Releases Of The Week: Talal Qureshi & Shamsher Rana, Oceantied, Treble Puns & More

With 'Releases Of The Week', Wild City handpicks and highlights our favourite new music from the previous week by artists from South Asia and its diaspora. For the first edition of 2021, we are extending that timeframe to two weeks to cover the music released during the holiday season. If you’d like us to listen to your music, send the relevant info to music@thewildcity.com.

'The Pat Earn' By Treble Puns

As we've previously confessed, it's been a pleasure to watch Treble Puns, the duo of Abhimanyu Roy and Sohini Bhattacharya grow strength to strength over 2020 and while I did get nervous when their latest track 'The Pat Earn' seemed shed the garage-act charm for more polished edges, the track's soft palette laid all my doubts to rest halfway into the journey. The gradually building exchange of drums and saccharine guitars rewards patience, pleasantly engrossing the listener in as it grows from relaxed melodies to a rhythmic frenzy.

'LSD' By Talal Qureshi & Shamsher Rana

A bassline that seems to sing, synth textures that reverse soon after they're played, morphed vocals, sudden downpours of melodic runs and arpeggios, brass-hooks and a driving beat – Islamabad producers Talal Qureshi and Shamsher Rana pick a joy-radiating sonic palette and dial its effects to eleven with the composition on their collaborative track 'LSD'.

"As electronic musicians from Pakistan, trust us when we say it's next to impossible to find like-minded producers to collaborate with. In a rather barren industry, it's almost always felt like our journey of bettering our craft is, for the most part, our own," adds Qureshi. "'LSD' came into existence when two dudes from Islamabad met - geek-ed over, appreciated, encouraged and pushed each other's creativity for the very first time."

'Delirium' By Disector

Mumbai-based Disector lets the frenzy of breakbeat flow unabetted on his 4-track EP 'Delirium' supplementing it with minimal arrangements of bass and vocal samples, focusing on the iconic rhythms compositional potency than recognised loops. Even as the beat morphs and drops on 'Normalized', glitch-inflected elements carry its rhythmic spirit, while as a whole, the EP carries forward the canon highlighting the musical joy of chopping and disintegrating the well-known groove.

'EEEK' By Oceantied

Oceantied's latest single as part of the Bass Coast Music's latest compilation '12 Days Vol.4' might not surprise his ardent followers but serves as a great entry point for those who are not, packing all his staple elements of fun-filled subtly-hitting fast-paced rhythms underpinned by a catchy hook of a quirky vocal sample.

'Tadipaar' By MC Stan

Pune's Altaf Tadavi aka MC Stan's piece-by-piece drop of the audio-visual concept album 'Tadipaar' is ambitious, to say the least. The multi-track hip-hop offering ties together autobiographical elements with a gangsta-rap-suited narrative, while highlighting Tadavi as a rapper, beat-maker and storyteller. The final culmination with the title track highlights the latter over its nearly 8-minute long runtime, switching from flow to flow and briefly venturing into spoken word to highlight nearly all the themes of the seminal 6-track album.

'Astrid' By When I'm Human

When I'm Human's ambient/electronica number 'Astrid' takes a minute or two to evolve beyond a simple construction of laidback pads and percussive scatterings into a cohesive musical being where each part reacts with the other as a sinister IDM offering. The gradual build-up, in turn, adds anticipation and adds potency to the disorienting whirlpool of glitch and sci-fi synths, further heightened in its effect by Mantis Shrimp Creative's visualiser video.

'isn't everything we do' By Aman

Over its little-less-than-5-minute length, producer Aman Singh's latest Soundcloud upload 'isn't everything we do' goes from place to place without breaking a breath, starting with an ethereal and particularly standout assortment of guitar plucks and atmospheric textures, before the brief vocal refrain from the film 'Before Sunrise' gives way to an energetic onslaught of bass hits, zaps, and morphed synth-tones.

'Light Of Hope' By EveryNowHere

T.L. Mazumdar's subjects of healing, growth, mental health and inner being which he explored with each release from '#Re_movement', his gradually-unpacking EP as EveryNowHere, assumed new contexts with the pandemic while Mazumdar's own life saw folding of his label, cancellation of tours and personal alienation. After being on the fence regarding the timing of continuing to release his work, Mazumdar found solace and reflection of even his new experiences on the piano-led sombre offering 'Light Of Hope', the final track from the EP. Attaching a more-current relevance to the release with a music video featuring moody visualisation and photographs from the composer-producer's childhood, 'Light Of Hope' highlights the universality of our experiences and the strength in shared vulnerabilities.

'Hope to be' By Dee En

The music video for New Delhi group Dee En's track 'Hope to be' from their 2019 EP 'Poppin'', reinforces and even recontextualises the psychedelic number from dream-pop to its less direct and more abstract cousin, synthwave while referencing to another close-relative vaporwave's juxtaposition of technology and neon-fuelled vision of greek-roman sculptures. Dealing with themes of cyberpunk, cults and idealism, the video does little to impart literal meaning and more to add a slightly sinister and grander atmosphere.

'Die Danky' By Father, Son & Alcohol

The genre amalgamation of Bangalore-based Rahul Desai aka Father, Son & Alcohol's 2-track EP 'Die Danky' strikes as a work few steps ahead of a background score to a crime thriller. Named as a joke after a feud the electronic producer had "on Oceantied's discord server with this bot called Dank Memer", 'Die Danky' carries the invigorating qualities of its composition over oomph-rich jazz patterns held together by electronica's gritty timbres along with rousing arpeggio patterns and retro orchestral hits.

'Reflections' By Owlist

There's likely to be something for everyone who appreciates a beat-tape on Jaipur-based producer Nitesh Jhurani aka Owlist's 22-track release 'Reflections'. Whether a quirky sample, a redeeming hook, structural surprises or Jhurani's live-performed beats, there is always a distinct element separating each track – a pitfall that lesser releases in similar vein fail to avoid.

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Words: Amaan Khan

Image: Artwork for Treble Puns' 'The Pat Earn'