All of Mishra’s compositions on the album play like
they hold great stories. The album moves from eerie
anticipation (what you get when you see a silent corridor
in an old film) to great waves of musical excess. But no
matter how elaborate, something like Human, All Too
Human makes you wonder about it's driving inspiration
- what was Mishra thinking about when he created it?
Fallin’ (ICONYK & UpsideDown): Your run of the mill pop
fabrication with a few decent beats. If Billboard pop is your
genre, this will feature on your list a couple of times. More, if
you prefer to jig lightly in your car seat on your way to work.
The song scrapes by the shores of reggaeton and moombahton,
but does not do enough to be identified with either genre.
While it does not manage to be memorable, it reminds of
the urban Asian lashings of Jay Sean and his musical kin.
Clubgoers and casual listener will have no reason to complain.
Post Modern Holocaust (Colorblind): In literary, historical
and philosophical academia, the term post-modrn evokes
multiple, often conflicted reactions. Is it a term with any real
meaning? Does it denote a style, a genre, a mode of criticism,
a mindset? Does it simply call for a change in consciousness
that no one can pin down with a worthwhile definition?
As a genre, post-rock fits right into the milieu of postmodern
art. It defies and dances around most definition, and
you judge it by the feelings it generates rather that
the artistic parameters it follows to come to life.
Most often, it is hard to talk about postmodernism without
weighing yourself down with jargon and alienating your
audience. When Pune-based composer-guitarist Kartik
Mishra AKA Colorblind used the word to name his album,
he might have wanted to confuse the discerning listener.
However, despite the strangeness of nomenclature, what
he composes does not feel alien. Quite the opposite.
How does one criticise songs with disconcerting
names and no lyrics? What do you think of when
you read Angels on the Electric Chair or A Lazy
Man Who Can’t Find His Words? Do you think
of aesthetic dystopia in the likes of Blade
Runner? Do you concoct stories in your
head which explain angelic presence in a
seat of death? Or do you just figure that
it's a cool name and replay the song?
The signature sound is textured with crunchy, gravelly
guitars, underlaid by an unobtrusive-but-always-audible
drone and heavily dependent on sweeping, ambient tones. It
is a big sound, but carefully includes the nuance that gives
post-rock it's grounds for success. Like all good examples
of the genre, it is effortlessly simple to drown yourself into
the album for hours. As much as it hides its own stories,
it gives you song after song to serve as soundtracks to
your own. Try the almost militaristic drums of Pier Paolo,
and imagine for yourself a parade that fits right in.
It must be noted that Mishra does not use the term
postmodern in vain or for half-baked hipsterism. In
Banal, he samples the voice and words of Tristan Tzara, a
Romanian avant-garde poet and artist credited for being a
founder of the anti-Establishment Dada movement - one of
the prime examples of postmodernist artistic liberation.
Echoing beneath the drone in Banal are Tzara’s words
“ ...in principle, I am against manifestos as I am also
against principles…”. As he lays bare the perturbing
contradictions that Dadaism was known for, you invite
confusion into your mind. Pay heed to the words,
accentuated by the metallic, clinical drone that is perfect
accompaniment for uncomfortable revelations such as:
“ I speak only for myself, since I do not wish to convince. I
have no right to drag others into my river. I am against action,
for continuous contradiction, for affirmation too I am neither
for nor against. And I do not explain as I hate common sense.
Some people think they can explain rationally by
thought what they think, but that is extremely
relative. Psychoanalysis is a dangerous disease ...”
Follow the entire speech, and for this song alone,
you will know where it's title came from.
This weird analysis of otherwise accepted definitions is at the
heart of the Dadaist movement, and indeed of postmodernism
itself. One can surmise that Mishra might be functioning with
a similar intent. Or perhaps, he is simply fascinated by a train
of thought, and he played some music inspired by the form.
Either way, the music is deeply appealing, and is
certainly capable of causing curiosity. As far as artistic
accomplishments go, is that not quite enough?
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
23