Saturday, August 30, 2014

Finding Oceanic

Sometimes I have to pinch myself: technology can be amazing.

A few months ago, I ate lunch with some co-workers at Royal India Bistro, a fine Indian restaurant in Lexington, MA. I hardly know the names of the Indian food I eat, so that afternoon I visited the restaurant's website. It began to play some streaming music, and while this normally annoys me, the initial notes were light enough that it drew me in. I liked the beat, and the motif, so I kept the music on, as I searched through the menu.

The music's change in tempo took over my attention. Head bobbing, I gave into it, letting the song wash over me. I was dazzled by its first impression! Instead of the food, I scoured the website for the name of this song. Unable to find it, I just played the song again.

A few days went by. I continued to enjoy the song by playing it off the website, but now I was at a loss: how could I find out the name of this song? I remembered reading an article about music detection software, and decided to try it out. I downloaded Shazam onto my iPod. I played the song through my speakers, and let Shazam listen.

To my delight, Shazam identified the music! The song is "Oceanic, Part 2", from the 2007 album "Breathing Under Water", by Karsh Kale and Anoushka Shankar, featuring sitar by Ravi Shankar.

I found the song on YouTube. Check out the song, and check out Shazam. Amazing technology, indeed.