Our highest new entry this week comes from the lovely Salma Agha who's stormed into the KCACO chart with this deep slice of dubbed-out disco, straight from the early 80s ...


Dutch sitar spaceman Okko Bekker continues his ascent up the charts with this rocking eastern riff on Hendrix – you can almost hear the horns in the background ...



Things can only get Bekker as the spaceman is back with a second entry in the top five, a cosmically soothing ode to the destroyer himself (or herself, according to Trampy): Shiva!


It's The Podcast That's Hotta Than A Dried Bhut Jolokia (Episode 5 feat. Tikka MaBaws)
TATTGOC Sexytime! In Other Words, It's The First Podcast Of 2012
TATTGOC's New Year *Revolutions* For 2012
Spice Fillers: The Best Of TATTGOC 2011
Pod Cast Ye Merry Gentlemen ... It's Your Special Festive Episode Of Keep Calm And Curry On!
Jingle Is Massive! It's TATTGOC's Curr-istmas Gift Guide 2011 ...
The TATTGOC Podcast Returns! And For Some Reason It's Still Not Called "CHATGOC!!
That Curry Capital 2011 Result In Full ...
Keep Calm And Curry On ... It's The TATTGOC Podcast!! 

Welcome back to the Tramposphere. Despite the inaugural Jukebox Puri being probably the most heinously overlooked post yet it is my great pleasure to bring you another mindbending track from the musically outrageous world of Bollywood. This week we'll be trying to comprehend exactly what was going on in the minds of the crazed souls responsible for the title track from 1980s blockbuster hit The Burning Train.

So, where to begin? Just like the tune featured in the last instalment of Jukebox Puri, I was first introduced to the track The Burning Train by former stalwart of the Glasgow disco gutter and now sadly missed curry comrade Mr A Fleming. The mighty Flemado had managed to pick up a copy of the soundtrack whilst touring the former colony with The Suave Sav and delighted in exposing me to its joys as he recounted tales of his travels. Boasting a formidably awesome cover and a much more reasonable price tag than it commands in the UK, he naturally snapped it up in an instant. But what of the actual piece in question?

Starting out like the orchestral introduction to a 1970s Royal Variety Performance the track quickly reveals how it means to go on as the big band fades into cheap funk and a Popcorn-esque electronic bleep kicks in, closely followed by a formidable squelchy electronic bassline. Then the vocals arrive ... from outer space. It seems that composer R D Burman, pictured left, had a) just taken delivery of a brand new vocoder, b) taken a large dose of psychedelics and c) had no-one overseeing the creative process. It doesn't take long to realise that the only lyrics are "the burning train," that they're alternately sung by both a male and a female, and that they are heavily vocoderised. Imagine sitting down to watch Runaway Train, for example, in your local cinema and the theme tune just being "runaway train, runaway train, runaway train, runaway train." It's fair to say you'd be bemused, then totally wigged out. Surely you should either have proper lyrics or none at all? Adding to the weirdness of the whole thing is the fact that the male singer abruptly switches style halfway through and starts channelling Louis Armstrong.

All in all, The Burning Train gets two thumbs up from The Tramp - it may not have the sleazy sensuousness of Dance Music but for pure vocoder madness it secures a place in The Tramp's wigged out Jukebox of fun. For your own (higher quality) personal copy click the link below:

The Burning Train MP3

More musical madness from The Tramp's archives there... but what do you think? Does The Burning Train rock your boat or derail your tram of thought? Answers on a postcard (or preferrably in the comments section below).

We're always looking for listener feedback about Keep Calm And Curry On – the planet's only curry podcast – and as you might expect, some of the same comments always come up. Stuff like: "It felt like it could have gone on forever!"; "Which one of you has the appealingly feminine voice?" And, in particular, "Is there any way it could be shorter?" Die-hard fans will be pleased to hear that we've managed to shave a few precious minutes off KCACO's running time, possibly after the belated realisation that if you want your podcast to eventually be listed on iTunes, it's probably not a fantastic idea to include entire music tracks. But never mind that, check out this fantastic spread enjoyed by Mumbai Me A Pony during a recent tour of Brighton ...
 

