Curious Toys- Harsha Iyer

There’s an unusually fresh approach to songwriting for a 19-year-old. His take on issues such as politics, love and money is slightly warped, in that he chooses to adopt personas to tell a story. More than that, there’s a glut of varied genres that Harsha Iyer picks out in ‘Curious Toys’, be it spaced-out shoegaze, baroque rock, and even epic, arena rock at times.

A contemporary to fellow Chennai artist Kishore Krishna (Adam and the Fish eyed Poets), Iyer has a experimental, post-punk disposition as well. The only difference is with regard to the latter’s lyrical exploration of more everyday emotions and topics on the album, not that it’s an entirely bad thing.

As long as I’m wagging my finger/shaking my head, I would say spellings and grammar typos in the lyrics booklet may be looked upon with something that needs improvement. But given his age, this is excusable I suppose. Album closer ‘Usefull Somewhere’ is one case in point, although it is a delightfully fuzz-filled song.

Another common argument leveled against his kind (solo artists) is of letting their voice get the most importance on songs. While that stands true even on ‘Curious Toys’, Iyer’s wail-like croon is mostly bearable on all tracks.

Warm fuzzy tones add to the psychedelic side of this album, with ‘Not Yet Dead’ being a quizzical mix of the positivist coupled with the drowning, desolate guitar tones of negativity. Iyer’s vocals are reminiscent of Deerhunter/Atlas Sound’s Bradford Cox on this standout track.

On the other end, there are tracks where Iyer doesn’t ponder, but parties. ‘Toys’ can be the soundtrack to a wild night out. ‘Fear’ attempts to be scary, but finds itself not exactly leaning towards that mood by the end. There’s the strangest side to experimentation that Iyer gets to, with a score that seems set for a fairytale with orchestral arrangements in ‘On the Edge’.

Coming back to his use of personas, on ‘No Say’, the subject is a (presumably) fictitious woman. But on tracks such as ‘Money’ (which is a vividly painted picture of a court trial), ‘I Find You Boring’ and ‘Overcautious’, you can clearly tell Iyer is talking about the company he once kept.

‘Curious Toys’ is just the beginning, according to Iyer, with the blueprint for a second album already underway. We can’t expect the music to be vastly mature, but we can expect much, much more experimentation from the Chennai youngster.

Harsha Iyer – Curious Toys can be downloaded for free from: http://harsha-iyer.bandcamp.com/