Siddarth Pradeep is based in Bangalore; Timeship is his artistic moniker. There’s a lot to love about his swirling, strung-out new single ‘Intellectual’; besides the obvious quality of the sounds and instrumentation, there’s a strong vein of prog-rock and a willingness to give that style of music the time and space it demands. As a result, the track is a bit over seven minutes long, but that isn’t a problem in the slightest. It isn’t boring by any metric and its personality comes through refreshingly clearly. In short, it’s worth it.

It isn’t like working with a long song forces Timeship to sit and spent a few minutes building things up. In fact, he ends up going the other way with it and uses the track’s first half to switch between a bunch of sonic ideas. One of these is a disco-inspired funk-pop groove that is contrasted with a quiet verse. It’s pretty cool, but the bassline is what sells it. The synths are the one through-line for the whole song; the same sound that brings the hook in is still there at the end doing lead things. The production is of course very clean but does err on the safe side; some elements end up being a bit sterile while others are oozing with style. Nevertheless, the second half of ‘Intellectual’ is where all the sonic choices pay off; Timeship goes for a full-blooded prog rock freakout with all the melodrama, jangly guitars and simple vocal melodies. This is by miles the most fun section of the song to listen to, and he nails it. ‘Intellectual’ is actually way longer than it sounds and that’s a compliment to it. For everything it does, one thing it avoids doing is dragging on interminably. It knows when to play to the crowd and when to push itself forward. That’s a job well done.