Champak’s Sleeper Hit Debut Album Is Equal Parts Goofy, Poignant, & Delerious

Champak is a multi-city bedroom pop and alternative rock outfit formed by four friends messing around with a toy keyboard, two guitars, drumsticks, and cups of tea around a table. And if you listen to their debut album even halfway through, you’re gonna wish you were that table. The band consists of four members. First, there's Shoumik Biswas, who brings his experimental pop dreams and melodic surprises into the band’s sound. Aditya, who is the glue, takes care of percussion, foley, synths, and vocal harmonies. Aman holds down the bass and the band's collective sanity and Lakshman’s shoegaze-tinged guitars and audio engineering introduce what the band describes as ‘controlled chaos’ into the mix. ‘A1,’ their seven-track record, out via Misfits. Inc, was put together across home studios over six months.

The album opens with a creaking door and footsteps before dropping into ‘Tempest’, a track built around the desperation of escaping relentless depressive news cycles. ‘Hydrogen’ lingers in the fog of sleeplessness with the refrain “The bags under my eyes / They float like hydrogen”, while ‘Daarkaak’ turns into a Bengali alt-rock fever dream filled with giant ravens and blind monsters. ‘Love Is Blind’ captures the impulsive rush of wanting to “hold hands and walk into the ocean”, before ‘Feed The Clown’, an anthemic track questioning the monotony of the working week through lines like “Tuesday, do we dare? / Friday, We don’t care”. ‘1,2,3,4…’ is described as a cheeky outtake and an accurate insight into the minds of Champak, with the record eventually closing with ‘Until I Find Grace’, a ballad centred around perseverance.

‘A1’ moves through drifting exhaustion, strange dream imagery, romance, boredom, and humour, with the warm, luscious melodies of pop that would certainly make for an enriching live performance. Across the album, the artists call upon the spirits of many subgenres that we love for what they do to us. Their approach to rock has echoes of psychedelia, if existential dread were friendlier and more ironic. There’s the optimism of stomp-clap-hey from the indie-folk of the early 2010s, the angst of indie sleaze, some cool electronica that’s made up of pink summer sunsets, and trip hop all wrapped up by some impressive production. With enough charm and soul to fill up a room, Champak’s debut album is the musical version of the goofy, oddball at the party who doesn’t take himself seriously, but turns out to be a gem of a human when you speak to him. 

Follow Champak here and listen to the album below:

If you enjoyed reading this, here's more from Homegrown:

khokkosh.’s ‘freeuse .org’ Is A Disturbingly Tender Meditation On The Body & Desire

“I’m The Whole Package”: Pop Musician Sarah Black Talks To Us About Her Hunger For More

We Spoke To 4 Homegrown Artists About The Resurgence Of 'DAWless' Electronic Music