That impressive mixed grill looks like it could be a little deer! (An observation that will become hilarious once you've listened to The Tramp's full review of The Chilli Pickle on the podcast.) Also in episode six, there's a round-up of some recent curryhouse openings in Glasgow and the Tramps debate the pros and cons of having a curry for lunch if you're wooing new clients. And two genuine musical legends collaborate in the latest edition of The Tramp's Jukebox Puri. It's all there, stuffed into the Mixcloud player below ...


(Click here for more listening options and the show notes ...)

A lot has happened in the last 12 months. The TATTGOC team have continued their mission to sample the lesser-known curry houses of this fine city, we shot the breeze with some famous Glasgow curry lovers, started some brand new features, got our faces splashed across not one, but two Sunday magazines and even received a cease and desist notice from Terence Stamp. Oh, and on top of all that we also won an award. A busy year ... but you know what hasn't happened? The Tramp hasn't fired up the old jukebox, that's what hasn't happened. It's been nearly a whole year since the beast was cranked and the old boy was in a sorry state when I pulled off the dustsheet the other night. A scoosh of WD-40 here, a bit of Brasso there and it's ready for action once more. So get a G&T poured, ease on your slippers and relax into your favourite chair – this is going to be smooth. This time I'm putting on a whole album ... Curried Jazz by The Indo-British Jazz Ensemble.

Unbelievable. That's the only way to describe the fact that The Tramp hasn't cranked up his jukebox since last September. To be honest, the chance encounter with that hideous rock'n'roll jukebox during the same month's TATTGOC outing to Sibbo's Delhi Dhabba was enough to make me wheel my machine into a cupboard and forget about it. It's taken until now to recover from not only the 50s soundtrack of that night but also from the substandard meal that was served up to half the crew.

But now, with the dust sheet removed, a bit of spit and polish and new needle fitted, it's time to plug the Wurlitzer in and serve up a tasty dose of Indian-themed music to pass the time until the next curry outing. A 20p piece has been fed into the beast, the numbers have been tapped in, the vinyl has hit spindle and the needle is about to drop on ... Mathar.

I fully expect Mathar to be familiar to all our readers here at TATTGOC. The track was everywhere during the mid-90s Acid Jazz era and was, quite frankly, somewhat overexposed. Having not heard the track in years it recently popped up on an excellent CD of Brendan Lynch re-edits which was compiled for me by fellow TATTGOCer, and famed muso, Lime Pickle. Upon relistening to the number, and then reading up a little on its history, it became an obvious candidate for the Jukebox Puri treatment. So here we go ...

The version of Mathar most people will be familiar with was first released in 1993 by Indian Vibes on the French label Yellow Productions before being picked up and widely released by Virgin, first in 1994 and then again in 1998. Indian Vibes was actually a pseudonym of ex-The Jam/Style Council mod rocker Paul Weller. The recording of Mathar by Weller roughly coincided with his teaming up with Brendan Lynch who produced the Modfather's successful self-titled solo album and is credited with expanding Weller's sound into the emerging acid jazz scene. Popularised by DJs such as Gilles Peterson, acid jazz fused more traditional jazz/funk sounds with dance music, bringing jazz to a new, younger audience.

Featuring Weller on the electric sitar, Mathar is actually a cover of a much earlier jazz recording, also called Mathar, laid down by short-lived jazz outfit The Dave Pike Set in 1969. American jazz artist Pike moved over to Europe in the 1960s and formed The Dave Pike Set with a group of European artists and recorded the album Noisy Silence, Gentle Noise. Described as a "further exploration into funky jazz with brilliant guitar work and Indian influences" the standout track, and the one for which the album is most famous, is our very own Mathar. All very well and good, I hear you say, but what are the differences? To be honest, there aren't that many ...

