Exclusive Stream: Flaw & Order Show Off Sonic Agility on Debut Album ‘Evaporated People’
The Bengaluru-based instrumental rock band have spent two years honing their sound before putting out new music
Cover art for Bengaluru instrumental rock band Flaw & Order's debut album 'Evaporated People.' Artwork: Siddhartha Iyer
Members of Bengaluru instrumental rock band Flaw & Order didn’t meet in college or through social media. It was much more organic.
Drummer Ajit Singh (from tech-death band Gaijin) and guitarist Paraj Kumar Singh (from prog band Rainburn) met in a carpool two years before they even got in the same jam room. Guitarist-producer Sudharsan Krishnakumar met Ajit on a football field, while he found himself standing next to Paraj at prog artist Steven Wilson’s set in Pune. Only bassist Adithyashankar Ajith (from metallers Kaihon) was on board after being in touch with Krishnakumar online. “I’ve had more luck finding musicians to work with when I haven’t been looking,” Krishnakumar says.
Bengaluru-based instrumental rock band Flaw & Order – Sudharsan Krishnakumar, Ajit Singh, Adithyashankar Ajith and Paraj Kumar Singh (from left). Photo: Dhanush Karunakaran
After more than a year in the jam room writing material, Flaw & Order are set to release their debut album Evaporated People on May 31st. You can hear the album in its entirety a day before its release below, featuring seven tracks traversing post-rock, prog and instrumental rock territory in a sublime manner – from piano-led compositions such as “E Minor Inconvenience” to playfulness on “Odd Counting Disorder” and moody songs like “A Distinct Height Disorder.” The clinchers arrive with the dexterous “You Only Lobotomize Once” and “Pretty Tight Snare Drum,” featuring formidable and build-and-break songwriting from the quartet. Drummer Singh says, “Our aim was to write instrumental music that’s fun to play as musicians, complex enough for musicians in the crowd to appreciate as well have the songwriting prowess present for casual or first time listeners to find memorable.”
Flaw & Order have one more effective way of making the music memorable — through their song titles. They’re all modern acronyms, except “Bipolar Bear.” Themes are often difficult to convey in instrumental albums, according to Singh, but Evaporated People (which takes its name from the phenomenon of societal pressures in Japan leading to disappearances) ties in important mental illnesses such as OCD, PTSD and ADHD. The band admits song names like YOLO and EMI started out as jokes, but then they found a link. Singh says, “Mental health is a topic close to my heart, I have loved ones who have struggled with it, fellow musicians and I guess this is our age for the ennui to actually hit us in a real way.”
They’re tinkering with ideas for visual storylines to go with their songs – since they can’t do lyric videos – but the band is also working on shows. Bassist Adithyashankar Ajith says, “We’re planning an album launch tour in the next few months while parallelly writing our new material. The next release will probably be an EP, and we already love the direction that it’s going in.”
Stream ‘Evaporated People’ below. Stay tuned for the album release on Flaw & Order’s Facebook page.
