As a cover artist, Prabir Mehta is one of RVA’s great shapeshifters, delivering guitar-driven, full-throated tributes to Tom Petty, the Who, the Beatles and R.E.M. The melodic richness and conceptual focus of those classic rock heroes informs his solo work, which is thoroughly interwoven with his Gujarati/Northwest Indian heritage. Arguably, after the inevitable dead ends of modernism, the most interesting art has come from the intersection of cultures. Prabir makes the space between cultures seem both familiar and fun.
In keeping with his models, the Prabir Trio’s new album feels conceptually unified; half the songs name-drop locations. It starts with a diptych of a traditionally-infused, vaguely psychedelic “Om” flowing easily into “Sabarmati River.” (Starting with a folky Indian intro is an approach that repeats two more times on the album.) “I Will Be There” is built around a chiming raga-like guitar riff over a driving rhythm and lyrics with a spiritual recast of the rambling man motif. “You Can’t Drink in Ahmedabad” is an autobiographical party song about a dry city. “Viramgam” rocks out about a backward city.
“Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva” invokes the Hindu trinity to kick off, sustain, and end a party. “Rishikesh,” named after a city on the holy Ganges river, is at once bittersweet and triumphant, massive and reflective. “Anyway You Want Me” is as close as the album comes to a conventional love song, which is, frankly, not all that close. Everything gets swept up in the big sound. “Prayer Song” ends with blessings and optimism and waking up to love.
It all sweeps by in headlong rock-and-roll, kept fresh by an admixture of South Asian melodic touches. The pacing is that of a stage performer who knows how to keep an audience’s attention. The quiet moments are brief glimpses into less intense possibilities.
There is nothing quite as heartfelt as “Slowly” from Prabir’s 2021 “Haanji.” The titular “Empire” is presumably the British Raj, at once a vanished, exploitative colonial order and the force that unified diverse, polyglot India into a political entity. There are often dark gaps within cultures as well as between them. Prabir does not overanalyze the fissures, he just wants to throw a bright party in the unfamiliar shadows.
