'Public Fluid and Digital Remembrance': khokkosh.'s Debut Album Functions As Much As Performance Art As Music

'Public Fluid and Digital Remembrance', the debut album by Kolkata's Yashomati Parveen aka khokkosh., may be a musical work but carries more the imprint of a performing artist or post-modern art. Instead of easy structures and returning refrains, it's mostly noise, poetry and performance moulded to look like a music album. The opening skit 'video footage' signals as much, presenting the album's thesis and introducing its themes of femininity, surveillance and relationships in a digital age alongside the sonic palette of synth tones distorting to reach the edge of noise.

Even 'shironaam 112', one of the few instances where Yashomati packs a melodic refrain (the single 'freeuse. org' being another) over a production that on its own might have been industrial techno, is light and upbeat if you keep to its snappy melodic energy. However, read the lyrics, and suddenly the song structure falls into more complex free verse poetry. It's the more obvious moment that the 8-track release is less primed for usual music listening and acts more like a concise gallery space. What you get changes depending on where you're looking/listening.

That's not to say it isn't without personal expression, and like most music, it does present relatability with lines like "all I can say to you, you'll use against me // all I can say has been said already" hiding in tracks like 'dialin''. In fact, it's closer to the world-building of 70s prog-rock. Except, instead of grand, long and winding guitar-led jams, there is concise but free-flowing lyrical outpouring through khokkosh's lo-fi voice which gets interjected by elementary hooks delivered over abrasive textures.

Listen to the album 'Public Fluid and Digital Remembrance' below and follow khokkosh. for more information.