REVIEW : SHAA'IR + FUNC - MANTIS

Tweet

Genre : Electro/Dub/Dubstep/Jazz/Soul/Funk/R&B/Experimental

Year : 2010

Label : Blue Frog Records

If the world were to establish an electronica parliament now, Shaa’ir & Func would surely be the Indian delegates. Shaa’ir & Func (or Shaa’ir + Func), who are Monica Dogra and Randolph Corriea, is not just another electronica band doting the Indian indie scene; it is a band that has come of age in a very short span of time, it is a band that encapsulates the changing cultural, attitudinal and musical demographics of the young India; it has given it a face and a voice through their music which like the charismatic and stylish band is vibrant, spunky and full of chutzpah. Their arrival to the scene circa 2007 was an augury of sorts. While the electronica scene was still reeling under the effect of artists/Djs who were hell bent on applying a fresh coat of paint to rusted tunes and raving about it as if they were Picassos or artists of his ilk or trying to comingle Aphex Twin, cheesy raga instilled vocals, tabla solos and flutes, the duo released their aptly titled debut album ‘New Day: The Love Album’ where Randolph with all guns blazing on his guitar and synths and Shaa’ir (Urdu for poet) Monica reeling off verses of love and political blasphemy displayed their knack of distilling various sounds and flavouring it with local influences to create a bubbly and tangy concoction that would give you a kick every time you drank it and showed the others how things would be done from now on, around here. With two albums already under their belt, that are a heady mix of jazz, soul, funk, electro, R&B, rock and poetry and many hearts conquered, the band has become the darlings of both the critics and aficionados who have appreciated their grit and genre bending tendencies (VH1 recognized them as top emerging artists in 2007 and best independent artists of 2008 in India).

While ‘New Day: The Love Album’ is a good introduction to the band that never sounds cheesy and syrupy by classily carrying the pop aesthetic with itself, ‘Light Tribe’, the second album is a rough cut diamond. ‘Mantis’ is the polished shiny diamond that stands out in their catalogue and finds the band pulling their socks up and getting their act right to create this charmingly boisterous and tightly executed album by erasing the scratches left by the second album. ‘Light Tribe’ though full of appealing catchy songs, was careening sometimes with flaky grimy serrated electro outbursts that would overshadow Monica’s chirpy, amorously tantalizing and intermittently falsetto laden soulful voice (Ani DiFrnaco meets Annie meets Aaliyah kind of voice) and would ultimately mar the output of the tracks. ‘Mantis’ perfects that glitch and maintains a balance and congruence between Monica’s musings and Randolph’s histrionics (a sensible use of soft and loud dynamics). ‘Mantis’ in Greek means prophet or seer and true to this description the songs on this album spread the message of love, talk about longing and living in the company of your loved ones and respecting what you have rather than cribbing, etc. When Monica sings “I can feel the terror/ I can feel the pain/ I can feel your heartache/ there’s only one thing I feel more/ I feel love love love...... I can see my enemy/ I understand his flaws/ I can see him falling/ still I pick him up and say/ can you feel love my friend?.......” over sublime Hammond organ riffs and summery/beachy dub like a Rastafarian, in the track ‘Love Love Love’ and is asking you to shine irrespective of the challenges in life by proclaiming, “We are made of stardust from the sky” in ‘Shine’ over bass swipes, bright pulsating guitar riffs, skanking guitar riffs, rollicking and ecstatic bleeps/bloops, you know what you are getting into – a nod to divinity and internal beauty. And evidently so, there is a huge dub accompanied by the Croydon and Bristol dubstep (or the home-grown Bay Beat Collective) vibe in the album to accompany the theme (moving a step ahead of their last album where these sounds were sparsely distributed).

‘Freeze You’, an eclectic mix of Monica’s come ons (like a female Gonjasufi if you may) and jazzy/reggae-esque brush laden oddball percussion (resplendent with odd time signatures), Hammond organ stabs, serene and warm piano/guitar riffs, dub chords coalesced with head bobbing dub and extremely filthy and wobbly digital bass evoke Rusko and Kromestar’s dancefloor bangers. ‘My Roots’ another electro stomper astoundingly  blends the local Marathi ‘Dhoon’ (Or ‘Dhinchak Music’ for the street lingo mongers), zany ebbing and tiding guitar licks, effervescent crashing cymbals with nasty and monstrous wobble-step (think Loefah or Vex’d’s frenzied tunes) to great effect. The more relaxed tracks, ‘Take It Personally’ and ‘Hyperbole’, prove (to naysayers if any) by binding cool jazz flourishes, dexterous drum rolls and fills with a mutating bassline that transforms with precision between breakbeat and dub for ‘Hyperbole’ and ‘Marathi dub’ and dubstep for ‘Take It Personally’ that S+F are no doppelgangers of international acts (a very big respite again indeed), but an act, that like a sea-sponge imbibes the best of all sounds and creates their idiosyncratic sound. Besides these tracks, other tracks like the dreamy-eyed and extremely amiable and anthemic Evil Nine-esque breakbeat/house track ‘Goodbye Cruel World’ and the chugging synthline and heart warming flute laden ‘Prophecy’ highlight the pleasant emotional substance of the album. Various emotions and moods are interplayed and described with a sense of direction in these variegated tracks which give it a weight and depth. And the best part of all is that most of the tracks are ready to blaze the dancefloor or to give you company on a long trip (example, while struggling through the traffic).

‘Mantis’ is an album that is fuller than the previous outings, jovial, intense and very much experimental in nature. It is an album for the masses without exactly being a sound of the masses; very few albums can actually boast of such a sound. As in how many albums do you know that can actually execute brashly experimental tracks by still being alluring and full of hooks? Albums in recent memory that can come to mind are Major Lazer’s ‘Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do’, Sleigh Bells’ ‘Treats’, Flying Lotus’ Cosmogramma, to name a few that eschew any genre tags but are made up of elements of various genres. In this sense ‘Mantis’ is an big win for the duo and a sign of good things to come for them. This album is  very much recommended and considering that the Ganesha festival is around the corner, you can play those Marathi tinged tracks at your crib or on the streets and do some dirty skanking. Word up!

Rating : 8.6/10

http://shaairandfunc.com/

http://bluefrogsounds.com/musicstore/?album=72

http://www.myspace.com/shaairandfunc