O — Tienas (Review)
7.5/10
Tienas aka Tanmay Saxena from Mumbai recently released an album through the Azadi Records label which explores a slightly less conventional style in the Indian Hip-hop scene.
1) Cyclone
Shiloh dynasty makes such samplable music. (Case in point 17-X) The melodic intrigue along with the lo-fi quality makes it the perfect vehicle for a song like this. The Shiloh song is in itself, a small story, lyrically and melodically. It perfectly complements the metal trap like almost post Malone-y vocals of Tanmay. The vocal melody on the chorus is repetitive in a way that is almost hypnotic. Prabh Deep’s delivery on this song had him rapping much more softly and gently than usual, which seems to contrast the abrasive tone on the main vocals. This is a genuinely complex and well-constructed song, leaving aside the sparse lyrical storytelling on Tienas’ part.
2) Dangerous
I’m not particularly fond of this song. The vocal melody on this song is a little drab. The smooth guitars are mixed a little too low to effectively counteract the grainy vocal production. The beat too, is too simple to add anything to the song. The lyrics don’t particularly attract me either.
3) Flowers From An Old Manor
Quest’s verse feels warm and is perfectly complemented by the reversed piano sample. His almost tired inflection and flow reflects the loneliness and burnout described in the fairly straightforward but honest lyrics.
Tanmay’s verse at the end leaves you with a lingering, haunting feeling. For a 1-and-a-half-minute song, it’s a really satisfying piece.4) Peace of Mind
I really like this song. The crisp drums are pretty simple, but the way they’re syncopated with the piano at the beginning of the song and the way they move into a steady groove later draws me into the song. The lo-fi style piano samples placed throughout the verse also really work for me. In this song, Bobby’s lyrics are actually pretty intriguing. Though somewhere they might seem a little contrived, they’re still of note and fit pretty well with Quest’s verse in the previous song, with Quest talking about being lost and Tienas talking about searching for peace of mind. The vocal melody around the 1-minute mark is so simple but so very very catchy. Unfortunately, this song too is only two minutes short. It ends with a fairly welcome surprise, a fifteen-second verse by Bobby where the sub-bass and aggressive delivery is in such contrast with the trebly drums and pianos in the earlier part of the song.
5) Backseat
The way this song starts really throws me off. It’s a bit of a mess, but not a very creative one. Reversing an entire section of a track isn’t a particularly novel idea, and has been done better elsewhere. Also, the vocals in this part sound like a bunch of babies heard their voices on auto-tune for the first time. The bright-sounding piano sample is really enjoyable, but I have to say that a bunch of steely vocals along with a trap beat is a little aggressive on the treble. The melodies are insanely catchy, especially around 1:40. The “make love in the backseat” refrain however, is a little annoying. The rap verse in the second half of the song is is pretty fun, starting with a fairly familiar triplet flow and moving on to a faster, almost Eminem like flow. Overall, the song has quite a few interesting things to look out for.6) Nice Guy
Okay yes I absolutely love this song. My favourite part is how the bass has been mixed so much higher than the screamed lyrics in the background. The hyper aggression and bass heaviness of this song really balances out the last one.
7) Seedhe Maut Interlude
The Rhodes-y, funky keys bring you straight out of the aggression of the previous song, and into a masterfully written verse by Encore ABJ. I love the wordplay and the analogies in the lyrics, bring a lot of dun into what has been up till now a fairly serious record. I’m usually not fond of Calm’s verses but this one is definitely an exception. He’s basically conversing with Tanmay on this one, starting with calling his Indigo flight to Bombay (where I’m guessing they went to record) “chindi”, which is pretty hilarious. The verse is fun, a little braggadocious but thoroughly enjoyable.
8) 10–18
A pretty serious verse over a lo-fi track. I’m not sure how to feel about the lyrics on this, which take a pretty cynical view of the rap industry, talking about the usual, lusting after fame and money. I’m honestly not too inclined towards the content on this song, it just feels a little contrived.
9) Juju
This a fairly neat change of change pace, the lo-fi still plays an important part in this, but the hook, which is repetitive and hypnotic is pretty new to the album. The verses actually display a fair bit of versatility with the flow switches and they actually present a side of this record which is pretty new. The second and third verses are pretty laid back in their flows, and with Tienas' lyrics on the usual theme of being better than other rappers, they make for a pretty savage delivery.
10) Die Romeo Die
The lyrics on the song are particularly interesting. I can only imagine they talk about the attitudes towards science and arts in an increasingly fascist state *hint hint* and also the immorality that guides these sentiments. The song has some pretty insightful lines such as “we the reason Van Gogh died nameless, we the reason all of his paintings were frameless”. The song also talks about how Gods and saints have been forsaken, and is easily the most potent song on the album, with impressive flows and delivery to match.
11) Of Queens and Kings Approximately
This is a fairly soft song. Unfortunately, I really don’t get the appeal of this one. It’s a more or less simple love ballad with crooning autotune vocals. It doesn’t really do much to hold my attention and although this seems to be an important song in the progression of the album, it doesn’t add much to my experience of it.
12) Lanos (Reprise)
This follows the vibe from the previous song, but is slightly more coherent and potent, considering it’s more about discord and heartbreak, and a lot of discontentment and anger comes through in the lyrics but the vocals themselves are pretty mellow, but desperate nonetheless.
13) FTS Outro
This song is so much longer than the others, at 7 minutes and 17 seconds. Another lo-fi sample really suits this song. The first verse feels pretty nostalgic and has a fairly flawless execution, but what really stands out to me is the singing on the first hook, which mimics the piano sample in the background. It’s easily my moment of this album for me. It’s whimsical, unexpected, and leaves you with a fair bit of yearning sadness. But then the beat switches up to a very simple groove, which breaks into a slightly aggressive verse by another featuring artist which is alright, but nothing that stands out to me. I do like the “zero”s panning from one ear to the other. The beat switches up again after this, into a spacey vaporwave-y vibe. Following which there’s another change-up, into another vaporwave like EDM soundscape, over which Tienas’ autotuned vocals seem a little unnecessary. The album closes with another short verse by a guest artist seemingly pondering a bunch of maybes about a relationship that has developed throughout the album.
This album shows a great amount of versatility and musical intrigue. Though there were a few songs that really came up as mediocre, and the album is a bit rough around the edges, there is a lot to take away from it as well. Songs like Die Romeo Die and Lanos have some really clever and honest lyrics, and the sound of this album does show a lot of diversity in terms of creating an effective sonic landscape by bringing together old school hip hop and contemporary styles of rap with lo-fi jazz samples as sort of the glue. More than that, even though lyrically, songs like Dangerous may not have been the album's strong points, they do weave together a story of love and subsequent discord that I found myself fairly invested in. I’m looking forward to more from Tienas