Both versions start off slowly, a solo sitar twanging hypnotically away before the main track kicks in. The Indian Vibes cover version drops the original's acoustic guitar and adds a significantly beefed up drum track (the drums on the Dave Pike Set version sound very low in the mix, although they're still undeniably dynamite). The original version then veers dangerously close to noodly jazz wank in the middle before thankfully coming to its senses and steering back to the good stuff before completely losing the listener's interest (which, it doesn't). Mercifully, Indian Vibes only vaguely begins to noodle before remembering the lessons from the past and getting back into the groove. Below you'll find both versions for your listening pleasure, to compare and contrast. The Indian Vibes version gets my vote for the awesome psychedelic video that went with the track. Those that know the The Tramp well know how much I like things to be wigged out – and this cosmic video certainly does the job and gets the thumbs up from me. That said, Dave Pike looks like a very suave Lucifer there, just chilling with his vibraphone ...

The Dave Pike Set – Mathar:



Indian Vibes – Mathar:



So there we have it, two awesome versions of one great track. And if you'd like to have a standalone version of the original, click the link below.

The Dave Pike Set - Mathar

Hear me now!

"Who's this?" I hear you ask ... well, relax gentlemen, your eyes do not deceive you – The Tramp is back and taking no prisoners in the latest instalment of his hugely popular but infrequently delivered Jukebox Puri.

So what do I have up my slightly curry-stained sleeves for you this month? The ingredients of this tale are a hauntingly beautiful track, a hugely popular remake of the original cut, a Western remake of the remake, a bit of illegal sampling and a hefty judicial smackdown. Intrigued?

Let's start at the beginning: the song Thoda Resham Lagta Hai, by legendary Indian warbler Lata Mangeshkar, appeared on the soundtrack of the 1981 Bollywood feature film Jyoti. It opens with simple chimes reminicent of the start of an Oliver Postgate/Peter Firmin production, closely followed by Lata Mangeshkar's genuinely haunting vocals. You might think you were about to listen to some downbeat tearjerker. Instead, you are treated to a surprisingly beefy, thoroughly wigged out and pleasingly upbeat number that would definitely get the Tramps up and dancing. Have a listen on the player below and see if it doesn't get you grinding in your seat (please note Trampy and The Tramp accept no responsibility for anyone getting in trouble for grinding at work).




Sharp-eared readers may well find their lugs pricking up – does it no sound familiar? Anyone who was "down with the kids" back in 2002 will instantly recognise the vocal from Addictive by one hit R&B wonderwoman Truth Hurts. This is where things get interesting ... Thoda Resham Lagta Hai was remade/sampled by Indian pop outfit UMI10 and released as Kaliyon Ka Chaman Jab Banta Hain, becoming a huge hit across South Asia in 2002. Not long after UMI10 got our Indian brothers and sisters up dancing, Truth Hurts launched a similar assault on Western charts with Addictive – scoring a dancefloor winner both in the States and the UK. Produced by DJ Quik on Dr Dre's Aftermath Label there must've been a hellish amount of the old wacky baccy being smoked around the studios. Not only did Aftermath fail to get clearance for the original sample from Thoda Resham Lagta Hai, they also seemed to think that they'd get away with completely ripping off the whole of UMI10's track, including the video. Oops. Did they think no-one would notice? Check out both versions below ...






I'm going to have to put my hands up here: The Tramp is a fan of the Truth Hurts version of the track. And there are definitely a few things in the Truth Hurts promo that would have enlivened the UMI10 video.

I particularly enjoy the appearance of legendary rapper Rakim sporting a Glasgow Young Team-style white tracksuit (it may be terry towelling rather than a shellsuit but damned if it doesn't look the same at first glance).

If the tracksuit wasn't enough, check him out in what must surely be the worst leather jacket ever created. The thing looks like it was designed by a committee comprising Cameo's Larry Blackmon, MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice ... in a crack den. I don't know who he thinks he's kidding but he's certainly not going to get lucky with Truth Hurts wearing that get-up. With a jacket like that, is it any wonder that Eric B split from their rap duo?

