This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 500 tracks released in the week ending 14th & 21st February 2022, I have rated and reviewed the 15 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country. 1. Oo Aadapilla There are some voices you will travel miles and pay money to hear, and yes to me Ram Miriyila is one of them. His voice has been a huge reason for me liking many of the new Telugu songs, and this one too is an absolute delight. Manonmani’s Sarangi adds a great layer of accompaniment but let us not forget Babu and Maxwell’s Trumpets and Trombones, which make it cool. Jay Krish deserves the credit for creatively bringing the traditional Sarangi and western Horns into the picture. It is not just that, Jay also handles the keyboards synth and rhythm, which are all crucial elements in the composition. The use of beats and then the Mridangam as well work quite effectively. The track is composed, arranged and programmed by Jay with lyrics by Ananta Sriram. The guitars both acoustic and bass definitely make the journey worthwhile and Roshan Sebastian mixes and masters the track. The song in my opinion has traces and influences of Raaga Aarabhi in Carnatic music, and it is a bit more apparent with Ram’s singing style. Jay impresses in converting a classical raaga base into something modern and breezy like this, and he has now got a good string of compositions like “Madhura Wines� and “Raaja Vaaru Raani Gaaru� where I liked the songs. 2. Besabri Anwesshaa is a fabulous singer whose capabilities are well known to any listener who has been following her since her childhood days, but of late she has started showing her potential as a composer as well. I did really enjoy the track “Balcony� she composed and performed more than a year ago, and now she does it again with this track as she also writes the lyrics here. The song has been a huge hit on Youtube, and it is quite justified as well. The highlight is definitely the singing where Anwesshaa and Abhay Jodhpurkar battle it out with their superior vocal abilities where they each do vibrato at lightning speeds. The track is produced by Akshay Menon and mixed and mastered by Kohinoor Mukherjee. I hope I am not wrong, but I did sense elements of Raag Kaapi as it is known in Carnatic, known as Pilu in Hindustani. The Piano is played right through and it along with guitars makes it one very melodious number. 3. Isai After moving away from Masala Coffee the band, both Sooraj Santhosh and the band have been prolific enough with their new releases, and hat is good to see and hear. The song is conceived, composed, arranged and performed by Sooraj and I can assure that this is one difficult number to compose and perform. The Keys and the Kazoo make for a great intro piece When you hear the song, you can sense the notes being very unpredictable and that is why you need to hear it a few times to get a hang of its trajectory and progress. There is definitely some influence of Raag Sindhubairavi in the track. Girishh Gopal pens the lyrics while another excellent Malayalam composer Varkey has also arranged and produced the track. The keys are beautifully arranged, while Sandeep Mohan on guitars and Josy John on bass have a field day in the background. You can also listen to harmonies in the background, which add a very classical texture, and you hear the bass guitars stunningly adorn the background layers. Sayanora is the female vocalist whose singing creates the element of pathos and mystery. Rithu Vysakh plays the Violin and Cello, and Finny Kurian mixes the track, while Idania Valencia masters it. 4. Priyathama Shekar Chandra just appeared a month or so ago on this list and blog with his score for the movie #Bro, for a wonderful song performed by Yazin Nizar and set in Abheri Raaga. This one for a new movie has Sid Sriram enchanting us on vocals, with lyrics once again by Anantha Sriram. Shekar and Samuel excellently play the Keyboards. The stanza is devoid of any rhythm percussions, as it opens up, and this tranquility mixes well with the rest of the track which has some energetic rhythms by Shekar. The song reminds me a famous Harris Jayaraj number “Azhagiya Theeye� from the movie ‘Minnale’ sung by Harish Raghavendra. Sandilya Pisapati waves his usual magic in the interlude on the solo violin, and his fiddling appears even in the stanza at the perfect junctures. Prateek Naganatham is on the guitars and he fills is aptly when needed and Raam Gandikota has mixed and mastered the track. 5. All Divine Very few people in India, really appreciate Hip-Hop and rap music, and even fewer can actually create enticing music in that style. Many stars in Bollywood and indie space sing rap with horrible lyrics and absolute no creative style or substance. Brodha V knocks it out of the park with this amazing number. This song is very personal to him and you can feel inspired by the English lyrics written by himself and the words in Malayalam penned by fellow singer-songwriter Benny Dayal. The song also features international icon Steven Knight from the group ‘Flipsyde’ and the Violin is another deal-breaker for this track thanks to Aditya MP who plays it like divine intervention. The introduction of the Malayalam lines is also gold and it sounds a lot like Raag Karaharapriya or Reethigowla to me. After ‘Neeye Oli’ last year by Santhosh Narayanan and Shan Vincent De Paul, this track has once again re-ignited that love for Hip-Hop. Akash Shivakumar has both mixed the track with Brodha and he has also recorded the track. Chris Gehringer has mastered the track. 6. Manasantha Jen Martin and Sathya Narayanan are two budding musicians and they do more than well with their indie releases in many of the south Indian languages, and I have reviewed and featured them as well. This one too is extremely catchy with some splendid live instrumentals especially Trumpets and Trombones played by Martin Vijay. This is in-fact the highlight of the track and Jen must be applauded for all his arrangements and composition as well. Anurag Kulkarni is the lead vocalist and he sings it without breaking a sweat with some support from Jen on additional vocals. The Trumpets and Trombones keep playing in the background layers and they keep your interest levels from dropping at any instance. The song has some excellent programming as well and you can make that out in the interlude, which has an elaborate arrangement of Violin sounds, and this is all the work of Pranesh S. Sathya Narayanan and Kalyan M are the music advisors, and Haresh Harsh plays the role of creative consultant, with Hari Shankar mixing and mastering the track. The stanza continues to titillate the ears just like the opening lines with Vijay on acoustic guitars and words by Bhaskarbhatla. The song ends with some excellent improvisation on vocals by Anurag and the horns section. 7. Drift along & Seeing faces I came across Keshav Iyengar more than a year ago when he worked with Finix Ramdas the violinist in this mind-blowing track called “The great escape�. After following him and writing reviews and featuring him previously, we have him in an all new EP called “Seeing faces�, where I enjoyed 2 tracks viz. ‘Drift along’, and ‘Seeing faces’. Listening to him sing with the guitars sounds like a bit of Eric Clapton himself, and each of the 3 numbers offer something different and engaging. Jeson Marion Jose Filip plays the Keys while Keshav composes, produces, sings and plays the guitars on all the tracks. Drift along is simple with exquisite strumming. The title track is another excellent number with absolutely cool bass-lines and Keys, but the high point is the classical Hindi vocals by Nagesh Adgaonkar and how the two extreme ends of the musical spectrum conjoin seamlessly. 8. Waisa Hi Tha He calls himself a bad banker, but he definitely is a very good musician, according to me. Many months ago I reviewed and featured Aditya Kambhampati’s single ‘Lalten’ and I loved it, this time the song is got a tinge of pathos to it, but it still score pretty well for me. The track is composed, produces, arranged, and performed brilliantly by Aditya, with lyrics by Aditya Karhadkar. The Viola or strings are programmed I think and they keep playing in the background creating all this tension and mystery. The guitars are like the backbone of the song with portions in the interlude. The song offers great scope for singing as well as Aditya moves across the vocal scales and he is ably supported by some excellently arranged harmonies. Saurabh Kajarekar mixes and masters the track. 9. Vannu Pokum We know of their acting prowess over the years of watching Malayalam Cinema but to hear them singing musical notes so well comes as a real surprise. Mohan Lal and Prithviraj deliver their vocals with a lot of confidence and honesty and Deepak Dev, the composer, must be lauded for his faith in these actors to perform the song. Deepak plays almost a single-handed role in the output of this number as he composes, arranges, produces, records, engineers and mixes the track. He also delivers the backing vocals along with Evugin. Over the the last couple of years when I hear songs dominated by the Ukulele, they generally end up being very simple without any creativity, however this one surprises. The backing vocalists play a solid role in adding elements that uplift the quality the song. Vinod Varma plays the guitars and Ukulele, and while singing Prithvi shows that he is more comfortable with his Vibrato as well. The song doesn’t have a formal structure of pallavi and charanam, but that does not take away anything from its overall tune and likability. Madhu Vasudevan is the lyricist and Donal Whelan masters the track. 10. Ek Mutho Icchera Akash Bhattacharya writes, composes and sings this sweet melody that is such a breath of fresh air, especially if you are someone who follows and listens to Bangla music. There is a tendency to sound very classical when it comes to music from this region but Akash creates a number that can be appreciated by the younger lot of music lovers as well. He is also the produces and plays the guitar along with his vocal performance in an very delightful fashion. The mixing and mastering is by another very accomplished musician Rupak Tiary who has been featured multiple times on my list and blog. Listen to an excellent interlude by Akash on the guitar as he excels at improvising along the way and the notes traverse into some classical touches. The stanza is well written and we have some backing vocals, and strings all beefing up the track. 11. Pride & Joy Soham Pathak a.k.a. Yush! A few months ago was featured and reviewed with his awesome track called “Indian Summer� and his style of music falls under the genre of electronic pop, which is not very complex, and sticks to a relatively shorter duration. The song’s rhythm and tune makes up with any other shortcomings if at all. Yush! And Rahul Kannan produce the track with the latter mixing and mastering, while former writing, composing and performing. The synths and keyboards are effective and keep the cool quotient up, and I am impressed with the humming portions as well. 12. Khwaab I used to think that covers of songs/originals were not of great value. I am wrong for two reasons, viz. 1. A singer or producer can add layers of creativity that can at times sounds better than the original as well and 2. The artist showcases the talent and at the same time, imitation is the best form of compliment to an original. Anumita Nadesan is one such star who rose to fame with her cover of AR Rahman’s song from Jodha Akbar, but when I hear her original I understand why the internet world loved her. There cannot be any greater validation when two stalwarts Rajan Batra and Himonshu Parikh (of TYD) get involved in writing and production respectively. The way the song transforms from the lines “Har zubaan mein naam mere� says a lot about the message of this track as well, as Anumita fantasizes a future of stardom and how every artists would dream of that day. It is somewhere here that I sense some influence of Raag Hamsadhwani. Shikhar’s guitars are resplendent here and Hanish Taneja does a fine job on mixing and mastering. 13. Story to tell The reason I keep expanding my musical coverage is so that no genuine talent misses out on a feature. Its is not only Indians inside this geographical boundary that I focus on, but a Panvi Podder living in Ireland also deserves an audience and appreciation for her work. This is het debut single, but sure doesn’t feel like it as she shows the skills of a seasoned campaigner in writing, composing and performance as well. The song talks about marriages and how a couple needs to reinvent to keep the bond growing stronger. Panvi’s singing is fraught with minute elements of vibrato and her technique and stability in delivering the vocals irrespective of the scale is well on display. The Piano by Archit Anand is like a companion that will never leave your sight, enhancing the songs class and substance. Ananda Dhar James is on the bass guitars and acoustic guitars and he also has produced, mixed and mastered the track and certainly played a part in the songs impeccable outcome. Piya Podder, Archit and Agransh Anand sing the harmonies to great effect and that keeps playing in your head. Panvi’s freewheel styled singing in the outro section is a stupendous effort. The song’s video credits go to Pooja Sreenivasan. 14. Chal Chal Chalo Hema Chandra Vedala is zany, absolutely on fire singing this track with loads of energy, exuberance and elan. Anudeep Dev is the composer, and he mixes some classical Carnatic with electronic pop and modern sounds , and that too with finesse. Sandilya is the go to man for violins in Tollywood and he creates a piece here mostly set in Raag Bhairavi in Carnatic music in the interlude, and Hema Chandra does a short and savvy aalap to go along with it. Arun Chiluveru strums the guitars, and they are all on fire as the stanza comes to end, you will be tempted to shake your body and move your feet. Pramod plays the flute and all the programming is handled by Bharath Madhusudhan. Abin Paul has mixed and mastered the track with lyrics by Simhachalam Mannela 15. Kahin Mat Janna There is no better feeling as a music reviewer than coming across a fresh name and you get blown away by his/her work. Sudeep Swaroop is the composer for this new album Side A/Side B and the very first song itself was a humdinger. The track has one more hero and that is the performer called Rahul Rajkhowa and it is right smack in the middle rock-n-roll music, something we only are accustomed to from the US back in the 1960s and 70s. Raja Sen and Sudhish Kamat are the writers for this track with recording engineers Rohit Singh Bhau and Sudeep Sinha. The drums and Keys with the trumpets completely bamboozle you and it is only matched by Rahul’s startling vocals. The electric guitars are another indispensable element and you can hear the solo being played I the background, so I suggest you wear some good earphones to enjoy the magic happening in the deeper layers.

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 350 tracks released in the week ending 7th February 2022, I have rated and reviewed the 15 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country. 1. Gaye Mausam I listened to this song a while back, and I straight away out in one my folders to be reviewed later, as I knew this was good enough to be a chart topper in any week/month. Somehow due to an error a few days later as I was getting ready to write my reviews I was stunned because I knew this song was missing from that list. Yet my retention and the songs quality were both so high that I knew I was missing out on a super song. Thankfully when I read the name of the artist and the song my memory helped me recall this song on a spotify playlist. Otherwise I would have missed reviewing this song forever and that would have been criminal. Here previous single called “Saiyyan Bina� was splendid and here she does one up on that. Avanti Patel composes, arranged and performs in this superlative track that makes your love for music grow multi-fold. Zaee Manerkar plays the Piano and completely handles the string section, and you can hear the viola by Shruti Bhave fiddling you into submission right from the very beginning. Akshay Jadhav makes it two weeks in a row as he mildly plays the Tabla. The female harmony which has Avanti herself, is a beautiful layer and it is existent through the track, which shows the creative composition and arrangement skills of Avanti. I could sense some similarity to the Sindhubhairavi Carnatic Raag and hence there must be some influence of the Asavari that. The interlude has the Viola, Keys and humming all beautifully set up to open up into the Antara where Avanti does some excellent aalap without ever overdoing it. The bass guitars keep playing faintly and Rahul Deo lets his strings do the talking on the acoustic guitars and bass. The second interlude involves a string section in the background as the tempo also slowly heightens and the second verse has the Tabla absent for a brief while where the acoustic guitar shows up more prominently. Ayan De does the mastering and Rishi Bradoo is also the sound engineer. The track is a wonderful modern Ghazal and it keeps you wanting to play this on loop more than a few times. Parveen Shakir writes the lyrics and Vivek Chaturvedi directs the lyrical video. 2. Dil ka Gehna You come across so many songs these days and just a poster and title can sometimes make you judge before even listening. I almost did that mistake here, but as I heard this I was pleasantly surprised. That is why I listen to every song I can lay my ears and eyes on without prejudice or any preconceived notions. Then when I saw the composer’s name I was even more convinced, it was Rajat Nagpal whose prior songs I have come to like, especially “Dil ko karaar aaya�. One more interesting observation is that this song uses the Mridangam as the percussion medium, it is a south Indian classical instrument. Since the 1950s itself more than countless songs in Tamil movies have used the Tabla, yet why is it so rare to hear a Mrindangam in Bollywood. Well this is a topic of debate for another time, but I am just glad about the arrangements. Rajat composes, produced and programs the track with the scintillating voice of Yasser Desai who grabs the opportunity with both hands. The guitars are solid and show a touch of class thanks to Rhythm Shaw but you know the Strings truly steal the show thanks to Anna Rakita who is part of the quartet and she also arranges it. Rahul Sharma with Samir Dharap assisting records the guitars. The strings don’t perish even for a second and the sound of the quarter against the backdrop of the Mridangam is just treasure to the ears. Rana Sotal is the lyricist, with mixing by Rajat and Rahul Sharma, mastering by Naweed and sound engineering by Dmitriy Zaytsev  3. Kamukipattu It is nice to see Sooraj Santhosh sing more, and he does these vocal performances for his own compositions and other as well. This song strikes you at the right points of your heart the very moment the female voice begins. The song is from an upcoming film called ‘Sabaash Chandrabose’, with the musical scores by Sreenath Sivasankaran. The way these lines are sung, reminds me of hat famous song called “Manamagale Manamagale� by Ilaiyaraja composed for the movie ‘Thevar Magan’. I could be wrong, but maybe that is why there is some Suddha Saveri influence here. Sooraj hums his way into the song and you know what he is about to deliver. I think the flute that accompanied the female vocals was excellent in notes, execution and arrangements. The guitars along with the percussion are extremely folkish and soothing. Sreenath Sivasankaran is someone I haven’t heard before and he already created a massive expectation for his future projects. As we movie into the verse I am reminded of “Bridavanamum Nandakumaranum� sung by AM Raja and P.Sushela from the movie ‘Missiamma’, and now I’m positive it is set in Raag Suddha Saveri. However when I discussed about this with Sreenath, he believes there is a stronger influence of Aarabhi Raag in it. VC Abhilash is the lyricist and the track is mixed and mastered by Abin Pushpakaran. The track has some subtle Keys and Ukulele as well added to the mix. Haritha Balakrishnan is the female vocalist who fills in all the gaps quite well, and she does a savvy job with the limited opportunity in the track.  4. Kaise main kahoo Geetesh Iyer probably was a household name back in the day after his ravishing performances in the Indian Idol contest, and he then moved to a fancy job in the Bay area. Stand up and give your appreciation for the way he still keeps himself deeply connected to music and comes up with these worthy numbers from time to time. I have already featured him before and this is his best yet according to me. The style is probably a modern take on a Ghazal and it is probably classified as Lo-fi Ghazal to be precise. Geetesh writes, composes and sings this and maybe the purists will complain, but I find this as evidence of creativity. The singing is spotless with his mild vibrato and teasing ones in between, but the Keys are a great addition to this track along with the beats. Nirmit Shah mixes, masters and produces the track and he’s been doing pretty well with Ananya’s “State of the art� and Yohan Marshalls “Act like� both of which have been reviewed by me. Geetesh goes beyond than just fusing Lofi and Ghazal, he also gets English rap sort of a segment and when the swaras are floated around I sensed some Hamsadhwani. Apparently it is his favorite raaga, and he named his daughter after it, Dhwani. Deepakshi Aggarwal does the animation for the video.  5. Bheega Bheega I released a post on Instagram a few days ago appreciating the music composers of Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein and specifically mentioned Bheega Bheega and Monk Theme as favourites from the album. The composers are new age musicians Shivam Sengupta and Anuj Danait and Anuj himself sings this tranquil track. The violins and guitars are out-of-this-world good and Anuj has a certain element of simplicity and honesty in his voice, which is what keeps this track grounded yet soaring at the same time. Look at the Keys and mild humming in the background and you are sure to fall in love with the track. The choice of percussion and the way they alternate and improvise on the beats is something very interesting. Yadnesh Raikar will rock you to sleep with his sleight of hand on the solo violin, just wait for the end of the track. This is accompanied by the Ghatam on the percussion creating almost a Carnatic texture. Simone Scazzocchio is the mixing engineer and Jett Galindo masters it. 6. Sajni The Yellow Diary is becoming like the big book of good music these days. I have always enjoyed their brand of music and singing especially by Rajan Batra. Rajan and TYD just created a fabulous track couple of weeks ago called ‘Udaan’ which was featured and reviewed here and now this slow-burn killer of a track. The lyrics are written by Rajan himself, we have some Kosher Keys played in the track by Himonshu Parikh who has also produced the track and provided backing vocals. The opening half is all about the mild tempo, Rajan’s singing and strong presence of the Piano. The notes are creatively written and not something that u can sing along and predict what is about to come. Sahil Shah slowly makes his presence felt with the drums and we have Vaibhav Pani the producer/guitarist on electric guitars accompanied by Stuart Da Costa on bass guitar. The last 1-minute is a super fun ride tat will take your vehicle at breakneck speed right to the edge of the cliff with rock-styled drums and guitars. Sid Sirodkar has mixed and mastered the track with Abhishek Khandelwal and Dilip Nair on recording. 