Review Summary: Imperfect and uneven album that still manages to startle with its musical vision and originality.
The Indian rock-music scene has been in a state of advanced nascence for close to two decades now. Starting with bands like Indus Creed in the early 80's who sported typical pop-metal sounds and hairdos, through Euphoria and Parikrama and on to the current crop of bands, Indian bands have shown talent but not a whole lot of creativity. While admittedly I have spent some time away from the scene and was quite startled at the sheer volume of original, and often quite good, music that Indian rock bands have put out while I've been away, there is still a lingering sense of deja vu. That even though these bands aren't actually covering Guns N' Roses / Metallica / Nirvana / Nickelback / [insert popular rock band's name here], they're still trying to write songs that will connect with (hypothetical) audiences on an oh-I-like-that-because-I've-listened-to-stuff-just-like-it-before level. Occasionally however, a band like motherjane rises out of the morass and gives you an album like
Maktub.
To be perfectly fair motherjane (and yes, as far as I can tell, the "m" in motherjane isn't capitalised) hasn't reinvented the rock-music wheel. They started out pretty much exactly like any other rock band in India starts out. A bunch of guys who like playing Iron Maiden started jamming in college and formed a band. Eventually they even discovered progressive rock and put out an album, 2001's
Insane Biography. The album was good, but not special. More than anything it was a professionally performed effort, but with the notable absence of very many hooks.
However, motherjane has returned with
Maktub and the growth of the band is astonishing. For one thing they seem to have learned to write catchy songs, atleast vocally. The band was always very tight and wrote catchy riffs, but vocal melodies often suffered. This isn't to say that vocalist Suraj Mani will be compared to Paul McCartney in the songwriting department any time soon. He still struggles to find truly memorable lyrical or melodic hooks, but the absence of hooks isn't as glaring as it used to be. Also, while he struggles to hang a hook on them, Mani writes some abstract lyrics that, depending your point of view, can be viewed as poetically artistic or pretentious.
Secondly, Baiju Dharmajan; easily the star of the show. Now I've never listened to much fusion music but, Baiju might be on the edge of the Rock-Carnatic (that's Indian Classical music) envelope. From the opening song, "Chasing the Sun", Baiju makes an artistic statement, echoed by the rest of the band and sets them apart from the pack. While his guitar work on
Insane Biography was technically impressive but ultimately generic, here he creates a unique sound, dropping slinky raga-influenced licks into the songs and solos with absolutely gorgeous guitar tone to boot. While some might consider his new-found affinity for carnatic music rather one dimensional and boring, I can think of more than a few people who've said the same thing about other shredders like Yngwie and EVH over the years. And honestly, how many times can you listen to a guitar solo in a pentatonic scale before wanting something new?
And don't get me wrong. The guitar solos on the album are not strictly carnatic music. Baiju finds plently of time to shred, sweep and tap, but the primary focus is on the Indian element in the music.
Overall the band sounds excellent and very tight, which I know is not just a trick of studio ingenuity, as I now know after watching them open for Opeth. The rhythm section of John Thomas on drums, Clyde Rozario on bass and Deepu Sasidharan on rhythm guitar are solid if unspectacular. Thomas especially works some impressive fills in without ever seeming like he's showing off and Deepu's alternately spacy and crunchy rhythm guitar work is as much a trademark of the band's work as Baiju's soloing. The tightness of the band is especially evident over some of their more complex time signature changes.
For negatives: the band's lack of instant memorability. Especially for a band that is trying to bridge the gap between pop-rock and progressive metal, this hurts them. With the possible exception of "Mindstreet" which is actually a re-recorded, and if I might add definitive, version of a song from their first album, the songs on this album are not likely to get stuck in your head after a single listen. Or two. Or possibly even three.
Suraj Mani's voice might also be an acquired taste. He has a very clear and colourless tenor voice that seems more suitable for musical theatre than a rock band. Some of his vocal inflections are also occasionally annoying. However, once you get past that, you see that his voice is an integral part of the band. While they're playing progressive hard rock, they're not posing or trying to be intimidating like a lot of rock bands and vocalists try to be. The band doesn't write songs that require him to growl or scream, so he doesn't.
Ultimately, this album isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. However, it shows flashes of brilliance and some actual originality and creativity which is a rare commodity in the music scene. Whether this is the album and band that finally breaks Indian rock music out of it's box remains to be seen. I'm rooting for it.
Highlights:
Mindstreet
Chasing the Sun
Fields of Sound
