The years of the lockdown may have become a distant memory at this point, given how much music is thriving from our systems and stages alike in the city. True to its nature, some of the best releases this year still carried the wisdom and learnings from the pandemic about life and the nature of the world around us. Here are just some of our favorites from city-based musicians.
Brodha V – ‘Basti Bounce’
One of Indian hip-hop’s favourites, Brodha V does not miss on ‘Basti Bounce,’ which served up another distinctive reminder of the rapper’s roots and his place in this fast-evolving scene. It helps that it came with a funny music video featuring his friends in JordIndian and a returning cameo from Aishwarya Suresh Bindra. It is a sort of spiritual successor to Brodha V’s equally playful song ‘Vainko’, sort of creating a Brodha-verse, if you will.
Sharath Narayan – ‘Anthinilavin’
While rock band Black Letters had their own world-wise song ‘Simpler Times’ come out this year, their vocalist-guitarist and producer Sharath Narayan took a step into a new solo dominion with songs in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi. Among the most notable remained the January release ‘Anthinilavin’ for its funky guitars, bright electronic elements and sublime vocals.
Aditi Ramesh – ‘Filter Coffee’
Aditi Ramesh started off the year with a song that plays to her strengths as an artist who strives to make timeless music. ‘Filter Coffee’ with his buoyant, dance floor-friendly sound was a way for Ramesh to revel in the joys of filter coffee, a beverage that perhaps signifies comfort and familiarity to her, as it would for many of us. Along with that, comes the advise of how to live in the moment, something that was reinforced after the lockdowns.
Hanumankind, Parimal Shais – ‘Go To Sleep’
Ask us about the cannot-fail rapper-producer pairing in Indian hip-hop and we will point to Hanumankind and Parimal Shais right away. While that is not to say that they have not put out hits on their own or with other artists, ‘Go To Sleep’ is one of their best works yet. A gritty yet vulnerable song where Hanumankind lays out all his troubles, Shais adds an infectious South Indian folk-sampled hook to make it stick.
Abhi Tambe – Portal Waiting EP
Singer-songwriter Abhi Tambe’s Portal Waiting EP was performed across the city as a new, theatrical form of storytelling from the artist, which was part Sci-Fi and almost ethno-musical in its intent. With a couple of music videos for the rock riff-charged ‘All Aboard’ (that was all cyberpunk) and ‘Adoria’ (which was nostalgic about his journey from days in the rock band Lounge Piranha to country-wide solo tours), Portal Waiting became something that people could experience attached to a narrative as well as independent of it.
RANJ x Clifr – Antihero EP
Even if their song ‘Attached’ is still making its presence felt in Indian independent music, RANJ aka Ranjani Ramadoss and Clifr aka Clipher Christopher have their feet planted in a more genre-agnostic space, as their EP Antihero shows us. There’s quickfire rap in the way that few others can pull off, house-meets-hip hop sonic treatments and more to cement the duo’s place as creative forces out to break boundaries.
Inner Sanctum – ‘The Face of Evil’
In a transition like never before, metal band Inner Sanctum and their vocalist Gaurav Basu parted ways and marked it with the release of their final song together, ‘The Face of Evil’. Basu — who is also an illustrator and graphic design artist under the name Acid Toad — runs riot on this charged up song that warns of the gradual takeover and seemingly unstoppable grasp of divisive forces.
Rainburn – Vignettes
Working as a trio now, progressive rock band Rainburn took listeners through all their gripes, saving graces and intolerances about the world as they saw it on their album Vignettes. Sonically, there was a more modern prog and metal edge to their sound, along with always-relevant stories about pop culture, authority figures and more.
The Pulse Theory – Coming Back Home
There wasn’t a dearth of good prog from the city and The Pulse Theory’s album Coming Back Home was clearly a labour of love. Traversing different styles and eras of progressive rock and metal — from Dream Theater-inspired passages to djent riffs and breakdowns — Coming Back Home had it all, to delight any fan of progressive rock.
Bryden & Parth – Chameleon World
The duo of guitarist, vocalist, songwriter Bryden Lewis and flautist-composer Parth Chandiramani have been — and continue to — be the country’s favorite band for private gigs, due to their creative take on film songs and international hits. But when they released their independent album Chameleon World, they brought things back to their love of independent music that’s only governed by their own hearts and mind. The result was sublime fusion, groovy rock, heartfelt folk stories and more.
Natauku – ‘11 Days’
If Indian singer-songwriters — and those aspiring to be artists — have proved anything over the years, it’s that you can say a lot with just the strum of the ukulele. Natauku aka Natasha Caroll has the instrument in her roots (and in her artist moniker) and she delights on ’11 Days’, a soulful and satirical takedown of tech-obsessed times.
Huyana – Anxious Attachments
Although now based in the Netherlands, singer-songwriter Huyana aka Varshita Ramesh’s debut EP Anxious Attachments is an outcome of her times living in Bengaluru. Working with artists like keyboardist-producer Derek Mathias, the EP was all soul, R&B and pop fed through some grandiose arrangements as well as relatable stories of relationships.
Tanya Shanker – What Lies Beneath
Teenaged singer-songwriter Tanya Shanker — working with her mentor, producer Richard Andrew Dudley — created a snapshot of times growing up and the observations of the world around her on her second album What Lies Beneath. Through powerhouse R&B, pop and even a bit of hip-hop, there are songs like ‘Soft Boi’ which give us more nuance to Gen Z narratives than we might know.