7. Bandish Blues & Run I only know him as the drummer, who almost stamps this presence in every song composed and produced by Salim-Sulaiman, but he is also part of a band called The Darshan Doshi Trio. When I came across this album by the trio I found to be exhilarating, as I anyway love pure instrumental pieces, and so this is a gift to anyone who enjoys the dominance of these masters performing live during a tour. Darshan plays the drums, Rhythm Shaw is on the guitars and Avishek Dey is the bassist and when you hear 5 of the 7 tracks you live and feel the absolute freedom with which Rhythm Shaw freestyles and improvises without any shackles. Darshan binds the 3 together and the energy and adrenaline oozes in all directions providing terrific rhythm and percussion to the proceedings. Avishek underlines the prowess of the bass guitars as his strumming is like the soul of EP, calm, consistent and celebratory. I specifically loved 3 tracks viz. “Night in Tunisia�, “Bandish Blues� and “Run�. For this week’s top songs in India, I have picked the latter 2, as in “Bandish Blues� Varijashree Venugopal performs with scintillating precision and passion. The song is set mostly in Raag Jog and she feels much at home literally in Bangalore with her aalaps sometimes making you shake your head in total approval and appreciation wishing you were in the crowd. Rhythm sizzles on the electric guitar and Avishek is a close accomplice if playing such killer guitars was a crime. Darshan alternates the tempo as and when needed and this track is proof that even classical Indian music can be presented in a different style to suit audience tastes. ‘Run’ is Vasundhara Vee’s composition and I have already featured and reviewed it in this space many months ago and here it is Jazz fusion at its prime performed live in Delhi. The percussion straightaway sounds much different to “Bandish Blues� and The Darshan Doshi Trio offer evidence of their versatility working with various vocalists and performers. Vasundhara is simply setting the stage on fire singing in a tongue-twisting fashion, which is difficult to even fathom let alone perform. I get the image of an Aretha Franklyn when I hear Vasundhara and she makes Indians proud. All the tracks in the album are Mixed & Mastered by Abhishek Ghatak  8. Khatm Khali Raatein Pune must be like the breeding ground for some of India’s most talented musicians, just like the North East and Kerala have been for a long time now. Old Highway is a 4-member band hailing from this city are soon releasing their album called “Ziist�. And this is their first single and does it even sound like a debut single? Absolutely NOT. Juliee Sakhare who first founded this band is the vocalist and Pianist and she raises the bar with her vocals. She exhibits a wide vocal range and is ably aided on the electric guitar by Amit Bhatia. The two make a lot of improvisation, which is extremely riveting and effective. Let us not forget the drummer Jeet Sharma who picks his own moments to shine and shy away as well like in the mid-segment when there is a brief lull with only Juliee’s singing audible. It all on gathers steam back again as the song gets back to full swing with Amit on electric guitars and Sidd Sharma on bass guitars sizzle in this guitar tete-a-tete. The track is mixed by Nitin Muralikrishna, mastered by Ronak Runwal and recorded by Rohit Shrivastav, Samarth Kale and Akshay Raut. 9. O Re Jiya Maati Baani is oen of my favorite bands in India for sure, as this duo has impressed me on more than a couple of occasions with their singles. I loved ‘Garje’ and featured and reviewed it here because their style, purpose and execution is one of a kind. The duo comprising of Nirali Kartik and Kartik Shah use their musical potential and talents to bring this world together through that same medium. When we collaborate, we tend to coagulate As one inseparable binding force.Maati Baani does exactly that by getting some global musicians on board in their musical pieces and now they are on a journey to experiment with Folklore, where they will be releasing 3 singles and Anubha Bhat is the Project Manager. The first one is like a grand opening and one can only assume things to get even better as the other singles release. O Re Jiya is many of India’s own musical styles connecting with each other and also adopting some of the western influences like Rap as well. Shruti Nayak is the lyricist for this original composition by the duo. Nirali is the one who is profusely talented and she renders her Hindustani vocals here while Kartik Shah plays the guitars and Keys. The track starts off with some stunning Konnakol by Somashekhar Jois and just bass guitars by Paata Chakaberia. The clap sounds are the rhythm providers and you now in the first 15 seconds what kind of a joy ride this is going to be. Amit Mishra is the expert percussionist in te track who also plays the Tabla later on.  I have heard many Jugalbandis before in Classical music, but never one before with the Konnakol and bass guitar, Kudos to Maati Baani and team. We have Varun Mishra and Nikita Deshpande on the chorus and Shankar Tucker engages us on the clarinet in a cool breezy fashion and these are not regular instruments we hear in the classical style.replacing something like the Nadaswaram. When I hear this union of musicians I sense that this is set in Raag Bhimpalasi. SIRI intervenes with her Kannada Rap and she just elevates the track with some style and chutzpah, I can only say OK SIRI well done! The track is produced and arranged by Kartik Shah while it is mixed by Francisco Nicholson and Mastered by Xavier Collado.  10. Tanhaapan Fresh music always enthralls me, and isn’t that why I am in the business of music reviewing? Aint’ it even sweeter when a new artist, at least to my knowledge, comes along and immediately sweeps you off your feet with his/her music. Dhruv Kapadia writes, composes and sings this beauty as I am playing this multiple times till it completely enters my system. The song has some excellent Keys that provide the fillip to Dhruv’s vocals, and Gaurav Kapadia’s hi-hat drums are like the mild salt to perfect the recipe. The Pianos are brilliant and I get a feeling like I am listening to “Believe� by Elton John. The guitarists too are on a roll here with Jeet Pathak on bass, Mayank Kapadia on lead guitar, and Nandish Chorawala on acoustic guitar. Nandish digresses into a solo act in the middle reminding me of that piece in “Hotel California�. The humming bits are effective as well with Mihir Bagdawala on backing vocals and he has also recorded the track. The track is mixed by Gaurav and Mihir with mastering by Anurag Singh. The verse has some interesting segments and notes and I love the Harmonica followed by a electric guitar solo  11. Jaiho Anthem Many songs get released on special days like the Republic Day, but very few make an impact. Most of the songs are redundant and sound more jingoistic rather than inspirational. This one impressed me as Suresh Bobbili I a talented composer in Telugu movies and this one is a single from the album called “Jai Ho Indians�. Yazin Nizar is at his best in such songs which demand much more vocally, than a soft tender song. Here he sings in such a high scale and he hardly strains a muscle. Suresh Bobbili has a good mix of live instruments and programming to keep the listener interested and engaged through the track. Balu does the programming and Malya Kandukuri is the co-ordinator. At the interlude after a charged up Pallavi and Anupallavi we get a more pacified interlude with Sandilya Pisapati on the violin solo. There are some catchy rhythms and the tune here at least reminds me of Raag Hamsadhwani. Anil Robbin and Chiranjeevi M handle the rhythms and Kasarla Shyam is the lyricist. The charanam is like a ride in itself with a slow start helped by Keys and it moves into a zone of aggression with stronger rhythms. Yazin’s singing beautifully explores the falsetto mode a few times and this is when the song exhibits rock-style tendencies with Subhani on Guitars. We have Ramachandra Murthy on the flute and finally this song is as much Yazin’s as it is Suresh’s. 12. Kapaas This is Aseem Sharma’s second single from the album “Kapaas�, and I did already love, feature and review the earlier single called “Jugnu�. This one is a beautiful Ghazal styled melody that is more eye-catching than the morning dew. Assem writes, sings and composes this song which to a great extent reminds me of “Zindagi maut na ban jaye� song from ‘Sarfarosh’, just that this one is gentler and slower in tempo. Gurpreet Singh’s Tabla and Adnan Ali Khan’s flute are two vital cogs in this wheel of music with Adnan really delivering a masterclass. The track is produced, mixed and mastered by Udit Saxena who himself is an excellent singer/songwriter. Upon hearing more of this and comparing with some great numbers from many geniuses in India like “Bada Natkat� by RD Barman, and “Pazhamuthir cholai� by Ilaiyaraja I sense Raag Khamaaj, and when I had a word with Aseem he believes this is more a derivative of the Khamaaj Thaat. Kashay Sharma is the guitarist whose strokes add a western flavor to this classical core. 13. A game for two Shrea Suresh a.k.a. Shrae sent me her song which was her debut single. I am always keen to listen to any new music and God was I elated when I heard “A game for two�. She is about to release a new EP and one cannot wait for the whole

Here is the list and review of the top songs in Tamil for the month of January, and they were picked from around 60 new releases in the month. The AMAZON playlist here has the full list in the same order of rankings shown below. https://music.amazon.in/user-playlists/700c6fb369ce485aa74d104de03b1fabi8n0?marketplaceId=A3K6Y4MI8GDYMT&musicTerritory=IN&ref=dm_sh_je2PCnPwp7ZuT3tTlYaPI3AKM 1. Naan Pizhai I can say that this is probably Anirudh’s best composition in a while, and this beats the rest of songs released in the last 2 years by a fair distance. I only feel a resemblance to his early days when he could also compose melodies. Suddenly all that vanished with more dance numbers to please the larger section of listeners, while there is no harm in that, except that it does also not hurt to create such wonderful pieces like these. This song is already becoming a rage among Instagram reel makers, and it is without a doubt probably January’s best song. Anirudh has composed and arranged with lyrics penned by Vignesh Shivn, which are quite impactful. The movie ‘Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kadhal’ already had a good number released last year. It is nice to see that other than the opening lines and a few more sung by Anirudh, he gets in Ravi G to probably sing the complex notes where the composer would probably have sounded less convincing. Shashaa Tirupati becomes a great choice for the female lead and she does deliver with a punch. The keys at the beginning are like the flowing breeze or the ocean waves that gently tough our feet and with the keyboard, synth programming by Anirudh, Arish and Pradeep PJ perform the additional keyboard programming. The song does evoke memory of tunes like “Malargale� by AR Rahman and maybe that is why there is a hint of Saranga, or maybe even a bit of Raag Hamirkalyani like we can relate to “En Uyir Thozhi� by MSV. All said and done this is a brilliant song with some great Orchestra scores by Balasubramanian G(the composer of the movie N4 and song “Thaniyae Kadhal�) and he has also co-ordinated working with the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. The conductor is Zoltán Pad, Bálint Sapszon as contractor and co-orchestrator being Abhishek  Vishwanathan. The librarian is Agnes Sapszon and recording engineer is Viktor Szabó, with Rajesh Kannan as pro tools editor. Anirudh’s voice has a magnetic effect on you and it is on full display in this and the best line of the song is probably “azhaga siricha mugame�. Navin plays the flute in the interlude and I love the humming that follows. Keba Jeremiah can be heard playing the bass and electric guitars, and the grandeur of the orchestra comes to light due to some programming also by Ishaan Chhabra. The rhythm programming is by Anidudh additional engagement by Shashank Vijay. The track is engineered by Srinivasan M, Shivakiran S, and Pranjal, with mixing by Vinay Sridhar and Srinivasan and Stem mix and master by Sai Shravanam. 2.MugamoodiKaber Vasuki does well in the small opportunities he is given, as he did prove himself in “Dharala Prabhu� and the whole album of “Aelay�. This song is all him as he writes, composes and sings a wonderful number, which probably has the feeling of almost a theme or BGM score. Kaber sings with a huge investment in emotions and you can feel that as he soars into high scales, and the drums by Manu Krishnan and electric guitars by Sahib Singh accompanying are a treat to any ear, which loves the rock genre. He offers much more as we see a drop in the tempo and get enthralled by the solo violin, with bass and electric guitars in the background. The song will evoke emotions of various kinds like pathos, rage and celebration and that truly is to be credited to the composer. The outro on the violin by Akshay Ganesh is simply terrific. The track is mixed by Dilip Venkateswaran and mastered by John Tornblom 3.Uyir Thirandhu We just heard Balasubramanian G’s name working on the song “Naan Pizhai�. This time he is the composer and he shows he is qualified to be a composer creating this melodious piece. The song from “Infinity� is composed and arranged by him and it has the mesmerizing vocals of Pradeep Kumar with words written by Balamurugan. The guitars by Sam Solomon provide a fitting aid to Pradeep’s voice and they fill all the gaps when the vocalist takes a breath and pauses. Even during his previous composition called “ Thaniyae Kadhal� I did mention about the attempt to make music sound like Maestro Ilaiyaraja’s and here too Bala G does that. This is a massive compliment and I only hope the young musician sustains under the pressure of expectations. The song reminds me of “Poove Sempoove� at various instances, as the song has some great harmony as well arranged by Koshy Cherry.  The song beautifully drifts from the high-pitched and energetic title lines into the stanza. Abhishek B and Anu Koshy do the additional programming and mixing and mastering by Keerthivasan. 4.Arkali He is like the solar eclipse, coming not very often (wonder why, when his music is astounding) but creating an absolute spectacle when he shows up. Dhibu Ninan Thomas just a couple of months ago created one of the best Tamil (or even Indian) sons of 2021 with “Adiye� and he is back again with songs from “Kombu Vatcha Singamda�. We have two fantastic vocal performances viz. D sathyaprakash who is well known and Ala B Ala who has always been around in the back up vocals of most songs. Dhibu composes, arranges and programs with solid acoustic guitars by Vijay Joseph and bass support by Naveen Napier. Ala sounds a bit like Chinmayi Sripada and we hope she gets more opportunities to be the lead vocalist. There is a massive line up of Harmony singers including Abinaya Shenbagaraj , Sowmya Mahadevan , Deepthi Suresh , Nincy Vincent , Shenbagaraj G , Santosh Hariharan , Sarath Santhosh and Aravind Srinivas. The rhythms are strong and catchy along with strings by the Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra in the interlude and verse. The orchestra was conducted by Oleg Kondratenko with scoring by Collins Rajendran. Sathyaprakash delivers an impressive vocal performance. The recording engineers are Vishnu M, Mani Ratnam , Lijesh Kumar and Giorgi Hristovski with mixing by Kiran Lal and Balu Thankachan, mastering by Manoj Kumar and Shadab Rayeen. There are some excellent live instruments too in the song like Kishore playing the Sitra, Vishnu Vijay playing the flute and (Late) Thirumoorthy on Nadaswaram. The percussions are played by Krishna Kishore, Ganapathi , Venkat , Sruthiraj  and Kiran 5. Yennadi Seithai This looks like it is a bilingual film in Tamil and Telugu called “1945� and we have Yuvan Shankar Raja as the composer and Mohan Raja as the lyricist. Priya Mali just last month released a fantastic song on her own singing and composing “Patchai�. This time she delivers the female vocal lead wit great efficacy along with the stalwart Haricharan. The middle eastern influence is excellent thanks to the Oud/Rubab in the background and the interlude. The use of the tabla and Sarangi add to the classical and north Indian tradiational flavors. Haricharan singing in the higher scale and Priya in the bass scales in the stanza works quite well. 6. THOZHI The song opens up and you can sense the Govind Vasantha touch al over it, and that is not a bad thing at all especially since we know how Govind can be terrific in his compositions ever since 96. This is once again a Pradeep Kumar vocal special where he sings with immaculate ease any note that is offered to him. The use of the bass guitars and the strings draws you in as much as Pradeeps voice itself. When the Violin, which is most definitely played by Govind himself, you feel like the theme of 96 is playing and you fall in love all over again. We have Madan Karky writing the lyrics and Amith Bal and Rajan KS mixing and mastering the track. The way the track ends I did sense an influence of Abheri raagam in it. 7. Amma Song Just about month ago we had a song from “Valimai� talking about the irreplaceable relationship shared between a mother and son. That too was sung by Sid Sriram and as quite a lovely attempt by Yuvan Shankar Raja. This has the younger and new age composer Jakes Bejoy who is now becoming a pan-South Indian musician with regular releases in Malayalam and Tamil and now in Telugu. Incidentally it was Jakes Bejoy himself who made a song on the love of the Father called “Ilam Poove� from Anveshanam. The Malayalam song has no parallels and Sooraj Santhosh sang it brilliantly. Uma Devi needs to be give due credit for writing these touching words in this lovely dedication composed and produced by Jakes. Embar Kannan is at his splendid best on the solo violin with Nikhil Ram’s flute intervening. Sid Sriram excels at shifting between the lower and higher scales in no time. The female humming by Deepika Varadharajan and the Veena solo by Haritha Raj add great layers the interlude and somewhere when it ends I Was taken back to AR Rahman’s “Kannuku Mai Azhagu�. Godfrey Immanuel is solid as ever on the acoustic and bass guitars and they combine well with the flute and violin in union. Deepika’s cameo on the swaras sticks to your mind and I am thinking that there is probably some Ragam Maand in this song, and there is also an influence of Bihag in the track. The chorus arrangements are by Amal Anthony and he along with Jakes form the backup vocals. The strings we hear are fantastic thanks to Cochin Strings and we have Balu Thankachan on the mixing and mastering duties and Hari assisting him. The recording engineers are Daniel Joseph Antony, K.K.Senthil Prasath and Midhun Manoj 8. Veezhaedhae The movie is out and it has generated a lot of positive reviews, and how refreshing is it to see a composer become a director. Kudos to Darbuka Siva for ccomposing, arranging and programming some lovey music and this is the last track in this movie sung by Abhay Jodhpurkar and Keerthi writing the lyrics. One thank we should all straightaway appreciate Darbuka about is that if the movie is about the 1990s then the music should be representative of that without any of the modern tones and flavors we are exposed to. Every song is melodious and creates nostalgia just like this one here with the predominant influence of acoustic guitars by Keba Jeremiah who also plays the electric guitar in this one. Shyam Benjamin is on the keyboards and he provides perfect acocmpaniment to the guitar strokes creating a secondary layer. The song is simple without too many complexities and the Keys play a vital role in the second half of the song. Somehow the impact of the keyboards reminds me of the heydays of 90s English soft pop and maybe that too was totally intended by the composer.  Sanjana Kalmanje joins on the humming  in the end in this track mixed and mastered by Balu Thankachan with assistance from Elwin Joseph and Hariharan. The recording engineers are Dheeleben, Hafeez and Avinash Sathish. The way Keba plays it , I feel like I am listening to some Slide guitar from an American country song. 9. Pogathey It is difficult when musicians work hard to create a song and it really has a tough and delayed route to release. This excellent number was released on Spotify just recently and I loved it enough to inlcude in January’s best songs, but when I spoke to the composer I realized that it was composed and ready almost 5 years ago but is making its way into streaming apps only now. Like they say , it is better late than never , and you have some well known musicians working on this project. Singer Yogi Sekar has written the lyrics with guitarist/composer Simeon Telfer scoring the tune. Diwakar who was the winner of Super Singer 4 is the vocalist for this one and he really has brought his A game here. Simeon’s acoustic guitars and Napier Peter Naveenkumar’s bass guitars truly are perfect ingredients to make this final output sound brilliant. Diwakar delivers a fine performance in a song which doesn’t sound easy to execute in my opinion and when you hear the song it has a lot of tone and texture similarities to “Ennodu Nee Irunthal� by AR Rahman and sung by Sid Sriram. The track is mixed and mastered by Dr. Alfred. 10. Kaanal Neeraai The movie ‘Writer’ has been getting some rave reviews and it also must be appreciated for some excellent music from Govind Vasantha who has clearly been busy for the last few months composing in multiple projects. Pradeep Kumar is the vocalist and he has sung 3 splendid tracks this month making him the best performer of the month. Muthuvel is the lyricist, for this slow and simmering melody. This starts off with the wind instrument that is haunting, and it sounds very much like that great number “Life of Ram� from the album 96. The tempo is definitely different with this being much slowe still the resemblance is uncanny. The use of thavil and Jalra give the song a very pious and mysterious feeling together. 11. Thaalatum Mounam Ondril' Yuvan has clearly upped his game recently with releases galore and also composing and producing indie music in Tamil. The song is sung by tamil music’s own nightingale Swetha Mohan with lyrics by Karthik Netha. The song is from the movie ‘Kuruthi Attam’ which has a couple of good songs released earlier. The track is mixed and mastered by M Kumaraguruparan, and it has some excellent programming. The flute solo in the interludes at various points in the song is quite catchy and apt. 12. Alai Alai This remkae of the fantastic Malayalam movie is eagerly awaited and it has two popular Sri Lankan actors who particiapted in the Bigg Boss Tamil reality show Losliya and Tharshan. I don’t know yet about the movie, but it is a dependable bet that the producers have gone and taken Ghibran to score the music. GV Prakash and Deepthi Suresh are lead vocalists and the latter is now slowly rising as a lead singer , and moving away from the backing vocal experiences. Dr. V Sritharan is the music supervisor while Gold Devaraj is the music assistant as usual. The backing vocals are fantastically done and arranged comprising of Shenbagaraj, Sarath Santosh and Aravind Srinivas singing in various scales almost resembling a A Capella. The ethnic strings instruments keep playing in the background and interludes and it is by SM Subhani while Rithu Vysakh plays the solo violin. The song is mixed and mastered by Abin Pushpakaran and recorded by Wesley. Andria Miranda and Britto David produce the track with all additional song arrangements by Hary Nair, VM Bharath and LJ Vijay. GV Prakash has been pretty busy acting and composing and he delivers his vocal performances quite well too when they are offered to him. 13. Lol Lol Arasan He is one of favorite young talents Ajesh and he had a terrific album last year called ‘Sarbath’. Here he gives you one progressive /Alt rock kind of a number with some terrific synth and keyboard programming. How creative to get Baba Sehgal to sing this, maybe it was Ajesh’s dream to make him sing for his composition. The male humming that keeps coming often is way to catchy to get out of your head, and the interlude has this saxophone (played on a keyboard) which is splendid in construct and execution as well. Vivek is the lyricist and this song will definitely be playing most audio systems of cars for a while. Keba Jeremiah is on the electric guitars. 14. Running away 6091 is not just a number, it is the moniker of a musician whose pedigree should have actually taken him towards Carnatic music, but it is only the Carnatic space‘s loss that a talented young musician Gopikrishnan moves into indie music. He has been featured here before and he works with some excellent vocalists like Bindu Anirudhan here for this teasing and engaging number. The song is written by Bindu and Shama Ahmed and the song is composed by Bindu as wel. It discusses the mental state of an artist falling prey to externalities which end up driving the artist into a crazy fit. 6091 produces, mixes and masters the track and thanks to his contribution you can hear sounds that you never would in a traditional production. The ultimate purpose of music is to deliver a message through sounds and 6091 uses Lo-fi and instruments found in nature to perfect the output. Bindu’s singing creates a brdige for the listener to cross and enter the mind of this disgruntled musician, who is the subject of the song. Manu Mohan handles the album art.

