Keshav Iyengar/ Seeing Faces

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR 

Keshav Iyengar/ Seeing Faces

Genre: Alt-rock

Label: Inkk Audio

Rating: ****

On the opening track of his new album Seeing Faces, Keshav Iyengar writes, "Now Mamu finds that he's all alone, the friends were never there, all there was was a hole, deep inside that he could never fill, so he looked for a softer way, the result was nil".

The song 'Mamu and Friends', about a character called Mamu, is presented in a style that seems influenced by Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen. The guitaring has traces of Floyd and the words talk of loneliness, pain and self-destruction.

Assisting composer Keshav are guitarist Lokesh Bakshi and vocalist-pianist Jeson Felipe. Over the next few songs, the album changes colour slowly. Though Mamu doesn't reappear in name and the Floyd hangover vanishes, the songs are interconnected, ending with the positive vibe of "Let it go, let it go, is the only way to grow".

Active as a bassist, Keshav loves writing songs. If his 2020 album Nothing had a very Indian feel, Seeing Faces is reminiscent of the American singer-songwriter folk-pop of the late 1960s, but yet has a 1990s alternative rock feel. There's depth in the lyrics, which are impressionistic in the sense that they're based on observation. One assumes Cohen and the poetic side of Jim Morrison have been subconscious influences.

Examples of the writing talent are found in the song 'Peacocks', which has the lines, "Strut along in your garden of shadows, dance and sing in your extravagant parade, and fill up your belly little plasticene peacock, with the fruits of your misery and silent decay".

The album has seven songs, totalling 28 minutes. 'Pavlov's Web' is about two people who "ponder what lies ahead". Bang in the middle we have 'Drift Along', which moves from talk of emptiness and loneliness to the lines, "You're the only one who can defeat your own doubts and fears".

The nostalgic title track has a Hindi section sung by Nagesh Adgaonkar, before talking of "the miserable relics of opportunity destroyed by a mistress called time". There are interesting lines on 'Life Turns Around', like "Insanity is illusive when you've lost your mind" and "we've made it to the very brink of the silence and the noises that we never heard".

Words like these give Seeing Faces its unique touch. The more you hear them the larger the impact.