Reviews
Reviews (119)
With no major Indian album release in sight, Bangalore based Melodic/Thrash Metal band FORSAKEN breaks the monotony with their first full-length record titled HEMISPHERES. Previous year the band came out with its decent debut EP, DISENGAGE. Hence, for the fans of FORSAKEN, this album had quite an expectation.
It takes a great deal of effort to put emotions into words. More so to write a song that one means or believes in quite religiously. Perhaps somewhere down the line every artist has to compromise with his emotions to produce music that turns out to be something quite different had it not been under commercial pressure. With a great deal of relief I can say that ADAM & THE FISH EYED POETS embodies an idea quite antithetical to it. Plain and simply, it is raw. But this rawness is its most delightful trait. It is brutally honest; it resonates and amplifies the most basic emotions from some dark, hidden corner of the listener’s mind. That is a thing in itself. This new form of music so under embellished and bare, is perhaps more of a return to the good old days, and stands tall as a counter force to music produced with a commercial intent. Honestly, if my opinion was of any vital importance (though it isn’t!) this artist has single handedly restored my faith in the Indian Underground Music, which until now, according to me, was just floating on the surface, on the verge of drowning.
Funk/ Alternative Indian Rock band from Pune, PROSODY released their debut album in August this year called PAPER PLANE. This album is a huge and the first big step the band has taken in mainstream direction, after playing in pubs, cafes and college festivals for more than six years now. The album does full justice to the fictional character that the band has always portrayed as its image; that of a young boy looking out of his window, lost in thoughts, reflecting on his life as we all do at some point in our lives. The album cover is interesting too; a spiritual, dreamy touch to it.
Djent seems to be the “In Thing” these days, with almost every Metalhead wanting to buy an eight or seven string guitar and play like MESHUGGAH. And, it is because of this that this genre has gone through a lot of criticism from the Metal community as they find the genre quite derivative From its founding fathers who I mentioned above. While they are right in ninety percent of the cases they are some bands which I do like in this genre. Keep that in mind I think NOISEWARE seem to besitting on the fence in this one.
We are in a time where experimentation in music is the thing, where cross-country genres are being dabbled with, together in the same bowl, and “fusion” as a term is gaining more and more meaning. Ten years previously, you wouldn’t have thought of playing a sitar alongside a DJ scratching away on his turntable, while manipulating the crossfader on his mixer. Even if you would have, you would have met with a lot of raised eyebrows from peers. In the midst of all this, Niladri Kumar, the 37-year old sitar prodigy, who is already a famous name in the Classical Music and Indian Fusion circuit for his unparalleled talent on the sitar, and also for the invention of the ‘zitar’, blends the magic of Indian Classical instruments with new-age sound and churns out a beauty of an album PRIORITY, which is pure auditory bliss. Call the genre Indian Classical, Instrumental, Ambient, Lounge, Experimental or all of them together, it doesn’t matter. This multi-award winning maestro has to be heard and seen to be believed.