In an interview with Indiecision that we will be publishing soon, Scribe vocalist Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy talks about how the band constructs its songs. “We just put ideas down and leave it for a while, (then) come back later. It’s like making a film. You shoot something and you cut it, then you put that scene in and think, ‘Does that look alright?’” The Mumbai hardcore band’s debut album Confect was their art-house thriller debut, throwing the viewer into a dark pit with a multitude of vicious, asymmetric miscreations; its non-linearity bound together by a lofty, The Matrix-inspired premise.
Mark Of Teja is Scribe’s Michael Bay blockbuster.
In the barely-two years between the release of Confect and Teja, Scribe went from being a Mumbai underground metal scene band to a Norway-touring, Lamb-of-God-opening, headline material, nationwide underground metal scene band. Their obvious Bollywood affectations notwithstanding, the band honed a finely balanced asymmetric assault into a set of markedly refined arrangements that while still relatively angular, came together far more cohesively. The beginnings of this evolution could be heard on the band’s two post-Confect, pre-Teja tracks ‘Mastibhari Muskan’ and ‘Lullaby Land’.
Teja is Scribe’s most tenacious album yet. It loosely tells the fictional story of a 17th century industrialist called Singhania and his human-machineering. The story falls somewhere between Total Recall and The Matrix, with a dash of Mr India thrown in. The tale however is important largely just to the album art and inlay, with the songs generally ignoring the script.
Lyrically, this is trademark Scribe. It’s a safe bet to say that Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy is the most versatile vocalist in Indian metal today. The range of the Scribe frontman’s delivery is unparalleled, and as he ploughs through cooking instructions for pav bhaji (“Pressure cook mixed vegetables and peas till well done/Mash them coarsely after draining” on now gig favourite ‘I Love You, Pav Bhaji’) and Street Fighter references (“Hadouken!/Shoryuken!/What chicken?/Fried chicken!” on ‘Street Archana v/s Vice Versha’) there is a tempered confidence that comes through from years in theatre and commercial voiceovers.
The band’s biggest deviation from this measured offensive comes on the recently-videod ‘Dum Hai To Aage Aah!’. The disco-metal tune forms a surprisingly apt centerpiece for the record and features one of the album’s lyrical highlights – “Why, a choo choo train don’t have no reason to be polite. Uh-woh-uh-oh-uh-oh/Ah but then, to be a choo choo, you’d have to be on the right track!” It’s rivaled only by ’1234 Dracula’s consideration that, “A vampire is just something kicked out of a pathology lab when the sun is out to tell me it’s time to go!”
In the same interview with Indiecision, Krishnamoorthy reveals that, “Scribe stopped being the output of inspiration, and started being the output of collaboration. … It’s not really the music that’s inspiring us to make new music.” He mentions videogames (ref the album’s instrumental title track), food (‘I Love You, Pav Bhaji’) and Bollywood (Andaaz Apna Apna anyone?) as inspirations for the band’s music. This is what sets Scribe apart – not elements from a Sikth refrain, or a lifted The Dillinger Escape Plan melody, or everything that Lamb Of God puts out. It’s these imminently relateable, Indian reference points out of which comes a dishoom-dishoom metal that’s entirely unique and far more rewarding than the catalog of many of their international metchul-inspired peers.
Mark Of Teja is 2010′s most listenable Indian metal record, and another highlight in the career of India’s most ingenious metal band.
Indiecision: A-
Our interview with Scribe will be up next week. Stay tuned. In the meanwhile, stream a couple of tracks from Teja here.
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