Dualist Inquiry – Natural Disasters EP

Producer, composer, guitarist and one of the country’s most popular electronica artists, Sahej Bakshi, also known as Dualist Inquiry, releases a brand new EP this month, titled Natural Disasters. A four-track record, Natural Disasters is, by his own admission, an EP that focuses a great deal more on songwriting than his previous releases, with songs that connect with the listener on an emotional level. Dualist Inquiry released his debut full-length record, Doppelganger, last year to massive acclaim and has since been touring relentlessly. Earlier this year, he released the hugely successful single and video, Lumina, as well as a compilation album, Subterra, comprising music by some of the most cutting-edge electronica artists in the country, on his record label, Dualism Records.

With Natural Disasters, Dualist Inquiry continues to push the boundaries of electronica today, with tracks that range from melancholic to uptempo to straight-up bass heavy. The EP opener, ‘Departure‘, for instance, is percussive, nostalgic and gentle, but is followed by ‘Landslide‘, a bouncy, groovy track, replete with vocal hooks – a progression that, on the EP, is natural and effortless. ‘Come On‘, the first release off the EP, follows, and is bluesy, influenced by garage rock, but injected with a healthy dose of electro. ‘Aftermath‘ works as the perfect EP closer, with the heaviest bassline and sound of all the songs on the album. According to Sahej, all the tracks on Natural Disasters were composed using a barebones, back-to-the-basics approach, involving just an acoustic guitar and very little electronic equipment to start with. The new material retains his contemporary sound while introducing the classic element of songwriting, resulting in what Sahej refers to as a highly emotive collection of songs.

The artwork for Natural Disasters has once again been done by the US-based artist Harikrishnan Panicker, who is also responsible for the incredible artwork for both Doppelganger and Subterra. Meanwhile, here’s what Sahej had to say about the EP.

After Doppelganger, I had said everything I wanted to say at the time, and there was a period of a few months where I didn’t make any music. The album was received very positively and it was a sound that people started to recognise me by, so, moving forward after that was the hard part. But Natural Disasters is now the next phase for me after Doppelganger, and with this EP, I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I finished the EP earlier this year, so it’s current and it speaks of that point of time. Natural Disasters connects with the listener emotionally, is songwriting centric and contains songs rather than tracks, or tracks that are club bangers.

 
Natural Disasters will be available for free download on the 8^th of September, followed by a multi-city tour with gigs in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bangalore.

You can now download the entire EP here or check out the previews below!