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)