Anurag Tagat Reviews IndiEarth Artists

About Anurag
Anurag Tagat – a critic and journalist, writes about music, films and graphic novels amongst other things. He freelances as a features writer for The Hindu Metroplus, Rolling Stone India, Livemusic.fm and EspyRock.

Anurag’s musings on IndiEarth artists:

	Groove # 3 Ft. Benny Dayal – Baby You Got Me Nothing like a fun pop song featuring excellent vocals from Benny Dayal. He’s part of the Karsh Kale Collectiv, a fusion music force that is amazing a lot of audiences. It’s easy to see why Dayal is part of a group of such talented musicians. He really knows how to be a part of a good jam or collaboration, like this one with Groove #3, which is pretty, well, groovy.
	Blue Fuse – Moon Arra I had originally heard of MoonArra when I was looking for upcoming Indian fusion bands. This is a pretty fun track, but almost too fun at times, which means they’ve doodled around too much (always more likely in a blues jam) and lost the plot a bit.
	Wild Dance: Mystik Vibes There’s such an upbeat, celebratory mood to this entire song, which explains the title. I can only imagine Mystik Vibes is the kind of band who go on the craziest jam sessions with their fusion set up.
	Step Outside – Grey Shack Straight up, catchy, loud and cheerful  alternative rock from a band I’ve finally got the chance to listen to.
	Saajan – Tritha I know Tritha’s plugged-in avatar is much more psychedelic, but even this has an interesting dreamy, hippie vibe to it, in its use of guitars, minimal percussion and even didgeridoo. The only thing that causes me to mark this down is a bit of Bjork emulation.
	Lonely Heart – Little Babooshka’s Grind I didn’t think LBG had a mellow side to them, especially after I had the likes of Bad Children years ago. Again, a pleasant surprise for a band who aren’t in the spotlight so much, but continue to make good music.
	Kolonkini Radha – Oikyotaan This is prime fusion that’s a bit underrated. I’d heard them after I read an early issue of Rolling Stone India and this music sounds like so folk and traditional, yet quite contemporary.
	Tonic – Teddy Boy Kill Before electronica actually took off in India, the first name I’d heard from Delhi, rivalling actual bands such as Pentagram was this duo. I’m no expert on electronica, but I recognise a polished sound when I hear even 30 seconds of it. They really make you wait for that beatdown on this trip.
	O Rhosi – Tetseo Sisters In addition to being four very beautiful women (excuse me for pointing that out), these Naga sisters don’t go anywhere this track, but the mere repetition of the refrain in their collective voices is enough to keep you interested.
	Loner On the Lose – Sean Roldan Roldan, to me, is the perfect example of a classically trained Indian musician who still knows how to write any kind of music. He could make it big writing for films, or even with these blues-and-country-influenced Tamil songs which have an inescapable hint of his Carnatic music roots.
	The Song of Awakening – Spliff You’re already half judging a song like this when you read the artist’s name. Regardless, it’s mellow music with charged up reggae, come-the-revolution lyrics. I have to admit I’m still a bit surprised reggae has resonated to Indians much beyond the Marley motifs.
	K.L.P.D – Arjun It’s either a case of trying too hard to sound like someone else, or trying too hard, in general. The dicey thing about comedy rock is that it’s just like a joke that could fall flat. With this song, even the songwriting is not particularly original.

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Anurag Tagat

Anurag Tagat is a journalist/critic based in Bangalore, writing for Rolling Stone India. He has previously written for The Hindu, Rediff and Bangalore Mirror and TechRadar about everything from current affairs to art and culture to technology.

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