Pune-based alt-indie artist Trisha J is a storyteller – it does not take one much to figure that out. Within the first few minutes of her new EP, Killer Times, you know that the artist is constructing narratives, or essentially, thinking in poetry.
This inclination to the same is not unwelcome, it helps shape her music into a palatable form that is dark, moody, and somewhat leaning towards the grunge. The 5 song, 18 minute long record has accompanying music videos seeped in black and red velvet textures and features a gradual progression into a descent into a spiral of grief and decrepitude that translates into a resignatory form of malice.
The first song, Killer Times, which also lends the EP its title is relatively simple, and sounds pretty familiar. It also sets the tone for the kind of sound the project is going for – almost an animated film villain who is elegantly threatening. The singer-songwriter states,”out now along with the music video. This track comes from a place of existential dread – reflective oftime wasted in folly, inability to keep up with the world as it turns and the journey of self-acceptance brought about by these double-edged experiences.”
It is a good starting point, before the record deepens into a fissure of more introspection. The entire project combines a horde of different sonic profiles, you find yourself listening to jazz, quite a substantial bit of rock, and quintessential pop riffs. Red Velvet, featuring guitaarin and Arjun Menon, charts into rock encircled territories, and for the most part, the arrangement works out as the artist sings about cyanide in her red velvet, and the layering of the vocals over the heavy instrumental is an intriguing effort.
One of the best songs on her project, however, is Villains Get No Holidays, which is the jazziest on the record. It also features both the cello and viola, which add to the granular texture of the song. The lyrics zero in on the “villainy” that the artist has been trying to project right from the start – Think I’m getting tired of living on the edge/Maybe I’ll take myself out one of these days/Poison is sweeter when you share it with your friends/I’ve become something that lives under your bed”.
The EP closes with Romantic Leftover, which features Aarvin and Puzzle M. The artist says about the song, “Set against the backdrop of an apocalypse, “Romantic Leftover” is a haunting duet featuring Aarvin’s deep baritone and Puzzle M’s bluesy, evocative piano. The dramatic strings weave through the track, amplifying its intensity and melancholy.
Together, they capture the fragility of love in the face of impending doom, offering a poignant reflection on the fleeting nature of human connections amidst chaos. The duet draws out the cohesive nature of the record, making it come full circle, lending it a semblance of balance that is complemented by the double narrative. Overall, what you find in this EP is a woman making sense of what she is to become — fraught between her own perceptions of what is bold and what is pathetic. The blood red and black colors that she keeps consistent throughout her music videos does contribute to that idea of redemption, grief and the irony of everything in between. As she insists that she is a satirist, the lyrics reflect that debacle within her — to mock herself and her actions in the larger scheme of things, and to be sincere to her own heart. The music is good, and the instrumentalizations along with the different sensibilities of genres help in the record developing the soundscape it possesses.I have a few complaints, however — one being the slightly shoddy mastering in some tracks, where the vocals sound unprocessed while the instruments are clean. The last track has the piano overpowering the vocals, almost destabilizing the balance that you expect in the final version of a song. On doing a little checking, one can estimate that the songs on the EP were released/made at different times, and the entire record sounds like they have been made at different points when it comes to the kind of production on each track. Some are polished and crisp, some sound a little disoriented and lost. This imbalance should not be so detectable to the ear while making a record. These issues aside, Killer Times is a good debut EP, and once the production errors are overcome, future projects would be crease-free in terms of sound.
