Archer Prewitt and Sam Prekop. 1996/Getty Images
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
The track ‘Bombay’ is from the 1994 debut album of the well-known post-rock Chicago band The Sea and Cake. The band is renowned for being one of the most representative while being the most elegant and melodious in its genre, qualities not commonly associated with post-rock. This beautiful and atmospheric pop mantra, dedicated to the city of Mumbai in India, would have been highly suitable as a track for the recent TV adaptation of Gregory David Roberts' novel Shantaram. Unfortunately, as usual, the musical editors' horizons proved insufficiently broad.