Peter Cat Recording Co. today release ‘Where The Money Flows’, the latest single to be released from their forthcoming debut album, ‘Bismillah’ due for release on June 7, 2019 via French independent label Panache Records. With debut UK live shows soon to be announced by the New Delhi-based band, the new video for ‘Where The Money Flows’ is streaming below!
Speaking about the video – created in part using footage from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2016 speech to announce the demonetisation of 1,000 and 500 rupee notes – Peter Cat’s frontman Suryakant Sawhney says; “Since the age of man began, we sat around wondering how best to measure our worth on this planet. After several millennia of debate, we are proud to present: MONEY! IT’S BEAUTIFUL! IT’S LIGHT! IT SMELLS SOOOO GOOD! THERES NO END TO IT! HURRY NOW AND GRAB ALL YOU CAN BECAUSE YOU AND I BOTH KNOW, MONEY IS SOMETHING WHICH WILL SURVIVE, WELL BEYOND THE EVAPORATION OF THE FINAL BLACK HOLE.”
With a name partially referencing Haruki Murakami’s jazz club in Tokyo, Peter Cat Recording Co. trade in a kaleidoscopic blend of gypsy jazz, psychedelic cabaret, space disco, bossa supernova, Bollywood and uneasy listening. It’s an unlikely balance which makes the New Delhi five piece every inch the sonic anomaly in their hometown as how they read on paper. The band beguiled and frustrated in equal measure in 2018, with the release of ‘Portrait Of A Time 2010-2016’, an anthology album which gathered together re-mastered versions of various gems from the band’s ramshackle back catalogue, previously recorded in Suryakant’s front room. Whilst the title track found its way onto Tracks Of The Year lists at the Guardian & NME, it was tricky to get a firm grip on the five piece who – despite hailing from the Hindi-speaking capital of India – emerged sounding like a twenty first century big band reboot.
It’s this startling push/pull – between the immediate, uncanny music Peter Cat Recording Co. are creating and the cultural backdrop of New Delhi at which it is so startlingly at odds – which promises to make ‘Bismillah’ a vital debut. The technicolour album cover – capturing Suryakant’s father-in-law making his wedding toast, alongside the band’s name written in both English & Hindi – casts a backwards nod to the cover for ‘Portrait Of A Time’, itself a black & white image taken at the wedding ceremony of Suryakant’s father.
A cat might have nine lives, but on ‘Bismillah’ and beyond, Peter Cat Recording Co. are hinting towards an unknowable multitude of dimensions. Throw them all together, and it equates less to a listening experience and more to an out-of-body experience.