Kashmir’s ‘Katalogue’ makes you feel nostalgic- but for what exactly, I ain’t sure.
By: Dhinoj Dings
Tags: Rock, Songs, Music, Review, Album

Representative image, Photo by Caio Silva on Unsplash

What makes a band an alternative rock band?

The answer-to some- is obvious: any rock music that takes a different sonic approach from mainstream rock music can be called alternative rock.

But that raises this question: Why not term anything that offers an alternative to mainstream rock as alternative rock? If we all agree on that, even hip hop could be termed as alt rock.

Rock music- by any definition of that term- is long past its heyday. However, that’s not to say that it’s legacy too is dead.

Far from it.

You can feel the rebellious spirit that birthed some of the finest rock songs in history in Billie Ellish’ singing, for instance. And the ideology of excess which addressed rock is followed in one form or the other by quite a few rappers in their lyrics and lifestyle.

Meanwhile, even as the legacy remains alive, the art form of rock itself has become something of a nostalgia act.

Kashmir is a rock-band, or rather an alternative rock band from Denmark.

Starting in 1991, they have produced quite a number of songs that fell in the ‘alternative’ category during the time of their creation.

‘Katalogue’ is a compilation album of the band. The album collects some of their finest songs from 1991 to 2011- the year the album was released.

Listening to it the other day, I couldn’t help but think how nostalgic it felt to be listening to the songs.

And not necessarily because I used to listen to their songs when I was younger.

I mean, I did use to listen to their songs back in the day. But the number of hours I spent with their music could be counted in the fingers of two pairs of hands.

No, I felt nostalgic because of the alternative-rock ethos of the songs.

The polished aesthetic which is in stark contrast to the ruggedness that is native to rock music, lyrics that often stray into emotional territory- more than rock music often does, an underlying sense of melancholy which mutates to gentle humor from time to time- these are hallmarks of alternative rock which are well present in the songs in ‘Katalog.’

And it all exuded a thoroughly nostalgic vibe.

Alt rock can be considered as a derived art form- something that grew through a channel that originated from but which veered away from classic rock.

Many of the aspects of alternative rock are aspects common across popular music of the moment- for instance, the inculcation of electronic instrumentation in ‘traditional’ music forms like folk and rock owes much to alternative rock.

In other words, despite Kasmhir’s status as a band that started before the millennium, it’s possible to enjoy ‘Katalog’- or at least, many songs in it- as contemporary.

Why then, is the need for nostalgia?

And yet, it is nostalgia that I felt while listening to these songs again. In other words, I longed for things that are contemporary. WTF?

Is it indicative of an alienation that I feel from the current world? Or is it symptomatic of something that we are all going through as a society? (It’s tempting to think this alienation is brought about by the presence of a certain virus that has entered our lives of late. But I have a feeling I would have felt nostalgic about the music even if I had listened to it before the bad C toppled our normal lives).

Or maybe, the nostalgia is for a future that’s just not here yet.

Maybe, it’s indicative of our collective desire for music to just innovate, to stop sounding like how it’s been sounding for ages.