As if Rakim's honking fashion disasters weren't enough, executive producer and label owner Dr Dre also manages to muscle in on the action late into the video running time. Looking markedly more restrained in fashion terms, Dre still causes a stooshie by appearing to be completely smashed on spirits. Leching over ladies, smirking to himself in a stupor and pulling off a proper dad-style dance at one point, you have to applaud his attempt at utterly derailing one of his own music videos.

While you and I might find much amusement in the Truth Hurts video, the copyright holders of the original sample certainly didn't. They slammed Aftermath with a whopping $500 million claim for unlicensed sampling. Ouch. If only Dr Dre had TATTGOC's very own legal expert Rumpole of the Balti on hand maybe things would have turned out differently (although I suspect that if Dre did indeed have our man on retainer then we would have seen Rumpole making a boozy appearance in the Truth Hurts video too).

So there you go – three tracks for the price of one. And if you'd like to listen to your very own copy of the original Thoda Resham Lagta Hai then why not grab it here? All part of the Jukebox Puri service ...

Thoda Resham Lagta Hai

It’s Thursday and that can only mean another exciting update from your favourite curryspondents. What do we have this week? Yes, it’s finally back … after a long absence the time has come to once again idly thumb through Trampy and The Tramp’s Currypedia and expand our minds with a blast of curry-related facts.

Having begun our educational odyssey munching through the poppadom before wolfing down some pakora and potatoes it seems like the right time to progress further into the Indian meal – and what better way to bridge the gap between the starters and the main course than to look into an essential piece of equipment for any Indian kitchen … The Tandoor.

The basic design of the Tandoor has remained the same for over 2000 years and it has been used in some form from Egypt and Iran, up through Turkey and Afghanistan and across Central Asia. The Tandoor is best known in the UK as an integral part of Indian cuisine – no self-respecting Indian restaurant or takeaway could be without one. But what exactly is it?

The Tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven, open at the top, traditionally heated with burning coals or wood placed at the bottom – although most modern restaurants will us electric or gas-fired ovens which are more easily controlled and cleaner for use indoors. The oven is lit several hours before cooking and kept stoked to maintain very high internal temperatures upwards of 350 C (even up to 480 C). Food is then cooked by being placed in the oven – meat (marinated chicken, lamb and kebabs typically) being placed on long skewers which are slid vertically down into the chamber, while breads such as naan are stuck to the inside wall to cook. Any sauces or gravies are prepared separately and should typically be served separately from the dry meat. The adjective "Tandoori" describes any food cooked cooked in the Tandoor.

As always, I like to hear what Glasgow’s very own curry guru Ali Aslam of The Shish Mahal has to say about our topic: “The Shish Mahal has two of these ovens, which require a great deal of skill and experience to use. The nature of the Tandoor contributes largely to the flavour of the food cooked in it, and it is virtually impossible to reproduce this effect in the home, but you can approach it very nearly either by using a charcoal-fired barbeque, or by cooking under a very hot grill, and turning the food frequently.” In this case Ali is only partially correct – he’s overlooked the lengths which some curry enthusiasts will go to to recreate that authentic taste at home …

Originally today’s post was meant to be the next instalment of the also scandalously Missing In Action section The Tramp’s Jukebox Puri … that is until I stumbled across two fascinating sites which both have a touch of the TATTGOC to them. First up we have The Tandoor Site – Outdoor Cooking The Indian Way. Created by Tandoor aficionado Piers Thompson (pictured with his half-built Tandoor) the site follows Thompson's project to build his very own Tandoor oven in his back garden and includes full step-by-step instructions on the building process. If that’s not enough, there are also tales of his trial-and-error escapades in attempting to recreate Tandoori dishes in the oven once it was completed. A true curry hero, Piers surely commands the respect of Trampy and The Tramp and the whole of the TATTGOC brotherhood.

Then, as if Piers’ site wasn’t enough, tucked away in his FAQ page I found a link to another, slightly more TATTGOC-reminiscent DIY Tandoor page. The snappily-titled Welcome To The Step By Step Guide To Building Your Own Tandoor is akin to what Mr T would have knocked up had The A-Team been locked in a shed while craving some Tandoori Lamb and couple of peshwari naan. This gem of a site teaches you how to create your own Tandoor using, I kid you not: An oil drum, cement, sand, fire cement or clay, a hinge, some wheels and some paint. Not only did this guy build his own Tandoor from scratch – he put it on wheels and painted flames up the side. Badass.

