Motherjane

Motherjane has been around for a while now. I heard ‘Mindstreet’ and fell in love with the song right away. And once I like a song, it has to go and on and on for the whole day. Sometimes it could go on for a few days. There comes a point in my day when I actually need the song like water and get cranky if I don't get it. Crazy I know, but that is what music can do to u, and good music at that. Hope all of you have experienced that at some point of time in your lives. Of course co existing with this is always the ever popular dullard music which just makes you want to pull your hair off. Bottom line, Motherjane was a success with me from the very first minute. The crazy Indian zing in their music combined with some amazing progressive riffs makes it difficult for anyone to dislike their music.

‘Insane Biography’, their first release has some really good tracks like 'Soul Corporation', 'Shh...Listen' and of course 'Mindstreet', the song about just going out there and doing your thing, as one of the band members rightly put it. 'Maktub', their next album has some tracks which are even better. ‘Maktub’ definitely has more work put into it and the band seems to be more tight in this album. The enhanced version of 'Mindstreet' is real neat, making you feel more free and empowered. 'Broken' evokes a different emotion. Makes me sad every time I listen to it. Feels like something is really broken somewhere or something is messed up. The 'Taka Takita' start in 'Chasing the Sun' sends a chill through your body, makes you feel like you are standing right there in a 'Kalari Payattu' ground watching 2 people charge at each other. And the song just keeps getting better after the mind blowing start. 'Fields of Sound' has some amazing sound with the guitar flowing in the typical Motherjane style and some kick ass off beat drumming to accompany it. From their sound, there is a clear Dream Theater and Steve Vai influence which takes them on a very high scale in the progressive scene. We all know how hard it is to try and play anything to match up to that level. ‘Karmic Steps’ and ‘Before 1 million’ are clear testimonies to this. The combination of the different styles and sounds totally blows you away.

The half painted faces and the crazy tunes are gonna make these guys massive. Today they are pretty huge in the country and they are referred to as one of the biggest progressive rock bands the country has seen. Maybe one of the first amazing rock success stories from India. Vh1 playing ‘Broken’ was a clear sign that they are already on the right road. It feels good to hear some high quality fresh music from the country. 

Its been 13 years since Motherjane  played first in the Indian Rock scene, a typical Jugaad band formed for the college festival, which today pretty much speaks a lot about Indian Progressive Rock. Coming from conservative Kerala, we cannot begin to imagine the resistance they must have faced to get out there in the open. Too bad though they have come out only with 2 albums till now and there is a huge gap between their releases. The second release ‘Maktub’ though brilliant doesn’t justify the 5 year gap. But their stamina for live shows has to be admired. Continuous playing for more than an hour this time at iRock they blew the audience away. The rain loved them too and every time Baiju started playing a solo, the rain would start and the solo would peak with the rain pouring like crazy. The experience was amazing. To be there in the sand and mud listening to Motherjane’s music. Hoping for many more days like these.