Exclusive Premiere: Hear Post-Rock Act Colorblind’s Eerie and Evocative New Album
New Delhi-based Kartik Mishra draws from nihilism, existentialism and even optimism on his full-length ‘Non Physical Impediment’
New Delhi post-rock artist Kartik Mishra aka Colorblind. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
For every time New Delhi guitarist Kartik Mishra’s post-rock project Colorblind has got publicity, there’s always someone mistaking it for the Nineties rock forerunners, Colourblind. Mishra recalls how fans of (now) film composer Ram Sampath were beyond excited to see there was new music. “To their disappointment I had to clarify them, that this is a completely different project and break their teenage nostalgia. They were an awesome band, but this is a different and totally unrelated Colorblind.”
It wouldn’t take you more than a minute into Colorblind’s experimental, haunting music to realize that ”“ Mishra uses silence, sprawling, delay-laden guitars and takes major influence from post-rock bands such as Godspeed! You Black Emperor, A Silver Mount Zion and more. The guitarist-producer has been writing music since about 2013, but last year proved particularly productive, with three EPs to his name. He says of the changing sound, “Like Please, Speak Softly had a very stripped and minimalistic sound with only ambient synthesizers and no guitars, succeeded by Drones which was basically a more evolved version of the previous. It had keys and synthesizers fused with voice samples and experimental guitar work. Whereas, on Babel the guitar became a predominant instrument, so I thought of merging all these traits into one full length record.”
The 10-track, two-side Non Physical Impediment takes influence from essays by philosophers like Nietzsche and Albert Camus. “The first five tracks of the album contain more of a nihilistic undertone, whereas the other five have a more optimistic yet existential sound,” Mishra says. One major sonic difference on the album is more drumming, as well as including a collaboration with Shimla post-rock artist The Reasonable Hope’s Yaduveer Thakur on “Song For The Damned And Lonely [Pt.1].”
Although he rules out taking Colorblind live right now, there are more collaborations in the works. Mishra says, “I have also been working on a track with Shardul Mehta (from electro-rock act SundogProject), which is nearly up for completion and will be released in coming months.”
Listen to ”˜Non Physical Impediment’ below. Artwork by Sajid Wajid Shaikh.
