Send in the Clowns

The year 2007 saw one of Delhi’s finest alternative rock bands rear its head and belt out music that suited headbangers of all kinds. A bunch of young architects,who were busy jamming at vocalist and guitarist Arsh Sharma’s house by the day,was upping the ante at night. This was for an audience that was hungry for music which was not mainstream,had touches of most musical genres one could think of,and wasn’t annoyingly banal like much of indie music at that time. Now,two years after their debut album From Space (Grey & Saurian Records),the band,which came under the spotlight after a stint with Channel V Launchpad,is back with its second album. Titled Bats (Grey & Saurian Records),the self-funded album is in the final stages of being mixed and mastered at composer Anupam Roy’s studio in Chittaranjan Park and will release in September.

“We recorded our first album at Anupam’s studio too. It is better to put in our own money and produce the album our way rather than play by the rules of the recording companies,” says Sharma,who along with Abhinav Chaudhary on bass,Abhishek Bhatia on vocals and Anshul Lall on drums,has recorded nine tracks on the album that have done the rounds of Delhi and Mumbai. The band may have followed the set path of singing verse and chorus,but they are now experimenting with new songwriting skills.

The album,which according to Sharma,showcases an evolved sound and has dollops of electronic dance music blended with grunge,blues,rock,soul,funk and R&B,is ruled by a slew of “organic tracks and natural riffs”. It will open with the title track Bats,an upbeat number,followed by Gardening,a high energy progressive rock track that is ruled by ambient sounds and borders on trance. Another track on the album is Andromeda that comes with complex guitar and bass structures that do not sound like guitar and bass. “You can only figure synth sounds,without any synthesisers playing,” says Sharma,who adds that the final track on the album It Feels Good when the Medicine Kicks In goes into a long jam and is a high energy live music session.