Manipur’s Lo! Peninsula bring shoegazing and rage to Bengaluru

In the last three and a half years that Manipur has seen conflict and tension, musician Nitin Shamurailatpam from shoegaze and psychedelic rock band Lo! Peninsula feels there has been a “gradual erosion of empathy, truth and beauty of everyday existence” for ordinary people.

This is something they address with their latest single ‘Song For The Undead’, which comes about eight years after their 2018 debut EP Lo Peninsula and after singles such as ‘Kintsugi’, ‘Battleships’ and more. Nitin wryly mentions that Manipur has officially seen at least 523 days of bandhs, shutdowns and economic blockades, with more than half of that period also involving internet suspensions.

“With transport, businesses, communication, and everyday activities disrupted for that long, on top of constant power outages, I leave it to your imagination to figure out what it could be like trying to function as an individual with responsibilities,” he says.