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  • Indus Creed to release new track in September

    Aug 19 • Indian News, Most Popular, News, Releases • 3544 Views

    Indie scene veterans Indus Creed are set to roll out their new song ‘Thief’ this September as they promise to take it heavier this time with their sound as they explore “newer forms and tones”in their upcoming new material. We caught up with Uday Benegal, the lead vocalist and front man of the band to shed light on their new work. When asked about the upcoming song he said, “It’s a slammer of a track. I won’t discuss the lyrics because I prefer to let the audience’s imagination interpret them as they will. But I will say that it’s about the unexpected turn that hits an otherwise solid relationship. And it’s heavier than a lot of our stuff” This is clearly enough to whet the appetite of any follower of the legendary band who decided to reunite after more than 10 years to release their album Evolve in 2012.

     

    Indus Creed Live (Photo Courtesy: Srikrish Photgraphy))

    Indus Creed Live (Photo Courtesy: Srikrish Photgraphy)

    Although it has been so many years that Indus Creed has been creating great music and gigging around the world, they have remained focus on making the kind of music they love. Though all the members of the band are also involved in several projects,Uday reiterates that Indus Creed gives the members of the band that fulfillment which allows them to keep going for as long as they have done;He says, “The music that Indus Creed makes gives us that fulfillment whenever we do it and the impetus to keep doing it”.



    As we see many bands belting out awesome tunes day in and day out, Indus Creed are one of the few who have seen the indie scene through its brightest and darkest days and they feel that this is one of the best times that the scene has had, he says, “It’s a fantastic time for non-Bollywood, non-traditional independent music in India. There have never been so many bands as today—and they’re all writing their own stuff! That’s the shit that makes me the happiest”. Among the others, he also notes, bands like the F16’s, Spud in the Box, Nicholson, Skrat among all others have caught his attention and the scene is improving in leaps and bounds

    Uday Benegal, Indus Creed Vocalist ( Photo Courtesy: Elvis D'Silva)

    Uday Benegal, Indus Creed Vocalist ( Photo Courtesy: Elvis D’Silva)

    While Indus Creed will be releasing a new track, a new album however is some ways in the making as Uday points out that “We’re not talking album release right now; it’s going to be a steady flow of new music which will very likely come together in a full-length album at some point.” Do not however let this be a downer as Indus Creed are set to perform at the Ziro Festival of Music in September where they will be ready to “slam it big and heavy” along with the promise that they will be playing more regularly. So watch out,Indus Creed should soon be heading to your city. So we eagerly await for Indus Creed’s new track and some heavy new live shows come this festival season.

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  • The F16’s off to New York to record at the Converse Rubber Tracks studio

    Aug 19 • News • 3229 Views

    With anticipation running high, Chennai Electro Indie rockers, The F16’s talk new album, B-Sides, dance music and the artiste life to Metalbase India ahead of their trip to New York to record at the Converse Rubber Tracks studio next month

    The F16's

    The F16’s

    Counting The Strokes as one of their biggest early influences, it’s almost a waking wish-fulfillment for The F16’s to get to record at The Strokes’ guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.’s Converse Rubber Tracks studio in Brooklyn next month, having won OML’s Road to Converse Rubber Tracks in India grand finale earlier this year. They get to record at the Rubber Tracks studio for four-five days and are also looking to play a few gigs while out there. “It’s New York, so the possibilities are endless. You never know, somebody might like us, or somebody might see us. It’s always good to play outside India,” adds frontman Joshua Fernandez.

    The band also releases a new music video as a single for their track “Ausenberg” – a term coined by Fernandez – courtesy Pepsi MTV Indies before they fly out; but will not be releasing any new material before their next full length (12 to 14 track) album, which is in the works. Bassist Sashank “Shanks” Manohar says they might release the album before the end of the year. “We’re experimenting with new sounds. As of right now we’re getting the right order of tracks and filtering out the songs we play live for the album,” he adds. The rest of their material, which is a part of their regular sets, they plan to release as B-Sides to their debut EP Kaleidoscope.

    The Chennai outfit’s latter half of the year seems to quite jam packed as they’re also confirmed to play Rishu Singh’s New Wave Festival in Goa in November, apart from the other prospective music festivals that are yet to confirm line-ups and a True School of Music scholarship won at Nagaland’s Hornbill festival to redeem.Finding the continued parallels being drawn between their early influences – indie rock giants the Arctic Monkeys, Foals, The Strokes et al – and Kaleidsocope irksome, the band is trying to steer away from the first record in terms of influences. “In essence, the first EP was basically the band playing tribute to its heroes,” adds guitarist Abhinav Krishnaswamy, previously a part of eminent Chennai acts Skrat, The Shakey Rays and Adam & the Fish Eyed Poets, who joined the band when he couldn’t make the move to Delhi with The Shakey Rays.

    This is the first time Krishnaswamy is writing with the band and steers our attention towards newer songs like “Lunar Zep”, “Jacuzzi” (Tune in on: NH7 Converse Rubber Tracks Bootlegs release) and “Jericho” as symbolic of the direction they’re going in. “Slowly as we went along we started making music that was more appropriate to us,” adds Fernandez.


