Hear Project MishraM’s Unfiltered Debut Album ‘Meso’

What do coffee, the annual Carnatic music gathering Thyagaraja Aradhana, one of djent’s most famous meme lords Kmac2021 and New York jazz musicians all have in common? The answer is Bengaluru genre-bending septet Project MishraM.

While they’ve been releasing a steady stream of singles since 2017, their debut album Meso was out earlier this month with a launch gig in Bengaluru. After several listens to the six-track record, you know that unpredictability is a badge that Project MishraM wear proudly, whether they’re sprinting between hip-hop and metal on “Loco Coko,” improvising konnakol vocals over a glorious horn section on “Nivaasa” or stomping around with impunity on groove-laden tracks like “Sakura” and “Kanakana.”

Vocalist and band manager Shivaraj Natraj says, “Averaged out, we’d say a large part of Meso has been in the works for over a year.” When you’re that deep into making randomness and having “no common ground” between tracks as your mantra, it’s understandable to hear the band say that it was challenging to compose and finalize their tracks. Bassist Ram Srinivas says, “The randomness is quite the beast to wrestle with. Usually we try to keep that entropy within the ideation stages for the songs and when it gets down to implementation we work with something clear in mind, so that helps us finalize quickly.”

With tracks that come in at eight-minute (“Sakura”), nine-minute (“Loco Coko”) and the 10-minute marks (“Nivaasa”), Meso is not necessarily a laborious listen, considering it hops genres with panache. Guitarist Sumant Nemmani says, “Looking back, it almost feels like we were composing four different albums (‘Sakura,’ ‘Nivaasa,’ ‘Loco Coko’ and ‘Kanakana’), and so within each ‘album’ we were able to bring about cohesion.”

Watch the video for “Loco Coko” 

While the guitars are divided between Nemmani and Srishankar Sundar, Natraj shares vocal duties with violinist Pranav Swaroop B.N. for Carnatic elements, while bassist Srinivas comes in as a rapper on “Loco Coko.” Flautist Anirudh Koushik says, “The intro and outro to ‘Nivaasa’ had all of us singing the lyrics ‘Sibuyel Ekaya.’ This was Shivaraj’s idea; to have a group-sung section with claps lead into the first verse and also fade out of the song.”

There’s even more vocal layers on “Kanakana,” which complement the guttural growl of Scottish metal artist and YouTuber Kieran McLaughlin aka Kmac2021. Drummer Sanath Shanbhogue counts up to six vocalists, including family members. “The idea was inspired off the Thyagaraja Aradhana, an annual music festival that celebrates [saint composer] Thyagaraja where a huge number of people simultaneously sing his compositions.” The Carnatic concert atmosphere gets a callback as well, on the meditative closing track “Mangalam.”

When they’re not gelling with voices on “Kanakana,” a track like “Nivaasa” sees Project MishraM jam with New York-based musicians such as tenor saxophonist Arun Luthra, trumpeter Nadje Noordhuis and trombone artist Dion Tucker. Natraj says, “Credit goes to Arun, Nadje and Dion for their parts and compositions, they really brought that ‘jammed’ feel to the song in a big way. We also consciously wanted a more organic feel to the horns and the konnakol, and we were able to get to where we wanted with help from Arun and Thejus Nair, our mix engineer.”

A few weeks on since the release, they’ve been receiving comments from the likes of American journalist-turned-YouTuber/food expert Adam Ragusea as well as one hyperlocal comment about being “The Djentlemen of the Silk Board Junction Apocalypse.” Nemmani says, “It’s probably the best comment as it warms out Bengalurean hearts.”

Buy/stream ‘Meso’ below. Hear on Spotify, Apple Music and JioSaavn.