Premiere: Pune Instrumental Rock Band Celestial Teapot Surge on ‘Defgain’

On their first release in three years, a newly invigorated Celestial Teapot return with dexterous, towering and impactful prog-leaning instrumental rock. “Defgain,” part of their upcoming EP Perception [out on November 20th] starts out with powerful riffs before distinctively settling into a wavy ambient portion that ebbs and flows.

The three-track Perception — recorded at Gray Spark Audio in Pune by engineer Nitin M. Krishna in August 2018 — features new members including keyboardist Anubhav Gupta and guitarist Robin Rajan. The band says in a statement, “We also approached this EP as a test bed for a new approach to writing conceptually stronger songs.” With bassist Tushar Verma leaving for a study stint in Denmark in 2018, Perception was completed during an intense six months between February and August of that year. It follows their 2017 single “Lumens” and 2015’s debut record One Big Sky.

With the EP concerning itself with different ways of seeing, “Defgain” arrives to contrast how important sound is for “people who can hear versus those who cannot.” The band adds about the concept behind the song, “Deaf people feel threatened by the technology that may allow them to start hearing. While a normal hearing person might think it’s ridiculous to reject a ‘life boost’ and functioning ‘normally,’ it actually threatens their way of life and communicating. Try to follow along and imagine a protagonist who is in a tussle between hearing and not hearing.”

Written about two years ago, Celestial Teapot are now back on track to creating more material, keeping their learnings from the Perception sessions in tact. “Although all songs were closet riffs tucked away in the past, Tushar already had a storyline built around the concept of the album and we tried to serve the meaning as much as possible while developing these tracks. We’re definitely loving this approach and consider it as a challenge to deliver more meaningful performances. We’re learning and believe this is a step in the right direction,” the band adds.

Listen to “Defgain” and pre-order ‘Perception’ EP below.