Music This Week: The Discomfort Zone
Written by Suanshu Khurana | Updated: May 19, ..
Written by Suanshu Khurana | Updated: May 19, 2018 12:15:17 am Marz, a three-track EP released by The Yellow Diary, leaves a heady and lingering effect.
Marz, The Yellow Diary, Sony Music (available on all streaming platforms)
When a band releases an EP with three pieces titled Kashmir, Afzal and Marz, laws of intrigue begin to operate almost immediately. Marz, a three-track EP released by The Yellow Diary, leaves a heady and lingering effect. But barring one track, the hooks arent as compelling as song titles. What almost always works though, is the intelligent orchestration, clean sound and a clear sense of melody which steers their music in directions that bristle with promise. The Yellow Diary is an amber-hued diary on which lyrics to these pieces have been penned by the alternative progressive band of the same name. Comprising vocalist Rajan Batra, Himonshu Parikh on the keys, samples and backing vocals, Vaibhav Pani on the lead guitar, Stuart Dacosta on the bass and Sahil Shah on the drums, its optimistic how a leading music label involved in a plethora of commercial projects, is becoming open to signing independent artistes and promoting them.
The world that The Yellow Diary builds, word by word (in Punjabi and Hindi) and note by note is interesting, a lot of times even impressive. They open with Marz, which has the social media bonding over it as much because of its music video as because of the melody. A young girl, wearing a bomb vest, enters a fair full of children and parents. The conundrum — to kill them or not. She eventually decides against it. Marz opens with keys combined with Batras vocals. He sings well but the voice texture is nasal and diction quite teenage-like. The song picks pace and Pani lets it rip wonderfully.
Kashmir is the subject of the second track.You can hear the land through touches of a rabab and sarangi in the background. A sarod opens this with lines such as Tera huya mere bina toh kya tera/ Mera bhi ho tere bina toh kya mera, a reminder of how the Valley has been failed and ruined. Then there is Afzal about the Parliament attack convict, the lyrics of which go, Chali ve main chhod sab tera… Ud chali ve dekh. Musically and politically, Marz is a delightful attempt. We are listening.
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