Author Archives: Prasanna Singh

T.L. Mazumdar is an accomplished musician and vocalist who has in the past, collaborated with some of the country’s finest. T.L. has always been fascinated by the musical variety and diversity that he has encountered in different surroundings, and having spent his formative years living across the globe – spanning across 3 continents and 4 countries – his mind has opened up to musical cultures beyond our shores. His fascination for this has culminated in the creation of BUeC – an album with  a collection of songs that try to bridge the gap between music that is both eastern and western, electronic and jazzy, and music that is at once ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’. However, this…

Cassini’s Division is not the most colourful band in the Kolkata circuit, and the band members aren’t known for their gregariousness either. In spite of this, the band has been winning hearts of music lovers all across the nation with their brilliant originals and unique musicality over the last 10 years. And although most people admire Cassini’s Division’s music, it is actually not the only reason that makes this quartet so special in the eyes of the rock music loving Kolkatan. Most young bands and musicians may not realize this, but Cassini’s Division was probably the first band in the city to break the hold that classic rock and blues bands had over all major…

Neel Adhikari is without a doubt, one of the unsung icons of the Kolkata rock circuit. The last two decades have seen this gentleman be an integral part of some of the best and well-known bands and projects in the city which includes the who’s who of the Kolkata music scene over the last 10-15 years. My point here, however, is not to highlight how many bands he’s played in, but rather highlight the fact that Neel has never been afraid to experiment with his music. He has refused to give in to stagnation and has accepted new trends in this ever changing music scene. Neel’s songwriting has matured through the years and in his…

Prasanna SinghPrasanna Singh

Kolkata has a reputation of welcoming out-station musicians of all creed and color with open arms, especially if they belong to the “established” category. But what if you aren’t an established musician? What if you are a young female artiste who is completely unknown to the average Kolkata music lover? What if you, the artiste, decides to not only perform in Kolkata for the first time, but also launch your album in this city as well? Does the city embrace you or reject your musical efforts? These and many other questions came to mind when the promos for Mali’s debut performance at Someplace Else started filtering through. For those of you who may not know,…

Sahil Makhija, aka The Demonstealer, is a busy person. If he’s not busy with his flagship project Demonic Resurrection, then he’s busy trying to rub your funny bone with Workshop. Or maybe (if you’re lucky) you get to be his guinea pig for the day and sample his demonic cooking (damn I wished I lived in Mumbai!) And let’s not forget his solo projects, his guitar and processor endorsements, his endless promotion of the Indian metal scene, and god knows what else! With his fingers in so many pies it is amazing how he manages time to bring out another album for his death metal project Reptilian Death. Titled The Dawn of Consummation and Emergence, Reptilian Death’s sophomore effort is…

The Festival Chapter III: Moshpit Mayhem (held on the 15th of June, ) promised so much for the metal-starved community of Kolkata. However, the event’s extremely low turnout has seemingly rung the death knell for future metal events of a similar nature in Kolkata. It had been hoped that the 3rd edition of The Festival would finally put Kolkata on the nation-wide metal map, with its anticipated success leading to more event organizers and international metal acts willing to jump onto Kolkata’s so-called “metal band-wagon” in the future. However a below-par turnout (less than 250 by my count) was a downright rejection of the laudable efforts of event group E365 Media Solutions to showcase some very decent…

It’s interesting to see the number of projects that we find established musicians being involved in nowadays, outside of their main bread-and-butter band. Sahil Makhija is a prime example – Reptilian Death and Workshop are very popular and successful projects, however the Demonstealer shall always be primarily known as the front man of Demonic Resurrection. Likewise, in Kolkata, many musicians aren’t solely committed to just one band or one music project these days. Sometimes they take the opportunity to collaborate with other musicians – these collaborations are like an adventure into the unknown, where the musician tries to get out of his/her comfort zone to explore different forms of music – something that generally wouldn’t…

The last couple of years have seen the rise and fall of many bands/artistes in the Kolkata rock/music circuit. This demise and/or hibernation of these top bands in Kolkata have led to a void which many new acts are trying to fill up. The jury is still out on who the current top dog is – but one band which is laying good its claim to this throne is Gingerfeet. Gingerfeet is a group of five young blokes, two of whom are also members of the very popular band, The Cynical Recess (currently in self-exile), – drummer Abhinandan Mukherjee and vocalist supreme Abhishek Gurung. The remaining 3 members who make up this funk rock quintet are Vedanta Razz…

      For the past few years Kolkata has been playing catch up with the rest of the country’s metal scene. A complete lack of opportunities for the city’s metal bands due to a combination of uncooperative venue owners and event management groups unwilling to host metal gigs, non-existent media coverage, and a huge apathy towards metal in general had led to the metal scene in this city having a very retarded growth. Until, that is, a few bands decided to take matters into their own hands. And so was born the concept of ‘The Pit’ –  Kolkata’s very own metal festival. The PIT was not just about a few bands and metal-heads getting…