Sulk Station
February 10th, 2010 by admin » 4 Comments »
Who: Electronica vocal project by Rahul Giri and Tanvi Rao
Where: currently based in Chennai.
What: Seems an odd trend to crop up – boy-girl trip-hop duos across the country playing with blips, bleeps and vocal cords. Who’d have thought? Sulk Station is one of the new kids on the block after forerunners like Sridhar-Thayil and Tempo Tantrick, and as such only have two tracks for previewing. Influences of Massive Attack and Karsh Kale are apparent, but that’s probably because they’re dealing in similar fare.
‘Bindya‘ is a moody, atmospheric piece featuring a tasteful drums/synths/pads arrangement. It’s let down, if only slightly, by the vocals that simply lack depth. There’s nothing very new here if you’ve been following the Indian pop/trip-hop scene – this track is mostly about Sulk Station establishing their sonic grammar.
It’s nice to hear some grit on ‘Wait‘. A haunting bass line, distressed keys and Rao’s expressive singing on this make for a track more memorable than the last. Don’t be surprised if you catch yourself humming the reprise ‘Till you appear…‘ over and over.
Sulk Station seems to have a solid foundation in songwriting, but the production is less than stellar. It feels like they’re playing it safe, with the vocals and the arrangements. With Indian artists reaching for the stars in an effort to sound as good any international act, there’s no reason why they should hold back. All in time, we guess.
Keep your ears open for more Sulk Station over at http://soundcloud.com/sulkstation.
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Production is a highly over-rated parameter and it’s distressing to see so many Indian reviewers focus on it especially when the indie scene in the country is at such a nascent stage. At this point I think it’s more pertinent to judge whether an act has heart and the potential to move an audience, and Sulk Station scores very highly on these two counts, where the other acts you have referred to do not.
To clarify, I feel I already went into enough detail about SS’ songwriting. I do wish I could also write about their live performances but I haven’t been to see them yet. As for production, I feel it’s important even at this nascent stage because Indian acts on the web are on international turf – with SoundCloud/Myspace/Bandcamp/Facebook, we’re no longer reaching out to people in just one geography. Good indie production is indeed possible in India. And I do feel that better production will make a difference in the listening experience of the tracks SS has put up, and possibly a difference in the way they’re perceived as well. I see nothing wrong in stressing that artists, while working on their expression should also hone their craft. And production is part and parcel of electronica.
more than anything else its the pitchfork.com phenomenon rubbin off. ever so often, indian sites which claim to support and promote “indie music”(i don’t know what that means in the Indian context) end up focusing on the negatives(which i am sure exist). criticism is all right and i will take it in my stride, be it about production or arrangement or even VOICE. but this review, especially coming from abhimanyu, could have been so much better, as he knows the ins and outs of bedroom production, as an observer and a practitioner. it would have definitely shed light on one aspect of indie music in india – the fact that most bands are recording and producing at home, in rooms that have not been treated for sound, on computers that run on 512 mb ram.
Seems like I’ve touched a nerve here, and people seem to be missing the point – my shortcoming as a writer, I suppose. Production is not only about quality/fidelity/bitrates. It’s not only about manning the mixer like a seasoned pro. It’s about deciding how a musical idea in one’s head should sound to an audience – a melody backed by an arrangement and embellishments that drive the point home. I’m not extremely concerned about SS’ mixing/mastering yet, I’m more interested in them filling out their sound, as I know they’re extremely capable of.
As I said, I was left with the feeling that they’ve played things a bit safe. Could Bindya take you deeper into a woman’s psyche? Could Wait haunt you more with every listen? I think so. It doesn’t matter whether you’re using a PC with 512 mb ram or a Macbook Pro. Again, it’s about one being good at one’s craft. Don’t let’s negate the importance of that just because we’re indie.