Gone are the days when bands sorted their outfits before sorting their sound. Today’s rock junkies are all about writing great music and putting it out for the world to listen to. It’s not about the pretty anymore and our indie acts have been getting their act together in the right areas lately. Eastern bands, especially have been churning out great melodies and working hard to produce original tunes which their fans deserve. Owing to the world wide web, we can now access all these acts and their music. Summit Attempt is one such band who we had honestly not heard of before they released their full length album for free download recently. All the above given factors plus the fact that we are an indie portal meant we HAD to check them out.

Having heard about their genre being classified into Jam rock, blues, soft rock etc, ‘Blue Bugyal’ comes across as a genuine attempt at original music with finely varying genres. The album opens up with a freshly swaying blues mood on ‘Changes’ and one is left wanting to pick up that old rusty acoustic and jam along. However, things dont stay as fresh beyond that. ‘Journey Within’ is an 80’s feel instrumental with acoustic-fusion elements stuffed in at places that takes the track into a very indi-pop realm. ‘Farewell’ is a spacey zone with shiny effects and old-school wet guitar layers while ‘Trancemigrational SD blues’ can still get you hooked with its drone inspired repetitive riff and neat bass work. ‘Happiness Is Latin’ returns to the band’s acoustic vibe with the Jobim-like melody and rhythm patterns which make it a clean, peaceful track but not quite the standard on the album. On ‘Whiff Of Home’ the band again pushes their boundaries into a slightly heavier, progressive punk laced jam that does not really seem to settle anywhere and leaves one pretty much lost in its two minute existence. ‘End Song’ is another peaceful instrumental which sounds like it could provide background score to a short film. The standout on the album has to be ‘Some People’ as it perfectly fits into the bands sound which is stuck amidst the way music has evolved so far and is continously evolving every day. Each member moves into the slow-blues vibe almost naturally and Sumit’s vocals sit commandingly over the rest of the setting to lead himself and Sayantan(guitars) sliding into the song’s ranting monologue through neatly crafted chord changes.

Though Summit Attempt have to be applauded for staying true to the music and trying to always bring something new to their sound with every song, one is left feeling the void of a thrill that a new band and a new record brings to the table. Most of the songs are well thought of but produced and arranged in a fairly average manner. The album does have it high points but an untamed mix of genres displays a kind of lack of experience in the artist and ends up making the album sound like a thing of the past. However, for the effort, shining moments and contribution to the original Indie scene, ‘Blue Bugyal’ is a must hear for fans of all kinds of music.

Listen and download here.

Tags: jamband, kolkata, Review, summitattempt
Category: Review »