Style: Post-Rock / Prog
Review by: Will
Country: India
Release date: 6th October 2021
“In a distant era when time stood young, a kingdom is slowly decaying away into the abyss. The land that once flourished with art and adventure is now wiped away. Barren grounds hold remains of colossal structures that lie under pale moonlight, as sand and gravel engulf everything. The scent of nectar masks over this kingdom of torn monarchical paintings and uprooted graves by the sea shore.
That is, until one tide comes along and changes the state of this wreck. The bards wrote about this surge of hope in their books. We witness it come to life.
Upsurge is change.
Upsurge is augmentation.
Upsurge is revolution.”
– Medddler, on his album Upsurge (Bandcamp, 5th November 2021)
So begins Mumbai-based Medddler’s 2021 opus, Upsurge.Medddler is the solo project and tonally mischievous alter ego of Angad Bhatia, with inspiration for the name coming from the idea of bending and, well, “meddling” with sounds and tones. When not working on Medddler, Bhatia is the guitarist for avant garde prog-metal group Festacorn and producer for chillwave electro-synthpop duo CandyFloss.
Upsurge is a prog post-rock album in which Medddler explores the beautiful, and rich world he created for himself – an ancient yet stagnant kingdom rocked to its core by the coming of an Upsurge which brings change, augmentation and revolution. He does this through crushing, grunge laden guitar tones that give way to fast riffs, and airy synth soundscapes. This album is bookended by some solid tracks: the opening track “Towered and Barren”hits hard with a slow, sludgy guitar tone reminiscent of Sleep or The Melvins. That low, growling tone is interrupted by shrieking guitar tones harkening the arrival of busy Dream Theater inspired riffing.And “Moonlight” manages to paint a genuinely serene acoustic and synth-driven closing to the album.
Throughout the album, Medddler’s experience both as a musician and as a producer are abundantly clear. The mix is tight and well-balanced, giving space to all the instruments when they need it and the music is composed and played well. However, though the album’s description shows Medddler is capable and imaginative enough to create an interesting album concept that seems solid enough to warrant a listen. Upsurge doesn’t quite manage to deliver on that interesting, imaginative world that it created for itself.
The album is pervaded by the sense that Medddler is holding back on his most interesting ideas in favour of well-used post rock soundscapes: “Nectar” makes use of beautifully atmospheric sitar-like eastern tones which don’t feel shoehorned in at all but gets cut short by some electric guitar strumming that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Christian rock album. While everything is musically competent and well mixed in the final product, Medddler’s unwillingness to run with his more interesting ideas results in a very generic-sounding post-rock album that leaves the listener wondering what might have been.
Post-rock is a difficult genre to write for and the heavy-hitters of the genre are masters balancing a variety of elements such as song length, complexity, and more. They also manage to add some sort of secret ingredient that brings their tracks to life: Think of the transcendental beauty of We Lost The Sea; the hefty concepts brought to life by Godspeed You! Black Emperor; or the compositional brilliance of Toundra.
It seems that Medddler hasn’t yet found that secret ingredient to help translate his lofty concepts into great music. His concepts of a dying world filled with edifices to a long-dead past simply doesn’t seem to come through. His apparent approach of playing it safe with his music is the main culprit. This is incredibly frustrating to hear after listening to Bhatia’s other project Festacorn, to whom safety is something of an alien concept. They throw elements of blues, rap, electronica and avant garde musical flairs at every track, and Bhatia’s guitar-playing shows he more than has the chops to handle time changes, breakdowns, solos, and complicated riffing. So why hasn’t Medddler inherited Bhatia’s wild side?
Medddler clearly has the imagination and talent to create a really solid post-rock album, but Upsurge simply lacks that special sauce that makes a post-rock album engaging and special.
This album afforded a fascinating opportunity to explore India’s prog rock scene which is surprisingly rich and exciting. There are some excellent bands out there with criminally low ‘monthly listener’ counts on Spotify. Therefore, the “You Might Also Like” section of this review includes a list of amazing Indian prog and post rock bands to explore. There are a wealth of interesting bands to explore in India, and I am sure that Medddler will soon join them when he finds that missing spark.
Recommended tracks: Towered and Barren, Moonlight
Recommended for fans of: The Melvins, We Lost The Sea, Toundra
You may also like: Festacorn, Sutej Singh, Motherjane, Demonic Resurrection, Paradigm Shift, Agam
Final verdict: 5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Independent
Medddler is: Angad Bhatia
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