The link below has the playlist on AMAZON PRIME https://music.amazon.in/user-playlists/557b4e2dd46a4d95a105e1440627cc45i8n0?marketplaceId=A3K6Y4MI8GDYMT&musicTerritory=IN&ref=dm_sh_crbGjJNs0b527ElXnBtf0tx4A Don’t break my heart RR Dhruvan is proof that the south Indie music industry and Telugu specifically is thriving and spreading its wings wider. I have featured him a few times and I am not at all surprised by the quality that emerges from him. Aditi Bhavaraju is a stunning singer and it is a heavily competitive space. The keys and her vocals drive the song forward with all the programming done by Achu Rajamani. The lyrics are written by Rakendu Mouli in Tamil. Sabin Suma Jose has mixed and mastered the track. The Piano is aided by bass-lines, rhythms and well-arranged harmonies. The solo violin in the front, and strings in the background have a scintillating interlude. This even continues into the stanza dominated by Aditi’s vocals. Aditi’s high-pitched singing and the way she emotes every word is worth listening to on loop multiple times. It is stunning how perfect her diction is in Tamil, being a Telugu singer, and it is a lesson for many budding singers. Ennai aalum pennilave Gopi Sundar is the master of melody and I am glad that his horizon has expanded from just Mollywood into Tollywood and Kollywood. This video stars Bigg Boss Tamil Season 3 winner Mugen Rao from Malaysia and more importantly it has the powerhouse vocals of Pradeep Kumar. The song is an enchanting melody straight out of the 1990s Tamil cinema, with a great set of live instruments as well. The acoustic and bass guitars are definitely playing a role here along with . The stanza is short and simple but it hits the right notes. The keys and strings dominate the second interlude along with the beautiful humming by Priyanka NK. She performs in the second verse. Gopi has arranged, composed and programmed the track, with Midhun Anand mixing and mastering the track. Uma Devi is the lyricist. Ivalai Polae M.S.Jones Rupert is a music producer, composer and Pianist who has been very busy and consistent with some good compositions in 2020 and 2021, and he continues in that trajectory here. He composes this and ropes in Priyanka NK to do the vocals and Navin B beautifully pens the words. The music video is excellently directed as well by Common Man Sathish but the choreography and presence of Akshitha Ravindran steals the show. Jones and Priyanka perform the vocals in harmony and look out for the Violin interlude which adds to the grandeur. There are elements of either Karaharapriya or Reethigowlai in the track. The flute and stynths become two more important elementary sounds in the track. Kanda Kanavu Anand Kashinath has been creating some very enjoyable singles in Tamil, and I also have been featuring them from time to time and here he combines with another usual suspect in Sublahshini to compose a very likable and loop-worthy number. The duo have composed this second single from “In my vazhkaiâ€? and thanks to her mesmerizing vocals, this one is an instant humdinger. Sajin Stanly has mixed and Joshua Daniel has mastered the track. The thavil gets introduced into the song and it reminds us of “Kathalikkum Penninâ€? by AR Rahman. The trumpets are a good addition to the mix of things in the interlude and keeps the fun and frolic high. Maayaavi This is another love song dedicated to lovers during the pandemic and the struggles they went through. Ashwin PM directs the video but more importantly Abu Thahir composes the tune. A very delightful melody which grows on you even stronger thanks to the vocalists Santhosh Balaji and Aishwarya Ravichandran. Keba Jeremiah’s guitars enhance the melody, and Karthik Vamsi gets the rhythms spot on through his drums and percussion. Abin Pushpakaran has mixed and mastered the track with mix assistance from Thooyavan. Lokesh and Avinash Satish are the recording engineers. Sowndharya K handles the make-up and Leela Jennifer works on costumes. If you pay attention the melody draws some parallels to “Anarkaliâ€? by AR Rahman from the movie ‘Kangalal Kaidhu Sei’. Mother Song A song from an Ajith movie is always eagerly expected from fans and it immediately becomes a super hit irrespective of its melody or emotional connect. This time I myself thoroughly enjoyed the number and even though we have a plethora of “mother-son sentimentâ€? songs in Tamil, this one can be definitely added to the list that makes an impact. Sid Sriram becomes an obvious choice right now in Kollywod for lullabies like this and he keeps the vocals solid without overdoing any of the aalaps. Vignesh Shivn is increasingly making a name for himself and a trusted and dependable lyricist and this is another feather in his cap. Yuvan composes and arranged this beauty, and once again it is Keba Jeremiah’s silken fingers on acoustic, electric and bass guitars that drive the track in to another orbital. KJ Vijay plays the flute in the interlude and M Kumaraguruparan records, mixes and masters the track Patchai Priya Mali has been around singing for various composers and she has been featured quite often. This time it is her own composition and she sigs with such finesse that you immediately fall in love. Lyrics are penned by ADK, and after that ravishing humming which tells me that is probably some “Karaharapriyaâ€? raaga influence. Listen to that splendid solo on the electric violin by Nataraj and Napier Naveen Kumar is on the bass guitars. The track is mixed by Sujith Hyder and mastered by Suesh Permal. All additional programming is by Vijay LJ, with recording by Vimal John and Lokesh Vijaya. There are also hints of “Nataikurunjiâ€? in the interludes. The Nadaswaram and flute also have been effectively and generously used through the track Poonja Kannazhagi This is a song that will stand the test of time. Yes I mean that, and this straight away jumps to become one of the best Tamil and Indian songs of 2021 according to me. Biju Sam has composed this stunner and also produced and arranged the live instruments. There are two talented singers who made a name for themselves at the latest Super Singer show on Star Vijay viz. Adithya R.K. and Reshma Shyam. Dhamayanthi is the lyricist responsible for writing these beautiful words. Gustavo Eiriz is just masterful on the acoustic guitar romanticizing the whole track and taking you back to your school days where you first fell in love. The string section reverberates in your ears and it feels like something out of a symphony. They are played by the Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra, conducted by Oleg Kondratenko and orchestrated by Srikanth Krishna. Biju himself plays the bass guitars and the track’s engineers are Jerbaraj on recording, Ishit Kuberkar on mixing and Christian Wright on mastering. Just listen to the interludes and background instrumentals like whistles, and strings and you will stand up in ovation appreciating Biju Sam. There are fragments of songs like “Love Polladhadhuâ€? by Sean Roldan somewhere in between, but nothing can take away credits from Biju Sam for this breathtaking number. If Adithya teases you, then Reshma mesmerizes you. Raegaigal Justin Prabhakar is right in the middle of a phenomenal purple patch I must say. A year or so ago he was just making inroads into Tamil and Telugu cinema, but now has composed for a Netflix Hindi movie “Meenakshi Sundareshwarâ€? and now a Pan India film called “Radhe Shyamâ€?. Sathyaprakash is the lead vocalist and there is a massive team of backing vocalists that includes Sam P Keerthan, Yogi Sekar, Shibi Srinivasan, Sugandh Shekar, and Pavan. The interludes are laden with the Saxophone by MSV Raja and Acoustic guitars by Arun Chiluveru. The live drums by Suresh Peters and bass guitars by Naveen Napier enhance the groove and funk quotient of the song. The additional keys are played by Anurag Saikia, Sebastian Satish, Bharath Dhanasekar C and Dishon Prince. The track is mixed by Balu Thankachan with Hariharan assisting, while Shadab Rayeen has mastered the track. Sadhikaariye It’s a return to composition for Diwacara Thiyagarajan after more than a year, and I have been looking forward to this. He does make a stylish return with Anand Aravindakshan and Sanjana Kalmanje playing lead vocalists. The sounds are really fresh and the guitar strokes provide much needed cheer played by Vijay Ganesan. It is not just the pallavi but the charanam as well that sound very hummable with Sanjana and Anand complimenting each other. The lines “Kanaa Kanaa nee thanadiâ€? are just wonderful and sung with oomph by Anand. Mohan Rajan writes the lyrics, and Shibi Srinivasan has given additional vocals’ performance and arrangements for the same. The track is produced and mixed by Vinod Ravi Sundar, with mastering by Rupendar Venkatesh and Divine Joseph, Kashyap, Shivanesh and Lijesh as recording engineers. Tappasu Neram Karthik is silently traversing into greater heights without anyone’s notice as a composer par excellence. So far it is only GVM who is offering him opportunities which is a little sad, considering Karthik is creative, like the way he did with “Guitar Kambi Mel nindruâ€? and solid in some of the Ondraga Originals. Anyway in this new movie featuring Varun from Bigg Boss 5, the song created waves when it was played as a morning song a few weeks ago, and now the more you hear it, the more you fall in love with it. Karthik composed, produced and arranged the track, sung by this phenomenal teen called Krishna K. The other lead vocalist is the famous Gana Guna who is well known in Kollywood, and we have some unbridled talent like Amrit Ramnath, Malavika Shankar and Manisha S as backing vocalists. Vivek is the lyricist, all the additional programming is by Ashok Sridharan, Balaji Gopinath and Sakkthivel. The vocals dominate the song with some interesting support from Keys and rhythms. The way Guna sings “pappa pa pappa ppaâ€? is just stylish beyond compare and he goes to deliver his lines with glitz as always. Joseph Vijay in on guitars, and all Stem mixing and mastering is by Sai Shravanam. The synth programming and production all work brilliantly to get perfect output. Aakash Rajan is the studio assistant and the track is mixed by Karthik and Aswin George John. Ullam Urugudhaiya Never keep this man out of the race, as Imman will somehow find his way into the best every single month. This time it is from the movie “Etharkkum Thunindhavanâ€? with Suriya as the lead. Pradeep Kumar is really making a remarkable comeback in to mainstream playback singing after laying low and involved in indie music. Vandana Srinivasan, and Brindha Manickavasakan are the female lead vocalists in the song. The Konakkol we hear at the beginning are by Ganapathy also plays the Mridangam, and the solo Violin is played by Manoj creating moments of nostalgia with the sounds. All the Indian percussions are conducted by Kaviraj and performed by Babu, Pradeep, Raja, Balu, Saravanan, David, Chiranjeevi and Azhagiri. Vandana and Pradeep totally grab the opportunity with both their hands and deliver a supreme vocal performance. Imman interestingly introduces he old version of “Ullam Urugutahiyyaâ€? in to the mix. Keba Jeremiah plays the acoustic and bass guitars while Subhani plays the stringed instruments. The Harmony team does a fabulous job and it comprises of Santosh Hariharan, Deepak, Shenbagaraj, Aravind Srinivas, Narayanan, Vignesh, Veena Murali, Sowmya Mahadevan, Deepthi Suresh, Abinaya Shenbagaraj, Ala B Bala and Soundarya Nandakumar. Let us forget to credit the kid’s chorus team as well comprising of Neha, Idhazhika, Dhanyasri, Shivathmika, Sahana. The Elfe Choir comprises of Roe Vincent, Angelin Nisha, Sheryl Suraj, Deepa Shankar, Nisha Sharon, Krithika Konda, Sneha Sathya, Padmaja Sreenivasan, Snigdha Chandra, Anuj Mathew, Rohit Sridhar, Reshwin Nishith, Aneesh Solomon Elfe Choir conducted by Maria Roe Vincent. Yugabharathi is the lyricist. Yenadi Penne Breezy, catchy, call it whatever you want, but it for certain will make you take notice of the inherent melody. The humming and solo violins by Balaji and Manoj strike you straight away and what else do you expect from one of the pioneers in Sam. C.S. I get a feeling from the opening lines that there could be some influence of Raag Saraswathi as the lines bear similarity to “Karpoora Bommai Ondruâ€?. Abhijit Rao’s vocals are fascinating and I am reminded of Balaram who has sung for AR Rahman, with some resemblance to the vocal texture of PB Sreenivos. The month is dominated by Keba Jeremiah who has appeared in multiple of these songs and here too he plays all the versions viz. acoustic, bass and electric guitars. Sam has written the lyrics and the song has a lot of Latino Jazz style to it. The Keys are played by Abey Terrence Antony. All the strings section we hear in the background in the verse are by Chennai Orchestra. The track is mixed and mastered by B. Thiru, with CD Anbumani as the recording engineer. Bhuvana Ananth is the music supervisor , Aishwarya and Kannan are the production managers.  The playlist link is https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnzHXmlVC7notAOhgldB0DHqPIpFd0ojf

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 350 tracks released in the week ending 30th January 2022, I have rated and reviewed the 15 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country. 1. Rangrezwa I heard this the first time, and maybe halfway through I messaged Meghdeep Bose saying that it was mind-blowing and I knew that I was just hearing the best song released for the week. That is the level of confidence you get when you hear music from Meghdeep who is the real deal. It is a pity that industries like Bollywood, which is running a huge talent deficit in music especially, cannot work with such amazing composers regularly. This is ne magical number and though there have been many tracks mimicking retro disco sounds, this one stands apart because the feel and tune sounds fresh. It is also not just some unilateral score with everything sounding jarring and unpleasant. The team of musicians is solid and you know that there are multiple layers of instruments all playing at the same time and this is the kind of work that inspires music journalists, musicians, and even listeners. Sonu Nigam is one of the most gifted vocalists of our generation and it is just a bigger gift to hear him sing for Meghdeep. Only Manoj Yadav could have inserted such wonderful meaningful lyrics in such a foot-tapping tune. Before I even get to pick all the great touches on the live instruments, I must say that the ones that stand out from start to finish are Bombay Strings’ and their group violins and when they play it is just 7th heaven. The violinists are Abhijit Mazumdar, Prakash Varma, Chander Makwana, Shyam Jawda Jitendra Javda, Dilshad Ahmed, Raju Padhiyar and Godwin Joseph. The percussions are solid and hugely charged up thanks to Allwyn Jeya Paul but it is the brainchild of Meghdeep who has produced, programmed, arranged, composed, played the syntheizers and vocorder as well. That deep voice of Sonu goes well, even when everything goes silent and you still hear the bass guitars by Ralph Menezes. Let us not forget Andrew McGuiness thumping the drums and driving the tempo of the track through all this. There is a moment when all the synthesizers stop, and all you hear are the bass guitars and a melody on strings to steal your heart away. Priyanshu Soni handles all the additional drum programming, and Japjisingh Valecha transcribe the strings scores. Listen to the last segment on Strings, which is just pure delight and Aditya Shankar accompanies on electric guitars. The strings are recorded by Manasi Tare, and Hanizh Taneja handles the mixing and mastering of the track. https://open.spotify.com/track/6sTtKG900vBBgMsTK4W6Tf?si=9103540df0324167 2. Tonight I first came across Pratika Gopinath when I heard about her singing for an American producer/musician Starita, and ever since she has had no looking back. She is part of an Indian music group called Easy Wanderlings whose music has been reviewed and featured by me right here on this website. She starts singing here and you are transported to a land where Jazz, Blues and R&B rule the roost. She possesses a voice that will send many so called singers to the cleaners, and make geniuses proud. This song is part of an EP called ‘Nightwing’ and although more than a few were lovely I found this track particularly inspiring. The track is conceptualized and composed by Jayant S who has also played the guitars, bass and synthesizers. Shreyas Iyengar plays the drums and he chooses to create the flow of the track with the heaviness and mildness as demanded like how he plays the hi-hat at times as well. The programming is excellent as you hear so many layers to the track and pay attention the solo on guitars by Jayant just at the halfway mark, and then we have further brilliance on the saxophone. Varun Venkit rocks your listening experience in the other track called “Circleâ€? as the percussionist. ‘Circle’ brings about a more peppy experience thanks to Latin Jazz style. There are 4 more tracks, and I might just include one more in the coming weeks. https://open.spotify.com/track/5U2lAhLpBlPMhyJUH3lqti?si=3090bf5418354672 3. I love you It is Go Goa Gone, as the small but developed state has produced two magical songs through some of its home-grown talents in two consecutive weeks. It was Kristian Bent with “Its all goodâ€?, and this one by Alexis D’souza is no less. This track is a part of a 7 tracl album called “You’re Nobody, You’re Perfectâ€? and although they were released back in 2020, this track has been streaming only recently probably because of the release of a new video. This is purely a song that showcases the vocal capabilities and delivery of Alexis, which are impeccable. It has a Soul style to it along with some terrific harmonies and almost present through the entre track. Ayan De does the mixing and mastering but despite all the vocal splendor, you will be enticed by the bass guitars and mild drums as well. There is a lot of keyboard programming adding essential layers to the track. The outro with all the lovely strings aided by guitars just makes you want more and more. https://open.spotify.com/track/13cgcxGgZR3qgDjmJcoHG3?si=4e49f79636c9434b 4. Oru Mathra Nin Father –daughter musical pairs like these don’t come at this level of performance so often but here is one to celebrate and cherish. After some magical songs composed for “Kolaambiâ€?, Ramesh Narayan who is an exponent of Hindustani Classical music takes up another venture here and just like an amazing song in that film called “Aarodum Parayukaâ€?, she delivers one here with stunning beauty. She received the Kerala State Award for playback singing for another song in the same movie. Louie Martin’s acoustic guitars make the opening marks with Josy John’s bass support. Madhushree sings like the most gentle breeze uttering every word of Vinayak Sasikumar with precision. The way Ramesh ji intertwines melody with instrumental creativity is unparalleled, especially the fact that someone who is always closer to Classical music can even produce such wonderful modern sounds. R Narayan plays instruments that I am hearing for the first time like Strumstick, and Backpacker guitar along with the Ukulele. The song is simple in structure with a shorter than usual verse length but it oozes quality. The track is mixed and mastered by Kiran Lal with Nishanth BT as mix assistant and the recording engineers are Vybav Hemkumar, Bharath Arjunan and Romy. We have Sooraj Santhosh on backing vocals for the song https://open.spotify.com/track/5VTYslFDAjj2QPhgL9xebC?si=efd0fb9629514ca8 5. Gaaname I have been meaning to write a full post on Hesham Abdul Wahab’s Hridayam which has 15 songs and that too like an old time cassette with Side A and Side B. It probably will be released soon but let us now focus on this wonderful melody once again showing the dominance of Malayalam music industry.  