Gigandhi

Danish metal band from Copenhagen. Founded in 1991, split up in 2001. Band formed in the summer of 1991, when Martin Spanner Zimmermann and Kris Borring Prasada Rao were having a beer at a local pub and decided to form a band. Martin asked Jens Christensen from Intern Varsling to be the vocalist, and Chris persuaded Jens Hesselholdt from Boghandle and President Fetch to join the band as drummer. Fille from “Bolværket” was first called for the role of bassist, but he declined. So Jacob Øxner took his place on bass guitar. The band couldn't decide on a name for some time. There were many variants, like “Most Amok” and “No Sebleed”, but instead band took the name “Brune Blomst” and played typical hardcore punk. The name “Gigandhi” came about after one of the rehearsals when Kris was picking up the guitar intro for one of the tracks, like on sitar, and Jens was ranting a bit about the name Gandhi, after which Jacob and Kris looked at each other and said “Oh yeah! Gigandhi!”, and that was it. To hardcore punk began to mix industrial in Godflesh style, elements of sludge and post-metal ala Neurosis and traditional Indian music. Kris had Indian origins, and so he gets some of the credit for the eastern “concept” of the band. This unusual mix of genres helped the band to make their mark, because according to Kris, a lot of bands in the Danish underground have always followed the trends, even if they reached the performers very late. But Gigandhi never played what was trendy here and now, and strangely enough, they got caught up in the popularity of Indian music - Chris mentioned Asian Dub Foundation and electronic duo Cornershop as examples. In April 1996, their debut album Rafflesia was released on TBA Records. In promotion of the album, a music video for the song “Scornful Lies” was filmed and even featured on MTV Headbanger's Ball. In 1996, Martin left the band to start his own electronic project Beat Bizarre, and was replaced by Jacob Larsen of Lob of Lemmings. Despite the fact that the band members were best friends, they were always at odds with each other and pulled in different musical directions. For the first few years this created a lot of tension and helped to write interesting music, but with time it became difficult to create tracks that would satisfy everyone in the band. Their second album, released in May 1998, they called “Chaaval” (which means “rice” in Indian), where there is also the song Basmati - which is also a kind of fragrant rice with small long grains. But in December 1998, Jens “Lin” and Kris left, and Gigandhi continued to exist as a trio with bass, guitar, vocals, samples and drum machine. Transformed into a trio, the band's music changed significantly. There was less metal, but more industrial, Indian ethnics and electronics. The 1999 demo “Hindustrial for the masses” had an atmospheric and dark sound. The 2000 demo “King of Kebab” was not so dark in atmosphere, but more energetic. In 2001, vocalist Jens Christensen left the band, as he felt he didn't have the energy to devote as much time to the band as needed. Jacob Øxner and Larsen tried several different vocalists, but could not find the right one, and the band's history ended. From time to time the band went by the pseudonym "Elephandhii" for alternative live performances that differed from their usual live shows under the Gigandhi banner.