Following his stint with Mumbai based alt-rock band Spud In The Box as well as producing jingles and music for rappers over the years, Joshua Singh has reached a point in his musical maturity where his artistic output is an extension of his very personality. Consequently, the defining feature of his debut EP ‘Understudy’ is a sophisticated mix of two dichotomic features: his humbleness and his seasoned approach to production.
Singh arranges scattered guitar plucking, brooding vocals (by Rachel Singh, k o k u m and Singh himself), short violin motifs by Ajay Jayanthi, Sid Vashi’s baritone saxophone, Rajeev Prasanna’s flute lines, and most importantly, silence, with the sole purpose of serving the music. Treating the song as the only thing that matters, Singh never takes attention away from the emotions the tracks intend to impart.
Resultantly, ‘Understudy’ is a grower seeped in expression. Making you curious through the atmospheric vocoder acapella of the opening track ‘Few Of Us Around’, the 5-track EP lulls you into the sombreness of its creator’s mind by the time you reach the breathy intimate singing in ‘Normal Is For Fools’.