Grooving to Austrian-born human turntable

Five men with five microphones and no instruments form Bauchklang, a beatboxing band that played at Blue Frog on Tuesday. They weren't just the voice, but the bass, percussion and everything in between

Alex Bock's bass guitar hasn't been played for ages. It sits in the corner of his room back home in Austria while he and his bandmates practise producing the sounds of an entire range of instruments through beatboxing as Bauchklang, a vocal groove project.

The band is made up of Andreas Fraenzl (lead vocals), Gerald Huber (the human beatbox), Christian Birawsky (mouth percussion), Alex B ck (bass) and Philipp Sageder (vocal sounds), some of whom have been together since school. "Everyone dreams of starting a band in school but how many people decide to become the music themselves?" asks Fraenzl as he explains the history of the 14 year-old group.

Bauchklang is a vocal groove project from Austria.
PIC/ Prathik Panchamia

Starting out with Rhythm of Time, an electronic track that begins with some heart thumping beats, first time listeners are bound to search for the DJ backstage, but they won't find one. It's all throat when B ck launches into a bass that will move the most stubborn feet into a jig. The general recognition for a beatboxer is the subtle nod of appreciation, but Bauchklang beats the dance out of its audience. Fraenzl narrates, "Our first challenge as a beatboxing group was to get people to dance. When that happens, our job is done."u00a0

Good You Do, another popular track, begins with an ascending techno tune that rises to a crescendo just as Fraenzl works a rap like a tape recorder in fast forward. Birawsky works his way in with a reverberating percussion and Sageder sounds like a disc skipping to and fro under the guided fingers of a disc jockey.

Starting out as an acapella band, each member comes with his individual style and as they hit the stage these influences seem to unravel one by one. Fraenzl has a hard time describing their sound. He tries: "It's difficult to put into words but we have a mixture of human made electronic sounds, hip-hop grooves and everyone's background coming together."u00a0

The club was packed with fans that the band built-up through their last two visits to Mumbai after their first performance in 2008. "That was the first time we came to India. Philip is very interested in Indian music and he came backstage and told us that Taufiq Qureshi and Zakir Hussain are in the audience. We were really excited but he was getting nervous because only he knew how big they were as artists." Hussain and Qureshi liked what they heard and joined the band onstage for an impromptu jam, and there was harmony.u00a0

Qureshi is now a regular guest with Bauchklang every time they visit and he never misses a beat. Clearly, the crowd loves Qureshi even before the microphone is turned on. Dressed in an orange kurta and khakis, he began with vocal tabla percussionu00a0-- culminating in a showdown with the lads from Austria. Sageder, who speaks a considerable amount of Hindi and Marathi gets the best of the composer as the vocal jousting turns from a tin da dha ufffd to ekde ya ufffdtekde zha and an amused crowd cheers on.

Bauchklang is out with a new CDu00a0-- Signs. They will continue to Bengaluru and then Pune before heading back. Mumbai has been a blast, but Fraenzl says they haven't had much time between performances. "We drank some chai and enjoyed the crazy energy of the city. Vienna is so quiet. Mumbai is never quiet."