Review: Gauley Bhai’s Sophomore Album ‘Sunbari’ Bridges Community Roots With Sonic Refinement

It’s remarkable that in the age when artists are constantly advised to punctuate every few months with a release (and it seems like most big names do) to keep bending audience and industry infrastructures in their favour, Gauley Bhai held back their sophomore album for nearly 6 years, offering just 2 new songs in the interim since their debut record. Yet, as the band finally shared their second long-form ‘Sunbari’, it dropped to an eagerly and happily waiting audience.

Things were less so in 2019, when the usually Bangalore-based 4-piece group of Kalimpong’s Veecheet and Anudwatt Dhakal, Siddhant Mani Chhetri and Kozhikhode’s Joe Panicker released their debut ‘Joro’. Beyond a few early in-the-know listeners amassed over a handful but notable live appearances, the 10-track album had come out to little fanfare. But here was a new sound – not one born out of a pitch to combine traditional music with rock, as music usually termed “fusion” mostly does, but a natural proclivity to just enjoy playing the folk-inspired music from their Gorkha home with whatever musicality they had at hand. If it meant enjoying it over blues-rock guitars and drums with a combination of occasional group singing and violin lines, then be it. The result was the joy of spontaneity and a natural invitation to join in on the energy and storytelling of the songwriting.

It was nice and fresh enough to steadily take the band from stage to stage, filling every space they were featured in, and from getting asked off stage at a venue in Hyderabad for singing only in Nepali to getting showcased for the same songwriting internationally nearly half a decade later. The band, meanwhile, used their platform to connect more deeply with the people they come from – working with youth around the Teesta highway to mentor them, seeing the unemployment and substance abuse issues they faced, and creating Teesta Creative Space as well as Teesta Troupers, a collective of young writers, rappers and musicians, to enable the people to express themselves constructively.

At long last, as we arrive at the release of their 2nd album ‘Sunbari’, it is the same people, their problems, their communities and their stories that make up the 9-track record. Workers find respite and connection under a rainbow after a long day on ‘Dara Pahada’, a mother learns to let her daughter spread her wings on ‘Mailey Rani’, women break from routine on ‘Kanchi Nini’ and the burden of debt faced by agrarian communities rears its head as a serpent on ‘Kaalo Saap’.

For someone who doesn’t know Nepali, these meanings remain more felt than stated and eventually, the attention mostly goes to the sonic makeup of the album – which largely features similar scuttling rhythms, staccato riffs and wailing violin melodies that the band has come to be known for. While in the case of most artists, more of the same isn’t usually a good thing, but for a constantly rising band that has kept the listeners waiting for 6 years with an album and 2 singles to their discography, it’s welcome to get their sound in higher fidelity than ever previously offered.

(From L-R) Siddhant Mani Chhetri, Veecheet Dhakal and Anudwatt Dhakal recording for album 'Sunbari'

While ‘Joro’ was a straightforward, upfront recreation of the band’s live sound, ‘Sunbari’ (which means “a field where gold grows”) sees slightly more thought on using the recording process creatively. Multiple layers of guitar highlight the important riffs and multiple layers of vocals make the refrains more dynamic, allowing to bring out the songwriting, which works especially well for the better-written numbers of ‘Dara Pahado’ and ‘Kalo Saap’. The former even features female backing vocals over beds of sustained strings, prioritising the “folk” over “rock” for the folk-rock outfit.

‘Abhagi’, the star of the album – if for nothing else than the familiarity as the fan favourite from the band’s live sets – benefits from walls of distorted guitars energising its driving pace even further than the song inherently features. ‘Kanchi Nini’ receives a similar treatment in its intro as layers of violins and the bass guitar create the effect of a string quartet.

"In the first album, we were all about the bigger the better," says guitarist Sidhant Mani Chettri. "But in this second album, we've grown into our sound, and our approach to music is more centred and focused."

The new approach allows for outlier numbers like the ballad ‘Bhok’ with its dissonant chords and organ-backed rhythm changes. Even filtered drum machines briefly appear on the closer ‘Thulo Cha Paari Sansaar’ and as subtle rhythmic details on ‘Kaalo Saap’.

Joe Panicker recording for album 'Sunbari'

However, when not functioning to highlight the songwriting, these elements serve as ignorable frills, and the true substance of the album still is in the band’s energetic spontaneity and the stories they decorate with it. Consequently, the album’s high moments are still in the groove changes and the pacing up and slowing down with the song’s intensity, more reflective of Gauley Bhai’s live shows. The instrumental rocking out beyond the limits of the composition and back on ‘Abhagi’ and ‘Sadiyantara’ are the moments that you end up craving more of.

‘Sunbari’ doesn’t try to reinvent Gauley Bhai. It simply gives us more of what made them stand out in the first place, but with greater clarity and care. The textures are fuller, the arrangements more deliberate, and the stories more grounded in the people and places the band has remained committed to. It’s a record that trusts in its own pace – just like the band did, taking six years to return.

.

.

Words: Amaan Khan