    The five piece band has been listening to dance music acts like LCD Soundsystem and Liars to try and bring some of that element into the record – evident in their Alt-Dance track “Drag Dance Disco”. “If you want to make a dance music setup with a live band then that’s (LCD Soundsystem) pretty much the way to go. James Murphy (frontman) kinda wrote the book on the whole thing,” adds Krishnaswamy.Apart from tracks from the EP, The F16’s have an ensemble of more than 10 new songs where you see them mellow out with darker, slower tones, while some are really heavy. “We don’t play half our songs on the EP anymore,” says Fernandez.

    Rare to see the audience take to a band so well in India – with releasing their EP, winning India Bike Week and the Rolling Stone Jack Daniels Rock Awards (Best new band), playing NH7 Weekender in their first year and already flying to the US in their second year – the band attributes their success to pursuing music full time. “We survive. It’s a hard life, it’s a good life. You got to do what makes you happy. If you love it, you’re going to make sure you’re the best at what you do. Which is what really pushes us,” adds Fernandez.
    Having played venues all over the country, the Chennai rockers enjoy the vibes and energy from live performances, however the studio process has its own charm – with vocal harmonies difficult to perform outside the studio, experimenting with layers wins brownie points. “When we play live it’s all about delivering to the audience what they want to hear. It’s brilliant. I love it when the audience bounces that same energy back on to you,” says Fernandez.

    The F16's Live (Photo Courtesy: Swetha Joyson Photography)

    The F16’s Live (Photo Courtesy: Swetha Joyson Photography)

    Other engagements that occupy the band members are Harshan Radhakrishnan (synths) and Fernandez’s electronica project for which the two are hitting the studios, while Manohar executes the band’s artwork and drummer Vikram Yesudas dabbles in real estate.

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  • The Supersonics release second album ‘Heads up’

    Aug 19 • Indian News, News, Releases • 2667 Views

    The Supesonics, one of India’s grooviest four piece outfit from Kolkata are back with their New Album HEADS UP they call it “a very positive album” as they are set to put it out for purchase on OK Listen as well as itunes and at a gig near you.A ten track album, Heads Up carries you to a journey from exploring country tunes to rather very Elvis like vocals to hard core Indie, and by the time you will listen to the title track finishing off the album, you will get a sort of fulfilment which is the biggest plus point of this album. Definite recommendations other than the title track are, Come Around, Even When the Sun Dont Shine, these tracks will surely keep replaying in your mind. We should also give big props to Miti Adhikary, who previously has worked with artists like Coldplay and Nirvana, who was the producer of this album for the amazing full sound that is amazing.

    The Supersonics Live at blueFROG

    The Supersonics Live at blueFROG

    After their last album Maby Baking gave this Kolkata Indie band a great amount of fame in 2009 including a music video which aired on national tv back in the day when we were not used to seeing an Indian rock music video, The Supersonics are looking to take it a notch higher in making this album’s sound much detailed and closer to their soul. While noting the difference between their last album and this, they said,  “The main difference ,  is as a band we have been playing more through the song. We have  treated every song as it was being asked to be treated. Whereas Maby Baking was more of creating a sound and fitting the song into that idea. It is also a lot tougher because you think of every possibility for the song and question, We have gone this album we have been very detailed and thought about every second of the song , whats reqd and what not”


    The album has been released with the track Into the dark which can been seen on the Red Bull webpage. The music video according to the band shows the journey of how they traveled from being a bedroom band project to the big stage, “The song is actually about discovering yourself and the journey you go through the various different phases and the video is showing the same. With the band like starting in the bedroom move up slowly , so basically its a journey”

    'Heads Up' is the second album by The Supersonics'

    ‘Heads Up’ is the second album by The Supersonics’

    As said earlier, the band have also jumped into a tie up with Red Bull and the band gives credit to this company for pushing members of the Indie scene and helping promote new music, “they are the actual true patrons of art in India. They have guys doing a lot in the music scene. Few of the guys are directly helping out bands and are actual musicians. Redbull is the first brand i have come across in , being a professional for 14 years who have come all out, no questions asked and have given full support that itself has changed a lot of things for the indie music scene.There is brand who actually wants to actually help the band”, are you listening other companies?. Surely time has come for more supporters of this movement.

    While not confirming any more tour dates other than the upcoming gig at the Ziro festival of music, The Supersonics do have more gigs in the process. So “HEADS UP!!”

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  • Aranyak Atman: A Vedic Tribute to Burzum

    Aug 19 • Indian News, International News, News, Releases, Reviews • 3582 Views

    For every thought an individual has, he sub consciously propagates a negative idea to that thought which varies in its influence over his psyche. The Norweigian black metal scene has always been that driving force that got many metalhead teenagers hooked on the creative side of their negative emotions. Mr. Varg Vikernes’ brainchild project Burzum is considered to be one of the first atmospheric black metal entities that emerged from the Scandinavian scene. His music was as morbid because of the simplicity of his experimentation and the Mayhem like arrangements which he executed in his own way.

