The Sepia Music Edition continues…Last week, Adnan Y. left a comment about post-punk desi musicians. Specifically, Nirmala Basnayake of controller.controller. Smelling a fellow Sri Lankan, I tried to verify my hunch…but…nada. Ms. Basnayake apparently doesn’t see the need for a compelling backstory.
Once again though, Sepia readers came through.Mephistopheles1981 compiled a list of arty-farty Lankans in the North American diaspora, and called her out. Here forthwith, is a quick review of controller.controller’s debut album History:
Five-piece Toronto outfit, Controller Controller, are the latest mob to join the post-punk rat race. More than just another punk-funk band, though, they seem immediately capable of overriding the hype….The usual old school references are dotted throughout this debut (PiL – check, Gang Of Four – check, Joy Division – check), but distinctive female vocals (courtesy of Nirmala Basnayake), some serious attitude, dancefloor-aimed death grooves and a sense of the apocalyptic all make for a thrilling ride. [link]
More? Why not:
Recalling the best of female rock vocalists from Debbie Harry to Chrissie Hynde, Nirmala’s voice alternates from anxious and angry to pure sonic tenderness as the four boys behind her laydown seriously solid songs of punishing rhythm and dueling angular guitar work. Bust out your dancing shoes because with their nonstop four-on-the-floor disco beats and raging basslines, you won’t be able to stand still for long.[link]
Sisterfriend really gives my fav post-punkers Bloc Party a run for their angular danceability. I dare you to check out “Disco Blackout” and not twitch your feet! And could it possibly get browner that this:
That doesn’t mean [the lyrics are] comprehensible, of course. Take the odd, repeated chant “V-one-five-point-eight-five” on album centrepiece Sleep Over It. Huh?
“It’s not a Joy Division tribute, although I think that’s how a lot of people interpret it,” she laughs. “It’s a medical reference. When you’re processing medical charts, instead of writing out everything the doctor’s diagnosed, you enter a code, and it makes the insurance go through more quickly. You can look at a chart and know from the numbers that the patient had, say, a broken left toe. There are thousands of codes out there. It’s awesome, very fascinating.” [link]
And controller.controller’s tracks are available for download from LimeWire (and it’s groovy, yeah baby yeah!) but do support the brown and pay for the actual stuff you miserly buggers. Shaa Cicatrix, didn’t tell me you were coming by for a visit, no? Would’ve boiled some kiribath unless you’re a Maliban and Lipton’s kind of girl. Feel free to come back again any time and oh, I am madly in love with you.
Mephistopheles is not your name But I know what you’re up to just the same 😉
Nice. Though with that bassline and those tunings a they are closer to the later Sonic Youth albums and to Interpol, than to Bloc Party…
Here’s a larger band photo.
Mr. Cicatrix, she is lost to the both of us now, lost forever to the vast annonymity of the internet. Have a drink with me machang, it’s good arrack. (sobbing and drinking)
speaking of desi-related post-punk, check out m.i.a. covering the kaiser chiefs (link from stereogum)
Whoo hoo! Love Ronnie and the girl and boys!
Where arrack is concerned, you can’t go wrong with V.S.O.P.
I have discovered neat Barcardi Oro tastes quite similar, and Latin American women are just as good as Sri Lankan women. Home away from home.
why are y’all on the desi tip so much? who cares if its brown?
Cuz the point of this site is to blog about the brown. And it’s not like I wrote about the brown guy in SUM41, Raju.
I think controller.controller is great, and would like to see them gain a wider audience.
you don’t see the paradox from people complaining about tribalism and being on the desi tip? its just a different tribe now. not many of y’all would jump to read too many postings from a norweignwan american about the desi-diaspora. maybe one or two but more than that? doubt it. there’s almost no difference in what i was writing, other than i wrote more abstract
to the basic point; would you want to be told what you’re lived experience as a desi-diaspora person is by an expert who does not share your lived experience? would you want the terms of your community set up outside of what y’all know is your lived experience?
bc that was my point
point taken Raju
The whole post-punk, dance-punk scene is about as innovative as punk rock itself, which is to say not that much. I mean which band has accomplished anything worthwile after Fugazi, and Gang of Four ?
Susheela Raman
It isn’t disco but a fab mix of carnatic and jazz. Get seduced folks.
Music video of controller.controller’s “History” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vLAA9-260E
Wow, I am really late to this party. I wish I’d found this post earlier — like, A YEAR EARLIER — so I could have responded immediately. The response? I AM a fellow Sri Lankan! (I’m sure the “-ayake” suffix in my surname gave it away.) Raised on (forgive the spelling) paripu, rice and a whole lotta curry. Disappointing my family by not getting a proper job, not even in journalism, though redeeming myself somewhat by landing the Basnayake name in a couple of newspaper articles. Honestly, the childhood-in-Ottawa backstory is totally uncompelling, but the reason it never comes up in print is because no one ever asked…until now (or, er, September 2005).
The funniest part is that I actually linked my newly formed blog to this site just last month. (The specific Sepia Mutiny post and author were, shamefully, not given explicit credit. Sorry.)
You know, it never occurred to me to search for my own damned self on a site dedicated to brown people. (That kind of attitude is itself quite “brown”, no?) From now on, of course, I’ll be trolling every desi web page for the mere mention of my name. haha