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.
~
(Originally published in The Sunday Guardian, September 5th, 2010)
No comments:
Post a Comment