All aboard!

At 22, Yogeendra Hariprasad aka Yogi has probably put himself through more transitions than one can imagine. From winning Zee Kannada’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs sixth season to starting three of his own projects —The Yummy Lab, Space Is All We Have and Pineapple Express — to being a go-to sound engineer for prog bands, Yogi clearly has an eye on the long-term.

Patient and meticulous, Pineapple Express went from a band in 2013 to a trio in 2016 to an eight-member group that’s just released their debut EP Uplift. Understandably, It’s not easy to fit in all those years of experience and sonic direction into four songs, but Pineapple Express show off their diverse best on Uplift. Sure, when you see eight members on stage, it’s sometimes tough to picture these songs — delightfully complex in their blend of Carnatic, progressive metal, rock and electronic — requiring that many people in execution.

Guided by equally able bandmates, Yogi has fretplay from guitarists Bhargav Sarma and Ritwik Bhattacharya, flute by Arjun MPN, violinist Shravan Sridhar, powerhouse drum work from Gopi Shravan and vocalists Karthik C Rao and Jimmy F John. ‘Cloud 8.9’ acts like an ingress to the vibrant world of Pineapple Express, with their love for Carnatic rhythmic patterns matching the prog sound. ‘Dissolve’ aims to be an anthem, channelling the likes of happy prog/math rock bands like Chon. ‘The Mad Song’ is clearly crafted as a crowd-pleaser, the Kannada hook followed by an incredulous question about madness that jumps from bright riffs to a brutal breakdown and then to an incalculable duel of rhythm. But Pineapple Express prefer not to pack it all in, running into slightly repetitive territory by stretching it to six minutes, jazz/swing section and all.

The likes of Dream Theater, Plini and Periphery are inescapable influences for the band, as they rack up the polyrhythms on the closing track, which is all kinds of cinematic. As far as prog, fusion and even Kannada music goes, Pineapple Express are taking all these genres in new directions.

Get the EP on pineappleexpressmusic.bandcamp.com