Type to search

Artists Home Flashbox New Music News & Updates Videos

Kraken Celebrate the ‘Khan Market Gang’ in Shimmering Comeback

The New Delhi rock band will release their EP ‘Club Namaste’ on September 9th

Aug 16, 2022

New Delhi rock band Kraken. Photo: Jishnu Chakraborty

New Delhi’s Kraken have gone on a polyphonic rampage on their jazz-rock-meets-R&B/hip-hop single “Khan Market Gang.” Their first new material in five years, it marks the band’s return with an intricate yet buoyant sound and a slick music video directed by Naina Bhan and shot and edited by Nitish Kanjilal.

The song is part of Kraken’s second EP Club Namaste (out September 9th), which follows their 2017 standout debut EP Lush. Unlike the aggro math-rock and post-hardcore energy of their first EP, Kraken are a lot cleaner and precise with their melodies – guitarist-producer Moses Koul channels sparkling fretwork reminiscent of American rock act Polyphia, while vocalist Vipul Verma is equal parts rapper and crooner with his hooks.

Although the song’s title is a reference to a half-derogatory politicized term about New Delhi’s English-speaking elite, Kraken seem to reclaim it to talk about their personal experiences in the capital city. Verma references everything from “techno honeys” to night-outs and losing one’s mind. Keyboardist Reuben Das’ production work adds more synth magic, while drummer Suyash Gabriel tests his chops over a surprising bhangra beat. Bassist Divij Kapoor, the most recent entrant to the band from around 2020, is a fist-tight force with the grooves.

The band says in a press release that the song and the upcoming EP are a love letter of sorts to their hometown. “Delhi to them is a pocket of many worlds, containing diverse cultures and a variety of people all brought together under an umbrella of unspoken acceptance. The song also stemmed from the band’s collective understanding of what it means to be an Indian in a globalized city like Delhi where cultures constantly merge, and how that influences its residences daily. The urban feel that is present in their music is exactly that, a blending pot of different genres and cultures by the five talented members of the band,” the statement adds.

Across the seven-track Club Namaste, Kraken aim to traverse worlds both fantastical and rooted in ideas of home with their bouncy, chaotic-yet-friendly style of rock that’s continued to stay sonically unique. “Club Namaste is a make-believe club that acts as a metaphor for the city. A new yet familiar club where you enter to realize that you don’t fight the city, you experience and relish it – the good and the bad,” the statement adds. The record was crowdfunded since the beginning of 2020, right after the release of an instrumental version of Lush EP in February 2019. They raised well over ₹2 lakh, which afforded enough room for additional studio work, artwork and visuals.

Watch the music video for “Khan Market Gang” below. Stream the song on Spotify, Apple Music and JioSaavn. Buy on Bandcamp.

Tags:

You Might also Like