Listen: Hoirong Releases Third Full Length LP ‘Mwah’

30 May 2016

Our favourite noise/alternative rock band Hoirong sends flying kisses to the general listening public with their new LP ‘Mwah’, which is replete with the irreverent punk and offhand lyrics that we’ve grown to love from previous albums like 2014’s ‘दण्डनीय अपराध’ and debut LP TROTPOWAHVHP (The Resurrection Of The Princess Of Woe And Her Vampire Hound Posse).

An interviewer for NH7 once claimed to see some similarity between the music of Hoirong to deranged Sacramento punk-rap outfit Death Grips, and while we’re not really buying that comparison, it did make us think of the resemblance between their fan bases. On a tinier level, Hoirong has a strange, lovable, slightly batty and very loyal cult following that bands in India don’t often get to see. The kind of people who express their appreciation through the odd meme, completely unrelated comment, or in some cases, song-by-song dissections of the album published as Facebook comments almost immediately after its release (“Maggots has a lot of potential. Raises a lot of those universal questions we all can’t escape. Not”).

There is absolutely nothing new about 4 dudes making rock music, so why does Hoirong inspire so much awkward love? Think about your current “scene” – posturing is self-promotion and we all know at least one person who makes painfully mediocre music on a cracked version of FL, but feels entitled to get a gig because they got 1300 plays for that one song on SoundCloud i.e. everyone takes themselves too seriously, in a not very serious (and sometimes ridiculous) industry. So Hoirong’s hilarious self-awareness and tongue-in-cheek assessment of the environment they exist in (not only in their lyrics but also in their online identity as a band) becomes the new friend in your life you didn’t know you needed.

And then of course, there’s the music – ‘Mwah’ is full up with garage/punk/noise/shoegaze influences with a touch of pop from the nineties and noughties. So lots of messy string, frontman Kamal Singh’s disinterested vocals and sharp, witty lyrics (“fuck your sense of humour, it sucks like vacuum cleaner” not being one of them). ‘47RR’, ‘Push Up Bra’, ‘Please’, ‘Water Water Water’ – there are a bunch of catchy songs on ‘Mwah’ along with some "feel-ier" music like the confusingly sincere ‘Precocial’, which shows the more sensitive side to Hoirong's personality. The band also attempts to answer the east meets west debate (not really but not bad) with Shehnai-grunge in ‘Peacock Dasgupta’s Tattoo Is Better’ (it probably is).

Based on the first couple of listens, we’d download ‘Mwah’ in a heartbeat and put it on our phones/iPods.

'The Hoirong album is a masterpiece and a stunner and it is inspired by Kumar Sanu, Puff Daddy, and Abhishek Bachchan and we are thrilled to announced that our gig was amazing and there were WELL OVER 20 people who showed up. And our clothes for the gig were designed by Tarun Tahiliani.' - Hoirong

What?

Support the artists and download the album here on BandCamp for any price you choose (including zero). Listen to the whole thing below and follow Hoirong on Facebook for updates.

Words: Diya Gupta

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