Indian bands who are able to release an album every year can be embarking on an ambitious journey, especially if they’re yet to snag in a large enough fanbase to make money from it. But Bangalore electronica/alternative act The Burning Deck aren’t ones to look back. In fact, journeys and travel are a big part of frontman and bassist Sandeep Madhavan’s influences on his second album, Deluge . From the bright city lights of Mumbai to watching light bulbs wash ashore in Vietnam, Madhavan mines his travel experiences to almost create 12 time capsules, somehow interconnected musically.
While there’s a lot of loudness on the opener ‘Lightbulbs on Wet Sand’, The Burning Deck moves into what becomes their signature sound on the song ‘Shoreline’, a brilliant jazz-meets-electronica mash which features trumpet player Katie Mackay and synth-player Bharath Kumar. From the shores of Mumbai, The Burning Deck transports you to Lake Titcaca on ‘Isle De Luna’. The band then takes you to the Amazon river, on their weirdly introspective title track ‘Deluge’, featuring Madhavan alone, experimenting with pitch-shifting on his keyboards and synthesizer.
Madhavan, who was part of Old Jungle Saying, gets back to his funk roots with a bouncy tune called ‘Undercurrent’, featuring his former bandmate/guitarist Hemanth Diwakaran. It’s only on the seventh track, ‘Kitten Up A Tree’ that you hear a voice, breaking away but also easing in from the prior instrumental tracks. Six tracks in, The Burning Deck have certainly managed to capture the mood using just their instruments, but now they get guest vocalists such as Karthik Basker (from The Bicycle Days) on the stomper ‘Out of Sight’ and Arfaaz Kagalwala (from Fuzzy Logic) on ‘Two oh Two’. They close, however, with the five-minute instrumental ‘Afraid of Letting Go’, featuring Mackay on the trumpet and flautist Arjun MPN.
That there are a few tracks with vocals which don’t actually play up the part is an indication that The Burning Deck excel better at instrumental songs. Sure, the vocals don’t really harm or devalue any tracks, but on Deluge, it’s clear that Madhavan and his friends don’t even have to use words to take the listener on a journey. Getting used to instrumental tracks can always be a challenge, but Deluge will grow on you, especially if you like the ideas of travelling and journeys.