Let us enjoy this sung by two absolute masters of the vocal art in Sooraj Santhosh and Nithya Mammen. Nithya is singing with phenomenal frequency, I mean why wouldn’t she when she can perform with breathtaking quality like this. Josy’s flute is so inviting right at te start and nothing can match the serenading vocals of Sooraj. It does have the influence of Raag Desh, and the interlude is all a mix of Flute and guitars in this song composed, arranged and mixed by Hesham. The song had some outstanding sound quality thanks to Vishnu Raj who masters it and engineers like Amal Mithu and Vipin Lal who has worked on audio technical assistance. As the verse opens up in Nithya’s vocals we are once again exposed to her wide range and listen to the shift in tempo and change in rhythms as Anandan PK plays the Dolak, he also plays the tabla in the track. The second interlude is loaded with strings thanks to the team from Cochin Strings comprising of Francis Xavier, Josekutty, Herald Anthony and Francis Sebastian. Hesham wonderfully constructs a second verse which is different from the first showing his potential as a composer. The ending portions have these strings accompanying in the background layer as the vocalists sing. Vinayak Sasikumar once again is the lyricist and KD Vincent works as a music co-ordinator with Suroor Musthafa as the music assistant. https://open.spotify.com/track/4sMhRrxutsFK14MOeVzncs?si=40cf1254c68540b5 6. Naina Chhavi Sodhani is an indie musician who performs alone and also with her sister Pragya in their band called “Parindeyâ€?. She has been releasing singles and this one is her best work yet. The track is composed, produced, written and sung by Chhavi, focusing on the life of  a girl who has fallen madly in love, and other than the vocals I love the tempo of the song as well. The bass guitars are wonderful providing a separate layer of coolness to the track. If you play close attention we can also hear the Sarangi in the background and this probably adds a folkish flavor to the tune. We have experts like Keshav Dhar on mixing and Naweed on mastering. I listen to this song and I felt like it was the production and composition of Salim-Sulaiman, and that is one massive compliment to Chhavi. The composition is worth an applause as she brings in more traditional aspects with the introduction of Sitar sounds in the interlude. There are some EDM elements, with harmonies and rhythm arrangements also sounding nice. Aditya N plays a support role as the male backing vocalist. https://open.spotify.com/track/5SJ6qJaUj9jXLqRJzmUxQF?si=e5d7cb6e15b54ece 7. Ik Mili Mainu Apsara I have mentioned many times that I am a huge fan of BPraak, and it is not just his singing, which is obviously loved by millions of fans and even give credible acknowledgement through his National Award for playback singing. I however think his capabilities as a composer haven’t yet gotten the deserving credits. In my opinion he is one of the best in the land and he once again delivers a very different tune here which just raises the roof and sets the dance floor on fire. He combines with Jaani once again on lyrics and gets Gurinder Guri and Akaash Bambar to mix and master. Gaurav Dev and Kartik Dev make a huge contribution with their arrangements. It is an out-and-out dance number with terrific rhythms and harmonies accompanying throughout the song. BPraak’s singing is unquestionably flawless and he ropes in Asses Kaur to sing the female lead lines right at the very end. The scale change at the end reminds of AR Rahman’s songs, and also pay attention to the Keys and Bass guitars which come and go. https://open.spotify.com/track/39chWL7FFnxleLCBUXquv4?si=1a08da6de41b48d4 8. Don’t leg go The musician from Kerala calls himself Doctor Lincoln, and I feel anyone who can create some interesting piece of music is a healer too. This one is a track from his 2nd album called “Will see you nowâ€? and is dedicated to his friend and co-producer Santhosh Pulluvazhi who recently met his demise. The track is also produced by Lincoln, and Akshay Manoj. The guitars and vocals belong to Lincoln and he is driving this forward with a rock styled groove. The mix of the electric guitars, bass guitars and drums synchronizes well with his vocals and I love that he doesn’t sing with an unnatural tongue and accent. Steev Benjamin has directed the video along with donning the role of DoP. Palee Francis of WCMT plays the rums and does all the additional programming, and it is Steven C Mathison on Keyboards and bass guitar. When the drums and guitars fade away and Lincoln sings “Don’t Leave me here aloneâ€?, I could sense an influence of Raag Hamsadhwani and the composer later agrees with me as loves this particular Raag. It was listening to the uber famous “Colonial Cousinsâ€? back in the days. Kudos to Lincoln for composing something with sensibilities and tones of the east and west. We have the renowned musician Rex Vijayan on mixing and Ben Feggans on mastering. The actress in the video is Deepika Singh. https://open.spotify.com/track/2wKfQRv4kxSRd6suL1R9Cu?si=1fa086644dd64a36 9. Padhaa  Yazin Nizar is giving other established singers in Tollywood a run for their money as he has started recording with considerable frequency in the Telugu movie space. Sweekar AGasthi impressed last year with a very fine album called “Middle class melodiesâ€?, and he is continuing on that journey now. The moment I hear the song I once get a sense of Hamsadhwani or am I  also just so fascinated by this Raag? Apparently Yazin concurs that there are some influences if only mild. The interlude is very interesting with some techno- sounds and a nice harmony by kids, and I think credit goes not only to Sweekar who has composed, arranged and produced it, but also his team Balu S, and Nithin Jones who have done the additional programming and arrangements. The track is mixed and mastered by some foreign talent Martin Kano in Argentina and Mehraj is the sound engineer with Rehman penning the lyrics. https://open.spotify.com/track/0RuzRQf26NwIZy5ZPXvwDN?si=9f8e294973ec4c55 10. Chusanae Chusanae S Thaman enters my list after a couple of months of hiatus and the last we heard was from Bheemla Nayak I suppose. This too has stamp of his music and the singer’s pitch, the bass and synths and even the tone of the song reminds me of “Aruvamâ€? album’a song called ‘Aagayam’. The guitars are emphatic and standout in the track thanks to two bigwigs who go by the names of Keba Jeremiah and Ankur Mukherjee, and they play all the three versions viz. acoustic, bass and electric guitars. Rita Thyagarajan is a well know vocalist in Kollywood and here she portrays her skills and wide vocal range, and one has to credit her because it is a tough one to sing especially with all the domination by the guitarists. The strings we hear are by Chennai Strings, conducted by Ravi Raghav, and the mixing and mastering is by Shadab Rayeen with Osho V working on additional programming. KK has penned the lyrics. https://open.spotify.com/track/2xHW93awd4qEytfPQBLWaT?si=070faea5bad14499 11. Kannod Kannod Very rarely can we love and remember a song for an instrument, its arrangements and constant presence. Noushad plays the trumpet and it is one of the most addictive and enthralling instruments around and it just keeps you hooked on. This song is composed and performed by Sajeer Koppam wo has a tone that resembles Sid Sriram in many spots especially the stanza. The song probably has some influences of the Carnatic Raagam Kaapi even sending me into dejavu listening to Kadhal Rojave by AR Rahman from the movie “Rojaâ€?. Faisal Ponnan writes the lyrics while Sibu Sukumaran does the programming and mixing. I love the acoustic guitar following the trumpets in the interlude. The Trumpet follows right through and it is played and arranged stunningly. https://open.spotify.com/track/3Tu4Ekuh0KxfEwZnwYfaQ5?si=4f43db59239e4ca8 12. Olosh Dopur Rishi Panda keeps creating these songs both originals and covers and I also allocate time tom listen to them and this time I was quite sure that the song will be featured and reviewed as one India’s finest for the week. This song is written to address emotions of longing when we think of and remember a loved one. Niladri Banerjee has written and composed this subtle yet substantial melody, which has some layered strings in the background. Rishi’s singing is perfect to match the tone and texture of the notes which has some excellent arrangements by Debayan Banerjee. He has also mixed and mastered the track and I absolutely love the Sarod in the interlude and this has traces of Raag Desh if I am not wrong. There is a mild but intriguing backup vocal arrangement as, and to hear the Sarod, Ukulele, guitars and Keys is a like living in a dream that you never want to see the end of. https://open.spotify.com/track/78KXFKcIXjCHYZXyg0iyAs?si=097531f43c7142d2 13. Pyaar Ya Sazaa Suhavi Kalsi is a trained Hindustani Classical vocalist and a student of Music at Delhi Univ, and you can easily sense the way she introduces fragments of the style into this otherwise very Jazz sounding number. Kudos to her for being able to compose this track fusing two very opposing styles but in music, there are no opposing forces per se. Suhaviâ&eur

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 350 tracks released in the week ending 23rd January 2022, I have rated and reviewed the 15 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country. Find the full playlist of Top Songs this week on SPOTIFY 1. Sanware The best song of last week according to me is this beautiful and outrageously melodious number that talks about a four-letter word called HOPE. Priyansh Srivastava and Garvit Sonihave composed this killer tune and they both have sung in this track as well. The opening lines showcase both of them and this is interesting as the vocal textures of both these vocalists vary tangibly. Priyansh does a bit more than just singing and serenading us as he has also written the lyrics along with Saurabh Jain and he also plays the wonderful guitars we hear all along. The flute solo comes in the interlude, and then we hear a nicely composed verse and though the song is complete in structure, the singing is probably what carries the track upward & forward, with some excellent aalap. Right after first verse observe the tempo picking up with some pacy guitars and the singing matches to it. The song is proof that if you have a melodious composition and some very able singers, you can create wonders with very little instrumentals and complexities as well. The track is produced by Garvit Soni. All the artwork is handled by Abhinandan Bhargava. https://open.spotify.com/track/4qBHgJWDMuWhgWwp2FFz7z?si=b38381689b154fa5 2. A twisted lullaby You see some names, and then you know what I in store for you when you hear their music. Vinay Kaushal is right at the very top of pecking order of Indian musicians, in my opinion and just as I thought, he immensely impresses in this new EP called ‘Duality’. I particularly loved this track and it is really music like that makes you believe that Indians can compete and conquer at the highest level no matter what the field. He also picks some amazing vocalists when he composes and produces these singles and just like Aditi Ramesh was at her uniquely outstanding self in “The elephant in the room’, this time Yamini Lavanian is ravishing and delivers a superlative performance. The song starts out and I was confident that Vinay was playing the slide guitars, but apparently it is just acoustic guitar tunes and tweaked to play in baritone. Doesn't it sound brilliant and like something we only hear in songs from the Midwest in the US? Vinay has composed, produced, stereo mixed and mastered, and even done harmonies. I cannot emphasize enough on how magical Yamini sounds, and I can only kick myself saying why haven’t I heard her before. The song is meant to be a lullaby, only a bit twisted to suit our current living conditions and times. Yamini also exhibits her wide vocal range singing on lower scales and then even hitting the falsetto in between. Uma Athale writes these beautiful lines and we have Ronak Runwal doing the spatial mix and master. Aditya Gopalakrishnan has assisted on the guitar recording. I felt a lot like I was listening to “The chainâ€? by Fleetwood Mac. https://open.spotify.com/track/4xhz57MCD4TfXjJbhl54p2?si=2a62af3f00e648ff 3. Ufaq He interestingly names his instagram handle as Bhaskarville, how very creative. Well you don’t need any Sherlock Holmes and his art of deduction to confirm Anand Bhaskar’s genius and abilities as a musician. Time and again, the band Anand Bhaskar Collective delivers and this is one of the best yet. Scintillating electric guitars welcome you and they are played by Hrishi Giridhar. Anand gets pumped up on his vocals and we have some really charged up drums to match the intensity of electric guitars, thanks to Shishir Tao. Neelkanth Patel is not going to be left behind and you can hear him simply sizzle on his bass guitars. Ajay Jayanthi another usual suspect produces and mixes for the track with Christian Wright doing the mastering and assisted by Andrew T Mackay. To catch a segment of magic wait for the 2 minute 50 second mark on the timer to hear Shravan Sridhar explode on his Violin solo. The lyrics are written by Anand  and Nidhi Sethia, with vocals recorded by Prathamesh Dudhane and Samarth Chawla being the other recording engineer. https://open.spotify.com/track/4j7u0CKnMKv9d4G6aPp5me?si=2af3261c977a48cd 4. Lat ulajhi Kshitij Tarey is making a name for himself for picking some old gems and re-creating them with excellent refurbishments. Last week it was a project called “Baju Bandâ€? with Sniti Mishra that made it to this list of top songs, and this week we have a singer from Indian Idol 12, who presents this version of Lat Ulajhi. The Piano start things off along with the bass guitars by Abhishek Dasgupta, but there is some excellent intervention on the Sitar by Chirag Katti. Anjali is impeccable in singing this and she does use some spontaneous and effective aalap to add beauty to the song. It is set in the beautiful Raag of Bihag and to add another layer of classical music we have Akshay Jadhav on the Tabla.  Reena Gilbert does a fabulous job recording, mixing and mastering the track and we have to thank the music label Strumm Entertainment for bringing back to life such old classics. https://open.spotify.com/track/77477vF5I3QnC4lgpwYKS2?si=72a8c688f69a428c 5. Chasm Indian musicians and listeners are blessed because the variety, and scope to fuse different styles is enormous and I am a big fan of fusion music specifically thanks to songs like this. This is how the future of Indian fusion music should be, Period. Pavitha Venkitachalam sings at this low scale so impressively delivering the Carnatic lines and notes with precision. I for a long time kept thinking that there was some Revathi Raag influence, but when I later spoke with Pavithra, she told me that it is based in Raag Vakulabharanam. Incidentally upon some research I found that Revathi is a derivative from the melakarta Raaga Vakulabharanam and maybe that is why I felt happy that I was not way off! The guitars are played Farish Reheman who also has produced the track and his strumming along with Sreekanth Ramesh on drums add the rock/metal elements in the fusion. Let us not forget Sreeram Sreedharan’s constant support on the Violin, which embellish the track, with the Carnatic flavors. Vishnu Shenoy plays the Mridangam and it combines well with the electric guitar solo in the middle, which is a touch of class. Nivin Raphael has mixed and mastered the track. The outro with the drums, Mridangam, Violin, and elecltric guitars in one super Jugalbandi takes away the cake. https://open.spotify.com/track/2zlcDr62sgX6s7RafPnqlc?si=a3b136ce3b96440c 6. Raahein I first heard about this duo when they worked with playback singer and musician Haricharan for a brilliant song called “Yaarum Illaiâ€?. I strongly recommend you guys take a listen as this is probably one of the best Tamil/Indian songs in the last few years. Anyway Pavithra Chari who is one of the duo is a Tamil singer who is trained in Classical Indian music and has a resounding voice and vocal potential to go with it. I am glad she has started getting some chances in Tamil movie albums of late. The other half is formed by Anindo Bose who is one of the busiest musicians around as he is involved with many bands, and indie musicians as their primary and trusted sound engineer. Just last week he was involved in two different songs that made it to my Top 15, viz. “Bihagâ€? with Anirudh Varma and “Shes like a Breezeâ€? with Rohan Prasanna. Now coming to this splendid score, which is apparently set in Raag Bhairavi we heard glimpses of Pavithra’s vocal prowess. The programming, production, sound design and Keyboards all are handled by Anindo and he mixes and masters the track at Plug ‘n’ Play Studios. These elements add wonderful fusion layers to an otherwise very classical sounding song. We even feel like we are listening to a synth pop track thanks to Anindo’s expertise. https://open.spotify.com/track/7CHGpAMZ4RuPXaZ0C811Ur?si=3d510a7abd634ece 7. Tera Mera & Beqaraar I just posted on Instagram, saying how pleasantly surprised I was listening to the album “Loop Lapetaâ€? after years of monotony and mediocrity from Bollywood music. I loved two songs ‘Tera Mera’ composed by Rahul Pais & Nariman Khambatta at The Jamroom, while ‘Beqaraar’ is composed by Santanu Ghatak. ‘Tera Mera’ has a very Western lullaby kind of a texture and tone to it and it is vastly helped by Sharvi Yadav’s singing. Siddhant Kaushal has penned the lyrics, and Rahul conducts the vocals. The duo called ‘The Jamroom’ also produce this track which is sober and I love the introduction of the Trumpets along with some steady guitar strumming. The recording engineer is Jarvis Marcedo who has also mixed and mastered the track along with Donal Whelan. As we approach the closing segment there is a nice strings section, with some dreamy humming, mildly followed by the trumpets as well. https://open.spotify.com/track/77Ho7A6XL7Rt0zcD71LoEG?si=b23e51cb5a6d4c25 ‘Beqaraar’ starts off like a retro song from the 1960s and sounds quite Latinized as well. I am reminded of RD Barman maybe because the song just like this yesteryear great had notes which weren’t all too predictable. The lines “Mehki raton mein, yeh behka khwabon meinâ€? are amazing especially the second half which has a twist. Raghav Kaushik is one of favorite Indie musicians and I am glad he gets an opportunity to shine here. Ronkini Gupta has been featured on my blog as well and she does the female vocal lead. Interestingly the dominance of the Accordion is replaced by the Piano after the opening lines and it now sounds fresh rather than retro. Mayank Chaudhary plays a great hand with his guitars, arrangements and programming, and as Saikat Sarkar plays the role of recording engineer, Vijay Dalal mixes and masters the track. Santanu Ghatak writes an composes this heartfelt melody. https://open.spotify.com/track/3PzN12aFmAdx40syySJM18?si=a35449ee787b4c35 8. Mujse ek baat Sarthak Kalyani does it again, and after his beautiful composition called ‘Saahiba’ a couple of weeks ago, he returns with another semi-classical number. He is focused on getting old ghazals written in the form of Urdu Poetry back to life through a project he called “Muhafizâ€?.  The trio has Sarthak, Siddharth Chopra and Neeraj Shetty. With the first two involved in the composition and Neeraj produces this track. As I was hearing this through the delightful vocals of Sarthak, I heard a strong sense of Raag Shankarabharanam in Carnatic music, which is called Bilaval in Hindustani. Then when I had a word with Sarthak, he tells me saying that there are many Raagas intertwined with Bilaval also playing a mild part. The original Urdu lyrics are written by Mushafi Ghulam Hamdani. The guitars and rhythms provide the right impetus to the song and modernize this rendition and a big kudos to the trio for all the programming and final output. https://open.spotify.com/track/6OsFtrUIxltsakTNYDR1LK?si=3c77a165c363461f 9. Imposter This Chennai based duo Pavithra Krishnaswamy and Goutham Kumar have been on my radar for more than a year, and this time they make it to the top songs of the nation with a super fun track which has more layers than you can follow at the first instance. The indie producer/composer Ashwin Vinayagamoorthy produces this one as the composition, writing and performances are handled by Coconut Milk Project. We at the very beginning listen to acoustic and electric guitars by Sridhar Varadarajan who also has played the Bouzouki. The rhythms are so catchy thanks to Ashwin and Siva Prakasam who play it along with Percussions. Pavithra’s singing is lovable as she doesn’t fake an accent and it does feel a bit like how an Indian would sing in English and that is admirable as she shows there is beauty in it. The mix of the singing and instruments gives a feeling of a Church Gospel and one can feel the underlying basslines thanks to Kabeeb Sivaprasad. Goutham joins on the vocals as well, and I love the lines that begin from “They are going to catch you soonâ€? and this and everything that follows sounds like a very melodious Indian tune. Nived Np can be heard doing an excellent job on the Piano, Synth and string arrangements. I love the part where the percussions take a breather and she singsâ€? There must be something at which I’m the bestâ€?. All additional keyboard and textural arrangements are by Ashwin with recording, mixing and mastering by Sivanesh Natarjan https://open.spotify.com/track/5FNT87UIyz9TehAbTpAdUW?si=9e0dfa14b79b46e9 10. Hope The last time Anubha Kaul and Aman Jagwani combines, it was ethereal as an EP and I loved “This placeâ€? and featured it as well. Anubha dindt stop there, her EP “Fractalsâ€? will probably be covered by me as one of the best EPs of 2021. Now they get together again, as Anubha writes and sings like a sorceress, with Fryderyk HD playing the solo on Keys and Benjamin plays the Vibraphone which is something like a Xylophone, and it sounds excellent in Jazz compositions. Aman is outrageously good as he produces, composes plays the drums and synths and even mixes the track. You can hear the drums so mildly behind all the vocals and harmonies, almost mesmerizing us into oblivion. Music like this should be promoted and popularized by the scores of OTT based content as stuff like this would be splendid OST of the highest quality. Well done Aman and Anubha, and finally Ayan De masters the track. https://open.spotify.com/track/300axL2BgjBWYPJpYjPYxm?si=0b0c7858d0414706 11. Its all good I had to read the credits a few times to ensure I wasn’t’ listening to some American singer-songwriter blast his way into my headphones. I was ultimately glad and proud that this guy hails from Goa. It is written, composed, arranged and performed by him and I recommend that you drop everything else and just listen to this song and be transported to Colorado or Idaho in the US. The guitars are solid and Kristian uses his vocals so brilliantly being gentle at times, like the humming, and then upping the ante when he has to. I promise you I felt like I was listening to Mark Knopfler of ‘Dire Straits’ especially when he vocalized in a speaking style like in “Money for Nothingâ€?. Play this, let your windows down and speed up on the highway and you will know why I picked this song. The video has been shot and edited by Mohit Sebastian https://open.spotify.com/track/3hEJZyCwAGzRsVujGhsbcR?si=a684d892a5e64ab7 12. Haiya Ho The Tapi Project did a fair job the last time with their folk fusion single and this time they earned their spot this list with a heartwarming and anthem-like song with a title even that sounds like one. This song apparently has taken inspiration from fishermen in Kerala, venturing into unchartered territories. You can hear the wonderful humming bits probably suggestive of the fishermen singing in unison.  The song is composed the band comprising of Yogendra Saniyawala, Swati Minaxi, Anand Joseph Mani and Gaurav Kapadia. Swati’s vocals are simply grand and she show amazing potential singing like a rock star in a folk song almost like she idolizes a Sunidhi Chauhan. Yogendra is strumming the guitars and also involved in the backing vocals and has penned the lyrics. Gaurav plays the energetic hand at drums and Biju Nambiar is the man on the Piano, electric Piano, and Keyboards. The backing vocals are done by all these band menmbers and you can even hear a children’s team of vocalists Kashvi Singh, Vedika Agrawal and Arjun Agrawal. Listen to a small section on the guitars which is just mind-numbing good after Swati sings “Barsa barsaâ€?. The electric bass is played by Don Manuel Iagullon, and as Hersh Desai records, Vijay Benegal mixes and Ashyar Balsara masters the track.

