The Score Magazine May 2019 issue | Page 25

describe accurately the most talked, sung, written and painted about emotion in existence. Bablu Ki Shaadi takes a scalpel to the absurdity of the social quicksand that is arranged marriage. Satire abounds in the entire album, but Osho and his lot have been excessively generous with it while chucking at the hollow kernel of marriages made in relatives’ minds rather than in a couple’s hearts. Once against, lyrical dexterity does not match the first two tracks, but a simple enumeration of how arranged marriages come about ( Bola rishteydaro ne/ Fasaya parivar ne) and how they tend to work out is enough to generate comedy that doles out despair by the balti. Ghoome Re intercepts another common and depressing phenomenon : losing selves and souls in the pursuit of worldly aspiration. The questions posed are frequently repeated, most often by those smack in the middle of the struggle - Why lose sanity for shohrat? The band, based out of Mumbai, chances upon the most fitting metaphor for the city’s unceasing traffic of human ambition and survival. “Hain Railgari sa jivan tera (Your life resembles the train) Moh main kuch lipta aisa (Slathered and mired in delusion) Uljha hain tu khud mein aisa (Enmeshed in yourself you are) Bacha hain na tu khud ke jaisa (No longer are you like yourself) The words gain momentum, rocked by rhythm resembling Mumbai’s endless trains which ferry travelers to and from their fortunes and desires. Aao Khele is an admirable debut. Aankh Micholi sings about important things, and does it well. They garnish their thoughts with skillful, unpredictable riffs and melodies, preventing any possibility of boredom. It expertly reproduces zeitgeist, and while doing so, proves that not much has changed for the human condition. They’re asking questions we have become used to, and yet we have little to no answers to offer. Science City (Parekh & Singh): Underneath stolid red suits and uncompromising deadpan stares is brewing a set of songs obsessed with every atom of everyday life. This duo, often seen in crunchy colours have made a habit out of manifesting apparently unthreatening songs with flecks of exact truth cocooned in. They stay true to this artistic tendency in their sophomore album, but come armed with a whole new repertoire of metaphors and puzzles. “Time’s a waste of life”,croons Parekh while Singh peppers this roster of curious cynicism with minimal but essential punctuation. The album reveals their obsession with nuance - the how’s of everything they can lay their hands on. They pose questions and use their expressive instinct to breakdown the strangeness of the universe with it's own language. Forward Slash and Surgeon are especially conversant in this, and you can taste the band’s consistent pursuit of how everything works. Simultaneously, Down at the Sky, Be Something and Monkey take divergent journeys into the commonalities of human nature. Love, loss, self-doubt, resignation, optimism and quiet numbness all come through, riding on the backs of eccentric, playful musings. There is so much in the album that is impossible to get over. They stick to their characteristic juxtaposition of quirk-dabbled, wonder-inspiring composition with straight-laced but colourful wordplay depicting things gone askew. Parekh & Singh have never peddled despair, but they have always been champion sculptors of life’s loose ends. Their music never causes outright exhaustion, but it's beauty belies a certain unease. Science City is named after a museum and science center in Kolkata. As one of the city’s foremost attractions, it does not simply denote a wellspring of knowledge, but has immense emotive resonance for inhabitants of the city. If you have lived in Kolkata, you have probably felt love and giggles (it's a popular date joint) as well as comfort and security (it is also every family’s go-to picnic spot). You feel all of that leaking out of the album, and it wouldn’t be untoward to reminisce about your adolescent Christmas Day at Science City. If you have not lived in Kolkata, simply reminisce about everything else, and you will find that the songs fit into every memory.