Leonard Cohen - Songs From The Road

Artist: Leonard Cohen
Album: Songs From The Road
Rating: 5 stars
Record Label: Columbia Records Legacy Recording


Close on the heels of Bird On A Wire, a DVD of never before seen footage from Cohen's 1972 European tour comes the CD/DVD combination Songs From The Road, a collection of 12 songs from Cohen’s 2008/09 tour. For those of us who only dream of hearing the legendary rock and roll hall of famer live, this is as good as it gets to the second best thing, after Live In London, of course. Not surprisingly, the record starts with Lover Lover Lover from Cohen’s Tel Aviv concert, where he performed to a crowd of over 50,000 people and still managed to connect with the audience in typical Cohen fashion. It’s almost overwhelming to hear a crowd of 20,000 plus people cheering in recognition as Cohen sings opening notes to songs like Famous Blue Raincoat, Bird On A Wire, Chelsea Hotel, and Hallelujah. An interesting thing about the collection is the presence of songs like That Don’t Make It Junk and Waiting For The Miracle that you won’t find on any greatest hits collections, and the almost perverse absence of any tracks from I’m Your Man, Cohen’s masterpiece record from 1988. What is probably most endearing about this new package is the genuine humility and appreciation he shows for the response from his fans. The best part of the package, however, is the 20 minute bonus footage of his band navigating through 195 countries. Recently turned 71, Cohen’s legacy is truly spectacular and this collection proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that his music was wise beyond its years.
 
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(Originally published in The Sunday Guardian on September 26, 2010)

Shaa'ir & Func - Mantis

Artist: Shaa'ir and Func

Album: Mantis

Record Label: Blue Frog Records

Rating: 3 stars

Two and a half years in the making, Mantis is the third studio album from Shaa'ir and Func. Arguably, it’s no mean feat for an indie band to release three whole albums. Available for free download on their website, Mantis is a welcome change in the indie music landscape of our country. Again, not such a big deal considering the music put out by a lot of the bands. The album goes from pretty pulsating loops to the breakbeat influences one has grown to almost expect from the band. We’re not alone, the opening track, starts off with a quite reverberation before moving into a bouncy rhythm and Monica Dogra’s quirky – supposedly poetic – vocal delivery. Hyperbole raises the bar a little, very easy to move to. The music has the potential of being anthemic among desi listeners, is catchy and a slight departure from the synth-bass focussed Light Tribe from 2008. Randolph Correia’s excellent skills light up tracks like Take It Personally and My Roots. The choppy beats on When You’re Around and the bass-driven instrumentation work quite well with Dogra’s soul-inspired lyrical play. Goodbye Cruel World is energetic, yet effervescent. The sound is interesting, the lyrics are political. The trouble is, none of that is any different from what we’ve seen of the duo in the last two records – New Day and Light Tribe would both fit that description quite well. And where the first two times the sound was refreshing, the third time around it seems rather affected. Only ever so slightly, though. A most refreshing indie release on all other counts. 

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(Published in today's The Sunday Guardian)

Röyksopp - Senior

Artist: Röyksopp

Album: Senior Living

Rating: 4.5

Record Label: Wall of Sound/ Astralwerks

If 2009’s Junior was optimistic, then Röyksopp’s fourth LP titled Senior is the perfectly aged foil – edgy, moody and brooding. Recorded around the same time, the two very different records are meant to present two different sides of the duo. While Junior was supposed to present a more “danceable” Röyksopp (which is delivered rather efficiently), Senior is about what they call “The darker sibling who lives in the attic”. True to their claims, Senior is a record to get lost in, to kick back to. The duo from Norway has gone entirely instrumental on this effort, quite a departure from their usual vocal-intensive music. Tricky Two, appropriately named for the second track, may create a momentary illusion of a slightly uptempo drift, but listen carefully and you’ll see that’s only part of the story being told through the record. On The Alcoholic, you can almost hear the birds chirping and the rain as if you were on a drunken ride through the countryside. The broody Senior Living is haunting, exotic and delicately layered with an almost angelic choir like feeling in parts. The Drug, on the other hand, effortlessly fuses minimal 90s house synth with a trip-hop beat. Forsaken Cowboy takes us back to the duo’s debut album Melody A.M. with its swinging tempos and restrained moodiness. The soundscape on this record is lush, if at times a bit eerie like on The Fear, and full of 70s synth recalls. Overall, one of the best albums we’ve heard so far this year.

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(Published in today's The Sunday Guardian)

Ashutosh Phatak - The Petri Dish Project

Artist: Ashutosh
Album: The Petri Dish Project
Record Label: Blue Frog Records
Rating: 2 stars

When there’s so much buzz created around an album pre-release, it would only be fair to be a little sceptical of what’s on offer. But that’s how indie music seems to work in India, and the irony is not exactly lost on us. One possible theory is that the releases are so few and far between that the listener just eats into all the hype created by “artist managers”, “promoters”, club owners and the like. Such is the story of Blue Frog co-owner Ashutosh Phatak’s latest album The Petri Dish Project. Now, Ashu has been dabbling in electronic music as an independent producer and as part of a few other collaborations for a while now and his music has never quite made an impression, and for good reason. The Petri Dish Project, unfortunately, doesn’t put any big dents in that reputation. The opening song, Petri Dish, is easy listening and a damp squib as an opener, reflecting well on the rest of the record. The album’s highlight, beyond doubt, is the large number of collaborations with interesting female vocalists like Anushka Manchanda, Monica Dogra, Suman Sridhar, Ashima Aiyer and Saba Azad. The smoky Saba Azad on Immaculate and the quirky Ashima Aiyer on Miss Understood are probably the high points of the album, and the only two tracks that have any recall value, too, perhaps. Overall, a decent effort but nothing particularly interesting. The album makes one wish musicians would stop creating soundscapes to a perceived lower expectation of the “desi” audience.
 
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(Originally published in The Sunday Guardian, September 5th, 2010)