The month of August saw an enormous number of releases in the indie music sphere, with some exceptional albums and singles making their way on to streaming platforms. The music is evolving, production is improving and some are even managing to touch raw nerves with audiences.
Read on to find out more:
Eventide – Anoushka Maskey X Cosmic Grooves
Mumbai-based artists Anoushka Maskey and Pranay Bakshi (Cosmic Grooves) are a musical pair to watch out for. While Maskey is the songwriter with a natural ease for owning songs, Bakshi is the musical brain who takes her acoustic sonic drafts and turns them into top-notch, intelligently produced songs. In their latest offering ‘Eventide’, which takes on the topic of stasis and how that holds people back from achieving their full potential, the listener will find new angles in the simple soundscape of guitars, bass and drums. And with Maskey’s beautiful voice, the song totally commands the space as much as it endears itself to people who can relate.
Girgiti – Borno Anonyo
The best part about music is its fluidity and how it can mould itself into required forms, subject to the person who is making that happen. Kolkata-based urban folk act Borno Anonyo seems to have mastered that art, as evident by their latest single ‘Girgiti’. Translating to chameleon, it takes a love song and a song of alienation and fuses them in a way that it is untraceable. Even the music is like that – borrowing from traditional Bengali folk as well Western rock musical elements. Then in comes a violin, which sounds like something from a medieval European orchestra while the band addresses feelings of loneliness through anguished cries in Bengali. Undoubtedly, it is one of the most interesting compositions ever made – and a must listen.
Shantanu Pandit – Milk Teeth
The Delhi-based singer-songwriter made his fans wait seven years for a follow-up to his debut EP ‘Skunk in the Cellar’. And what a follow up he has made with ‘Milk Teeth’. He’s the 21st century singer-songwriter who grapples with existential crises, growing up, betrayal, love and even morbidity. On a larger canvas, the myriad topics he puts music to can be a larger picture of the confused, chaotic world we inhabit today with half-understood feelings. So, when listeners allows Pandit that time and their ears, they will find themselves in their own story – the bonus being some beautiful piano or guitar work to guide them through the cluttered maze of a musical masterpiece.
Chirag Todi – Panodrama
Ahmedabad-based guitarist Chirag Todi maybe a young bloke on the indie scene, but his chops sure make him seem like an old hand. The funk jazz EP ‘Panodrama’, which boasts of impressive collaborators like guitarist Warren Mendonsa and singer Shreya Bhattacharya, is a record that has surely gotten Todi’s banner waving high. Incredibly talented, he doesn’t just play the guitar, but understands how the music flows – he knows what to put where, thereby enhancing his EP by using the right ingredients in their proportionate amounts. Add to that a musical curiosity to blur the lines a little bit, which adds an edge to his songs, making them stand out from the usual crop.
Almeeshaan – Zeeshan Nabi
The Srinagar-based frontman of rock band Ramooz is really scratching at the edges of experimentation with this unnerving song that came out of a continuous stream of consciousness. Zeeshan Nabi wrote a song in one go and it came pouring out of his heart. And he touched upon a subject a lot of musicians face but few care to comment, even less, write about. Over anguished cries and impassioned guitar strums, Nabi questions what is the cost of losing one’s creativity and artistic freedom in order to earn money and fame. Written in eloquent Kashmiri, the song ponders the other side of the coin too: what is the cost of survival?
Feature image credit (Editing): LiveWire/Prachi Batra