Photo Courtesy: Deepak Photography
The first thing that will hit you when you listen to Bhubaneshwar guitarist and songwriter Abhijit Ray’s accessible and proggy single ‘Vatsala’ is a faint odour of cheesiness. It's a familiar blueprint; a lot of its elements are from the slow headbanging and guitar worshipping era of instrumental progressive rock and metal. That stuff hasn’t aged very well, but there is merit to taking the sounds in your stride and giving your music full commitment. That’s what Abhijit does here, and the result is undeniably catchy and fun.
Listening to ‘Vatsala’ is like reliving a different time in your life. There are some nice atmospheres on the track, but the riffage and lead playing are the main contributors of nostalgia. The production is punchy, the bassline is silently the star of the whole thing, and there are even some good stabs of strings and keys in the back. But the second the guitars come in with their old-school emotion and slight Indian inflections, you go back to a time when riffs were a big factor in your listening experience. A time when the inevitable switch-up from moody to distorted and heavy was something you expectantly waited for; when the repetition of the lead melody was a dopamine hit for your teenage mind. While all of it is executed tastefully here, don’t go looking for anything new. ‘Vatsala’ is a three-minute long, well-preserved snapshot of a time gone by and that is its biggest strength.
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