Split – Counting Perfume

 Split throw themselves wide open with debut record

 Split- Counting Perfume

(3/5)

Independent 

Two years ago, Mumbai’s oldest alt grunge act Split handed out their debut EP P is for Pig compiling some of their most popular live songs. But the complete package from over nine years of music in here, on Counting Perfume – 13 spitfire tracks about five years late in the coming. Produced by former band member Zorran Mendonsa, the record is a righteous ode to the Nineties with hard-hitting riffs and angst ridden lyrics. Songs the band has been performing for years  find their way on the record, including the five tracks from P is for Pig. Balladic “Isn’t it Strange,” restless “60 Seconds,” renegade anthem “Pig Society,” orchestral “Fingerprints” and of course their faith-bashing anthem “Holy Ghost Machine Gun” offer the perfect getaway for the cynic, the rebel and the atheist. 

 Guitarist Aviv Pereira, vocalist Garreth D’melo and guitarist Melroy D’Mello are the key songwriting forces on the record who’ve bought with them a balanced, harmonic energy with songs like the thoughtful “Counting Perfume,” dealing with a certain hyperbole in modern lifestyle. “I’ve been killing nerve cells right since I could think/ First milk, then coke, then rum ”“ no missing link.” Counting Perfume is a box set of adrenaline fuelled rage. The exception is “Mr Anderson,” where the record finally quiets down with a reggae instrumental closing the track and album, almost a moment of quiet reflection on a near decade of performing. 

Key Tracks: “Holy Ghost machine Gun,” “Build (Higher)”