Mumbai-based reggae and urban music outfit Bombay Bassment — known for their high-energy performances — are coming up with an equally energetic new album which is being produced in collaboration with Pentagram and Shaa’ir + Func guitarist Randolph Correia aka FUNC.
Bombay Bassment x FUNC’s VIP is the electronic avatar of the band’s self-titled debut album, Bombay Bassment released in 2014, as imagined by Randolph aka FUNC, who has been a long-time friend of the band.
The band which was founded in 2010, consists of Bobkat (Robert Omulo, MC), Levin (Levin Mendes, drums), Ruell (Ruell Barretto, bass) and DJ Chandu (Chandrashekhar Kunder, samples/percussion) in the line-up.
The album presents the band in a new light and sound, coupled with a fresh dose of electronic music. FUNC has used sounds from electronica and infused subtle urban, Bombay influences to embellish the energy that the band manages to bring to the stage.
“VIP is an album that might just shock you momentarily. It is nothing like you would have imagined Bombay Bassment to pull off,” the band said in a statement, “These songs have the same lyrics but tell a different story. Imagine JK Rowling writing her version of The Lord Of The Rings.”
Working together has been a long-standing wish of the band and Randolph, and this album presented Randolph an opportunity to experiment with sounds and ideas, and also to produce an album inspired by the maximum city and its culture.
“It’s a Bombay album in a sense — how Bombay understands and plays reggae and hip-hop. We’re not trying to be authentic. This is our take on this music,” says Randolph of the collaboration. “There’s a lot of East Indian vibes, Marathi vibes on this album, and a lot of subtle local, urban vibes that we decided to put on the album,” he adds.
For Bombay Bassment, as keen as they were to experiment, they wanted the end result to be “happy” — characteristic of the Bassment sound. According to the band, that’s where the creativity and production of FUNC comes to play.
The 10-track album will release on Sony records on 1 June.