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 350 tracks released in the week ending 9th & 16th January 2022, I have rated and reviewed the 15 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country. Find the full playlist of Top Songs this week on SPOTIFY Bihag I believe in him, and every-time he releases a single, it becomes a project that I deeply look forward to. Anirudh Varma is a genuine flag-bearer who keeps the greatness of Indian classic music alive and spreading it amongst the newer crop of music listeners. This is the 3rd single from him and his trusted musicians after a ‘Bhimpalasi’ and ‘ Chhayanat. The track features some amazing talent as well like Nikhil Rao from the band ‘Indian Ocean’ and vocalists Amira Gill, Kavya Singh and Sreerag. The video of the song features a Delhi-based Odissi dancer Vrinda Chadha. The track obviously set in Raag Bihag apparently brings to light the love between two individuals who have been longing for each other. The Piano played by Anirudh and the Violin by Miku Konishi start things off so delightfully and then Rohit Prasanna engages us further with his flute solo. The vocals initially are rendered in Hindustani style by Kavya Singh who just improvises as she goes along, and then at the right time the wonderful intervention on Tabla by Saptak Sharma appears. Sreerag does an aalap in true Carnatic style and this is brilliant by Anirudh to concatenate both these splendid classical styles. Anirudh also has done the arrangements composition and even vocal arrangements and production along with another super talent Saptak Chatterjee. I am reminded of two gems, one in Carnatic music called ‘Thikku Theriyatha kattil’ by Maharajapuram Santhanam and a song in the movies called “Malargal Kettenâ€? sung by KS Chitra and composed by AR Rahman. Amira Gill and Sreerag sing the Carnatic elements with perfection aided by Varun Rajasekharan on the Ghatam. Anushree Mahindra supports effectively right through on backing vocals. Nikhil Rao creates some magic playing Bihag on the electric guitars and then Mehtab Ali Niazi does some finger sorcery playing the Sitar playing at super-normal speed. Now we have a unison of all vocalists and then the Keys and drums by Anant Mittal tag along. The whole track is a master-class in arrangements. The acoustic guitars are played by Shrikant Biswakarma and bass guitars are by Madhur Chaudhary. The Sarangi which we hear in the background is by Ahsan ali and the track is mixed and mastered by Anindo Bose at Plug ‘n’ play Studios. The video is filmed and directed and edited by Shrey Gupta with BTS by Saubhagya Saxena and artwork by Shrey Kathuria. 2. Tum se A great track follows and now in the second spot and this is composed and produced by Sourav Dey and Saurav Bhardwaj, and this too is to evoke that sense of love and romance. Sushant Pandey is the lyricist. The track starts off with a soul-stirring solo by Rohan Prasanna on the Sarod and then the vocals of Purvi Chaturvedi. Sourav the composer is the lead male vocalist and the singing by both the leads is so pleasing to the ears. The interlude is another excellent showpiece on the Sarod with Ankit Divdhir Negi embellishing the track with his flute interventions. Saurav Bhardwaj and Satwik Tripathy play the guitars and that becomes more evident in the verse, which is once again beautiful in vocal delivery thanks to Purvi. As the water flows in the background we hear the wonderful flute taking us back to mother-nature and her gifts. The bass guitarist is Purav Gohain and Paras Khanna does the mixing, mastering and co-production work. Raghav Munjaal handles the motion graphics and animation, with Simran Gupta as creative supervisor and Sachin Kashyap on artwork design and illustration. I don’t know if it’s the song’s tone of the flute resemblance but I am reminded of AR Rahman’s masterpiece ‘yeh tara who tara’ from Swades. The origin of the track and some segments also make me wonder if there is a bit of Hamsadhwani Raag somewhere. 3. Pathi Pathi This individual is riding on a high, and well if you ask me it could refer to the composer, the female lead singer or the male lead singer. Ranjin Raj is the composer, and after an outstanding score for “Kaavalâ€? he’s back againg for this rollicking number. Nithya Mammen makes it to my list almost every week, as she is undoubtedly one of the finest vocalists around in India now. Finally Kapil Kapilan who undoubtedly delivered the best vocal performance of 2021 with “adiyeâ€?. When you have a team like this nothing can go wrong and that is evident in this number from start to finish. The song starts off in brilliant style with a fast paced tempo showing glimpses of Raag Abheri in the pallavi. Murukan Kattakad is the lyricist. Embar Kannan is solid on the violin solo, and the mild aalap that Kapil does might remind you of Sid Sriram. Let me go one step further than this comparison, and state that Kapil according to me is the probably going to take over from Sid, in fact wait for my post and article about how the same title called “Adiyeâ€? has boosted both Sid and Kapil into limelight. The interludes are alos heavy on violin but once the charanam begins we are reminded of songs like “Malare Mounamaâ€? though this belongs to Darbari Kanada raaga. The charanam is heavily influence by Raag Kanada and it involves some blissful singing by Nithya. The arrangements and programming are top-notch and its thanks to Ranjin Raj and Alan Joy Mathew. The second interlude has another ravishing violin and Kamalakar joins in on the wind instrument. Sai Prakash, Senthil Prasath and Sampath S are the recording engineers. The track is mixed and mastered by Harishankar V. 4. Baju Band This is a classic song that has been given a new façade or refurbishment, and it is re-created by Kshitij Tarey and sung with effective poise by Sniti Mishra. The original is a Tumri set in Raag Bhairavi. Abhishek Dasgupta’s guitar strumming is excellent along with the inventive use of Cajon as the percussion played by Akshay Jadhav, and he also plays the Tabla in the track. There is a constant presence of the Piano and that adds to the melody and calmness. Reena Gilbert has recorded, mixed and mastered the track with DOP role donned by Subrat Sethi and editing by Umesh Kashyap. The track is a great production overall but the standout performance comes from Sniti Mishra who delivers every note with a scintillating touch. Listen to her vibrato to believe it. 5. Need to know now Salim-Sulaiman are at it again and their next song from Bhoomi 2021 makes it to my list. I am not surprised even a bit and this kind of consistent excellence is commonplace for the brothers now. Salim and Sulaiman have composed and produced this track featuring Shashwat Singh and Nikhita Gandhi as lead vocalists. The hindi lyrics are penned by Salim and English words by Dhiren Garg. Shahswat’s singing is stylish as usual and the way he adds the subtle vibratos is just way too impressive. Nyzel D’lima and Muheet Bharti on guitars and of-course Rushad MIstry on bass simply take you for a ride, a total joyous one at that. Raj Pandit plays the vocorder and co-produces it as always and with Salim playing the Keyboards along with Jarvis Manazes, Sulaiman plays the Zen drums. The moment Nikhita starts singing in ENgish the track too makes a deviation and sounds a lot like a pop EDM from just a breezy pop track. Darshan Doshi brings in solidity with his drums and the track is mixed and mastered by Aftab Khan with Vatsal Chevli as his mix assistant. 6. Knock on your door The song not just carries the similar words, but for some reason even feels like I am hearing “Knocking on heaven’s doorsâ€? by Bob Dylan. Its become customary now to have a song by Compass Box Studios in the top 15 every week just like we have one by Merchant Records. I am sure all other musicians in the country are wondering how to create music with this kind of zany consistency. Raag Sethi and Divyang Arora produce the track but Dhyani totally steals the show with that voice that makes your heart throb. But a close second is Raag playing the bass guitars with an incredible oomph, and he also is playing the acoustic and electric guitars in the track. Listen to the mild clarinet support provided by Harmish Joshi and the dependable Shivang Kapadia on drums. There is a nice solo on the electric guitar right near the end, and we wish it lasted longer. But watch what happens after that as we have a mild pause, vanishing percussions, and now its just Dhyani on vocals and Raag on bass guitars making me feel like I am listening to the Maestro Ilaiyaraja himself. The track is mixed and mastered by Thomas Juth. The way she sings “you gave our kingdom upâ€? is downright marvelous.  7. Patient with me “Know your hail Maryâ€? was released by Brecilla back in September and it was showstopper good, and if you haven’t heard it already, I suggest you stop reading this blog right now and go have a listen. Or maybe just listen to this magical vocal performance first. In a very competitive market where there are a plethora of vocalists Brecilla somehow seems to stand out of the crowd and that is no mean feat. The harmonies produce a very interesting humming right near the start, and they are a beautiful layer along with the Keys, guitars and strings. She does a little bit of scat-singing and you fall in love with everything she does. Pranav Kamat is playing the electric guitars, and Abhinay Lama is on the acoustic guitars. The predominant sound of Electric upright bass is from Yohaan Pissurlenker. Hardik Mehta plays the drums with Maharshi Joshi doing the mixing, mastering and recording. To be honest I cannot be patient with Brecilla, I need to hear her next single right away, because she is that good. 8. Udaan The Yellow Diary is a band I follow for some excellent Punjabi pop and Rajan Batra on his own also has impressed me quite a bit like the song with Raghav Meattle and Nikhil D’Souza called “Shades of Greyâ€?. This one is the band in full flow as they sing ‘Udaan’ referring to how every member of the band was infact doing something else in life before finally switching over to the music profession and passion. The composition belongs to the band but its lead vocals and words come from Rajan. There is peculiar style that he has and I am not sure it will suit any other singer as much this former Naval Cadet. The keys form a crucial element at the beginning and right through and Himonshu Parikh takes care of that along with some backing vocals and production of the track. The splendid bass and electric guitars are played by Stuart DaCosta. I love how the song keeps altering into various tempos and energy levels and Sahil Shah ups the ante when needed and shies away on drums as required. The synth programming is quite effective and catchy and a lot of the credit goes to the sound engineers like Sid Sirodkar on mixing and mastering, and Abhishek Khandelwal and Dilip Nair are the recording engineers. 9. Darkest days and brightest nights Bodhisattwa Ghosh is a Kolkata based composer and guitarist and he recently released his solo debut album by the name “Darkest days and brightest nightsâ€? and it is this title track that impressed me the most from the 9 track album. Saul Samuel is the lead vocalist and the brand of rock feels more like hearing to the style of “Jethrotulâ€?. The backing vocals by Shrestha Das are excellently performed and arranged. The bass guitars by Mainak Nag Chowdhury stand out as they keep playing like a background score. The solo violin by Rohan Roy and Keys by Pradyumna Singh Manot add to the gravitas of the song. The drums are never dominating but you do recognize their presence thanks to Gaurab Chatterjee’s intelligent display. John Paul has splayed the VST instruments and also produced the track. He is also responsible for mixing the track. Beyond the 4th minute we hear a savvy electric guitar solo by Bodhi which is the highlight of the track and he is involved in playing the acoustic guitars. I love how the electric guitar keeps playing with a total improvisation and fades into thin air towards the end of the track. Bodhi has written, composed, arranged and co-produced the track. The track is mastered by Sayan Ghosh and as Tirthankar Ray records the live drums, Abhibroto Mitra records the vocals. 10. Sammathame Tollywood music can never be left behind as there are always jewels coming from that part of India. This song is from a new upcoming movie called ‘Raja Viramarka’. The track is composed, programmed and arranged by Prashanth R Vihari. The track is a guitarist’s heaven as there is so much scope to shine and deliver and Arun Chiluveru grabs with all his fingers and how brilliantly he executes it right form the start. He also plays the bass and electric guitars on the track, and the opening segment makes me feel like I am listening to AR Rahman’s “Dil seâ€? title track. The chorus team does a very fine job and it includes Kavya, Aparna Ritesh and Naresh. Karthik has moved into singing in Malayaam and Telugu and he sings in his usual groovy catchy style. VS Bharan’s additional synths can be heard right through the track. In the verse Shashaa Tirupati opens her account and she immediately smashes it out of the park with that impeccable delivery. It is around these parts that I do sense some influence of Raag ‘Karaharapriya’. Chaitra Ambadipudi also joins in on the vocals and towards the end of the verse we have a solid solo on the violins played in Western style by Sandilya Pisapati. The second verse is different from the first in structure and notes and that shows Prashanth’s skill as a composer. Rama Jogayya Sastry writes the lyrics, and the track is aided by some very good drums, and finally it is mixed by Sarath J and mastered by Nitish R Kumar. 11. Ee Seethege Kannada music industry is shining bright as well just like Tollywood,thanks to composers like Raghu Dixit. This song is from the upcoming movie “Garudaâ€? and it is sung by Sruthi VS and Raghu himself. The way the song starts, it clearly shows influences of Raag Maand and the sweet vocals of Sruthi glorify every note delivered. Sudharshan’s flutes fill the interlude with melody and when the verse opens up, the Mrindangam is a wonderful addition to the scheme of things thanks to Sruthi Raj who has also played the Tahvil, Ganjira and Tabla.  John Paul who played with Bodhi at number 9 this week, is also the man behind the acoustic and bass guitars for this song. Nakul Abhyankar who is one of my favorite composers in South Cinema these days has done all the programming work with additional programming by Jathin Dharshan. Sudharshans solo on the flute is even more enticing to hear in the second interlude. The humming by Sruthi VS in interlude sounds more like Hamirkalyani or Saranga raagas. The second verse has a lot of Tabla for percussion and Raghu flourishes as a singer in the higher scales especially. Bharath M Venkataswamy is the lyricist and Krithik Koushik plays the violin with recording, mixing and mastering by Vishnu K J. 12. Tere Bin Raghav Chaitanya is not just your ordinary playback singer in Bollywood, he is supremely talented, has a gifted voice and can compose music in the indie space with impressive quality. NO wonder he is a preferred choice for Anurag Saikia who is one of the most trust-worthy composers in the business today. I have featured many of his numbers including the latest ones ‘Faasle’ and ‘Karoon bhi kya’. Raghav has produced, sung, composed and played the gentle acoustic guitars. Listen to the uncanny bass guitar notes in the background by Rajkumar Dewan right from the beginning. The singing is par excellence, especially when he sings those lines “kaise hua yehâ€? with mild vibrato. Aditya Shankar plays the electric guitars and they go perfectly well the rhythms programmed. Shashank Tyagi and Raghav pen the lyrics with some more contributions by Yash Anand and Aditya Joshi. You can alos hear the mild harmonies in the background layers and they are designed by Raghav and Fardeen Siddiqui. The outro is grand and a great symphony of harmonies, lead vocals and all the live instruments, as Panaj Borah mixes and masters the track. 13. Jhooti hai Rishabh Tiwari I guess is getting a feature for the first time in my list, and it is nice to get new musicians and their music reviewed here. He has written and composed this song and also we have the famous guitarist/producer Vaibhav Pani arrange for this track. The song has a very Bollywood feel, but that is never wrong especially if we have an extremely hummable tune at hand. The harmonies, guitars and rhythms are perfectly complimenting the vocalist. The sound of Keys gain prominence in the stanza and that is what makes the song deep. Tarun Sharma has recorded, mixed and mastered the track. The tune somewhat reminds me of “Main Tenu Samjhawan kiâ€?. 14. Barbaadiyaan This is the band’s second single and I have promised myself that Ill listen to the first single called “Kuch Iss Tarahâ€?. The song deals and addresses a very pertinent and important issue of drugs and substance abuse. Fateh has written the lyrics and also is the lead vocalist for the song. Viraj Joshi is emphatic on the lead guitars and Anish Puthuraya, plays the rhythm guitars. The title line is just pure bliss especially when it is sung like this by Fateh. Akarsh Singh is matching up to Viraj’s electric guitars with his intense drumming. Roopank Verma is adding a layer on the bass guitars that just cannot be overlooked. Anish also has produced the track and sung the harmonies, and there is a team of musicians who have also worked on the additional composition viz. Aayush Khazanchi, Bijoy Palliserry and Kshitij Kumar Chaudhary. The song looks like something out of the movie “Rock onâ€? and that is definitely meant to be a compliment. The track is mixed and mastered by the famous sound engineer Saurabh Lodha. 15. Shes like a breeze Rohan Prasanna is this young Sarod exponent and he is creating waves all around with his music. This whole album had some amazing scores and songs and it was rightly named “Bouquet of Lifeâ€?. I particularly loved this track and remember he has already appeared in the second best song of this week “Tum Seâ€?. Rohan has also lent his voice for this track and mixed it, while Anindo Bose of Plug ‘n’ Play studios has mastered the track. There are no lyrics and no structure, it is almost he is like just being creative and improvising as goes along. The track is like a wonderful evening breeze blowing and hitting your face and only music like this can feel as good as the real thing. Who knew the sarod can be so sensational in effect!

