I wasn’t expecting much when I hit play on philojain’s new track “Riff Raff.” Solo projects can go either way. But about three seconds in, my speakers started doing things I wasn’t prepared for, and I just kind of sat there.
Amit Jain is the whole operation here. Every instrument, every production decision, all him. And you can feel that in the music. There’s something about it that doesn’t sound like it was made by committee, no compromises, no one telling him to pull back on the low end. Because the low end on this thing is genuinely absurd. The sub bass isn’t decorating the track, it’s load bearing. My chest was doing things.
The guitars are where it gets interesting though. Jain clearly grew up on Pantera and Lamb of God and that comes through in the aggression, but there’s also this Pink Floyd thing happening underneath it all, like something sprawling and cinematic trying to push through the heavy. It doesn’t sound like any of those bands exactly. It just sounds like someone who listened to all of them and then did whatever he wanted.
The track keeps moving. Just when a riff settles into something comfortable, it shifts. Fast technical runs giving way to these slow, wide chords that feel genuinely crushing. No vocals to hold your hand through it either, which I respect. It either pulls you in on its own or it doesn’t.
You can take a listen here.
