Space Behind The Yellow Room ”“ Conversations That Determine a Life Album Review

Space Behind the Yellow Room. Photo: Naman Saraiya

[easyreview cat1title = “Conversations That Determine A Life” cat1rating = 3.5 cat1detail = “Self-released”]

‘Conversations’ album art

What can you call Bengaluru band Space Behind The Yellow Room’s [SBTYR] eight-track debut album, Conversations That Determine A Life? It’s certainly rooted in the atmospheric, progressive build-ups commonplace to post-rock, but there’s so much more that escapes compartmentalization on this album.

Led by drummer and vocalist Shoumik Biswas, who formed the band in 2012 with guitarists Devasheesh Sharma, Nihar Apte and bassist Tushar Ganguly, SBTYR later added Eshaan Sood on bass this year after Ganguly moved out of Bengaluru. This core group is certainly in sync throughout Conversations, starting first with the menacing “Teach Him to Dance,” and moving into a raw, angsty post-metal track called “Beautiful Repetition.” On this track, Sharma and Apte’s riffing goes from loud to louder as Biswas screams from behind the drum kit, “Cacophony, don’t follow me everywhere I go.” Biswas brings varied influences to his vocals as much as he does in his stickwork, distorting his quiver at times and quietening down to a whisper on “Call It A Prayer.” SBTYR go back into post-metal on “Fight! Fight! Flight!” in the vein of the early material of American post-metal/sludge band Isis, except this track is much more menacing as Biswas goes all out on his machine-gun drumming. Bonus points if you get spooked out by the samples of animal noises toward the middle of the song. But before you know it, there’s an electronica-influenced interlude [“Testing Time, Letting Go”] followed by what is probably the uplifting, instrumental dance-rock track “Victory Dance.”

Although Conversations could have done with better production, the raw guitars, drums and vocals add to the tormenting nature of the album, especially Biswas’s screamed out, screeching vocals. The sound on the EP is unpredictable all through ”“ from filler tracks to breakdowns to the mood changes, which makes it great for repeated listens.

Key tracks: “Beautiful Repetition,” “Fight! Fight! Flight!”

Stream Conversations that Determine a Life here