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 2nd January 2022, I have rated and reviewed the 15 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country. Find the full playlist of Top Songs this week on SPOTIFY 1. Christmas times It is more than 10 days since Christmas, but it is never too late to listen to the goodness of music relating to the festive season. Samantha Noella is one of the finest vocalists in the country and her vocal strength in delivering styles of Jazz especially is without parallels. Tubby is the music composer for this joyous score with lyrics penned by Samantha herself. There are a lot of backing vocalists ate play here and they are all students from the Scattitude Academy of music comprising of Sera Sanyal, Aarya Gadkari , Kiara Alemao, Ivaana Vastani , Alisa Pacheco , Rebecca Vaz and Bethany Pereira. The saxophone is constantly playing right through the track in the background layers, and just when you wish you heard more of it, Mark Hartsuch plays a savvy solo with his own improvisations. Vinayak Pol plays the drums, and there is a lot of emphasis on Keys and strings that keep the song alive. The harmony section is a beautiful segment that is quite a deviation from the main track. 2. Naad E Ali You hear this and you are transported into a land of calm and you feel like you are just waiting at the gates of heaven. Apparently this is a powerful prayer, calling Hazrat Ali and resonates the event of Gadeer E Khumm, in a traditional Qawwali form. The singing and its effective impact on us can be discussed at great lengths, but what about the Harmonium played by Bawa Sahni, Tabla by Navin Sharma and Dholak by Aslam Dafrani and Navin. Salim-Sulaiman are truly unstoppable and one cannot thank them enough for their contribution to music as they compose and produce one more fabulous track for Bhoomi 2021. The lyrics are written by Salim and Noor Vasaya and Raj Pandit as usual co-produces it. The scintillating vocals of Salman Ali is beyond par and he is ably supported by Salim,Raj and Vipul Mehta in the lead. Other than the traditional Table we also hear the drums and Darshan Doshi plays them, with some really keen observation you can judge the greatness of bass guitars’ notes played Rushad Mistry. There is a lot of sgments in the song where I am tempted to say that there is an influence of Sindhu Bhairavi Raag, which is known as Asavari in Hindustani. The harmonies add a great layer of depth and it has some inspiration vocalists there too like Rajiv Sundaresan, Rishikesh Kamerkar, Suhas Sawant, Muheet Bharti, Deepti Rege, Archana Gore, Aditi Prabhudesai, Jitendra Tupe, Umesh Joshi, Janardan Dhatrak and Dattatray Mestri. Jarvis Menezes plays the keyboards and we have Nzel D’lima and Muheet Bharti on acoustic guitars. There are also these middle-eastern flavors thanks to the Oud and Bouzouki played by Tapas Roy. The track is mixed and mastered by Aftab Khan, recorded by Aftab and Raj with Vatsal Chevli working as a mix assistant. 3. SAIYAAN NIKAS GAYE I have an upcoming post and blog article talking about how there are only two brands I will totally trust when it comes to musical releases, one being “Merchant Recordsâ€? ( Salim-Sulaiman) which has two songs in the top 6 this week itself and “Compass Box Studiosâ€? (Raag Sethi and company) who has worked on this track. The level of consistency with which these guys dish out new music is insane. This particular traditional Thumri has been delivered by many great artists before and although I did assume that there was some Sindhu Bhairavi in this as well, it is actually set in Mishra Bhairavi. We have Raag Sethi and his team cooks up a beautiful Jazz version of this Thumri and it is the Hindustani trained Mirande Shah who vocalizes the track. Raag has produced, engineered and played the guitars with Mirande as its creative producer. Shivang Kapadia is so gentle with his high-hat drums right fmor te beginning and it is only her voice that serenades us. Raag on acoustic and electric guitars and Marc Damania on bass guitars up the ante along with Nayan Kapadiya on Keys. Fusion music at its absolute best is how I can define this wonder and Mirande is  a shining star proving her worth because it is so difficult to be noticed above all these live instruments and arrangements. In this 8 minute long track there is more than 2 minutes of instrumental fun with the keys and then guitars like a Jugalbandhi. Protyay Chakraborty has mixed and mastered the track. The last 1 minute is just so enjoyable with Mirande’s vocals, drums and guitars that you enter a zone of oblivion about everything else. 4. Aaromal Shaan Rahman rises like the phoenix, and that is what I feel hearing this finger-lickin good song. The movie already has been creating a huge wave as a solidly entertaining super-hero movie and Shaan provides the music some super-human music to go along with. I have heard of these terms like one-man strong quartet and it is even draining my energy to just type it but if there is one man in India who can pull it off and sound uber-good at it, it has to be Rithu Vysakh. I feel like every element of this song is created by someone who possesses “Minnal Muraliâ€? s super-powers. The track starts off with the ravishing strings section and not for one second Rithu rests, smacking us with more and more of it and these are the sounds and tones some great musicians of yesteryears would be so proud of. Shaan has composed, programmed and arranged with lyrics by Manu Manjith. Listen to the whistles, and my god Nithya Mammen is kicking ass with that voice and delivery, and honestly she sounds like she has just attained another perspective to her tone, considering she is so delightful in all the melodies we have heard her sing before. Sooraj Santhosh has been one of my favorites and it is so nice to see him amongst the thick of things here. The playful lines where Nithya utters like a rap is interesting followed by a breezy humming that sticks to your mind like glue. Balu Thankachan mixes and masters the track. 5. Jallianwalla This is a dedication to one of the goriest massacres of British India rule when which British troops fired on a large crowd of unarmed Indians at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on 13th April 1919. Clinton Cerejo and Bianca Gomes were last seen working in Bob Biswas the OTT film on Zee5, and now the duo who call themselves ‘Shor Police’ have composed a cracker here and when I hear it, I can feel the energy of a charged up solo ready to fight and stand up against an injustice.  This too comes under the Bhoomi 2021 collection and distributed by ‘Merchant Records’. The lyrics in English are written by Clinton and Bianca, with Punjabi words by IP Singh. Bianca’s singing is top-notch as single-handedly raises the adrenaline levels helped also by high-quality programming. It is seamless, the way Harshdeep Kaur joins in on the vocals and you will never know when Bainca’s English lines end and Kaur’s Punjabi lines begin. The main instrumentalists creating magic here are Anurag Sawangikar on drums, Zain Boxwala on Keyboards and Bhushan Chitnis on guitars. The track slowly shifts into one that more pacified and Harshdeep also modifies her tone to suit that segment. The chorus team is comprised of Deepti Rege, Jitendra Tupe, Archana Gore and Umesh Joshi. The track is Recorded by Pallavi Kedar & Zain Boxwala at The Groove Room, Mumbai, Mixed by: Clinton Cerejo at The Groove Room, Mumbai and Mastered by: Aftab Khan at Headroom Studio, Mumbai 6. Ruswaa One name that I consistently find among the best in Indian music is this Reeshabh Purohit. He is young, supremely talented and most importantly original. Here we have an original Ghazal composed and performed by Reeshabh with lyrics by Kalim Shaikh. Khwaab a.k.a. Nishant Nagar is one amazing producer who specifically works on original and rendition of classic Ghazals and he has done himself proud by creating this masterpiece. Mahavir plays the Tabla, and all the Sarangi we hear is played by Mudassir Khan. Reeshabh’s voice immediately invokes that feeling of unbridled love, as he just gets so inventive with his aalaap. I am kind of confused because there are some influences of Raag Pilu and Patdeep but Reeshabh believes he never composed it with a single Raag in mind. The Sarangi interludes are quite elaborate along with synth and keyboard programming. Reeshabh himself does the mixing and mastering with Shubham Valse doing all the artwork and lyrical video work. 7. Saahiba It is a treat to have these two musicians have their songs listed in the same week, after Reeshabh Purohit Sarthak Kalyani is another bright talent, who specialises in Classical Indian fusion music. This one is most probably set in Raag Jog, but the composer says that it is not true to just one Raag, moving and shifting into various forms.  It is composed, arranged, performed and produced by Sarthak. Akash Sharma assists musically with lyrics written by Satyansh Rajat. The song starts off with some really stylish and pacy guitars, and you can hear The Piano in the background as well. There is one nice segment with the Konakkol as well as then we have more guitars and Keys in the interlude. Mohit Shandilya and Divyam Mehrotra handle the additional programming as Mohit also mixes and masters the track. 8. Malebille What can stop Ajaneesh Loknath from creating great music? Wait , why should he be stopped? Let us celebrate this man’s genius! He gets in Haricharan to sing this song, and his voice is the epitome beauty in a male’s singing voice. Keba Jermiah plays the acoustic and bass guitars while the keyboards are played by Ajaneesh, Midhun Ashok, Ajay Joseph and Shyam Kumar AS. There are influences of Keeravani Raaga in the pallavi and ther glory of the tune gets magnified with Hari’s singing, the strings section and guitars. The flute is a part of the interlude with even  Veena playing in the background and dominating the second interlude. Chennai Strings is responsible for the strings section conducted by Yensone Bhagyanathan. Ajaneesh and Kalyan Chakravarthy handle the rhythms section and Biju James has mixed and mastered the track. Anup Bhandari writes the wonderful words in Kannada. The verses have a tinge of sadness attached and maybe it is because of the apparent influence of Raag Charukeshi. 9. Desert Island I have always been fond of Nikhil Dsouza’s work as he tries to reinvent himself and give us fresh music without churning and rehashing the same old stuff. The Synth is what invites us straight away into the track and it is Nikolaj Torplarsen who plays them both. The songwriting is a combined project between Nikhil and Jeff Cohen, with Martin Terefe producing it. The keys starts playing when he sings “Need you to come overâ€?, and then the acoustic guitars take over played by Nikhil and Martin. There is a beautifu bit on the Piano in between aided by Martin on bass guitars, but what sticks to you mind is the “oh oh ohhhooooâ€? humming. Nikhil exhibits excepetional vocals in the track and he also plays the electric guitars, and let us not forget the drums played by Kristoffer Sonne. The track is mixed by Ash Howes, mastered by Brian Lucey and recorded by Oskar Winberg. 10. Ishq Fakeeri We welcome some refreshing music from the Hindi belt as well, as this has a lot of similarity to the sounds of Bollywood, only better. Ankit Tiwari and DJ Phukan produce this pacy number with lyrics by another composer/lyricist Shabir Ahmad. Akit has directed ths musically while alos performing on vocals and that is what drives the song. The moment you hear those guitars you know, its coming from someone awesome and yes it is Ishan Das. Ankit has been a playback singer for a while now, and although he too sounds like Arijit Singh, it sounds less imitational. Madhab Deka assists on the music and you can also hear a wonderful layer of harmonies thanks to Pallavi Tiwari, Leena Bose, Lalkaar Abhishek and Ankit himself. The Sarangi comes and goes mildly in the background and all this sounds authentic and beautiful thanks to the sound engineering with Ankit on recording and Eric Pillai on mixing and mastering. The song does have shades of Pritam’s “Fakeeraâ€?. 11. Laddoo Song What do you call as healthy competition? When everyone around pushes and motivates one another for the betterment of one and all! Well I am trying to articulate here but an example can be seen of this in the Kannada music scene. Almost every week we have one song at-least in this list and it is always a few rivals fighting it out for the best. If Ajaneesh Loknath had a track, Arjun Janya cannot be far behind. This is a fabulous song with a lot of A Capella styles employed and credit goes to the lead vocalist Nihal Tauro as well as the Choir comprised of Judith Philip, Aniruddha Sastry, Pratham Bhat and one of my favorite singers Aishwarya Rangarajan. The choir arrangements are by Bruthuva Caleb. Nihan is someone I am hearing for the first time and he has got this accented Kannada going on but his vocals are pitch-perfect. David Selvam sizzles on electric guitars especially on this minor solo interlude but he also handles the Keys and Rhythm programming. The song speaks to me like a UB40 number set in the reggae style. Suni has penned the lyrics and David has also mixed and mastered the track. The verse is so stylish with excellent harmonies and finger clicks good enough to glorify the notes, but that’s not all, we also can hear trumpets and even an Organ. Aishwarya excels at the scat-singing bit towards the end. 12. Mehez Baatein His album was excellent and I have featured more than 3 songs from it and here comes one more. This is written and composed by Siddhant Mishra like the other tracks in the album called ‘Ehsaas’. The Keys are all you hear to invoke and grab your attention and then what follows is Pavithra Viswabarathy’s touching and striking vocals. She is incredibly emotive uttering every word and syllable from the bottom of her heart and that is why the vocals are effective. Siddhant has produced and arranged for the track as well, with Rupjit Das mixing and recording the sounds. The Piano totally dominates the scene, taking up the interlude space, and it adds to the gravity of the song. Pavithra explores the verse at much higher scales and she is equally comfortable and this song most suited for our special moments we like to spend only with ourselves. 13. Knaach Bhangaar gaan His name signifies the elaborate feelings that get triggered when I hear his musical compositions. He calls himself Joy Sarkar, and I have been waiting for months to hear his next project. To my mind, he is one of the finest in the land and definitely someone along with Anupam Roy and Nilanjan Ghosh who function as the flag-bearers of great modern Bangla music. Jimut Roy who dazzled in Joy’s web series compositions of “Tansener Tanpuraâ€? now sings ravishingly along with Shovan Ganguly. I was trying to figure out what this brilliant song is influenced by, and when I spoke to Joy, he tells me it is Raag Gujari Todi with a hint of Raag Lalit, and then as I research it, I realize that the Carnatic equivalent is Raag Subhapanthuvarali and no wonder I was constantly allowing my mind to go back to some great compositions down south based in this raag. Maestro Ilaiyaraja has two very different styled songs and I woul recommend that readers hear them to get a sense of this Raaga viz. “Vaigaraiyilâ€? and “Kandupudichenâ€? both sung by SPB sir. Joydeb Nandy is exhilarating on the acoustic rhythm. The Flute is played with consummate ease by Bubai Nandy and Rahul Chatterjee joins in on the fun with his Sitar. Srijato pens the lyrics, and Somen KuttySarkar and Sabuj Mukherjee work on the programming. The song has an amazing duel between Shovan and Jimut on swaras. Let us not forget the bass guitars that keep playing providing a stylish layer in between all this. The guitars are played by Joy while Goutam Basu has recorded, mixed and mastering. 14. T-shirt from every lover Jade reached out to me asking if I would be interested in listening to her debut single. I always am open to listen to explore newer artists, and that is why 2021 had me listen to 3800 different performers. So when I started listening I was profound by her singing and composition, and it kept taking my memories back to some of the best country music from the West. Jade sings, writes, composes and plays the guitars with arrangements by Jade and Rishit Chauhan. The track is mixed and mastered by Zac Abraham. The singing and guitars set the right tone but the background vocals that come as a humming beautifies the track even more. The drums and resonator guitar sounds are programmed into the scheme of things as well adding to that country music flavor. Though she only gets a Tshirt from every lover left behind, Im glad Jade has left behind a wonderful song for all her music lovers.   15. Aakhri Zarra Aditya Kalway probably composed and sang the best song of 2021 with “Kalabaaziyaanâ€?, and he certainly ends the year with another smashing number. I have a huge affinity for his original music and he does enhance it with his gifted voice. This is a love song but the couple fall out of love here, expressed lyrically and musically Aditya who has also sung and produced the track. Aditya soaks you in his emotions when he sings and that is something only a well-rounded singer can achieve. Ruthuraj plays the guitars along with Nikhil Sinha and all other instruments we hear are a result of additional production by Ravi Romana and Sarthak Kalyani. The bass guitars keep playing right through and just then we hear a layer of flute played by Sanoop S along with some mild humming. The track is mixed by Ravi and mastered by Ajinkya Dhapare with all the artwork handled by Anushika Luthra.

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 26th December 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 15 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country. Find the full playlist of Top Songs this week on SPOTIFY Oruthi Why doesn't he score more often? Vishnu Vijay is a renowned flautist who has worked with greats like AR Rahman, but I have been following and supremely impressed with his scores. If you don’t know or haven’t heard his compositions, listen to “Aaradhikeâ€? from Ambili and some of the songs in “Nayattuâ€?. In this new movie “Bheemante Vazhiâ€? I already love 2 songs with this one topping the all-india charts for the week, and the other one also is lovely sung by Haricharan. The title track has Hari in full flow and and it is slowly a testament to him becoming a pan-India singer, he just sang in ‘Atrangi Re' last month. The track is dominated by his vocals and the live Esraj played Arshad Khan. Haricharan stunningly delivers the stanza, with some alterations to notes that you would least expect. Coming back to the chart-topper, Oruthi is outstanding and the way it starts off in its slow pace and the predominant solo sounds of the Shehnai by Pandit S Ballesh. Vishnu himself sings it like in that Anthony Dasan style. The strings section is in top form thanks to Chennai Strings comprising of Vinay Kumar, Chandru, Fagan, and Seenu on Cello. Nellai Balaji conducts it but Vishnu handles all the arrangements. Keba Jeremiah on Acoustic guitars and Keith Peters on bass are so crucial in their roles in the interludes and the secondary layers through the track. The stanza has so much going on, behind Vishnu’s vocals and if you listen to it with your headphones on, you will be n for a musical treat. Just wait for the second interlude, which is laded with strings and it reminds of some of Maestro’s greatest compositions. Muhsin Parari is the lyricist, Divine Joseph and Kashyap Rammohan are the recording engineers, Sujith Sreedhar has mixed and mastered the track. The track is produced by Vishnu, and vocals are produced by Lijesh Kumar. Ramesh Vasudev and Rahul CR provide all the technical support and assistance. 2. Meera This movie album probably is one of the best in the country in 2021, and definitely along with ‘June’ the best Marathi music album of the year. Rohan Gokhale and Rohan Pradhan bring their A game for this album called “Piremâ€?, and I thoroughly fell in love with 3 tracks viz. ‘Meera’, ‘Man Jhala’ and the title track. Savaniee Ravindra, Harshwardhan Wavre and Rohan-Rohan are the singers. All arrangements and programming is by Aditya Kudalkar, with Rohan-Rohan working on additional arrangements. The flute is played by Shashank Acharya. These are the credits for ‘Man Jhala’ which is quite different from the other tracks in the album. Jasraj Jayant Joshi sings the splendid track ‘Meera’ which has some diabolical basslines and wait for the flute interventions in the background.  Jasraj delivers a superlative singing performance and probably the best of the year. The whole track has an inherent melody and that is continued in the verse. The change of tempo happens in a couple of places in the track and that is so subtle yet succulent. Shashank Acharya steals your heart with his flute solos. ‘Man Jhala’ is a very typical slow and mellifluent Marathi number. Rohan Gokhale and Ketaki Mategaonkar sing the title track which is a breezy fast-paced love song that’s heavy on guitars and drums.  3. Bondhe Maya Lagaiche Of late I am enjoying this new surge in folk music from all over the country and artists in an effort to resurrect rustic classics are presenting them in gift-wrappers that look dashing and entice us. The song was originally written and composed by Shah Abdul Karim. Sharoni Poddar’s singing is top-draw and she gives these subtle vibratos even in the higher scales and all this make for some delightful hearing. The Miliputs have truly delivered an extremely enjoyable number by just refurbishing an old lost classic. Without the guitarists, this would be incomplete and that is why Debmalya Dey and Shounak Das on guitars & Krishanu Halder on bass play a vital role in the supreme sound output. The track is produced by Debmalya and mixed & mastered by Anindit Roy. Debashish Das stuns you every second with his drums. The track shifts from folk to classical/ traditional Hindustani after the 2nd minute and I do sense some influences of Raag Behaag here. 4. Prison For Fears I am on a mission to pick best of Indian music every week, and now that 2021 has ended I also am going to pick the best Albums/EPs of 2021 and ‘Fractals’ is definitely one of them.  Here I am only featuring the one track that stood out for me but at least 3-4 were impressive in this 8 track album. Anubha Kaul's singing is magical showing immense vocal control right through. Kush Updadhyay is on guitars and is the man behind the composition and production. Larry Goldings is on the Organ, along with Jeff Babko on Organ, Rhodes and Piano. Gino Banks plays the drums and percussions for this track and you can sense   a very fluid composition where the tempo is not constant. IN the album however there is also Jay Row Kavi on drums and percussions and Andrew Kanga on just drums. Let us not forget to pay attention to the bass guitars, which are running in a parallel universe thanks to Tony Grey and Tim Lefebvre. Kush himself is scintillating in the middle where there is a solid electric guitar solo aided by some bass-lines and high-hat drums and I suggest you just enjoy the limitless powers of music. Kush and Anubha write the lyrics, with mixing by Jehangir Jehangir, Kuber Sharma and John Paterno. Shawn Hatfield does the mastering and Jayesh Joshi the artwork. For the album Anurag Naidu does the piano/string arrangements. 5. Sanchariyagu Nee Kannada movie space once again rocking it thanks to some super talent and I am soon going to cover a article and topic featuring the best young composers from all the South Indian movie space. As a teaser, I am announcing here that Nakul Abhyankar is there in it. I wont be wrong if I claim that Vijay Prakash has had one of the busiest years among Kannada vocalists and more importantly 90% of them are chart-busters. Keba Jeremiah’s acoustic guitars and Kareem Kamalakar lead the way on the solo flute sounding so serene. Raghavendra Kamath has penned the lyrics. Rakshita Suresh’s vocals are impeccable and sweet and when she sings the Anu Pallavi I get the feeling there is some influence of Raag Maand. Subhani can be heard playing the Oud, Mandolin and Saz in the background layers, especially enjoy the thumping rhythms by Sruthiraj. Arshad Khan once again for the second time in this week plays the wonderful Esraj, which is soul-stirring and generates all the pathos. Keith Peters plays the bass guitars, and Sunshine Orchestra handles the strings while Vijay Prakash totally soars in the stanza singing the higher scales. Ramya Bhat Abhyankar handles the supervision, and the track is mixed and mastered by Suresh Permal. 