Contemplative music!
Sunday Driver are a true musical kaleidoscope infusing Folk, Indie with Eastern influence. Coming out of both Cambridge and London this six-piece look to unleash something a little bit different onto the world.
Here we have a double a-side single of 'Rats/The Gayatri Mantra'. The first song, ‘Rats’ is a lovely Indie/Folk song with plucked guitars a little like that used by The Flobots in their huge selling single. Singer Chandrika Nath has an enchanting vocal range that is at home belting out notes as well as being soft and haunting. This is a nice catchy song whereby the band liken themselves to the rodents and mice scurrying around the city.
Now on the second single, ‘The Gayatri Mantra’ you can tell from the off that it has heavy Eastern influence by the instruments that are played making the likes of Kula Shaker sound like true charlatans. The Gayatri Mantra is in fact ‘the greatest of all mantras’, named after the mother of Vedas from Hinduism, and apparently inspires wisdom. These are all things that you feel like contemplating whilst you listen to the chanting vocals and sitar wash over you, and you cannot help but feel like you are slipping into a trance.
Eastern influenced as coming into the mainstream with great speed and this is a perfect example of how that gap between Eastern and Western music can be bridged.