So there we have it – no Jukebox Puri this week but now we have the knowledge to create our very own TATTGOC Tandoor… on wheels. Move over MacGyver, Trampy and The Tramp are in town – and they’re driving a Tandoor. So, should TATTGOC get a summer project underway and start building our own?

We know what you're thinking. "It must be about time for a new episode of Keep Calm And Curry On." And it is, so here you go. Your burly hosts must be getting better at talking fast, because this is the slimmest KCACO yet, breaking the tape at just under 35 minutes. Yet it still feels pretty packed, with a round-up of London curry pop-up events (one of which has, uh, been postponed since our recording session), news of an exciting new TV project for Curry Queen Madhur Jaffrey, and an enthusiastic but inevitably ill-informed trip into the world of football.

There's a short review of Kama Sutra's most recent opening in Stirling, plus an extended look at a curry cookbook from over 50 years ago that somehow manages to be both informative and yet wittier than most cookbooks (and even blogs) written today. And after last month's outing for Ravi Shankar in The Tramp's Jukebox Puri, it's time for his nephew Ananda to have his moment in the spotlight.

It's all there, stuffed into the Mixcloud player below ... 


(Click here for more listening options and the show notes ...)

After a wee break during TATTGOC's month-long Edinburgh adventure, our podcast Keep Calm And Curry On is back Back BACK with the milestone of episode 10. It's another packed instalment, with the usual witty and urbane mix of curry news and opinion, an unfortunate reference to swinging within the first five minutes, plus a quick lunch review of the new Glasgow Curry Shop in Ashton Lane and an in-depth look at the newly-announced teams of restaurants that'll represent key cities in the Curry Capital 2012 competition. And if you think that The Tramp's Jukebox Puri has sounded pretty far out in the past, we guarantee you've never heard anything quite like this episode's instalment ... it really is pretty mindbending, if not necessarily all that musical.

Enough hype! It's all there, jammed into the Mixcloud player below:


DOWNLOAD THE MP3: Here!

LISTEN ON MIXCLOUD: Here!

(Click below for the shownotes, with useful links and info for Episode 10:)

Newspaper naysayers may cry "print is dead!" but even in the touchscreen-smearing world of always-online, there's still a voracious appetite for glossy magazines. And many first issues arrive in a blaze of publicity. At the turn of the millennium, Trampy his own bad self can remember attending the glitzy launch bash of an optimistic Scottish rival to Hello! – called, inevitably, Hiya! – that had some of the best free champagne and canapes he ever had the pleasure to pilfer, as well as a disproportionate number of glamorous attendees wearing glittery cowboy hats. Yet after just one issue, Hiya! went bye-ah! But has that got to do with curry? Come with us, into the Reader Zone ...



(Click here to read on, reader ... )

Hello ladies! It's the first TATTGOC podcast of 2012 and after a surprisingly frosty start, the Tramps soon warm up when contemplating The Burning Question, posited by The Bulldosa, about whether or not he should take his lady love out for a curry on Valentine's Day. Stay tuned to hear The Tramp's Valentine curry menu, and Trampy role-playing as Louise Redknapp from Something For The Weekend. Also in episode four, a round-up of curry news involving swap-ups, pop-ups and some ill-informed discussion about football, a fairly comprehensive review of the Harlequin Group's curry delivery service and the first artist to feature twice on The Tramp's Jukebox Puri, the sitar master Okko Bekker.

(Onwards to the embedded player and more ...)

If you haven't twigged by now, while TATTGOC purports to be an award-winning foodie blog – and has the curry-loving pennants to prove it – over the last three-and-half years it has feature-crept into a fascinating ongoing experiment: trying to create a unified theory of the Tramps' many-if-not-exactly-varied interests. So as well as sizeable amount of chat about curry (with more available in the recent episode of TATTGOC's Keep Calm And Curry On podcast), there are also references to hard rock music, action cinema, comicbooks, mixed martial arts, burritos ... even whisky.

