Today we have ‘Catastrophic Disintegration,’ a band from the suburbs of Mumbai. It is the brainchild of Kunal Dalvi, a 34-year-old artist who writes the lyrics and also plays the drums for the band. It also has the 34-year-old Nandkishore Kumavat on the lead guitars, 28-year-old Aakash Prabhakar on the guitars, and 26-year-old Pratik Borgaonkar on the bass. The 4-piece alternative rock band’s sound is a blend of classic Indian rock, a heavy rhythm section, Carnatic lead guitar and lyrics that tell stories. Their artistic influences include Motherjane, Paradigm Shift, Thaikkuddam Bridge, Opeth, Karnivool, Porcupine Tree, Textures, etc.
The band recently released their first full-length album called ‘Aaina.’ The 8-track album released on 21st October is 6 years in the making for Catastrophic Disintegration. The album begins with ‘Aaina’ which has 7 more songs – ‘Banjara,’ ‘Pradakshinam,’ ‘Maut,’ ‘Kathputli,’ ‘Saavan,’ ‘Grahan,’ and ‘Allah Mera.’ The album, made with enormous care and attention to detail evokes raw emotions in every listener.
‘Aaina’ ranges from power rock ballads to acoustic laments, instrumental progressive rock, riff-driven hard rock songs and folk tales in modern rock songs. Talking about life from varied perspectives, the album talks about people’s combats with life’s daily struggles, finding the courage to look ahead no matter what happens, and speaks of deadly sins like corruption, greed, lust and desires. It encourages listeners to see that they haven’t come this far, to come this far. The driven, haste-y music is here to make a point and doesn’t back away from it. The Carnatic lead guitar parts set the music apart from what we’ve heard before.
While every album has one single artwork, the band decided to be unique here as well by designing artwork for every track. That, “is an integral part of the experience of the album,” according to the band. The album was recorded at Benchmark studios, Thane, with the assistance of Kaushik Ramachandran of Paradigm Shift. The album has also seen contributions from Piyush Kapoor and Ariel Samson.
The album which has been made with extreme love and care from its creators hopes to be a beacon of hope for its listeners.
