Only Now - Timeslave III

A Closer Listen

Only Now aka Kush Arora may be billed as an Indo-Californian producer, but that doesn’t tell the artist’s full story.  The primary draw is the modernization of traditional sounds, especially Hindustani percussion; but Timeslave III‘s guest stars help make the release an international event.

There’s also more to Only Now than percussion, but one wouldn’t know it from the opening three tracks, who tumble so quickly after each other that they can be experienced as an extended piece.  “Power I” fuses electronics and drums in industrial fashion, gunshot percussion and Bhangra beats joined by aggressive synth and chopped cries.  The breakdown seems traditional, but stutters like a tape loop.  “Only Now – Jaijiu Rebel City” contains speaker-wandering beats and an intense depth of field, while “Compromised Parasites” sounds like a horse clomp and air raid siren rolled into a single stormer.

It would be hard to maintain this pace throughout an entire album, and Only Now relents in the fourth track.  Even so, “Rivers of Despair” arrives as a surprise, dark and stormy, with samples that weave into the mix like hauntology.  Percussion is nowhere to be heard; instead a cold wind blows through the late minutes, followed by a subterranean rumble.  Consider this a premonition; even as “Merciless III” returns to the club, showcasing the relentless percussion of Dave Sharma, one senses that at any moment the timbre may shift.

“Eyes White, Vision Inside” is the first of the album’s three longest tracks, and switches the plot yet again.  A nine-minute drone piece, heavy on feedback and distortion, the track buries its melodies and dares them to dig their way out, which they do slowly and surely.  Seeing the title “Fires, Bodies Part II,” we went looking for Part I and found it on Unclassical Volume I; the full title of that piece is “Fires, Bodies, Slow Burn, No Wood (feat. Shelia Binghi).”  The new segment is far darker, despite its ambient melody; late in the piece things fall apart, and one senses the fire.

“Beyond Repair” builds from this debris, adding a steady pulse to a persistent drone.  The nearly twelve-minute closer, “Merciless Destiny IV,” pairs Only Now with Shubho S. Sharma, and embeds all sides of the artist, from ceremonial bells to dark ambience to a wildly percussive dance track buried in the middle of the mix (4:11-6:30).  It’s clear that the artist cannot be pigeonholed.  The cover, titles and timbre hint at even darker realities, while allowing listeners to make their own associations; suffice it to say that the world has grown darker, while the sparks of resistance yet remain.  (Richard Allen)