Album Review: Ohm Bhandari - Expedition

Note: Rather than review each track individually here, I am reviewing the album as a whole, then providing a score. Since this is an instrumental concept album, I found it only appropriate.

One of the best things about being an independent music blogger is you get to talk about underrated highlights that you will never see on NME, Rolling Stone, or Pitchfork, just yet, at least. Just this year, I talked about Polaroid by Susan Darvishi, Himang's Young, Duo Liang's The Shaking Sword of the Martial World, and Bonander's Gone in the Wind. The sad thing is despite people reading my posts, not everyone listens to the songs. While I have seen the views rise for Duo Liang, Bonander and Himang, that might be due to the former having sung some mega-hit OSTs, and the latter two getting covered by larger publications. My review of Polaroid has around 200 views, yet the actual track is less than 50. Thus, I ask my readers, please check out the lesser-known songs, they are often better than the major releases.

I mention all this because I am now reviewing Ohm Bhandari's latest album. For those of you who haven't noticed, Ohm is actually an active participator in the K-Blogger community and can be found commenting on several sights, even here. Besides being a commenter, he is a great EDM artist, often releasing remixes and original tracks on his YouTube channel. If it is his eventual aim, I have little to no doubt he will eventually have some major production credits to claim, especially with an EDM revival underway.

The overall theme of Expedition is space exploration. In many ways, the vast space beyond our planet has always amazed humanity. From the ancient Romans imagining the planets as deities of specific characteristics, all the way to Star Trek. It is on this theme of discovery that Expedition finds its footholding.

The album opens slowly, with Expedition acting more as a teaser for what is to come. The first half of the track is slow and in a constant state of build. On the crunchy music here, Ohm comments 'It's reminiscent to the beginning of one's life, as if they are blossoming, as if they are about to go on a journey, an expedition'. The song soon replaces the build for icy synths and a euphoric soundscape of build. While it fails to climax in any meaningful way, the song is a great introduction to the album's world.

Atlantis, on the other hand, is when the album fully kicks into high gear. Inspired by WayV's Turn Back Time, the song pulls from a variety of genres, while staying unique. The crunchy bass blends well with the oriental electronic synths in the chorus for a varied package, and certainly one of the album standouts. More is crammed into this less-than-four-minutes track than is in full albums. Seeing each element unveil is a pure joy.

Afterwards, the album slows down for its next track, the lurching and towering Spacebound. A song likely intended to build the atmosphere more than anything else. If that is the aim, it succeeds greatly, while also acting as a palette cleanser before Euphoria.

While Spacebound is intended as a launch into space, Euphoria acts as the initial flight, a track with severe deep house elements. Groovy to the core, the song initially appears as a straight-up dance track, before pulling a surprising twist in the finale with its hardstyle inspired breakdown, accompanied by a massive jump in BPM. This one moment is arguably one of the album's most thrilling.

Building off the chaotic good that was Euphoria's ending, Devoid takes the chaos and instead channels it in a dark and mysterious way. Another album standout, Devoid explodes with a level of chaos and energy, while still leaving heavy room for atmosphere. Midway through, the song switches its instrumentation, while retaining the basic melody. This clever switch-up leads to a strong return back to the original instrumentation.

Of all the songs on the album, Abyss might be the least ambitious. However, it comes at a critical juncture, acting as a sort of stop-gap between the previous void arc, and the upcoming return tracks. It is clear that is the intention, and it largely succeeds, even if the instrumentation is somewhat overpowering.

The next track, Resurgence, almost feels like a sonic successor to some of the tracks of Ohm's 2020 album, Infinity. However, it conceptually works right within the frame of Expedition's sonic story. It knows exactly when to slow down and when to speed up. The glitchy instrumentation is particularly good.

The song is soon followed by Awaken, a mighty EDM track, and one of the most towering on the LP. From its gunshot production to its speedy racing instrumentation, it stands as perhaps the album's most powerful moment.

The next song, Haven, initially confused me, as it shares a title with a 2020 track by Ohm, but is a completely different song, truly. The glitchy EDM production is strong here, releasing in the absolute euphoria of the chorus, one of the strongest instrumental moments this year.

The final song is a remake of Against the Current's Legends Never Die, with EDM instrumentation. Normally, I am not a fan of EDM remixes, as they often end up losing the texture of the original. However, Expedition is an album driven by texture, and the remix ends up working really well. In many ways, this is more of a bonus track, rather than part of the main album. However, it includes in the tracklist, and thus will be counted.

Within the 10 track, Expedition manages to be a strong concept album on a venture into space. On the day of its release, Coldplay released Music of the Spheres, a concept album with largely the same theme. However, while significantly less known, I believe Ohm's album trumps Coldplay's in every way, with a level of futuristic ambition driven by house and EDM instrumentation galore. Expedition clearly triumphs over Ohm's previous album, and I am curious to see where he will go next.

Rating: 9/10

Image Source: YouTube (Ohm Bhandari's Channel)