Wild City Singled Out: April 2016

9 May 2016

‘Seditious Raga feat. Yogmaya’ by Ravana

Ravana’s warped bhajan from hell comes from his forthcoming album ‘Anti Nationals’ and was released with another fiery single called ‘Sabse Khatarnak’. The lo-fi number combines female classical vocals (slightly cringe ‘sa re ga’ croons) with this off-kilter percussion and heavy, almost muddied bass that makes for a track that is original and provocative. We’ll be keeping an eye out for the album.

‘Olav's 2.7RS’ by Aqua Dominatrix

Akshay Rajpurohit’s back with a new tune and hint of the direction he’s taking on his upcoming album. Melodically, Olav's 2.7RS’ is a step up for AD and has that retro synth-pop warmth that the producer is popular for. But unfortunately, it just didn’t manage to hold our attention. The odd hymns and echoing chants that opened and closed the tune (vague bells in the background and all) were distracting and simply not needed.

‘Goldflake’ by Blindnight

You can be rest assured that any ode to one of our most well loved cigarette brands will not go unnoticed. Huge shocker, Suren Makker is also from Bangalore. ‘Goldflake’ is an interesting little groove-based bedroom single with vocal samples that is far from being life changing (which we’re not complaining about; it seems to be his first single) but worth a listen nonetheless.

‘Till The End’ by When Pandas Attack

Ankur Chauhan’s out with a new, laid back electronica number that’s catchy and colourful (and a free DL). Melody’s on point, it’s accessible, easy to listen to and rich in texture – definitely a step up from his older productions. Not sure if this will be featured in his upcoming album but we like the direction he’s going. Panda also released a (not as exciting) song called ‘Today’ around the same time which you can listen to here.

‘Ode To The Queen’ by The Sine Painter

Right off the bat, 10 extra points to The Sine Painter (RBMA selectee/30 Rock fan) for actually taking the time out to make a song dedicated to Queen Jordan ("people do like the way she says ham").

That aside, it looks like the producer is playing around with new material, leaning towards a more club friendly sound than his earlier pre-RBMA downtempo releases. Listen up, we have a feeling there’s a lot more fun, dance oriented music coming from The Sine Painter.

‘Indefinite Leave To Remain' by Sarathy Korwar

We’ve already told you about London/Pune based percussionist and composer Sarathy Korwar, and his recent signing to Ninja Tune for the release of his upcoming album ‘Day To Day’. ‘Indefinite Leave To Remain' is the first single off the album and it’s a stunner – complex, absorbing and startlingly unique. Field recordings of Sidi folk and Sufi are what form a rough foundation for the jazz and electronic number – one of the most exciting pieces of music from India we’ve heard in a long time.

‘Numbskull’ by Nawksh

Pakistani producer Nawksh has been at it in the last couple of months with odd tunes popping up every couple of weeks, and if you’ve read our series before you’ll know how often he’s been featured. ‘Numbskull’ is a strange lo-fi tune with a prominent fuzziness tempered by vague melody and far-away vocals. It sounds like its been beaten and then run through a woodchipper, but like most of NAWKSH’s music, there’s something pretty and surprisingly absorbing about it that drew us in.

‘the dream of a ridiculous man’ by a maze

a maze is Nishant Gill from New Delhi – the drone, ambient and noise artist responsible for ‘the dream of a ridiculous man’ – a tense and almost overwhelming piece that forgoes melody in favour of textures, and layers of it. You might want to keep your volume on the lower side if you’ve got your headphones on, it swells continuously and gets unexpectedly harsh in bits.

‘Day 1’ by Vayanamasi

We were surprised to find this little beauty from someone we hadn’t heard of before till we realised we had. Vayanamasi is Karthik Basker – ex Bicycle Days frontman and one of Klypp, the duo that released the breathtaking ‘Manifest’ EP in 2014. ‘Day 1’ is a smooth, soulful and uplifting tune with Basker’s incredible voice at the forefront. Really keen to see where he’s going with this – hopefully we’ll be getting something meatier soon.

Words: Diya Gupta

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