Songwriter-producer Parishrut Kanhe will have you know that his debut single ‘Floating’, a production collaboration with fellow musician Nitish Singhal (on pen and vocals), is something of a look back on 80s hair-rock (that’s the more dramatic and histrionic side of hair metal). And yes, while the song does lean as much on the 70s, it does offer an interesting reminder of what the 80s was as a decade. It wasn’t just cookie-cutter TV shows and the reign of the worst snare drum sound in the history of recorded music (you know the one, it sounds like a cannon being fired next to you). It was also the age of the rock song as a conveyor of emotion (specifically romantic). In fact, it was possibly the most love-struck rock had been since the 60s and what caused the wave of music that grew to hate it (punk and grunge). Nonetheless, it has a certain charm of its own. Parishrut and crew capture that quite well here.

It’s a nice melody, ‘Floating’, with a laid-back and slow groove (no garbage snares, thankfully). The old-school rock ballad style sounds a bit updated, mostly due to an array of very modern pop synths that provide a familiar ‘bed of sound’. In fact, the intro of the song could very well lead you into believing that this could be a passable post-rock track. Of course, the guitar playing suggests otherwise (courtesy classic tones and chords from Krishanu Hazarika). There’s a lot of guitar cues to the 80s throughout the four and a half minutes of music here, and while the synth solo that follows it is unbelievably schmaltzy, it is pretty true to its inspirations. It’s followed by a guitar solo that will automatically lower the resolution of your monitor to VHS quality and take you back to a time when pure noodling was not frowned upon. What's fun is that in truth, these parts combine to form a surprisingly compelling and catchy song; one thing listeners with preconceived notions will not expect coming in. Parishrut, Nitish and Krishanu are in pretty great form.