One area that has only been glanced upon so far by your burly hosts is the magical world of videogames. But fear not – that day has arrived along with the belated discovery of the trailer for Velayudham, a Tamil "masala-movie" that combines comedy, action, musical numbers and a lot of cosplaying as the main dude from the best-selling videogame franchise – and TATTGOC favourite – Assassin's Creed ...




(Watch the trailer, and witness the Tramps bicker about it by clicking here:)

Oor Wullie Annual 2013 – flanked by our heroes?

.
A strange week at TATTGOC Towers. Just as the blog was about to go to press – as if that's even a thing any more – came the sad news that Ravi Shankar had passed away at the age of 92. The first thought of the Tramps was to put together some sort of salute or tribute, especially as the last time Shankar featured in the Tramp's Jukebox Puri it was way back in episode 6 of Keep Calm And Curry On. Rather than knock off something in a hurry, the Tramps have decided to save their tribute to the sitarist until the next episode of the podcast, where it will be possible to play out to some of his fantastic music. So what does that leave in the spicy docket? Only TATTGOC's appearance in the Sunday Post at the weekend! After texting a lot of friends and family about this development, a lot of them got back in touch to say hey were particularly impressed that Trampy and The Tramp had apparently inspired the front-page headline.




Of course, that was inaccurate. The Tramps weren't freed in a jail blunder, they merely got let out thanks to a last-minute intervention by TATTGOC's legal counsel Rumpole Of The Balti. But the real story was in the centre pages, and while the Sunday Post's website isn't comprehensive enough to include every little story, you can get a flavour of it in the picture below. You may have to squint a little.

The Tramps – and by extension, the entire TATTGOC brotherhood – have never claimed to be curry experts. As it says on the beautiful 2010 trophy still regularly passed back and forth between Trampy and The Tramp, they are “curry lovers” ... enthusiasts in the all-inclusive, beardy spirit of the Hairy Bikers rather than Masterchef’s tut-tutting Torode and Wallace. That said, we have probably eaten more curry in the past three years than some people will manage in a lifetime, and with that amount of conspicuous consumption comes a certain level of knowledge, even if it’s instinctive rather than the result of book-learnin’. Call it a gut feeling, in more ways than one.

So when Café India, the resurgent Indian restaurant in the Merchant City, got in touch to ask if the massed, ribald ranks of the Curry Club would be interested in helping them test-drive some proposed extensions to their recently-launched tapas menu, it would have been ridiculous to refuse. For what better focus group could there be then Glasgow’s foremost curry adventurers? For if there’s one thing the boys are good at, it’s telling you what their preferences are when it comes to curry. (Often after the ordering has been done, it has to be said.)

Their bloodstreams might run thick with fire and spice, but the Tramps always have a song in their hearts. Usually, it manifests itself within The Tramp's voracious appetite for mindbending beats and wigged-out esoterica (as tabulated in his regular The Tramp's Jukebox Puri column). Or in Trampy's ironic/unironic/platonic/unplatonic love of Bob Seger (not so much the poor man's Bruce Springsteen as the poor-man's-Bruce-Springsteen's stunt double).

But reading about Mister Singh's plans for a new curry and karaoke night later this month reminded TATTGOC's stocky chieftains of a special time, very long ago (October 2009) when they assembled a curry-flavoured Spotify playlist entitled This Charming Naan: The Many Moods Of TATTGOC Vol 1.

Try and imagine what things were like back then ... Rio had just been awarded the Olympics 2016. Zombieland hadn't even been released in cinemas. Cheryl Cole had yet to chart with Fight For This Love. So much has happened since then! We've all grown as individuals! So will these changes be reflected in the much-anticipated follow-up, Bridge Over Double Pakora: The Many Moods Of TATTGOC Vol 2? Most likely!

(Click here to get the rundown ...)