There is rhythm to Venoz’s work, almost a swinging one. In his 5 track EP, Saanp Seedhi, the rapper who is trained in Hindustani Classical and has sharpened his skills in EDM sonics — creates a soundtrack to his passions, grit and humor — almost like a leaflet to the cinema of his persona. The production, overall, befits a Bollywood movie, the grimy kind — a desi neo-noir, a 7 episode OTT show that has been color graded to yellow and red. It is not unintentional, obviously, the lyrical content and the instrument and audio samples used in the entire record are un-subtle homages to the aforementioned classification of movies.
This is perhaps expressly manifest in Chor Police, the track that is half skit, half rap number — interspersing the elements of a chase scene’s background music. It is a continuing theme with the entirety of the record, even on Dhappa, which features BABA. It is extremely fast paced, the entirety of the track, and the speed helps maintain a certain degree of self-humored anger, without lending it a grating quality. A complaint one could have listening to this record is perhaps the artists’ wilful refusal to not prod too much into the introspections of the self, which he maneuvers intelligently. He is constructing his perspective of the urban in this, the external and not the internal, and the banter-heavy rap with 80s B-grade movie loops works as a tool to manifest that into tangibility.
Perhaps the most decisive track on this project, is the titular Saanp Seedhi, which has been used for Vidhu Vinod Chopra’z Zero Se Restart — and it makes sense, the arrangement of the entire record is such that allows it to be repurposed into soundtracks for multiple projects. The lyrics are solid on this one, setting the scene for the rest of the record, with one particular mentionable excerpt : “Sheher ki hawa O2 se zyada mitti/Sheher ki hawa ki negative quality/Sheher khele saanp seedhi bhai 5 gitti/Sheher jeetne mein zindagiyan beeti.”With the outro, one can make sense of the record as a whole — it is meant to be fun, and while made with effort, it is not the finale display of the rapper’s skills. ⅞, it is the artist riffing off of himself and his 6 q, his utilization of the production to build a narrative, and his lyricism mature enough to impress but not dissect.
Presumably among the general critiques one would have towards the project is how while there is a general understanding of what the theme is for the project, there is very little extension of the plot into a proper fleshed out narrative. The shorter lengths do not make the tracks catchier than they would have been if they were fleshed out, at least lyrically. Instead it curtails the project a little more than would be understandable. There is honesty in Venoz’s lyricism, the only problem is his refusal to dig deeper than what would be considered commercially necessary.Saanp Seedhi is a good EP, and overall, a project that points to the practiced grammar of an artist who thinks in cinema and makes music that is narrative, and while there are points where it seems like he is teetering on the edge of his creativity, it is a sign that on future projects where he is more willing to challenge himself, we shall hear tracks which let him access all the complexities we hear him only engaging in small doses in.
