Artist: Hoirong
Album: The Resurrection of the Princess of Woe and Her Vampire Hound Posse
Label: Independent
Mixed and Mastered by: Kamal Singh
Release Date: 21st March, 2013
I have a bad habit of entering into uncharted territories at times. That includes listening to music that is not normally commercially viable at times (don’t ask me about the list, I’ll keep on talking for a full day, maybe 3 days). And this is how I was introduced to this particular album. Hoirong is a one man project by Kamal Singh, some may know him as the vocalist and guitarist of his ex-band – Lounge Piranha (they don’t play anymore). After a little research I got to know that Hoirong is actually Manipuri for “asshole” (we all have at least one friend, who thinks we are an asshole, I’m sure even Kamal has one and this album is a tribute to that person maybe? Ahh who cares? 😛 ). Coming back to the album, The Resurrection of the Princess of Woe and Her Vampire Hound Posse(I’ll be referring to it as T.R.O.T.P.O.W.A.H.V.H.P. from now on 😛 ) apart from having a humungous album name is also categorized under a strange string of genres – Disco Punk/Noise/Metal Pop. But the question is – did the gamble of playing with genres pay off? Let’s find out!
Rough compositions from the last couple of years + a laptop + an audio workstation + 10 quirky titled songs = T.R.O.T.P.O.W.A.H.V.H.P. That is basically how the album was made. The songs have a nice fuzzy sound and feel to them. The sound is created with a guitar distortion tone similar to something like Doom/Sludge Metal or maybe a Bass guitar put on distortion, often leading to parts where the riff isn’t clearly distinguishable amid the noise. Seeing the song names, one may expect it to be a comic integrated album, but it is not so. Classic rulebook Noise music in display all throughout; maybe not using any hi-fi home recording unit and choosing the laptop for the work did the trick. But amid all the noise there were times when I felt that a little better quality of recording was needed to do justice to some of the riffs; like Glass Jaw and Super Glue. The little of what was heard in Glass Jaw was a very nice composition on clean guitars. That with a better quality recording would have been bliss. Super Glue, on the other hand, is the interesting piece; very innovative use of feedbacks which was amalgamated nicely with the music. Another song that I loved in the album was Cyborg Supernova Lipstick. Just like the name of the track, the track is out of the box; somewhat like Buckethead’s style of music in the intro and then some pure Disco beats to seal off the deal around half way onwards.
Summing up, the album is strictly recommended for people who are into Grunge or Punk or Noise. If you are not, then trust me you won’t enjoy it. The drums and percussions were programmed in the albums, would have been great if there were some live percussions mixed. That being said, I would have liked the vocal tracks to have been a little clear and better recorded. At times there was simply a little more effects used than what was necessary in the vocal tracks. Overall, a great effort by Kamal Singh. You may take a bow sir.
My picks from the album –
- Fancy Dress
- XOX
- Super Glue
