Treble Puns Release A Concept Album Alternating Between Comical Skits & Sombre Post-Rock Jams

Treble Puns, the Bangalore duo of Sohini Bhattacharya and Abhimanyu Roy, just released their new album 'Life Lessens 1: A God Named Frank'.

While their last release, 'Chill Ke Armaan', saw them take a break from their usual existential meanderings for irreverent humour, the latest record manages to do both over its 9 tracks of sombre jams, bookended by and alternating with comical skits that come underscored by sitcom-style music. They present a story of Frank, the junior God of honesty, who slept for millennia to wake up in the present times. At least, that is the device with which the band discusses things like the secret to happiness and satisfaction, vocally on 'Zen Commandments?' and then musically on 'Hey... Are You Happy?', or of the pressure to create content and market on social media instead of just being artists on the skit 'The Pursuit Of Crappiness', followed by 'Dog Eat Dog World'.

In times when through-listening of albums is on a decline in people's staple consumption habits to benefit concept albums, the skits on 'Life Lessens 1: A God Named Frank' slip into the ear more like a musical podcast (we are sure the characters on the skit will have something to say about this). The musical tracks, on the other hand, present some compositionally strong post-rock jams, limited mostly by the production value behind capturing the duo's energy on their respective instruments of drums and guitars that come supported with layers of synth.

Treble Puns even adds lyrical vocals to the fold for the first time. It works well when it joins the wall of sound that the band conjures, while the more unobscured verses on 'Hey... Are You Happy?' or 'Dog Eat Dog World' are clearly the limiters of the emotional profundity that the band creates with its guitar lines and drum replies. Away from such faultlines, 'Life Lessens 1: A God Named Frank' isn't just to be lauded as an interesting and ambitious album conceptually, but for being able to provide revisitable jams like 'Probably a Bad Idea' and the new directions signalled by the almost entirely electronically programmed 'Dog Eat Dog World'.

Listen to the album below and follow Treble Puns for more.