Wisconsin Life

radio on in background

pumping up barber's chair

tuning radio past static and squelch

Ankur Malhotra

That's me... Ankur Malhotra. I went to a Catholic school, and I had just failed one of their mandatory "hair checks." So I'm at the neighborhood barbershop getting my hair... "corrected."

"Hopelessness" by Ashaon Ka Hua Khatma

Ankur Malhotra

As my long hair falls in line... my mind tends to drift, absorbing the sounds around me.

pumping foot petal, clicking razor

Ankur Malhotra

This is one of my first recollections of the wonders of music. This is when I started to really tune in. Music was already my life, and even at a young age, I was a freaky tweaker.

"Proverbial Track" by Duniya

Ankur Malhotra

If you needed a cassette tape spliced or your tape heads aligned... I was "the guy." I was also hooked on vinyl and the music my father was bringing from the States. This music was always spinning around in my head. It was the soundtrack to my life.

"Sara Kantigui (Live)" by Madou Sifiki Diabate

Ankur Malhotra

Turn of the last century, I ended up at UW-Madison, getting an MBA in Entrepreneurship and working with tech start-ups. But something was pulling me to music and to my homeland, India. That's when my longtime friend Ashutosh and I decided to start our own record label. We had always been fans of the American folk and blues masters. And then, we started asking ourselves, "Who are these Indian bluesmen? Who are these Indian folk stars?" And then, we couldn't come up with their names. We decided to call our label Amarrass Records. "Amar" means eternal and "rass" means "the essence." The essence of the music that we are trying to capture would last forever. India is a country steeped in musical tradition and musical culture... and we knew these masters were out there... So, what if we go find them?

changing radio station

Ankur Malhotra

So, we packed up our car full of cobbled-together recording equipment and drove hundreds of miles into the desert of Rajasthan, going village to village in search of the musical masters.

"Instrumental Jam #3" by Barmer Boys

Ankur Malhotra

We'd also heard about the seventh-generation musician Lakha Khan, player of the Sindhi Sarangi, a 27-string Indian folk fiddle. So... we went to his home.

light bulb clicks

Ankur Malhotra

And he played us a song.

"Tulsi Kya Karoon" by Lakha Khan

Ankur Malhotra

This is one of hundreds of his songs. But they're all in his head. And at the time, his two sons hadn't really continued with the family's legacy of playing the Sarangi. So when Lakha Khan eventually leaves this world... do these songs just disappear? That notion weighed heavy on him, and you can hear a sadness, a deep melancholy in his voice. "What will I leave behind?"

Lakha Khan singing

Ankur Malhotra

On that same trip to the desert, we were introduced to a musician named Manga. And when we heard him sing, we instantly knew this voice needed to be heard. But it needed a band, and then, the label decided to form one. This would be the voice of Barmer Boys.

"Bole to Mitho Lage" by Barmer Boys

Ankur Malhotra

Barmer Boys put forth a unique fusion of the old and the new, melding traditional songs of celebration, the percussive sound of the dholak, khartal, and morchang, and fusing in contemporary elements like beatboxing and DJing.

scratching record

"Bole to (Awaare Remix)"

Ankur Malhotra

So, here we are today... in our tiny studio in Delhi, making hand-cut vinyl records. India is a country of over 1.3 billion people, and we are the only ones making vinyl. Amarrass Records has worked with over a hundred artists, and we currently manage seven groups that are touring all over the world. I have always been driven by the realization that these are perhaps some of the last great players of this ancient music. So, by preserving these songs and these sounds, my hope is that new generations will carry on this music's legacy and perhaps be inspired to create something new.