different bands including Great Society in Shillong and Kind Of Blue as well as Ace of Spades(which by the way many associate with the Dylan of the east, Mr. Lou Majaw himself). He has also written music for documentaries and even produced bands like Orange Street and Euphoria, names Im sure we all are familiar with.

Next up theres Lew Hilt (born Llewellyn Cedric Hilt) who was born in UP and started playing at 16. Hes also been a member of many bands including prolific names like High along with Dilip Balakrishnan, Nondon Bagchi and Adi Irani in the early 70s; they were considered a cult band while they were together. Later he joined the Louis Banks Brotherhood where he played with the likes of Pam Craine. After that he was a founding member of Karma in the 80s and played with many bands till the late 90s including Shiva and Ace of Spades (yes, Lou Majaw again, that really rocks!). Then he played at events like the Jazz Yatra which was a killer musical event that I was lucky enough to catch and in 2004 formed HFT with Arjun and their drummer, Bhuvan Sachdeva.

Bhuvan is pretty much the young one in the group, though dont let his lack of experience take away from the music they all create together. An audio engineer, he played for Brothers Karamazov and Trademark, eventually meeting Arjun and Lew at the Leh tour for the World Music Festival in 2004 and the rest as they say is history. Together the guys play what they call music of ‘The Moment’ which comprises primarily of a meld of various genres of music that have been influential for the band members during their careers and they work toward creating a smooth flow and interaction between the 3 instruments.

They spend a lot of time switching flows and forms depending on the day theyre having, hence I guess – Music of the moment, eh? Of course the nature of their music and their wish to enjoy it like it should be and create memorable tracks can be seen in tracks like ‘Here and There’ and the deceptively titled ‘idlis on camels’. Other tracks include ‘Circles’ and ‘Daryaganj’, both of which have a class appeal to them. When asked by someone what was their reason for being, the answer was, The Constant Search. Cheers to that.