Hear Cinema of Excess’ Melancholic New Single ‘Mighty Angel’

On June 6th, Bengaluru acoustic trio Cinema of Excess had the distinction of performing at the first public and ticketed livestream gig in the city, courtesy of new venue Streamphony. Singer-songwriter and guitarist Anirudh Ravi thinks back about it as “quite exciting.” He adds with a chuckle, “To get out of the house to play a gig during lockdown, that was something, I had to tell everyone at home where I was going and stuff.”

Although they’ve not followed it up beyond adding a couple of digital concerts to their name, Cinema of Excess have released their new song “Mighty Angel” today. The moody track, which was written by Ravi even before the trio came together, pairs intimate lyricism with intricate acoustic guitar and bass portions from Bharath Kashyap and Abheet Anand, respectively. Ravi says, “I don’t know what I wrote it about but it stayed fresh and it’s sort of like different shades of a color – it attained different meanings each time.”

Continuing their visual aesthetic with illustrator Anoop Bhat (who worked on their 2018 EP Bring Back the Sound as well as the 2019 single “Beyond What’s Here,”) the artwork for the single shows a butterfly in contrast to a red background. Ravi and Bhat sat down to flesh out their ideas and arrived at something that represented metamorphosis.

Recorded in part at venue space OO Heaven – Ravi directs all his praise to owner and rock artist Suraj Mani for being “very generous” about offering a good deal on the facilities – and later at Stained Class Productions with producer-bassist Leslie Charles (from Thermal and a Quarter), “Mighty Angel” also marks the last of older material for Cinema of Excess. “It’s the last excuse we had to not record our second EP,” Ravi says.

With the trio plotting out studio time for the next release, they’re also halfway through writing a third EP. Ravi adds, “We’ve got 13 songs on the shelf. People need to hear the new stuff.”

Listen/buy “Mighty Angel” below. Stream on more platforms here.