Eerie, Eerier, Eeriest

Ningombam Captain *

Cover of 'Ei Amasoong Yum'

Ei Amasoong Yum
Artist: Noong Paan
Genre: Spoken word
Length: 12 mins 25 secs
Release date: 2nd December, 2018
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Assuming that there is no food in the mouth, I beg the reader to try reading aloud the sentences below blandly, happily and surprisingly in a respective way:

There are poems.
There are songs.
Then there are poetry which are songs.

What you just did, according to linguistics, is an intonation displaying a variable prosodic system. Any change in the tone, pitch-range, loudness, tempo etc. in human speech is a change in the prosodic system. Further, intonations are the variations in spoken pitch, which, is used to signal the attitude and emotions of the speaker; and is the main ingredient of a Noong-Paan song. Noong-Paan, translate to "Within-Without" is a supergroup (since there's no such thing as a "superduo") formed in 2017, by the vocalist of Atingkok and a guitarist of The Koi.

I was at this book fair in DM University some months ago. There, Noong-Paan was to perform in a free gig. I haven't heard any of their songs before but I succumbed to not to attend the gig when a trusted friend of mine told me that they were just like Atingkok but with only two members. Thus, we went home. I did trust that friend of mine but still I looked up to SoundCloud.

Indeed, their music bears striking resemblances to that of Atingkok, owing to the use of nylon guitars and the spoken word style. Once these superficial similarities are overlooked, Noong-Paan and Atingkok becomes two entirely different bodies that do not "share a neck".

Noong-Paan do not possess the rhythmic intonations and the folk attributes that Atingkok boast of; moreover, the lyrics of the former is eerier than the latter. In fact, Noong-Paan is not a folk band at all. So, the listener is advised not to count the two aforementioned bands as analogous to Oasis and Beady Eye. Just in case if you're wondering, I still trust that friend of mine.

Their debut EP Ei Amasoong Yoom is, I'm not overstating, their potential magnum opus. I've never heard anything like this from a local band before, that is so "hair-raisingly" original and too much unadulterated to withstand. They play jazz chords and recite poems but it is not jazz poetry, they use guitar harmonics and it does not sound sweet but eerily spectral, they sing about love but it sounds like interpreting a work of Salvador Dali.

Even if you are already acquainted with spoken word, having favourites like "Parklife" by Blur or "The Revolution Will Not be Televised" by Gil Scott-Heron, you will still need to awaken some sleeping area in your cognition that can make you feel threatened, funny, erotic, and existential at the same time, in order to enjoy Noong-Paan's music.

Taothaminari Singnang Oina Khutsamnaduna is the first and the longest track in the EP.

Lyrics translation:
Myriad coloured butterflies emerge
My shirt in tatters disappears
Among shards, remnants of my image in pieces
Rummaging shadows in this terribly dark room
Scintillating eyes of a black cat beckons
Floating as though intertwined weeds

The guitar riff is contemplative and the player seems to be tired and reflective. Over the sudden turns in minor chords, the pinch harmonics float over like intertwined weeds. The narrative however, is active and the vocal timbre sounds emotionally void. The poem paints a gothic imagery in the mind, in which the presence of a black cat intensifies the larger picture.

The titular track, Ei Amasoong Yoom, is the second song; and if I ever get the chance to rename it as an English song, I would rather call it "The Unorthodox Waltz of the Creaking House and the Remaining I". Well, it's just a fantasy. Coming back, the song/poem is about loss and obsession. The opening riff sounds like a slow Waltz music, which prevails throughout; over which the chromatic plucking drizzles over.

The song changes its course in the midway when a line is sung in a different octave. Then comes the most interesting part of the song and the EP itself - the way how the line "Mitkoop tuda nangna chatkhi thadoktuna ei amasoong yoom" is sung rapidly in a faster tempo, hence a variation in the prosodic system (refer to 1st para). This part hints to a fatal obsession over a person who has left. The sudden cue of the backing vocals depicts the disturbed mind of the protagonist.

Leisinduna Matum Khudinggi is the darkest song in the EP, and gives a picturesque surrounding filled with an eerie supernatural atmosphere - the perception of a day that I've encountered as a child on a Lamtaa Thangja Numit. Scenes are described in the eeriest manner possible. The song explores a sinister and spine-chilling aspect in the mundane everyday happenings like the children playing with plucked flowers. "Plucked dead flowers" suits more. The lyrics feature the onomatopoeic sound of a whirlwind as "Huruhuru huru huruhuru huru", and this further makes the song eerier.

Eigi Mitse Nanggini, Nanggi Namituna Eigini is the strangest love song I've ever heard. This poem is bizarrely humorous. The way how the metaphor of "love" is put as a pulpy solid object bearing a retractable skin is idiosyncratic and unconventionally funny. This track fills the gap of an atmosphere change that is substantial in the EP.

Leichil Ningsing Khudam is the most surrealist and the eeriest poem in the EP. The depicted imagery in the words are reminiscent of a scary absurdist video like that of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun". The spectral keyboard riff is the soul of this song. The way how the emotionless vocals narrate unusual scenes over the keyboard is beautiful and creepy at the same time.

After the end of this song, you will get the true art of the EP. You will realize, at the very end, that the poems are not songs, the guitar sounds are not music nor the lyrics, a poem. You will find that the EP is a program or a raw artistic algorithm that paints a surrealist artwork in our minds unbeknownst to our consciousness. Isn't this the eeriest thing ever?

Personnel:
Pa Thawan - vocals, rhythm guitar
Nongpok Arambam - lead guitar, MIDI keyboard