You've got to love the Internet. Global barriers fail to stop the progress of music as it makes its journey from Bangalore, India to Bluesbunny Towers here in Glasgow. The subject of this review, "Going Nowhere", is the beautifully packaged new album from Lounge Piranha.
Fortunately, this is not another album of indie rock (as is the fashion these days). Instead it harks a bit further into pop history. Well, a decade or two anyway. There's a bit of Radiohead in there and Abhijeet Tambe's guitar also brought back memories of Martin Metcalfe (from Goodbye Mr McKenzie and Isa & the Filthy Tongues). Unlike so many bands today, melody has not been forgotten here. The songs are hummable and are, on the whole, quite mellow. Even when the lyrics go "I Wish I Had a Gun7#8230;" - from "Gun Song" - you think more of internal anguish than mass murder and it is certainly valid to compare the melancholic quality of Kamal Singh's vocals to Thom Yorke. Despite the radio appeal of up-tempo guitar driven songs like "Snakes and Lotuses", the best song on the album was the laidback, mid-tempo "Ebb".
It is good to see a band put a real effort into not only their music but also how they are presented. Remember we are not talking about a band signed to a major record company but a local band from Bangalore. The amount of effort that has gone into the packaging indicates that this is a band that is here to stay and I think this album will win them fans well outside their native country.