Khepa Lalon Band

The Bengali word 'khepa' is layered, but at its core it means scatterbrained, eccentric to the point of being mad. But in the goosebumps-inducing song 'Khepa', Bangladeshi Lalon Band drives home how 'mad' the idea of seeking things and wanting to belong is.

Nigar Sultana Sumi's raw vocals is part-gospel, part-folk, with dollops of heavy rock riffs amplifying her voice. 'Khepa re, keno khujish mon-er manush, bole shorbodai khepa re'-''Hey crazy, why do you search for your person,' says the crazy all the time.'

From the 2009 album of the same name, like Lalon Band's other tracks, 'Khepa' is drenched in the mystical-troubadour philosophy of bauls, especially 19th c. poet-singer Lalon Shah. From the very first few bars, the song doesn't just begin, it awakens. Trance-like and driven, it's a call to look through all the miasma and feel the lightness of life. 'Apni guru, apni chela'-You're the guru, you're the disciple,' Sumi sings, while the guitar stitches before the cymbals come crashing.


'Khepa' is an invocation to get things right. And to see what being mad really is: being an utterly free agent.