Teddy Boy Kill – The Exit Plan

Electronica in India’s mainstream metal (and sometimes un-metal) dominated scene is looked upon as the step-son/daughter of the underground scene, however much I hate that term. But like Christ rising from his grave on Redemption Thursday, Teddy Boy Kill’s debut album, The Exit Plan is here to make Saturday nights sound that much sweeter, and Sunday morning hangovers that much less heavy.

The first track on the album, ‘Tonic’ is an instant dancefloor diva. The track makes your body pump up and down automatically, and soon, you lose all control. The next two tracks, Travelling and Berliner keep the beat going, with Toymob’s vocals set over Audiopervert’s hard, up-tempo house setting the pace for the rest of the album, but, unfortunately, it’s too high a standard for it to follow.

The rest of the album seems to systematically fall apart in places, which is in a way, the saga of Indian electronica. The album veers off into some manic Massive Attack and Portishead mode where everything seems slow like you’re stoned out of your heads and can’t make sense of time. Josefina is almost too teeny-bopper for the album and is, IMHO, the disappointment of the album.

The album gets back on track with ‘Private Eye’ and ‘Face the Future’. ‘Face the Future’ changes beat and tempo midway, crashing and clanging its way till the end with a phenomenal breakbeat to partner the harmonicized vocals and smooth texture that it starts out with. ‘Private Eye’, on the other hand, has a jazzy, love-machine, sex-solo thing going that is irresistible to the lounge listener. Probably the only track on the album that can be called beautiful in the traditional sense of the word is ‘Immortal’. Slow, spacy, ballady – it’s probably what you’d want to be making love to.

A lot of Teddy Boy Kill’s new album is probably new ground in Indian electronica, some might consider it stepping on the toes of Talvin Singh, some might take it as homage to the great master. In itself, The Exit Plan is somewhere close, but not nearly there with a few trippy tracks in a bouquet of otherwise ordinary digital drive. Probably the best bit about the music, apart from the aforementioned tracks is the fact that this album is free to download. I suggest creating a new folder on your music drive.