6. Inside Out Thermal and a Quarter a.k.a. TAAQ had a great run back in 2020 with a fabulous album called “A world gone madâ€?. I liked more than a few numbers in that and one of the topped the charts for that month across India. I am glad they are back, and as they say “with a bangâ€?. This one has been in the works right through the pandemic, and unlike their usual head-banging rock styles. This one can be called a soft pop, something we would heard a lot in the 1980s. Listen up and enjoy the groove and funk induced by Bruce Lee Mani’s singing, and Lesli Charles’ bass guitars. Within the first 1 minute of so you are already witness to so many instruments and the arrangements are spellbinding. Bruce has also written the lyrics and played the guitars along with Tony Das. Leslie is also on the keyboards but what grabs my attention is Gautam David’s Tenor Sax and Ananya Raja’s backing vocals. Its certainly the last in this order of credits but Rajeev Rajagopal breathes all the coolness into the track on his percussions. Leslie produces and mixes as well while Mrinal Anand and Leslie are the recording engineers. The harmonies are not only excellently delivered with styles but the arrangements deserve special credits. At the 2.43 minute mark there is a noticeable shift in the style moving from pop to Jazz thanks to Gautam’s solo on the Sax. The track is mastered by Kimberly Rosen and all the cover art is by Pia Meenakshi. 7. Sai Narayana One more song from Bhoomi 21 makes it to the list and this time the track is composed and written by not just one individual but a vast team i.e. Sri Sathya Sai Students. Raj Pandit lends his voice for this one and all the production and arrangements are by Salim-Sulaiman and Raj. The track starts off in a way of resembling Ghulam Ali’s “Chupke Chupkeâ€? and maybe that is why I sense a Raag Kaafi influence. Jarviz Mebezes is on the keyboards, and you will enjoy the harmonies which includes Rajiv Sundaresan, Rishikesh Kamekar, Yashita Sharma, Yashika Sikka, Deepti Rege, Archana Gore, Aditi Prabhudesai, Jitendra Tupe, Umesh Joshi, Janardan Dhatrak and Dattatray Mestri. The live strings add to the grandeur and they are orchestrated an conducted by Jpajisingh Valecha. ID Rao is stunning on the clarinet which adds that element of mystery. Raj Pandit’s vocals are pitch-perfect and the lyrics bring about unity through a respect for all faiths. The Big drum is played by Sulaiman, and Salim plays the Piano. Rushad Mistry handles the bass guitars, The track is mixed and mastered by Aftab Khan, with Vatsal Chevli assisting on mixing. 8. Nathni The track is a dedication to all the festivities surrounding the girl’s wedding. We have some massive starcast of musicians for this track, with Shravan Shridhar on the Violin, Omkar Dhumal on the Shehnai, and Sanjoy Das on guitars. Dipesh Varma plays a huge role in the track playing the live percussions, rhythms and also arranged and programmed for the track. This is a folk number that gets a massive face-lift. There might be influences of AnandaBhairavi raaga set in Carnatic music. The live instruments are terrific in portrayal and arrangements. The Viioin solo and Shehnai keep intervening with some wonderful basslines. Aishwarya is excellent in her delivery and how she gives those tantalizing vibrato sticks to your mind. The percussions are a crucial segment in the track. Stuti Karani, Mishel Shah ad Lipika Nag are the backing vocalists and the track is mixed and mastered by Tanay Gajjar. There are some influences of maybe Desh Raag and even Pilu during certain segments. The bass guitars are terrific and they constantly provide a funk t this folk. The verse is quite elaborate as well and seems more like a Bollywood melody. 9. Oh Penne Malayalam Indie music rises and shines bright, and we have had some awesome numbers in 2021, even though the movie music space is vast. Sai Menon writes, composes and performs this beautiful track and he sounds a lot like AR Rahman, and that is a massive compliment. Check out the clarinet which adds such a cool quotient and although the song is pretty straightforward and simple, it does keep you hooked for the duration. 10. Fly What do you do when you feel low on energy, and just a power boost or kicker? Well just take anything that provides a rush of sugar right! Yes that is what I can compare Dhruv Visvanath’s brand of music to. It is instant gratification and after consistently impressing since 2019, this time it is one more splendid track called “flyâ€? and I recommend that you not just listen but also watch the video which has some interesting and clever stuff going on. So for the video the credits go to Arsh Grewal who has written, produced, directed and animated it. Dhruv does almost everything else for the song, as he writes, composes, performs, produces and mixes the track. We have heard songs where the guitars are just sidekicks and add a nice mellow layer, but here guitar strumming is hard and strong and plays the hero. That’s not taking away any credit from Dhruv’s singing which is of superlative quality as usual. If you listen closely there is some element of the track “Toxicâ€? by Britney Spears. The track is mastered by Keshav Dhar. 11. Udd Chaliyan Jasleen Royal has been around for a while now, making forays into Bollywood, and there area few songs where her delivery is very apt and suited for the track and this one certainly fits that bill. This track is from the movie ‘Velle’ which has some good music and that track has Shahid Mallya has the male lead vocalist. Aditya Sharma writes the beautiful words. Unlike all the slow tracks, this one is slightly more peppier as a composition by Jasleen herself. The keys are played in the background constantly providing the foundation but Shahid’s singing is phenomenal especially they way he reaches the higher scales almost reminding me of B Praak. Lijin Jolly Alex mixes and Devang Rachh masters the track. The track has some tonal similarities to Swedish singer Emilia’s ‘Big Big World’. 12. Enthoram Naalayi We have a soothing melody from Malayalam here sung by Unnimaya Nambeesan. The way she sings “elelo eleloâ€? puts your mind to rest like any great lullaby would. Vimal Nazar and Reneesh Basheer are the composers for this movie “Mudiâ€?, and listen to the acoustic guitar and bass guitars, which act like the backbone for the track. Mehd. Maqbool is the lyricist, and Kiran Lal does the mixing and mastering. Again this track proves how simple music with basic instruments and arrangements can tantalize you. 13. Adhuri Kahani It is time for another Marathi melody, composed by Vishal Sadafule and Samadhan Vartak with lyrics written by Kedar Kotkunde. Acouple of months ago Hrishikesh sang a tamil song, and I couldn’t believe it was a Marathi vocalist who could deliver these words so well. The track has a beautiful piece on the Mohan Veena as the interlude played by Manas Gosavi along with the Tabla played by Shubhankar Kurlekar. The stanza continues melodically with some excellent vocal performance by Hrishkesh. The track is mixed by Samadhan, and the recording engineers for vocals and veena are Abhay Koyadwar, and Omkar Desai records the Tabla. 14. Why Arjan I heard this whole EP by Arjan Dhillon, but this one track was beautiful and mesmerizing. Arjan has sung, written and composed the track and Harwinder Sidhu has produced it. The singing is very good for sure but that programmed bit of a wind instrument is what really grabs your attention. It is an ideal song that can give you company in solitude and a drink in your hand. 15. Kde – Kde That is 2 punjabi tracks in a row. Wow listen to this and its gets your foot tapping for sure. The acoustic and bass guitars keep the track really groovy with some essential synth programming as well. The harmonies are also quite nicely arranged. Harvi has written, composed and sung the track. You don’t have to wonder why and how the guitars are splendid, well I could just explain in two words, Shomu Seal. The arrangements and programming is by Harmony, with Gurjinder and Akash working on the mix and master

This is the list of Top Songs released in India for the week ending Dec 19, 2021. This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 19th December 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 16 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country. Find the full playlist of Top Songs this week on SPOTIFY 1. Doorie Twin Strings is a very respectable band creating fantastic music, and its lead vocalist Manav from time to time goes solo and impresses too. This one is peerless in this week's list as the track climbs straight away to the top of the charts from all musical releases across the nation. There are strong influences of Raag Yaman and maybe that is another additional reason why one just falls in love with the track. Mohit Deen is the percussionist and mixing engineer while Sahil who is also the Keyboardist produces the track along with Manav. Sagar plays the guitars and quite brilliantly at that, makings sure every note catches up with Manav’s vocal bliss. Surrender to the voice that embellishes this track and how he manages to improvise so much with all the vibrato at even the lower scales is why sometimes music can create magic. Sahil just provides crucial support on the keyboards and listens out to the retro percussions that Mohit introduces. The harmonium further adds to the nostalgia of listening to great songs of yesteryear. The stanza is a brilliant fusion of drums and Keys westernizing the track while the Harmonium and Manav’s singing keeps things closer to home. 2. Don't break my heart RR Dhruvan is proof that the south Indie music industry and Telugu specifically is thriving and spreading its wings wider. I have featured him a few times and I am not at all surprised by the quality that emerges from him. Aditi Bhavaraju is a stunning singer and it is a heavily competitive space. The keys and her vocals drive the song forward with all the programming done by Achu Rajamani. The lyrics are written by Rakendu Mouli and Raghuram, the composer itself. Sabin Suma Jose has mixed and mastered the track. The Piano is aided by basslines, rhythms and well-arranged harmonies. The solo violin in the front, and strings in the background have a scintillating interlude. Aditi’s high-pitched singing and the way she emotes every word is worth listening to on loop multiple times. 3. Majhi Amarabha Banerjee sings, writes and composes this folk fusion number that just steals your heart. The guitars start strumming and the flute solo is endearing at the beginning. It very much sounds like a Bangla folk, with the only difference being that this once is sung in Hindi after some initial lines in Bangla. The flute makes me wonder if there is some influence of Raag Hamsadhwani and it is played brilliantly by ID Rao who generally sizzles on the saxophone. Nilanjan Samadder plays the acoustic guitars and Abhinav Bora is on the bass guitars adding such funk to the track. Amarabha is just at his top game singing the lines, with his timely aalap, and listen to the bass solo by Abhinav which is breathtaking good. Sayantan Dutta supports on the Keys and it is a excellent execution of fusion music all around. Aslam Khan mixes and masters the track produced by Surmai music. The ending portions with the rendition of swaras is pure bliss.   4. Kalle Kalle I just put out a post on my Instagram account reviewing “Chandigarh Kare Aashiquiâ€? and though I liked 3 of the 6 tracks, this one was my favorite. Priya Saraiya sings and writes lyrics for this fabulous soft and tender love song. Simetri provides the backing vocals in what sounds like a very pleasant and enjoyable folk song from Punjab. Sachin-Jigar excel in creating a wonderful track that’s filled with some nice sounds and live instruments as the duo compose, arrange and program for the track. The Assistant Programmers are Abhishek Singh and Hrishikesh Gangan and the Music Production Head is Romil Ved. Indrajit Chetia is on the guitars and that feels fantastic along with Strings played by JItendra Javda. The female harmonies singing the title and male harmonies in the background with Sahin and Jigar themselves acts like a nice bit of interlude music. The second half of the verse sung in harmony is a beautiful line and probably the most melodious in the track, and it also lands beautifully on the opening lines. Listen to the wonderful solo on the Sarangi in the background played by Dilshad Khan, and Naven Kumar plays the flute. Eric Pillai has mixed and mastered the track, while Michael Pillai is the mix assistant.   5. Stories of raw love Jhanvi Soni has been on a break for 6 months and staying idle, in her own words. But then on just one night of inspiration she writes this song talking about love, especially raw love, and what a brilliant song this is. Jhaniv and Biju Nambiar once again work together after their terrific hit called “Underwaterâ€? earlier in 2021. This one is written and composed by Jhanvi and Biju has produced and arranged it. The beats are thumping and your heart starts beating hard and heavy in expectation of what’s about to come. Jhanvi’s singing is solid and it slowly drifts into falsettos neatly placed and performed. The guitars are stroked wonderfully and they constantly keep producing a ring in your ears. The brilliant ethnic strings and sounds of wind chimes add a rustic element, with full marks to creativity. The song was later recorded at the extremely efficient Compass Box Studio and Protyay Chakraborty has mixed and mastered the track. Sonali Chorawala does all the artwork. The female harmonies in the background are nicely arranged as well.   6. Thaniye I love this guy, and he has created a name for himself, as a singer, composer, director etc. Niranj Sureash is the lead vocalist of the Kochi based rock band called Motherjane and he has sung under every big musician in Malayalama, like Gopi Sundar, Prashant Pillai, Shaan Rahman etc. Pathivo Maarum scored by William Francis is one of my favorite songs sung by him. This splendid indie track is composed and performed by Niranj with lyrics by Shabareesh Varma. The Piano and the low-scaled vocals make a solid debut and then Niranj opens up further, exploring higher scales and greater elements of improvisation. The track loaded with a lot of synth work and the humming also adds a nice layer. Abin Paul has mixed and mastered the track. The song gives me a feeling a pop/dance track that we would all have heard and enjoyed back in 1990s like the band “A-haâ€?, but obviously with a lot of EDM influences added to suit modern tastes. The animation team of Shaan Nelson, Ajay Ghosh, G Nimesh, and MS Shyju Kunnoth deserves credit for the great work as well. 7. Influence Can she do anything wrong right now? Well the simple answer is NO. Sejal Kumar is an uber-famous You-Tuber, Digital influencer, Vlogger Actor and now a musician. She has been leading a life of inspiration, and funny that she chooses to name her song “Influenceâ€? considering she herself is a social-media influencer, and she decides to talk about it in the song.   She even acted in a Netflix hit show called “Engineering Girlsâ€?, but it is this song that has made me take notice of her. Natania Lalwani and Sejal write this song which delivered with unbelievable style, and oomph-factor. I am glad to see another favorite musician of mine, Saptak Chatterjee, contribute as a vocal engineer here. The arrangements of vocals, the finger taps, the way she enters a zone of speaking rather than singing, the change of tempo, and I could go one for long about what I love. Austin Armstrong has produced the track. 8. Lamhe Zaroori Neyhal was quite impressive and he grabbed my attention in ‘Mere Tum’ and he did possess solid control over his vocals and he probably is only going to get better with time. The youngster writes, composes and performs and also plays the rhythm guitar. If you ask me how do you judge if the music produced by someone is good enough to spend all your time and energy, ill answer it two words – Compass Box. Anyway Raag Sethi and his trusted friends produce this heartwarming track which is possibly one of the rare ones which has a faster tempo than the rest which is all sober, slow and succulent in content. Raag done multiple roles as usual viz.  Producer, Arranger, Engineer, and he plays the Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, Slide Guitar as well.Neyhal is pepped up and full of zeal in his delivery and I love how the notes transform as he sings “ Kahaniyon ki tarahâ€?, and hear the guitars, and drums adjust accordingly. Shivang Kapadia is the man playing the foot-tapping drums, and the backup vocals team comprises of Meera Desai and Protyay Chakraborty who also is the mixing/mastering engineer. Wait for that twist of creativity past the 2 minute 25 second mark as Harmish Joshi picks up that Clarinet and he blows us away literally.   9. Kaarmekham Moodunnu Ranjin Raj is an extremely under-rated composer in my opinion, and his music can truly compete with some of the best in the country, and the proof of that pudding is in the fact that so many of his new releases have been featured and reviewed here. This is a brilliant song from a new movie called ‘kaval’, and Ranjin as usual never compromises on the melody. Santhosh is stunning in his delivery and he just reaches out to your deepest portions of your heart to get that bottled up emotions flowing. The strings are a huge plus for the song and they are played by none other than Francis Xavier, along with Josekutty, Herald Anthony and Carol George of Cochin Strings. I felt a lot of similarity to two of Ilaiyaraja’s amazing tracks viz.’Thulli Thulli nee padamma’ and “Oh Maane Maaneâ€? and apparently both are set in Madhyamavathi. However When I had a word with Ranjin, there are influences of Brindavana Saranga to a greater extent. In the interlude I hear trumpets and they are probably programmed by Anthony George but credit to Ranjin himself who is behind the arrangements and production. The keys take full control of the backgrounds as the slow stanza sets forth, and as Santhosh splendidly performs every note with subtle vibrato and great emotion. The track is mixed and mastered by Balu Thankachan with Jisto George on recording. The lyrics are penned by the indomitable BK Harinarayanan   10. Jaate Jaate This is a very Bollywood type of a song but that doesn’t mean that the tune isn’t worth your time. Raahi composes, produces and sings this very melodious number. The singing is top-notch but a lot of credit must go to the vast array of live instruments used in the track and hence Nabeel Zubair and Bibhash Buragoain (Billy) who are involved in arrangements and programming along with Raahi have definitely done a fabulous job. Sajid Shahid has written the lyrics and directed the video providing visual delight. To bring in an element of a Choir group in his type of a melody is a master-stroke for sure and the singers in the choir Preeti Tiwari, Sagar Tiwari, Vaishnavi Tiwari, Priyanka Tiwari, Gopal Tiwari all perform exceptionally. Tiwari Harmony Group gets the choir arranged themselves with bass guitar played by Rahul Putai showing its class from time to time. Billy plays the acoustic guitars and you do hear the strings in the background and all that delightful on the strings ensemble comes from Zubair. Sarabjeet Singh Shibu gets the percussion elements spot on. The stanza is also nicely composed carrying the melody forward but how the percussion instruments change from Tabla to Drums at the end of the stanza is very creative. Guri is the recording engineer and Hanish Taneja has mixed and mastered the track. The final humming and lines add kind of a Qawwali element. 11. Karoon bhi kya? He is one amazing performer and I was astounded by his vocals in Anurag Saikia’s  â€˜Ek Tukda Dhoop’ which showed that these two musicians were meant for mainstream Bollywood popularity. Ever since I have been following him closely and I have reviewed a few of his indie singles like “Faasleâ€? recently. This particular song is a slow-burner, as it takes its own time to catch your attention. Raghav has gone solo on this track as he composes, produces, sings, mixes and masters the track with lyrical contribution from Aditya Joshi. The strumming of the guitars, and that melancholic voice both grow on you and the ultimate winner here is the inherent tune. The title line bit saying “Main Karoon bhi kyaâ€? is excellently delivered with the Piano mildly playing in the background. As we approach the end of the track, we get rhythms added on and a layer of mild strings , all beautifying and emotionally touching.   12. Teri Akhiyaan This New Delhi based singer-songwriter was quite impressive back in 2020 with her single “Matwariâ€? and now she is back again withy probably an even better number and it now appears in this week’s best music from across the country. Sh says she has written this song about raw love, but I ask her, is there another kind? All that aside, when you hear this number you tend to concur with Samhaita and music and lyrics together is a treat for your ears and soul. She has written, composed and performed this number with all the mixing, mastering and production handled by the expert technician Keshav Dhar and the video has been shot by Aninya Gangal. I love how the track is subtle and almost is underplayed with only her vocals in a mild tone and acoustic guitars. Then after the first minute or so, we get the pause, and bass guitars and drums joining in, and together you hear some magic, and I love the linesâ€? tujse na rooth paaon, tujse na jeet paaonâ€? both musically and lyrically. The vocals are also added in a couple of layers towards the end which works very well and the way she sings the line “tum era junoon haiâ€? is the clincher for me. The use of strings and harmonies at the outro section is creative and interesting. 13. Zindagi She is going places, and although she has been popular and doing some great songs, m I think 2021 has been one of her best. She rose, at-least in my books. To great heights as a indie musicians, with a top-notch EP earlier this year and then with a magical composition for the Marathi movie “Juneâ€?. Bheems Ceciroleo has composed this track that features Shalmali’s voice and maybe this is now she getting into Pan-India mode. The strings at the beginning of the track are heard across many layers and then Shalmali slowly opens up in Telugu, and maybe it takes her a few lines before she becomes comfortable. The title line is sung in multiple layers and I love how the drums and Harmonium combine beautifully. The second half of the stanza that goes “Athuvaippu , Ithuvaippuâ€? is amazing followed by synths and electric guitars landing on the title line again. Suresh Gangula is the lyricist. 14. Uddne do This album came out of nowhere, and I was pleasantly surprised by the music, because there were at least a couple of very enjoyable tracks, and I picked this one as the best of the lot. The composers are Kaushik Guddu and Akashdeep and this track especially deserves an applause, with a lot of credit to be attributed to Amit Mishra the singer. The best apart the music is that there are some excellent known musicians all involved in this and as they say, the final product is greater than the sum of all its brilliant parts and contributions. Roland Fernandes, who is a master on guitars plays the acoustic, bass and electric versions. The lead vocals are fantastic, sounding energized and inspirational and they sound even better with all the back-up vocalists singing in harmony thanks to - Akash Mukherjee, Dev Arijit, Mukund Suryavanshi, Subhashree Das and Antara Bhattacharya. Akash has designed the backing vocals and he along with Subhashree and Aaroh Valenkar are the recording engineers. The track has some excellent instrumentals and I especially loved the drums and brass section components, which make it all sound like one nice anthem. Gibson George has arranged and produced the track with Subhadeep Mitra working on mixing and mastering. The lyricists who have penned these wonderful words are Siddharth-Garima Wahal & Bipin Das   15. House of cards Kudos to the sound technicians for making it seem like I am hearing something on an old radio or TV set, and then it transforms into splendid clarity and impeccable acoustics. The track is mixed by Luke Nicholas Foo and mastered by Carlo Camera. Naina V writes the lyrics and the composition is by Rishabh Sharma and her. The beats are very peculiar following a different pattern and it is quite interesting. It is just a simple acoustically rich song depending on guitars and vocals 16. Exile Siddharth Basrur is a singer-songwriter who is the main man of the progressive metal band ‘Goddess Gagged’ and he is featured here in this progressive rock/pop track. Siddharth’s vocals are the focal point of the track and musicians Aniket Kate and Zion Mathew produce this one. The usual suspects and masters of the art and science of sound recording are present here and that is why the song has an impeccable output. Ronak Runwal has mixed and Nitin M Krishna has mastered the track. The fantastic words are written by Yashodhaan Burange and Gaurav Tophakhane , who happens to be one of my favorite Indie artists, also has contributed initially to the composition bits. The track pauses and slows down at about the 3rd minute and how it gets a push and ante up a few seconds later is adrenaline-pumping good.  

