RIVU Finds A Space Between Raw Indie Rock & Electronica On EP 'Dinosaurs'

Subhagata Singha aka RIVU just released his latest EP 'Dinosaurs', returning with a solo record since his 2020 work 'The Incident 2019'.

With over a decade of functioning as an indie musician (formerly also with the group Preying Mantis), session instrumentalist and on-hire composer, the Kolkata-rooted artist brings in a lot of influences on the 5-track EP. Out of them, the foray into the complex but hard rhythms of progressive jazz-rock on 'Time Shadow' and the tight dancefloor-oriented grooves against loose guitar plucking of 'Song 5 v3 final' might be a few tricks too many that take away from the cohesiveness of the EP, or are fledgling musical adventures in themselves at their best.

However, with those experimentations into new sounds, RIVU does stumble onto right sonic combinations on 'You're Not Lazy' and 'Ivory Tower'. On the latter, stiff and fuzzy guitar lines emulate the simple but effective synth work of formative electronic music (think Kraftwerk and CAN) against noisy drums whose distortion soon engulfs the entire soundscape for the conclusion. While 'You're Not Lazy' and the title track utilise soft pads and whimsical arpeggios to complement the equally whimsical and existential songwriting.

Listen to 'Dinosaurs' below and follow RIVU for more.

Image by Margub Ali