Arvind Ganga – Sri Maha Mariamman

artist: Arvind Ganga
title: Sri Maha Mariamman
format: digital / tape cassette
keywords: experimental abstract free guitar free sound improvisation noise psychedelic The Hague
artist website: http://www.arvindganga.net/
label: Toztizok Zoundz http://toztizok.com/

out and in need for something else than your average daily take of music?
Then listen up, or in this case open your reading eyes a little wider; as this is about the release for you! Alvind Ganga’s music is surprisingly different and even though it’s done with the help of an electric guitar and some objects; it sounds as if the artist had found new ways to use (and abuse) the semi-traditional instrument to refreshing proportions.

The album is just released on cassette through the Amsterdam based Toztizok Zoundz record label and sounds like something that might get your appetite in sounds and music back again. It starts with a track named ‘Trapped In Honey’ which basically was the instant tune to get someone’s attention. It sounds like a cozy time inside a small tea pot with a set of microscopic tea cups inside of it. I mean, it sounds as if we as a listener as microscopicly small and the teapot around us is as big as a room, while the teacups fit nicely in our hands as the sounds of cuddling tea-time is bouncing of the inside of the respective tea-pot. This might sound a bit odd on paper, but as audio its something I would really recommend to anyone’s ears!

Then there is ‘Hungry Stare’ which indeed features the electric guitar quite prominently, but it is played in such a way that it touches upon a refreshing originality. It starts quite sharp and tough; I visualize it as a person in an alley giving you the finger and indeed a hungry stare… But then the music starts to roll, it becomes quite hypnotic and speedy on a psychedelic melodic fingerish kind of way. It is here that my head is moving automatically, triggered by the groove that gets more bombastic and cut worthy in sound and feel. It’s so nice how it rolls, very active like a chase in the same alley way by someone with a knife, not to cut you, but more to cut a piece of chicken in order to share it with you… It has something nice!

^ something very nice

On the third spot on this release there is this track called ‘Wrong Exit’. There is big chance that this recording is made by accidentally plugging the guitar in a wrong ‘hole’, but if you look away from the technical side of the story it does actually sound like a miniature play for the ears. Something with little crackles, silence and croaky little noises… It’s like what people like to hear when they are claiming to be into listening to the layer of dust on an old spinning vinyl.

Fever Speed’ is another one of these types of music that you must take the time for to listen. It’s a fragile work of dustier crackling guitar pickings, something that is subtle making its way in your ears like a muffled melody that you have to imagine with your own imagination, while the actual thing just shows you the outlines of your own imagination. Then there is ‘Closed Doors’ which is a little bit more concrete in how it sounds. We can clearly hear the guitarist poking with its fingers over the strings of the instrument as if it’s a sexual object that deserves a finger or two to be opened. The music is of course something that might slightly arouse you while you listen, will the doors stay closed or will they be fingered enough to be opened?

Last but not least is ‘Jalalabad’ which is probably one of the highlights on the album, clearly giving a performance that is sparkling and kind; something that made me think of sitting close to a candle and staring at it while the fire crackles and someone bakes some beans in the back. The music produced is nicely being plucked out of the guitar until its time that the album has to stop for the end. It actually made me sad when it stopped so abruptly, but on the other hand it felt like the music kept on going in my head… a job well done!
https://arvindganga.bandcamp.com/album/sri-maha-mariamman
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