MUMBAI: In 2013, Kamal Singh formed a punk rock band in his Bengaluru home, heavily influenced with the pop culture and called it something that translates to ‘asshole’ in Manipuri – Hoirong. The band grew into a four-piece outfit, and while the members increased, the album names became shorter. The Delhi-based band released its third full-length album on 26 May, titled ‘Mwah’.

The album stretches beyond forty minutes and does not, at any point, fails to justify Hoirong’s sound. Mwah features ingredients essential for an almost-ideal punk rock effort. On the album – that took over a year for the production – Singh said, “The album has fourteen tracks. And unlike, other genres or albums, Mwah tracks are limited to four minutes or so. That helps in not letting the entire album sound long or boring.” Well, with the dearth of genuine punk rock acts, no one would complain even if the album duration was longer.

The band performed its first (and by the looks of it, the only) album promoting gig last night, and Singh explains the experience of expressing these songs for the live audience emerged satisfactory, just the way the band had imagined. Lyrically, the album comprises of songs (read: ‘Puke’) that talk about real-life incidents and compositions (read: ‘Saraswastika’) that convey contradictions.

Sonically, ‘Mwah’ has what it takes to be this calendar year’s finest album so far, and the band has a couple of important people to thank for. “Skyharbor’s Keshav Dhar handled the editing for Akshat’s (the drummer) work, while Viraj Mohan(Another Vertigo Rush’s guitarist) carried the mixing and mastering responsibilities. “

The album was released on the band’s official bandcamp page, and Singh hopes to find a right medium and platform that would promote the album through the tradition album launch tour.

Hoirong is -
Akhil - Guitar
Kamal - Guitar, Vocals
Samar - Guitar, Vocals
Akshat - Drum

Listen to the album here -