sprezzatura.

This post is syndicated from Yahoo! Music’s As Heard On.

A. R. Rahman, the film composer, singer, and musician who scored award-winning film soundtracks for the likes of Slumdog Millionaire, Couple’s Retreat, and most recently 127 Hours, is known for his ability to create memorable songs and deftly score music to accompany what we see on the silver screen.

127 Hours is his second film with renowned director Danny Boyle. The first film they worked on together was 2008’s Slumdog, a huge hit for the duo which garnered a Grammy for Best Soundtrack, Oscar for Best Song, Oscar for Best Score, BAFTA for Best Score, and Golden Globe for Best Score.

With two Oscar nominations recently announced for 127 Hours (Best Score and Best Song for “If I Rise” featuring the British singer-songwriter Dido), Rahman is quickly rising to the ranks of musical virtuoso leaving a serious mark in Hollywood and beyond.

“It was very exciting to get back with Danny,” Rahman says. “I read a script of 127 Hours and started getting ideas. I think Danny works in a way where most of the themes are driven by music. He was shooting and I was sending him ideas simultaneously, and the music had to play a very important part in this movie because the main character is stuck in this one place, and the music has to give the whole experience of, you know, cinema in the music and sound.”

“Danny has some very different visions for the music. It’s driven by his taste and instinct. So, as I go over this instinct and sometimes contradict something else, we compliment each other. And so far it’s been really good, and I really love working with him.”

A.R. is also pretty active to say the least on Facebook and Twitter. With over 3 million friends on Facebook and 320,000 followers on Twitter, he has the ability to reach his fans directly and does exactly that.

“If you want to give a message, or if I want to put out some music, which is unreleased, it’s a great way to do it,” he explains. “And also, it’s very giving. It’s not about a commercial…you know, it’s something you want to give for free, and then let people enjoy. It’s a great way to communicate.”

He’s also into technology, using it as a tool for the creative process. “I have an iPhone and most of the time it’s used for email and all the stuff, but it’s used for recording ideas. And most of the ideas come from just humming certain things and then taking it back to the scoring table and playing it on the piano and adding instruments on top of it. Nowadays I have Stickies and Sketch Pad on there, which you can put your lyrical ideas on and all that stuff.”

Up next is a film with DreamWorks, an animated picture tentatively titled Monkeys of Bollywood. “Monkeys of Bollywood is not a fixed title,” he says. “It’s a working title for the whole industry and all the people to get an idea of what it’s about. It’s about that part of the world but with a Hollywood point of view, which is very exciting for all of us as a team.”

“It’s a great theme, I think. Dreamworks has done some extraordinary animation films last year and the previous year. So, I think this is going to hopefully take it much more further, getting into a different zone of excitement. I’m looking forward to it.”

Each film he’s worked on has a distinctive sound, and this one will be no different. How does he keep the creative process fresh when he’s in such high-demand? Ultimately, Rahman cites his creative process as coming from a place of love.

“I think all of us creative people have to be in a zone of love, first of all, which is very giving and a motivating factor for creativity. It cleanses all the negative factors, cleanses all the confusion and you sit on it, you become an instrument of love. And music is about love in a way. And sometimes about — and all the other stuff is technical, but the basic attitude and the basic emotion is very simple, but very complex at the same time. [Laughs] So, that’s the motivating factor for me.”

The Soundtrack for 127 Hours is available now.

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards will be broadcast live on Sunday, February 27th at 8pm ET, 5pm PT. Click here for Photo Galleries, Videos Polls, and More!

Watch the music video for “If I Rise”:

Watch the music video for “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire:

This post is syndicated from Indie Shuffle.

What’s so good?

Are you someone who needs several listens to an album before knowing whether or not it’s a keeper? And not just because you’re drinking whiskey at 1am while texting your significant other and watching Tech News Today with the volume way down? This is what “they’d” call a hypothetical situation. I digress.

Ventriloquizzing is the fourth studio album from the electronic trio Fujiya & Miyagi (note: they are not a duo, nor are they Japanese).

The first time I spun it, I didn’t understand the album at all (effects of aforementioned whiskey aside). It didn’t sound like the same Fujya & Miyagi who brought us the sly and snappy beats on tracks like “Collarbone,” or the rhythmic and somewhat quizzical lyrics about ice cream on “Knickerbocker Glory.”

On the second listen, I began to realize that, yes, the album is different, but in a good way. It’s much more layered in production and lyrically darker than to be expected. It’s clearly still F&M, but transmitting directly from a deeper and darker universe.

On Ventriloquizzing, expect more clever word play (“Taiwanese Boots,” “Minestrone”). You’ll also hear a unique marriage of the elegant with the just as equally disturbing. The track “OK” features a warm, beautiful keyboard melody with the chorus repeating “Let me whisper in your ear, tell you it will be okay.” The song “Pills” and “Sixteen Shades of Black & Blue” feature dark subjects while keeping the tone steadfastly upright.

On the fifth listen, I felt privy to someone else’s personal exploration. It was almost like I was listening to something I shouldn’t be — the feeling I’d imagine (again, hypothetically) if I happened to stumble across someone else’s private (or…Live?) journal.

Anyway, expect an album that’s darker, deeper, and more advanced than anything Fujiya & Miyagi has ever written. It’s a body of work that leaves you wondering what, exactly, came from the shattering side, the aftermath, and the wonderful wreckage that inspired it.

Elsewhere on the web:

myspace | myspace.com/fujiyaandmiyagi

http://www.fujiya-miyagi.co.uk

This post is syndicated from Indie Shuffle.

What’s so good?

The latest album from Gang of Four, the iconic English post-punk group from Leeds, has been in the making for a while — Content is their first album of all-new material in sixteen years.

Known for their punchy, funked-up bass lines, distorted guitar, and hooky, shouty vocals lamenting social and political ills, 1979’s classic release Entertainment! has been cited as a trailblazer by many — a must-have recording that inspired bands from Fugazi to Rage Against the Machine to Nirvana.

While many groups have attempted to replicate Gang of Four’s exceptionally distinct sound, few have come close. As one of the leading bands of the late 70s and early 80s post-punk movement in Britain, they’ve been referenced recently in the emergence of the dance punk, synth-sprinkled crossover genre that birthed the likes of The Rapture, !!!, Bloc Party, and Radio 4.

Content is a groovy, kinetic piece of work that takes the listener on a journey from the arresting (“Who Am I?”) to the sublime. It calls to mind the original influence derived by the bands’ many imitators (evident in the drum and bass interplay on the downbeat track “A Fruitfly in the Beehive”). Diverse and brilliantly produced, the album opens with the powerful track “She Said” — a jump-starter that invokes fire in what’s to come.

get it on iTunes

myspace | myspace.com/gangoffour