The Burning Deck just released their debut album ‘Kalinihta’ at B-Flat, with a performance of songs integrating prog-rock bass lines over ominous, laptop-generated sounds and drums. Bassist Sandeep Madhavan (Atma, Old Jungle Saying) and Pianist Floyd Santimano (Quetaal) who form the core of the act roped in the Galeej Gurus drummer, Kishan Balaji and singer Alexis D’Souza for the show.
Sandeep and Floyd started toying with their bedroom-recording project in September of last year, working around influences like Cinematic Orchestra, Portishead and Massive Attack. Their dark down-tempo sessions picked up momentum around the sinister sounding title-track of the album. The concept was inspired by the poem ‘Casabianca,’ by Felicia Hermans, describing a boy standing on the burning deck of a battle-wrecked ship, waiting for word from his father who, without his knowledge, has already been killed. “It’s about being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea,” says Sandeep. “It was born out of relationships I was in at the time, expressing feelings of being rooted in a spot, not because you can’t decide for yourself, but because there is no right or wrong.”
“Hello. We are The Burning Deck. We play heartwarming, soul-stirring, rocky, groovy music.” Ambient loops linger a while till they’re shattered by some dark funk. ‘The Boy on the Burning Deck,’ is peppered with a little dub step synth work on an intense, regular drumbeat. It evokes the opening storm of Shakespeare’s Tempest if the Nine Inch Nails were to have scored it- desperation and death under the mercy of unseen, darker forces and a scene significant to everything that comes before and after, but in a lightning flash, it’s all over. The songs are about 4-5 minutes long and if the crowd seems reluctant with their response, a few do make an effort to cheer the electrogloom as and when the tracks crash into a lull. The ambient music seems better suited to festivals with big sound or evenings with a pair of headphones than venues that anchor the crowd to tables.
Kishan takes a break leaving it to the primary duo. Impending, murky bass lines with frightful layers of distortion and a Casio beat alongside abstract fills from the keyboard. The scene is sort of set for Miles Davis to step in for a minimal tech rendition of Bitches Brew, but it’s left right there. There’s a constant distress in the music with a pulse that builds up and strips down almost immediately.
On ‘Kalinihta,’ Sandeep plays the bass with a sarangi bow as Floyd, hunched over his laptop, sends forth sci-fi time warps that stumble over Kishan’s splashing cymbals. A simple drumbeat cuts through, tying things together and a sample of a Greek friend singing ‘goodnight’ on Skype kicks in.
“All it takes is a girl!” As if not to dispute that statement the crowd steps forward as Alexis takes the stage. Her song proceeds through a mournful Morcheeba-sound, ringing full like the unease built until now found a voice, introducing what’s been the one missing element in the band.
“With the album finally out, we’ll be looking to hit the road with a four-city tour,” says Sandeep, sounding confident of finding his crowd.
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