Music reviews

Promising debut

Surrender is the promising debut album by the daughter of music maestro L Subramaniam. Bindu Subramaniam is said to have worked hard for over two years to bring out this album and it seems to have worked in her favour. It is difficult to slot her music into any particular genre, and that’s where her music scores. The vocals are excellent, and the accompaniments are even better. Autumn Leaves featuring a violin bit by L Subramaniam at the start is evocative. Superstar is another number that draws
attention. There is that unmistakeable jazz touch to the whole album, and no wonder,
because Bindu has honed her jazz skills at Berklee College of Music in the United States. Is She Looking At Me and Where Are You are other numbers that impress, and one senses more than a hint of melancholy in these numbers. Overall, a great start to what seems like a bright career in alternative and fusion music.

Savitha Karthik
Futuristic melodies

The term virtual band was popularised with Gorillaz in 2000, although there have been other virtual bands. Virtual bands use different animation and recording techniques to achieve their desired effect such as computer animation, traditional animation, vocal mixing and sound manipulation.  Their style is a composition of multiple musical genres, with a large number of their influences including dub, hip hop, alternative rock, electronic and pop music.

The Fall was entirely recorded by Damon Albarn on an iPad while on tour for his previous album, Plastic Beach. Detroit is a smooth and peppy instrumental, which pays tribute to the dance culture of the city. The Joplin Spider has Damon’s vocals, which sound like spoken words and drums and synth noises like fighter planes in a sci-fi movie. The snake in Dallas is a futuristic sounding instrumental. Aspen Forest is another instrumental with a blend of piano and synth sounds. Seattle Yodel, the last of the 15 tracks, is just what the title suggests – sampled yodelling.

Michael Patrao