Advaita’s music truly breaks new ground; at least as far as Indian non-film music goes. With 8 members in the band, there seems to be many more, in terms of sheer genres and inspirations in their 10 track debut. Every track carries an enormously likeable Indian sound, even as they transgress genres so effectively and creatively, that, for a debut is quite a neat achievement! The Hindustani flavor is mighty ingenious in tracks like Rasiya, Hamsadhwani and Ghir ghir, but Durga tops them all, by a mile. The extended saarangi blues segment in Rasiya and Drop of earth, and the vocal jugalbandi that happens so effortlessly after guest vocalist Ravi Singh completes his part in Gates of dawn are spellbinding. Suspended holds a Jamiroquai-like, acid-jazz’ish feel that is so addictive. So lost’s pondering feel too, is equally enchanting, more so because Suhail Yusuf Khan’s saarangi is used to splendid effect here. The only track that turns in a mildly gimmicky performance is Mere yaar, where the lead vocalist seems bent on doing a Hariharan. It’s very difficult to pick favorites in this album, since the collection is astonishingly homogenous within the group’s unique Hindustani blues sound! One knockout debut, this!
Keywords: Abhishek Mathur, Aman Singh, Gaurav Chintamani, Mohit Lal, Ujwal Nagar, Suhail Yusuf Khan, Anindo Bose, Chayan Adhikari, Advaita, Grounded in Space
Note:
1. I came to know about this album through Vidhi Gandhi’s review in Chordvine. Thanks Vidhi!
2. Thanks to EMI/ Buzz PR for the CD.
3. Advaita’s official site for this album – Grounded in space.
4. Sample this album’s tracks from Advaita’s MySpace page.
