Artist: The Koniac Net
Album: One Last Monsoon
Label: Independent
Mastered at: AVP Audio Engineering
Release Date: 8th February, 2012
I’ve decided to start my review of One Last Monsoon with a bit of a confession: I don’t really listen to a lot of indie rock. But before you gasp in mock disbelief, hear me out. This is going somewhere. I used to listen to even less till about three years ago. That’s when a good friend introduced me to this whole other world, and despite my playlist at the time consisting mostly of stuff like Meshuggah and Arch Enemy, I really enjoyed it – I loved the whispering beauty of Iron and Wine, I loved the innocence of The Shins, I loved the spunk of The Strokes and I loved the dark brooding of Arcade Fire and Damien Rice. But all of this was only the tip of the iceberg. And let’s face it – there was a lot of not-so-good indie rock out there as well.
The thing is, when you have a music form that’s so intrinsically linked to the human characteristics of outliers – an innocent urgent earnestness, a dry and sly wit – the ones who don’t put their heart and soul into it, tend to stand out a bit sorely. Their music might consist of all the right notes but there’s something missing… Now, I’m not passing any sort of judgment on the members of The Koniac Net and let’s face it, that wouldn’t be fair – I don’t really know them. But the fact remains, that their music, in theory seems to hit the notes fine but it just doesn’t seem to leave an impression, it lacks something… something… – something that I shall try to figure out as I write out the next two paragraphs.
The Koniac Net is the brainchild of David Abraham, who does seem to have a knack for writing catchy chord progressions and choruses but the issue isn’t a lack of talent or songwriting skill. The rest of the band – Jason D’Souza on guitars, Ishaan Krishna also on guitars, Adil Kurwa on bass, Karun Kannampilly on drums – are a skillful lot and manage to hold things admirably through the album. Overall, as a result, the songs all sound nice enough – a pleasant listen for an evening when the rain is pouring down and the sky is bright orange.
But I think, if I were to take a stab at it, I think the album lacks focus, a needle pointed intent. Seeing the list of influences on their Facebook page cements my view – the songs on the album try to channel everything from Radiohead to Weezer, from Smashing Pumpkins to CCR, all at the same time and at the end of the album I was left quite confused. Take the first song for instance – It’s Alright – it starts off well enough with a melancholic vibe and in the middle, when the happy chords come out, you’re quite unsure of what to feel. The second song, Maggie, although is more emotionally consistent, alternates innocent and “hip” at the same time with its rhythmic mischief scattered throughout the song. And I could go on… In short, One Last Monsoon tries to be too many things. The album isn’t bad by any stretch but it has neither a depth of emotion nor an unmistakable swagger that would make this album great. I think George Carlin hit the nail on the head when talking about the Blues: he said “It’s not enough to know what notes to play. You need to know why they need to be played.” The songwriting think-tank at The Koniac Net has figured out the “what” part of things. If they figure out the why, I think we could be in for something special.
