Exclusive Premiere: Yatin Srivastava Project and Metallers Takatak Team for Galloping New Song ‘Disengage’
The New Delhi-based guitarist, vocalist and producer teams up with Pakistan’s sibling drummer duo and bassist Aradhya Khurana
(from left) Pakistan metal band Takatak's drummer Yusuf Ramay, New Delhi metaller Yatin Srivastava and Takatak drummer Daud Ramay. Photos: Courtesy of the artist (Srivastava), Zain Peerzada (Yusuf and Daud Ramay)
Created and executed solely due to the pandemic, New Delhi musician Yatin Srivastava amps up the prog quotient on “Disengage,” featuring Lahore-based drummers (and brothers) Yusuf and Daud Ramay, part of modern metallers Takatak. The thundering prog track rounds off Yatin Srivastava Project and Friends’ collab-centric three-song EP that’s simply titled Quarantine.
Also featuring New Delhi bassist Aradhya Khurana, “Disengage” not only brings in two drummers on one track (which is business as usual for Takatak) but also has Srivastava on vocals, synth, production and guitar duties. The frontman of the Yatin Srivastava Project channels a bit of U.K. metal band Tesseract’s vocalist Dan Tompkins, scaling highs as well as raw screams. He says about the song, “Lyrically, I tried to pin down what I was going through locked inside my house, with nowhere to go, nobody to see. It was really something that took a considerable time to come to terms with and the anxiety that came along with everything for me at least, was the main driving force behind the song and it’s lyrics.”
With the guitar, however, there’s imposing riffs hammered in sync with stank-face inducing rhythmic patterns, plus intricate double drum duties from the Ramay brothers. The accompanying music video shows the musicians under neon hues, intensely landing mind-bending riffs and beats.
Quarantine EP has been in the making throughout early last year, with previous singles including “Ikigai” featuring drummer Suyash Gabriel (from instrumental rock band Zokova, rock band Kraken and several others) and bassist Lakshaya Grover and “Breathe,” which was elevated by soaring vocals from Shagun Trisal aka Trisalien (formerly of Kraken) and Mumbai/Kolkata drummer Aritra Basu (from metallers Yonsample, Letterz and Jatin Talukdar Project). Now, Srivastava will likely turn his focus on his project’s full-length album, which follows 2018 record Chaos // Despair.
Watch the video for “Disengage” below. Stream ‘Quarantine, Vol. 1’ EP here.
