Something boldly different, by design, intention, timeframe and temperament alike – an avant-garde album noting over 200 original works, and an artistic style grounded by creativity, but otherwise bravely elevated by a fearless sense of eclecticism and refusal to adhere to expectations.
Meh is a raw and atmospheric collection of live musical compositions, an echoing realm of pure human emotion, melody, rhythm, and imagination, and Biba گ ЖФ is an artist devotedly unconfined by industry rules.
Presenting a multi-cultural realism that extends from the Cyrillic and Urdu script letters of their artist name right through to the freedom and authenticity of the instrumental choices and compositional directions, Biba گ ЖФ notes a background of extensive travel, cultural diversity, and an inherent fascination with symbolism. Music runs through their heritage, with singers, violinists, guitarists and front persons scattered throughout their direct family history, and with the rhythmic echo of church drums first igniting a passion for volume and power, the journey since has been eclectic, playful, and always passionate.
“Perhaps ‘Meh’ is a subconscious revolt against the perfect polish and saccharine gleam of modern mainstream pop, a personal vendetta against the non-offensive, tediously formulaic, play-in-the-background-while-the-co-worker-yaps #1 billboard charting pop songs…” – Biba گ ЖФ
To introduce the project, A Song For Her features lashings of live reverb – a church-style setting, within which acoustically finger-picked guitar and distantly whispered vocal melodies meander with a kind of adlib essence or dreamlike fluidity.
We’re somewhere amidst the likes of acoustic folk, only it feels as if we’re listening through the hallways, just aside from the centre of a quiet, perhaps private performance.
Elsewhere the acoustic guitar and reverb continue to guide us, while a strum, some optimism, a mildly hopeful glow, lets songs like Promethus Awakes feel warming, energetic, and unfiltered, in delivering an imperfect vocal of gentle passion, and a cool, stylish set of riffs and acoustic guitar rhythms that are cheerfully distinct.
Then for Invictatorium Galactica, organ keys or synths present a melancholic, aptly other-worldly arena of ambiance, and something like modest healing frequencies that feel perfectly evocative and soothing in their meditative journey.
It’s here the true diversity of Meh begins to show, and further still, as we move into the confronting fun and freely unedited guitar patterns and expressions of What Is Music? – an instrumental folk jam that’s playful, and instantly a personal favourite.
Also worth experiencing are the likes of an upbeat and colourful, even comical, Billabong (Ode to Steve Irwin), and the contrastingly rock-guitar distorted and chaotic tones and intentions of Stalingrad. A touch of rap lights up a whole new side of Meh for this one, but it’s only a part of a multitude of moments that are impossible to predict, and which consistently provide evidence of an artist truly immersed in and engaged with the process of playing, creating, and expressing through music.
Check out the full album on Bandcamp. Find Biba گ ЖФ on Instagram, TikTok, Substack, YouTube.
