Music Review // Aman Jagwani "Now (feat Anubha Kaul)"

https://open.spotify.com/album/3oDPTd9IzJ3PnNCeoGclRE?highlight=spotify:track:0mHYvqarZ589XgD64xAJ9t

While this song is composed by Aman Jagwani, it can sound more like a group effort- like that of a band perhaps- than it does of just a solo artist.   Aman Jagwani is responsible for the creation of the song in the sense of composing, arranging and even the lyrics, but then also the drums and synth bass as far as what you're actually hearing.  Anubha Kaul is responsible for the vocals- with help from Ron Cha- and then Jonathan Huber has the synth/keys while Pritesh Walia comes in on guitar.  In many ways, this looks like a group of established musicians getting together to kind of freestyle and that isn't that far from the truth either as this does have that all-star sound about it.

As this song starts you can hear synth.  I feel like that means we're going to go into this genre of electronic dance, which for some time we kind of do.   As the song goes on though, it takes us across nearly seven minutes of music and so to think that this is just a direct electronic song the whole time would be incorrect.   At times, this one just breaks down and feels like it's going into jazz in the way that you sometimes hear free jazz.  I know that this one was all composed in advance but it could be the result as well of talented musicians just getting together and doing their thing.

If you follow the world of music through an improvisational sense you'll see often times a lot of the same names but they tend to come up as just a group of names creating a sound rather than the collective having one name.   This song really reminds me of something like that and in that way it can bring to mind almost right away an artist such as Amirtha Kidambi, who is just so great and part of just such great things.  But there is also this pop concept on the surface of this music which reminds me a bit more of someone like Nelly Furtado.  So if you can find the space between them then that is perhaps where this song is.

Being nearly seven minutes in length makes this song feel more like a mini-album than what you might hear on the radio.   I like the idea that- in my mind- Aman Jagwani had this idea and knew which parts to create and which parts to ask others to create to form this whole experience.   Throughout, you won't find yourself bored though because this is a musical journey through style and sound.  When you think you've figured it out, they switch it up and show off a different layer.  Perhaps for only the true music enthusiasts and not the masses, this song is among my most played now because of the variations.