Math infused fusion genres never cease to amaze me, with a wide variety of experimentation, such genres are not at all stereotypical. The problem with the music industry in India is that all the artists imitate others by choosing the unoriginal path towards making music – the very reason for the stereotypically ridden Bollywood music rising in fame. Not bashing the said style of music but, as far as I’m concerned Math Rock is a lot better than Bollywood (I know, for each their own). It would be a surprise for most of you if I could introduce Kraken, a Math Rock band from India who has toured with major bands including the infamous prog/djent artist Plini.
L-R (Back): Reuben Das (Keyboard), Amar Pandey (Bass), Vipul Verma (Raps)
Hailing from Delhi, these talented musicians blend the melodic sound of Prog and extreme side of Math infused djent. Their songs are different and have a complex song structure with a puzzling time signature. Their debut EP, Lush, is the epitome of pure talent and musicianship. Lush flaunts a well constructed set list of 6 tracks. Like said before, they are Math Rock with a tinge of Prog goodness. It’s not like that, their music is way too complex for a person to digest but way too technical and original that makes one appreciate them. The album is refreshing and packs a nice little heavy punch with the melody taking the center stage.
With constant vocal switches between the soaring cleans and (somewhat) aggressive rap parts, traces the instrumental foundation laid by every single riff and solo which, in turn, is perfectly mixed with a groovy drum part. The good thing about the production is that the instrumentation even though mainly focused on guitars, the drums are not buried under the mix.
With the good, comes the bad. Personally, I didn’t get the whole rap part because the cleans were done to perfection and I don’t expect the aggression to cover my favorite clean parts. If only the rap part was replaced with a screaming part, I would have been hooked. But, this is just one tiny “issue” on this long 6 track album.
Overall, this album is surely a milestone in Kraken’s musical endeavor. Lush is a mix of Math Rock (Math Rock in the sense played by Tricot) played over melodic post-hardcore-esque passages. Kraken has stuck their foot firm in the Indian music industry and, they are not going anywhere soon. I’m happy that there are artists who challenge themselves to write original content instead of miming what an artist did before. Definitely one of the fine albums released last year, Kudos to Kraken for writing something fresh in a stereotypically ridden music industry.
Kraken just wrapped their four-city EP Launch tour in February and are working on new music. They plan to do another tour towards the last quarter of 2018. Listen to their EP, Lush, here at https://krakenofficial.bandcamp.com/releases