Friday 13 January 2012

Parichay - Human Machine


Parichay, the Canadian singer who gave away his album All New Everything as a free download after Christmas, has released a video for Human Machine. This song opens the new album and it’s a nice energetic song. It deserves a separate release and I’m pleased Parichay made a video for it. The song is catchy and has a good beat. I like the way the different elements of the track have been put together and the production makes it sound great.

The video is set in a club with lights so bright that Parichay was forced to keep his sunglasses on. Apart from Parichay and his dancers, the place is empty. There is no drinking and no flashy cars like in the video for Queen of Spades. Thankfully there is also no smoking involved like in the other videos that Parichay has made. The scenes are well edited with fancy effects and Parichay models a new outfit in each one.

The dancers are standard for a song that talks about making a man go insane. They forgot to put on skirts and some of the moves are racy, but considering that the lyrics are about winding up booty everything is relatively PG. The women should have taught Parichay some of their moves as there are times when he doesn’t know what do by himself on the multicoloured light up dance floor. 

I’d heard the song but it was only until I saw this video that I thought about the lyrics. “Beat it like a human machine” is obviously a metaphor for something with an 18+ rating. But it is a metaphor that doesn’t make sense. Taken literally, a “human machine” is impossible. A person can work or act like a machine, but a human cannot be a machine in physiological terms. In a literary sense, there is no visual imagery. I even asked Parichay on Twitter what it meant to see if there was any meaning behind it e.g. on seeing the woman his thoughts and actions become base and mechanical like a machine so he can get the girl. But apparently there is no deep meaning behind the lyrics.

I like lyrics to make sense, especially when they form the chorus and the title of the song. Parichay should be given credit for writing lyrics that are different and interesting enough to make people stop and think before they sing along. The lyrics in the rest of the song are great. The languages that Parichay sings in all have wonderful expressions which he could have used. But he invented his own, which for me didn’t quite work.

Overall this video is one of the better bhangra videos currently around. It does not turn boring after a few viewings thanks to flashy lights and slick effects. More conservative relatives might raise an eyebrow at the dancers, but hopefully they won’t ask what “beating it like a human machine” involves.

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