    Aranayak Atman: A Vedic Tribute to Burzum

    Aranayak Atman: A Vedic Tribute to Burzum

    Today, there are quite a few bands that are influenced to create music like Burzum’s but in their own way. With bands like Drudkh, Darkspace, Xasthur and Agalloch gallantly carrying the banner of experimental atmospheric black metal, there has been a more open audience for bands of this genre. Quite recently a ‘Vedic tribute to Burzum’ was released via Depressive Illusions records of the Ukraine metal scene. Aranyak Atman is a record in which once can see the ideas of a young Burzum, with its under-produced instruments and thorough darkness, and a morbid euphoria that sets in from the beginning.

    A very stylish element here is the literary effort behind each song title. The words express a lost feeling that the album is trying to create here. Immurement – Dungeons of Darkness is where one begins this album, and the song takes its own time to develop from the deepest recesses of the listener’s consciousness, with dark winds blowing and an eerie haunting feeling of the supernatural. It’s not even an instrumental song but just drone noise that end to cue the classic organ tone of Scandinavia. It is probably this tone that sets the ambience, although one can complain that the keys sounds like a midi export of a guitar pro composition.


    Demonos – Ea, Lord of the Depths is the classic, brutal Burzum sound revisited. The off-sounding drum tone and the accompanying traditional Darkthrone like guitars is only fitting with the most esoteric vocals that are on this song. Every black metal fan who has every bore witness to the Transylvanian Hunger record will relate to those wraith like vocals that Nocturno Culto so thoroughly expressed in the record. What follows is a downright Pagan Fear like chugging riffing but the vocals here are the shrieks that even blasphemous metallers fear.

    Depressive Illusions Records

    Depressive Illusions Records

    Varg Vikernes is known to have created the early Burzum music with only synthesizers and lyrical influences from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and because of the experimental nature of its music he decided to keep this as his pet project even after his release from prison. Records like From the Depths of Darkness only fuelled the scene that Varg Vikernes’ popularity post his arrest generated, with fans of traditional black and extreme metal soon accepting the atmospheric black metal niche. Aranyak Atman celebrates this niche existence. The songs by Mrytu and Arsonic are witness to this altho h it can also be said that this record is witness to the stigma Burzum’s legacy will carry.

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  • Saor – Aura

    Aug 16 • Reviews, The Slumbering Ent • 3605 Views

    Dipankar Mohanty reviews the new album from Saor titled Aura, released via Northern Silence Productions.

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    One man black metal bands (or their sub variants) are often something that I take with a pinch of salt. The one man force behind SAOR, Andy Marshall is Scottish and if that doesn’t give you a clue about the subject matter and his influences then Aura will because it is truly a journey through Scottish legacy and the country’s natural beauty. Aura is delivered with a patriotic fervor and yet includes the sensitivity and inherent splendor that is the result of a man’s hard work who truly loves his job and country. I daresay, if you let your mind wander and absorb the Celtic melodies, the images of the misty highlands are immediately conjured.

    First of all, it’s the Celtic instrumentation which runs dominant across the album along with chants and clean vocals (female vocals included). The atmospheric black metal elements running behind the dominant sound add a very powerful vibe to the gigantic melodies. Children of the Mist invokes images of a march of medieval Scottish tribes on their way to battle. The up-tempo drumming and riffing with chants running behind screams of passion certainly does stamp that effect on the listener. Then the song changes its course and runs along a trail of Celtic melody for sometime before getting back to the fast parts. By and large, these long melody driven passages are the highlight of the album; case in point – the title song Aura, which is a thoroughly enthralling exercise in melody. The Awakening imbibes more choir like chants and clean melodies before female vocals make their appearance and almost render another layer of beauty to the song. If the Scottish flavor till this juncture wasn’t strong enough, The Awakening pays tribute to poet Robert Burns’ depiction of Scotland’s beauty in ‘My Heart’s In The Highlands’ which was written in 1789. The song picks off passages from the poem and an overdose of flute driven melody makes it truly magnificent. The feverish atmosphere present in the first song Children of the Mist returns once again in Pillars of the Earth before settling into an acoustic section and opening up once again in truly spectacular fashion.

    SAOR weave a truly majestic sound, one that is driven first and foremost by the heart. The heavy usage of traditional Celtic instruments is not a gimmick nor is cheesy but is a focused attempt to create a melodic atmosphere of gigantic proportions based on the Celtic sound. So from the side of instrumentation we have the rhythm guitar, tremolo picking, acoustics and wind instruments gelling together in cohesion. On the other side; shrieks, clean and female vocals are inserted at the right parts and are not overdone. Aura impacts and drives imagination, more so in an open mind where there are no walls between it and it’s beautifully crafted music. Needless to say, the album is truly moving. Submit your senses to its beauty.

    RATING : 4.5/5 (A most erudite grimoire, and a worthy addition to the annals of metal prowess)

    Stream the entire album on bandcamp

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