Bangalore based experimental metal band Trash Talk recently released their second EP ‘BÜRD’, a foray into the fascinating world of birds. The band was formed in 2013 by Arshaq Malik and some friends from college in VIT, Tamil Nadu to perform at college competitions. In 2016, he moved to Bangalore to find a stable line up of musicians to continue the project with. Later last year, he was able to finalize the current line up, Ajay George Joseph (Tangents, Live Banned) on guitars, Ashwin Natarajan on bass & Deepak Dass (Space Bar, IndiGraffiti, Sky Punch) on drums.
Trash Talk’s new four-track self produced EP BÜRD is a subliminal product of their fascination with birds. Their compositions involve a much more technical approach but all topped up with the madness that Trash Talk are known for. The idea of this release shaped up around nature documentaries, giving it a very meta-cognitive perspective. “Ruuster” has a very mathcore vibe to it which reminds us of long island giants Carbomb, while “Sekretari Burd” is authoritative & dissonant, until it dissolves into something jazzy which feels more along the lines of Australian heavy metallers Twelve Foot Ninja. “Pijun” leans more onto the hip-hop side of things, sampling a song called “Pigeon” by American hip-hop duo Cannibal Ox. The closing track “Kondor,” has a super spooky buildup, leading into those hard hitting breakdowns.
“For this new project, BÜRD, we have taken a wildlife documentary approach towards the concept and have based the EP entire on the characteristics and anthropomorphism of 4 different birds. Stylistically, we have tried to keep the tone of the EP as abrasive as possible while trying to also display the versatility by integrating genres such as hip-hop & jazz-fusion. We have tried to make each track sound like the personality of each bird, and as a result, very different from each other.” says Arshaq. BÜRD is the first collection of songs from Trash Talk (following the 2019 single “Man In Search of Man”) to feature guitarist Ajay George Joseph, as well as drummer Deepak Dass. Ashwin Natarajan, a co-founder of the band, handles the low-end duties as bassist while Arshaq Malik fronts the band along with the production bit. There was a music video in the works, but the current nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought it to a halt.
