Sikh City Sometimes.
Hello my friends hope you are still keeping on keeping on, I am too but look what I have here. Remember 80’s Matchbox ? Well, bass player extraordinaire Symren Gharial has returned with a new project ‘Primitive Ignorant’ now I might be primitive but I try not be an ignoramus. The literary giant Oscar Wilde starts us off -and is featured throughout- with a few of his choicest words to engage your attention, then we slide into a streetwise, roll of the dice tribute to Markland Estate, vocals courtesy of Le Junk.
As Symren is not a singer, he has included various artists to help and each one brings their own special talent to magnify and electrify this body of work. There are copious amounts of hippy chick, funky floral notes mingling and tingling with the Techno trance beats you’ll find in ‘Dress Like Me’, Leonore Wheatley takes the reins here.
We ‘Worship Art’ with Bess Cavendish as she tells us ‘I’d rather be anyone else but me’ a touch of the grass is greener outlook. Continuing with the dance electronica ambience ‘I’m lost inside your prison bleeding’ wearing ‘White Jeans And Eyeliner’ a look into the twilight world and all the mystery and madness it brings. The crossover of styles is intricate yet has balance and fluidity, harnessing both the power of the experimental and the tried and tested. Sym came, he saw and he conquered, even dispensing a little robotic and a little neurotic to attract those who have no one. It’s time to showcase the sideshow street freaks without whom we cannot even begin to assimilate ourselves.
With ‘Fluorescent Ecstasy’ I immediately get the Muse ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ deadly hook vibes, insistent and resounding in the delivery. The somewhat underrated bass guitar is the hero, let’s celebrate the underdog and appreciate the mic drop moments they command.
It’s quite a theatrical piece; interspersed with spoken word, sound effects to emphasise drama, and dipped in a little Seattle grunge to create a rounded, multi- disciplinary experience. With references to the struggles that immigrants and POC face, strangers in a strange land, trying to earn money and put food on the table, when the cards are stacked heavily against them. Isn’t that what we are all doing anyway? So why all the animosity and derision? The obligatory answer, thoughts and prayers to those affected.
Mick Jones (The Clash) ends this journey with some more Oscar Wilde, but I’m going to leave you with my personal favourite.
‘And alien tears will fill for him pity’s long broken urn. For his mourners will be outcast men, and outcasts always mourn’.
For those who live on the fringes, Cheers Sym!
Azra Pathan
Primitive Ignorant – Sikh Punk out 23rd October via Something In Construction Records.