The Ska is the Limit

They’re an odd lot, they admit — Chopra’s sultry jazz vocals, Dalmia’s Jamaican reggae, rap and dancehall influences, Kaye’s education in post-punk and jazz in the UK, and Vasudevan’s brusque drumming, to begin with. “We have our own mistakable elements, I suppose,” says Kaye, who put the band together, “And I guess our anti-status quo lyrics have some appeal too. But, if the music is rubbish, the only people who are going to listen to our work will be writers. We’re trying to appeal beyond just writers.” XX, it seems, is the continuation of their labour that began in the fall of 2009, one that brought to our bumpy indie music stage a fresh burst of genres wrapped inside ska, a Jamaican form that blends reggae, blues, jazz, folk, calypso, rhythm and even rock. Add to that Punjabi dhols and classical refrains, among other folk derivatives from India.

The latest album, however, holds the promise of a more polished delivery of Kaye’s “mistakable” elements. Recorded over the last three-and-a-half years, the nine-track album builds from sounds that have been created before (Frank Brazil in 2015 was one such revelation), but has guzzled in more instrumentals and layers in the process.

They are known for an inherent style, one that transfers on stage as well. From private performances at diplomatic enclaves to jazz and folk festivals, to open-air gigs and prisons, their music uses their blend of influences to shapeshift into a diverse setups. XX draws from that strength and begins with Kick up a rumpus, an urgent and edgy rock delivery that is inspired by the 1950s exotica music (“One that came from people like Martin Denny,” says Kaye). This punk and ska arrangement pulls in the stylophone and the oddly mellow tenor sax and trombone, giving it all a rather analogue effect.

Frank Brazil has its own place in this setup, a murder ballad for freedom fighter Udham Singh, which blends in blues and folk, along with tumbi, dhol and dholak. Double X develops into a mellow, restrained piece with an initial ode to “all the freedom fighter/all the fallen soldiers”, with the twist of the puckered percussive sounds of the kalimba. A familiar territory with Kaye is what he calls the “Burman-esque” sounds (referring to the late SD Burman’s trademark instrumental compositions), which we witness in 001, while Afro Fantasy is a whopping 10-minute Latin jazz odyssey, one that sprang up from a Jazz Bastards list of music, and also features Russian ballet dancer and contortionist Yaroslava Yaraslava.

The allusion to censorship and revolution is preceded by the cover itself. “It could be alluding to censorship, defacing or something toxic, poisonous. It’s just a crazy mood and feeling, with the ‘XX’ on the cover that looks like violent defacing,” says Kaye. The band has upcoming tours in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore, and an extensive eight-week tour in Europe. “The UK tour will be an inspiration and might even form music that we come out with. We are focussing on creating a home section there and picking up the local brass players,” he says.