Did Indus Creed have a ‘Rock On’ Moment?
If you grew up in India in the ‘90s there’s absolutely no way you didn’t hear Indus Creed. They were the defining rock band of that time. They moved away from doing covers of international bands and made their own sound. And their own music videos. And defined the word awesome.
So when you randomly arrive at a video of “Pretty Child” one random evening, you flashback to your teenage years. Your mind takes you through a nostalgia trip of Shenaz Treasurywala, Frooti, One Tight Slap, Roohafza, PVR Priya, the first McDonalds, cassettes, Hi-Fi stereo systems, G-Shock watches and Vengaboys.
And how you’re never going to Ibiza.
But Anyways
This post was supposed to be on how Indus Creed had a ‘Rock On’ moment. You see, that band of awesomeness has come back again, after 15 years, with a brand new album called “Evolve”.
FIFTEEN YEARS?
Yes, 15 years. Their last thingie together was way back in 1997, even before Napster really caught on. You know, when Yahoo! was your homepage.
In fact their last album before they went boom was titled, you guessed it, “Indus Creed”. Trapped in my baaddeehh, trapped in my soulll. They mixed tabla and sitar with drums and guitar, creating a sound like nothing around!
Stop Digressing Mister Poet!
Oh right! The Rock On moment. What, you ask? In the movie Rock On, all the band members of a once-awesome-but-now-disbanded rock band get together and rock the stage again. All thanks to Prachi Desai in a bid to better discover her husband and his nefarious college history.
Clearly, that’s what happened (minus Prachi Desai) when lead singer Uday Benegal came back to Mumbai and connected with old folks to re-ignite Indus Creed. They got a bassist and a drummer and started to mumbojumbo again in 2010.
In 2012, they came out with “Evolve”.
The one thing they didn’t do, however, is stick to the old sound. Literally, figuratively and just-about-everything-ally, they have evolved.
Sit down in one corner, put on your headphones and just listen to the whole album from beginning to end. By the time I reached “Come Around” I had goose-bumps and they lasted till the ending track “Goodbye”.
“Fireflies”, this album’s marquee track, really grows on you. There’ll come a point when you’re idly typing away at your keyboard and the song plays continuously in your head. (Like right now, for me).
But “Come Around” really blew me away. There’s a point in that song when all instruments stop playing. And slowly, it builds up again. Goose. Bumps. The lyrics are poems, written with passion.
If you haven’t already, you must listen to Indus Creed’s album. The fact that I’m saying it just highlights its appeal: I usually listen to House music of the non-David-Guetta variety (that’s a full 180-degrees opposite of rock music). It’s made a fan out of a non-rock fan.
You can listen to that album on Indus Creed’s website.
As an added bonus, I’ll leave you with “Pretty Child”. Absorb, and be absorbed!
Streaming as I type and yes, it seems good so far!
And BTW “when Yahoo! was your homepage” Whoa! Which alternate reality was that from?
Macha .. listen to it multiple times. Let it grow on you. You’ll love it!
And admit it, 10 years ago, Yahoo WAS your homepage!
The guitar on David Guetta’s song “titanum ” is a carbon copy of the guitar on Indus Creed’s Little child…. !!!!!!
Well, first of all, I hate this Guetta nonsense. But I will have to agree with you that Titanium sounds similar to Pretty Child – but then it sounds similar to any track that starts with a guitar riff.
“Copying” music and “inspired by” attribution is, lets admit it, part of the process musicians work with. I’m sure there are other examples where the similarity is uncanny!
Thanks for dropping by Lian!
Pretty Child!! Oh man, what a nostalgia trip. I have to listen to their new album. Nice post, Sahay saab!
Too much nostalgia these days! *sniff* *sniff*.
Pai the way, did you get to listen to their album? Did you? DID YOU?
I wasn’t in India from the nineties but couldn’t help noticing how the quality of our songs and singers have evolved. I missed out on Indus altogether but after your wonderful writeup, I’m looking forward to listening to “Evolve”. Thanks for providing those links.
I’m happy that the music of our 90s – very rooted in aping America – has evolved to what we have now: our own identity.
You must listen to them, KayEm!
Stopped by after ages(since the Dewarist post) and boy, I am glad. I did. Thanks to the post, I know about the latest project of the trail blazers of Rock music in India. I grew up listening to them since their rock machine days and its wonderful to see them back in action.
Welcome back Unsui!
Good to know you loved IC as well – especially when they were Rock Machine
. Did you listen to Evolve? What do you think?