Album Review: Hoirong ”“ The Resurrection of the Princess of Woe and Her Vampire Hound Posse

Kamal Singh

[easyreview cat1title = “The Resurrection of the Princess of Woe and Her Vampire Hound Posse” cat1rating = 3.5]

The Resurrection of the Princess of Woe and Her Vampire Hound Posse

We’ve all [sadly] heard the last of Bengaluru post-rock/alt rock band Lounge Piranha, who stopped gigging in 2011. But fortunately, singer-guitarist Kamal Singh continues writing and releasing material. Since 2009, Singh’s acoustic/hippie rock project 3 Sevens had a few mellow tracks and covers, but it’s only now Singh brings out his grungy, lo-fi tunes under the moniker of Hoirong. His first full-length album, The Resurrection of the Princess of Woe and Her Vampire Hound Posse, is a 10-track trip into some of his oldest punk rock tunes.

Just sample “Fancy Dress + Hindi = Awesome,” world-weary and talking about being friends with Lucifer, before Singh does confess, “The grass is greener on the other side/that’s all right/I’d like to stay here with you.” There’s a sense of oddness to the whole album, but also moments of familiarity, with a few Lounge Piranha-esque songs like “Namaste” [which features Singh sneezing and saying “Bless you.”] and “Super Glue.” Singh puts his unpolished, raw riffs to programmed drums, which allows him to verve from menacing punk rock in “Bajrang Bali” to dance rock in “Glass Jaw.” And that’s just the first two songs.

As is the case with most lo-fi, Singh also works a dirty noise into songs and that’s not just because he’s using a laptop recorder with a pirated copy of audio software Logic Pro. “Bonda” is just that wall of sound coming in at over three minutes that is the heaviest song on the album. The use of programmed drums mean Singh can meld tabla and drums on “Russian Roulette Gandhi,” between his hopeless refrains of “It’s all right/Nothing will be fine,” and randomly latch on to disco beats on “Cyborg Supernova Lipgloss,” although it doesn’t particularly work well on the latter.

The only one recommendation for The Resurrection of the Princess”¦is to listen to the album on speakers, rather than subject yourself to harsh, abrasive guitar riffs and feedback up close via headphones. That said, this album wins over Lounge Piranha fans and anyone looking for noisy, lo-fi songs.

Key tracks: “Fancy Dress + Hindi = Awesome,” “Bajrang Bali,” “Russian Roulette Gandhi.”

Get your free download of Hoirong – “Bonda” here.

Listen to The Resurrection of the Princess of Woe and Her Vampire Hound Posse here