Xipa, song review and my general thoughts on westernization of Assamese music
Forewords: - Modern Assamese indie music scene is revamping itself each day with the adaptation of westernization like experimenting with EDM, rap, pop, rock, metal and hip hop, but only few acts are there that hits us right in the feels with their creations and displays an awesome display of classical roots and the raunchiness of Rock music. And so today we bring in the feature of once such act that brought the flavour of our roots to rock music.
The act: - Young musicians from Cotton College, Guwahati that calls themselves Smack is one such act that had been bringing a new flavour to Assamese rock music with a more traditional Assamese touch with songs like “Muktokontho” that takes us back to a retro ride of the early era of Assamese music that was presented by Zubeen Garg and the likes.
The creation: - But with the new song, “Xipa” the band have adapted a more modern straightforward Progressive Rock vibe in the stylistic aspects of acts like Dream Theatre, Porcupine Tree, Incubus, Alter Bridge, Slain and Spunk. An eight minute long rock ballad the song is a beautiful rendition or feels, emotion, melody and edginess.
The sound: - The song opens with a classic Assamese vibe underlined with alternative riffs
and melodic guitars. And also has some upbeat jazzy lines and grooves along with layered keyboards that makes the song an experimental one at best. Vocally the song is more classically inclined then with modern aspects of rock music but still touches the essence of rock.
The words: - Lyrically though, the song is more like about finding one’s roots and meaning of life that gives a good message at these times, while Sound and production wise the song is top notch and enjoyable and is unique at best.
Final verdict: - Overall song is a good one and is a must listen and it is something of a different one unlike what they had done previously and I think this might be included in an upcoming album which we might be getting very soon.
Bottom line: - It really feels great to see that there are so many new music is coming out more in traditional and regional language with more westernization but at the same time the sad fact is that sometimes it becomes a topic of discussion and is mostly ignored by the mainstream media that is more inclined to “what is more popular or trendy these days?” instead of something like this that has more substance to it.
I guess such songs that keeps an equal balance of the traditional style and western style must get premiered more often in the national TV, and I think some amount national and regional media in the other part of North East India is indeed making an effort to give a much needed platform to such indie acts.
There are plenty of artists coming out that are trying to bring something new to the Assamese music industry but are still seen as underrated and is working independently. I guess we need to create a proper industry and label in our own region itself so that the indie artists can work more efficiently.
As for the band Smack, we can’t be any happier than this with the effort they are putting to blend in Modern Assamese music with Rock n roll and so we congratulate the band for this new release “Xipa” and looking forward for some more music by the band.
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