It's great to see some established Rock coming out of India and hitting the spot.
Amazing where a bedroom recording project can lead you – or is it? There must be hundreds of musicians who, like Yatin Srivastava, started off making music in the comfort of their homes which led to greater things; in this case a full blown Progressive Rock/Metal project. Based in New Delhi and gathering together a cast of musicians from the Indian independent music scene, the project sees light as a five track "EP"; however no question of being short changed as it actually runs as long as the latest AC/DC album.
Openly admitting to being influenced by the likes of Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree and Karnivool, the music falls neatly into the Progressive niche; a labelling strengthened by the fact that there's a conceptual thread running through it all – a typically Prog-styled story of a character who enters a dream state totally the opposite of his reality and it consequences.
With a suitably dreamy opening allowing the music to evoke the main idea behind the concept, there's a sudden charge into 'Fascination' which instigates a healthy dash of heaviness. All chunky blocks of guitar evolving into a slab of what people might call Post Rock urgency; it's a terrifically atmospheric track which pulls no punches and starts to introduce the guitar as the driving force behind the songs. Discerningly positioned guitar solos start up in 'Unexplained' which feature Takar Nabam taking the second of a pair of epic solos.
The title track is an eleven minute journey through a plain of driving guitar and sound-bite samples on a backdrop of electronic washes of sound, all allowing some experimentation and time to develop the musical ideas. Again, the weighty guitars play a big part alongside some reedy organ during the impressive final section.
The final track 'Home' has been flagged up as a track which showcases the album, giving a flavour of the record as a whole with moody washes of keyboards and complete with another stunning solo this time from Pranav Pahwa – another strong feature of the writing – making solos which aren't there for the sake of it but making them count.
Srivastava himself takes on the bulk of the music plus the engineering, mixing and mastering duties – a tongue in cheek suggestion that he's the Indian Steven Wilson – and it's great to see some established Rock coming out of India and hitting the spot. For those who prefer their Rock more song-based, this exciting collection is something a bit more diverse, placing more emphasis on the instrumental aspect and is none the worse for it.
Mike Ainscoe