This is the list of Top Songs released in India for the week ending Dec 12, 2021. This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 12th December 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 16 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country. Find the full playlist of Top Songs this week on SPOTIFY 1. Magician Alvin Presley was impressive a year or so ago with his EP and I loved the whole collection which had a track in Tamil as well. It was something fresh and his vocals stood out for me. Now I discover the band he formed back in 2016 and is their current lead vocalist is kicking ass. Attva was formed by musicians from around India but who gathered in good-old Chennai. Biadurya Banerjee is their lead guitarist, Shourish Biswas from New Delhi is the bassist, and the drummer in charge is Vinay Ramakrishnan. This track is a fast-paced rock single that straight away rises to the top of the charts this week. The bits where the electric guitar plays, I am reminded of the linesâ€? Ek suraj nikla thaâ€? from the track “Dil seâ€?. Is it weird that during certain moments, I hear some notes of Raag Jog or Naatai in Carnatic. The drumming and electric guitar are simply sizzling with some able support on the bass guitars. The harmonies are wonderfully arranged, and keep on the lookout for the electric guitar solo that extends for like a minute or so – truly inspirational work and kudos to Baidurya. The song speaks about a magician and I love the lyrics as well. The track is mixed and mastered by Toby Joseph and Nithin D’Mello is the recording engineer. Nayyha Sharma is the woman behind the artwork. 2. Hijabi The man who created the score for JOJI. That is how he will be known for his stupendous accomplishment in 2021, and in my opinion it is one of 2 Indian movies with the most outstanding OST’s of the year. If that is not enough for you listen to some of the awesome songs from “Thaaner Mathan Dhinangalâ€?, especially ‘Jathikathottam’. This is another smashing melody from Justin Varghese, and he has composed and programmed and arranged in this track, and it keeps ringing in your ears on loop sung so beautifully by Adheef Muhamed, and you can’t help but fall in love with this voice. A lullaby from a male voice has never felt this good. Suhail Koya is the lyricist. Subhani is terrific as expected on the string instruments in the secondary layers along with josy John’s splendid bass lines. Justin, SanDy and Amal Anthony join in back-up vocals and the interlude is one more elegant rendition on the strings. If you don’t pay close attention Nikhil’s intervention on the wind instruments could just whiff past you without you noticing. The verse is an extension of the melody with so many things happening in the background, thanks to Subhani’s skills and Justin’s arrangements. Varun Sunil of “Masala Coffeeâ€? plays the percussions here and Vipin Lal handles all the additional programming. The track is mixed and mastered by Justin, with additional mix by Nandhu Kartha, Avinash Satish and Justin are the recording engineers. 3. Premakke Kannilla He has had a terrify journey up until now, and I have always enjoyed his compositions in a very tight race among composers in Sandalwood music industry.  The use of the ghatam is a sure shot success, and in a slow song like this we have heard how AR Rahman used it brilliantly in “Innum Konjam Neramâ€?. Judah composes and arranges for this track sung brilliantly by Pancham Jeeva who sort of has this similarity in his vocal texture to that of Sanjith Hegde. Sarf Khan’s Sarod and the Bangalore Strings Ensemble are just excellent additions that keep enriching the track at every instant. Butto’s flute solo takes control of the interlude, and the verse is a simple but still the melody is maintained. The bass guitars provide some excellent backbone to the track and Shreya Iyer only joins much later in the track, but a nice little cameo it is. The lyrics are penned by Jayanth Kaikini, with mixing and mastering also by Judah. There is another track also which I love in this album called “Shuruvaagideâ€? sung by Sid Sriram who is slowly appearing more in Kannada now. This is too has some excellent live instruments with the flute again by Butto, Violin by Simon Augustine Sandhy, Nadaswaram by Nehru, and Veena by Mahesh Prasad. The Bangalore Strings Ensemble comprises of Simon Augustine Sandhy, Reuben James, Sarith Sukumaran, Sibi Manuel, Stephen Joseph, Aruna Duvvuri, Sam John Job. The Tabla is a constant presence played by Venkat and Dhanu, with Dholak by Dhanu and Shiva. Arjun Luis has penned the lyrics and Nigel Xandrina has mastered the track, with George Thomas on all the additional programming. 4. Wes Anderson Aditi Saigal a.k.a. DOT. Is rising every time she produces or composes or sings and after her super-impressive EP “Khamotionâ€? released in 2021, her ability to consistently deliver good music continues unabated. The Piano takes center stage right from the start, as James Gair arranged, co-produces, records, mixes and masters the track. The splendid keys are played by Aditi herself who soars higher and higher with her vocals, and you can see the adrenaline levels pumping as the keys and vocals get louder and higher in scale. The strings section comprising of Alice Teulon on 1st Violin, Miriam Dinis on 2nd Violin, Zach Reading on Viola, Anastasia Zaponidou on Cello, in the background is beautiful and rich and the arrangements are spot on. This is just one joy ride with its ups and downs and you can understand the genius in the youngster as she just conquers you with great composition and song-writing. The film was shot by Rory Alexander with Camera work by Matt Melling. 5. Kasiyoli This juggernaut called Bhoomi with musical production by Salim-Sulaiman is a brand of music that doesn’t cannot be stopped in its path. I have already featured 2 so far in this website in 2 different weeks, and one Tamil number on Behindwoods. This is composed by one of the brightest talents in India, Anurag Saikia. The title means ‘ray of light’ and he is the ray of light that Indian music industry should be proud of. The vocals are solid thanks to its lead performers Vivek Hariharan and Jutimala Buragohain. After the first couple of lines, there is a pause and the guitars electrify the stage and you just wait for what is about to come. Ishan Das has played the electric guitars and co-produced the track with Anurag. Nawaz Hussain is charged up and that is evident in the drums he plays along with percussions by Satyajit Rajaram Jamsandekar. The track is mixed and mastered by Pankaj Borah with drums alone mixed by Akash Sawant. The duel between the drums and electric guitar gets insanely good and this track feels like a wonderful Assamese folk song that has been given a fabulous refurbishment. The bassist is Rahul Putai, and Manoj Kumar Das plays the Khol. Rahul Gautam Sharma writes the lyrics and the backing vocals team comprises of Gauranga Shekhar, Bishal Sharma, Kavya Daga and Kriti Daga. 6. Kitabon The Western Ghats, are a band you better take notice of, and follow. The stamp of music coming from them is of the highest nature and I believe their music should be celebrated. Ritik Suntwal on drums gets the tempo and track going along with guitars by Kaleb Shaji, and Gordon Pereira. Aryaendra Shekhar has got some stunning vocals that he employs and the humming portion a minute or so into the track is delightful. Aryaendra also has composed and written the track. You can sense that the Keyboards are also heavily used here and Sunil George plays them along with other vital duties lie composition and arrangements. It might be much easier to just compose a very regular rock track, but this band pays extra focus on the tune that is being composed, and you can strip off all the accompanying instruments and you will still have an inherent melody worth singing and humming, Rex David is the bassist and the track is mixed and mastered by Jayakrishnan Nalinkumar. The outro on guitars, drums and keys is just way too enjoyable. 7. Anandham Yazin Nizar who used to sing regularly in Malayalam and Tamil, has of late started singing quite regularly in Telugu. He has got a vocal range not many can match upto and he displays that right at the beginning of the track. He is accompanied by Vishnupriya who does combine well in the romantic song that has a wonderful charanam portion that is both elaborate and elegant. The guitars start off the second interlude portion which then is taken over by a wonderful solo on the violin and when you hear all this you get the impression this is a beautiful rendition with influences of Abheri Raaga. The track is composed by Shekar Chandra and with lyrics written by Bhaskarabhatla. The flute keeps playing on and off especially in the first interlude, and I love how Visnupriya sings at the end of the charanam with a subtle vibrato that lands on the pallavi. The track has some excellent arrangements on the bass guitar, and Piano as well. Krishnaraj Arumugum has mixed and mastered the track. 8. Cut to the chase That’s two in two for Kashmira Khot, after a super single released back in July called “Break Throughâ€?. This one is an equally smashing single written, and performed by her and her close aide Mayank Katare has produced and played the acoustic guitars and bass. The fabulous drums are played by Saurabh Lodha and he has also mastered the track. Her vocals are beyond par, and the singing as well as the guitars give me a texture of country music popular in the US. The arrangements are splendid and I love how in between the guitars and instruments take a pause with only Kashmira’s vocals and Saurabh’s drums performing. The guitar notes that keep playing every-time Kashmira finishes singing “Cut to the chaseâ€? are memorable and stick to your mind. You will wake up in the end when she sings “wake up darlingâ€? and Saurabhs ups the tempo on his drums. 9. Little plastic raincoat Second sight is a duo that settles in a very niche segment focusing on Jazz, R&B primarily. The recent album which is apparently their debut creation has some terrific number, a couple have been already featured by me. Here I want to mention about two particularly 1. Little Plastic Raincoat which is a bonus feature and 2. Helpless. Anusha Ramasubramoney and Pushkar Srivatsal are the duo and I recommend that listeners hear the whole album and get a taste of their classy music. The tracks are written and composed by the duo and in the first track here they both lend their vocals, that just is soothing.  Pushkar himself plays the guitars, and watch out for the Cello played by Akoto Goto, that instils the pathos and gravity of the scenario right into your heart. The way the duo sing in unison and in different octaves. Ralph Menezes is the bassist with Puskar also handling all additional synths. The next track featured Ranjani Ramadoss a.k.a. RANJ and here Second Sight enters their seasoned territory of R&B. The singing is impeccable as Pushkar and Anushka improvise and use vibrato so effectively and spontaneously, something that never quite comes off well in other genres. RANJ begins to rap as we touch the halfway mark and Ralph’s bass and Pushkar’s guitars provide the backbone for the foot-tapping rap she delivers. Jaykrishnan Unnithan plays the Keys, and Jigar Shah is on the drums. All vocal arrangements are by Anushka, with Pushkar producing and mixing the tracks. The mastering is by Thomas Juth, and the recording engineers are Keyur Bhagat, Sameer Shah, and Hersh Desai. 10. Hot Cauldron Ragtime It is an interesting Album by evermoon and it is certainly worth your time with at least a couple of tracks sounding brilliant. Abracadabra as this one-man act calls it, gave me one amazing track to cherish and it is this. It feels like a retro swing number but classified as an electro- swing style. Adithi Sagar smashes this one with her flamboyant vocals and it is aided by some high value production and programming by evermoon. The trumpets and Keys play in the background turning this into one hot wild dance number and maybe that is why the title. Tejas Ramakrishna a.k.a. evermoon from Bengaluru experiments and he does that how well with varied musical styles and textures in the album and he also sings here along with Adithi. The bass and electric guitar sounds also electrify the whole environment and kudos to Tejas for his production, composition and arrangements. 11. Karon Aamra Aakashe Rupam Islam is like a legend in Bangla indie music and would you believe that this particular had been written a decade ago and happy that it is finally being released again. Rupam has combined forces with Allan Ao and Neel Adhikari to compose this breezy rock number. Prasenjit Pom Chakrabutty’s bass guitars and Neel’s acoustic guitars stand tall along with some very peppy backing vocals featuring Neel, Allan and Ujjaini Mukherjee. Rupam is almost performing like it is just a walk in the park, and his cool attitude and style transmits over the track in a wonderful way. The drums programming is done by Allan, and that too is quite effective considering it is very essential to carry the tempo of the track forward. Rupam has written the lyrics as well. The outro is Rock-N-Roll like the old times as Allan does some sorcery on guitar strings. 12. Notun Alor Piyashay Bangla music has always been running ahead of others, in the country especially in the rock genre. But the diverse styles that composers explore is worth appreciating. Take this track for example, as Joy Goswami writes, sings and composes this fabulous retro-sounding number that cheers you up with positivity with every note sung and played. I get a feeling there is a similarity to Kedar Raag or may be in the Chayanat or Gaur Sarang framework. Dipesh Chakraborty excels at arranging and mixing and mastering for the track, but the vocals stand out for me. The way he suddenly shifts from lyrics to swaras is interesting and lovely to listen to. The choice of percussion and the guitar strokes add to that retro feeling as well. All the guitar design is by Sugata Roy Palodhi and Debojit Sengupta is the sound engineer. The use of the electric guitar adds a fresh element to an otherwise very traditionally melodious number. 13. Inaaya A song talks about love and tenderness especially how a child sees the world, full of life, innocence is what this song discusses this aspect. The moment the song starts I am reminded of that beautiful old number called “Tere Mere Milan kiâ€? from the movie ‘Abhimaan’. Saurabh Trivedi and Suyash have written, produced and composed the track. Shikhar Agrawal’s flute solo starts off things, and with the vocals and Keys in unison the track is tranquility exemplified. Sagar Saluja plays the guitars, amd Ronit Sejwani is on the drums. The humming in the end is like a bridge that takes the track into a more rock-styled song and all the arrangements and basic likability of the tune keep you hooked on. Arpita Singh takes care of the album art. 14. Mukh Feraye Na Mon Wow what a week for Bangla music, the 3rd track emerges in the top 15 and this has to go to the vocalist for that sweet voice which does lifts my spirits up. Sahana Bajpaie is the singer and she sings this one composed by Amit-Ishan who have done some wonderful arrangements of the Piano and guitars right through the track. Subbhamoyy plays the guitars and strokes with such amazing control and the feeling love and romance blossoms with every stroke. The interludes are relatively simple, and the composition depends heavily on the tune, as the basslines also sound spot on in the verses. Barish is the lyricist, and mixing and mastering is done by Amit Chatterjee. 15. Across the Universe It is going to be featured in my list of Best EP/Albums of 2021, with already 3 tracks being featured in the album inspired by ‘The Beatles and India’. Tejas Menon and Mali (Maalavika Manoj) are two splendid indie artists and many a times I have written about their singles and Eps here on my website, and when the two combine it was always going to be dynamite. Tejas debuts as a producer here and if you thought their vocals are spell-binding just wait and pay attention to Shravan Sridhar’s majestic solo on the violin. The combination of the Violin and guitars is splendid and it immediately feels like a beautified version of the original itself. As Mali begins here vocals, Tejas too joins in, and I can understand how important this is for the musicians, who get to perform on a classic of the legendary Beatles, but it is also a great opportunity for listeners of this generation to hear such classics. The arrangement of harmonies and the instruments are perfect to let the 4-minute track never lose a second of inspiration. 16. Hold on Tight ‘Change’ was the last time I featured Gouri and Aksha in my rankings and they have once again impressed me enough to appear in this list. The vocals are beautifully layered when they sing in unison and the Keys add a necessary layer that ‘Jazz’ifies the track in my opinion. The way the vocals are arranged with one following the other is something that always catches the attention and it works here too. The track is produced and mixed by Rohan Ramanna while it is mastered by Shawn Hatfield. The stylish trumpets are played by Aldrin Dominic Alexander and it is a ‘wow’ moment for sure. It is thins kind of innovative arrangement and thought that makes me believe the duo have much more to offer and impress in the world of music. Hersh Desai as the recording engineer, Snehi Shah handles the art direction and Meghna Bhalla takes the photography credits. I cannot think of a better song in recent months, to play in the twilight and have a lovely dinner and dance with your better half.

This is the list of Top Songs released in India for the week ending Dec 5, 2021. This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 5th December 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 16 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country. Find the full playlist of Top Songs this week on SPOTIFY 1. Paramapadham It is the name of the track and simply skyrockets to the top of the charts this week, leaving its 300+ competitors on the sidelines. This Tamil song is rich in every musical sense and I hope it inspires many bands and composers to look deeper within and try and get their best out in the open. Since 2019 December I have been following the work of Chenni Street band their previous album had some pleasant and likeable tunes which I featured, but if there was one complaint to nitpick it was that they lacked a little bit of variety. ‘Safarnama’ was a recent track released by the band and it already was an answer to my doubts, as the track had some lovely fusion bits and took me by surprise. Now comes this new track and I was floating in pleasure listening to the excellent live instruments and arrangements. The brass section and bass guitars are mind-blowing good, and even before the first words are uttered by Srihari Jagannathan, the lead vocalist, you will fall in love. Srihari also has produced and written the lyrics which have an excellent message about life’s vagaries and even ridicules our superstitious beliefs. Adithya Gopi on bass guitars is having a ball as he does some finger magic which is irresistible. Goutham Healer’s hi-hat drum strokes at the beginning and right through on drums are splendid. Akshay Yesodharan and Renin Raphael play along with the acoustic guitars and every element keeps you hooked on and inspired.I just loved the line “oru thenga mela vekkara nambikkai ya , un mela vechhi paaruâ€?, which translates into “ Just show the same amount of trust you keep on a coconut, on yourselfâ€? which is a sly below-the-belt hit on our superstitions. Just get up and before grooving and dancing clap your hands for 305 Horns who are playing the live Brass section, and it is one heck of a display, which took me back to the days of “Sususudioâ€? by Phil Collins. Mike Cordone on Trumpets and Jesse McGinty on the Tenor Sax and Trombone keep the track’s energy ebullient. Let us not forget Sebastian Sathish’s role on the Synths and Keys and it becomes more apparent during the moments of silence from the brass section. Balaji Gopinath has arranged the brass and this role is indispensable. The outro is terrific with synths coming to take over and the engineers play a vital role as well with Vivek Thomas on mixing and mastering, with mix assistant Rahul Narayan and Lijesh Kumar on recording. 2. Doora Hogo Munna A year or so ago I first heard Sridhar V Sambhram compose a track and it was sung by Anwessha and this was called “Manamohanaâ€?. This was a fabulous melody and only confirmed that he is here to stay after a multitude of hits in the previous decade. This beauty starts off on the Piano and it is soothing as the morning calm and late night breeze, and this section is arranged by Sridhar himself. Then come the big guns, through the strings section and we have Vasuki Vaibhav on the vocals. He is a super star musician who can sing, write and compose and is one of my favorite young musicians to watch out for. Sridhar explore so much and offers plenty to listen to and like in the Pallavi and Anupallavi sections of the song itself. There are influences of the Simhendhra madhyamam raga. The track also bears some similarities to a Ajay-Atul compostion like “Yaad laglaâ€? thanks to the grand strings arrangements. Pramod Maravanthe is the lyricist and the track is programmed by Davy Suresh Kumar. The solo violin in the interlude with strings and keys in the background is delicious. The strings by Bangalore Strings Ensemble is recorded by Ajay, with Charan Rao on guitars and we also hear a Midi Saxophone in the second interlude with some more elements from the brass section. Sanjay MP has mixed and mastered the track   3. Amina       There is nothing more enriching than embracing diversity, and it hold true for music especially. I loved it the movement I hear this one as I could feel the energy and my body and feet itching to move. Kenishaa brings home Africa itself through this amazing composition, as she also sings and writes the lyrics. This Bengaluru based musician gets all the flavors of Africa spot on, combining with Israel Thomas, Ashish Borde and Vishnu R. MT Aditya Srinivasan has produced the track along with recording all the live instruments. Sumesh Nayadi records the vocals and handles the mixing and mastering. The singing clearly stands out and I was thrilled to hear a song which resonates so much with “This time for Africaâ€? sung by a global icon in Shakira. The title line is sung brilliantly with harmonies and the all the programmed violins and rhythms enhance the quality of the track. Afro_french Keyboardist Israel handles the instrumentation spectacularly and wait for a Violin and Keys jugalbandi past the 2nd minute. Kenishaa Francis swaps between lyrics in English and Swahili quite fluently. Ashish and Vishnu are the bassists. 4. Peele Amiras Shekhar Ravijani is going it alone these days and after a smashing single with Meghdeep Bose called “Boonda Baandiâ€? and another self-composed single ‘Rang’, this one is teaming up with a Mumbai based Indie folk band called “Kabir Caféâ€? who are about to release their first album called Sabr. Neeraj Arya the main man and Shekhar are the vocalists in this delightful folk tune with some heavy local percussions played by Vicky Brahmankar. Guitars and Bass are played by Poubuanpou Britto Khangchian and he does a smashing job of it. At the interlude, Mukund Ramaswamy plays the solo violin where you simply drawn into a zone of tranquility and then the tempo and ante is picked up thanks to Viren Solanki on drums. Piyush Acharya plays the harmonium in the second interlude and gives the track a very retro filmy feeling. The sound engineering is impeccable thanks to Swapnil Tare on recordings and Hanish Taneja on mixing and mastering. 5. Nindiya Re They have become my favorite Indian rock band, and why wouldn’t they when their brand of music has made it to my weekly rankings on 4 consecutive occasions. With “Khwaabâ€? from the previous album and 3 new releases all from the latest yet-to-be-released “Gharqâ€?. Nidiya Re is another proof that “The Lost Symbolsâ€? is finding its place in the top echelons of Indian music. Gunjan Soral’s bass guitars and acoustic guitars lead the way closely followed by Aman Raj’s vocals. It only gives you the impression that it is a slow lovely romantic song, but as the electric guitars by Gunjan and Arun Singh Naruka’s drums set the place ablaze, you feel the ‘rock’ style in the core. The electric guitar solo feels a little bit like Titan watches music from Mozart’s Symphony no. 25. The energy drops to a sane sober version for the verse with strings in the background and the last 90 seconds is a fantastic portion with electric guitars, programmed strings and drums completely overpowering you with richness. Gunjan also records, mixes and masters the track, with Pallab Baruah doing the album illustration and artwork, Debasish Sarmah handling the animation. 6. Dheere Se This is a reprise version of Gaurav Topakhane’s Dheere Se, and I probably never heard that, because this music review profile took over my life in a great way only in late 2019. I have featured Garuarv in a couple of splendid tracks before and this reprise version is certainly a shift from his style. The track is produced by Ashish Kujur, and the mixing & mastering is done by stalwarts Ronak Runwal and Nitin M Krishna respectively. The Keys are the predominant being here and they guide the track. Gaurav’s vocals are so soft tender and they need to be to deliver a version like this. Slowly (Dheere se) the strings starts to play in the background with the most apt beats and rhythm that stops short of taking focus away from the vocals. The notes are excellently written for the Piano that plays like it has a mind of its own , and the last 1 minute of music production speaks volumes about the team and it deserves your attention with your headphones on. Listen to the background humming and a stunning pause at 4.02 on the clock. 7. Better Place The Piano is not called the Key just liked that randomly, one reason could be that it really is the key to all that unlocked musical potential in someone, or maybe a key to open up those hidden emotions waiting for catharsis. Whatever it is the Piano played here is fantastic and sets the stage running for something even better. Vernon D’souza from West Bengal has written, composed and sung this touching piece dedicated to his uncle who passed away recently. The singing is extremely effective in delivering the message forward but what gives the song its weight is the arrangements and production, which is Alstan Remedios’ contribution. The 17-year old Mumbai based producer has also mixed and mastered the track and he adds these wonderful layers to the track. The lines are beautifully written as Vernon sings “ God takes the one He most adoresâ€?. Souvik Adak is the vocal supervisor and as Rohit Das does the shooting and video editing, while Joyonto Baskey handles all the post production work. 8. Fata Faati Amit Trivedi is going places, literally, all over India to capture some of the best sounds and featured them in his musical compositions. This is making him more Pan-India and that is interesting to see more Bollywood musicians now reaching out to understand and depict regional music in their own styles. The track is a Bangla folk delight sung by Goutam Das Baul and Rana Mazumdar and composed and produced by Amit. The folk instruments used clearly represent the Baul genre and the backup vocals make this for some lovely listening, and the team itself is comprised of some established musicians like Rajiv Sundaresan, Arun Kamath and Suhas Sawant. The lyrics are beautifully encapsulating the greatness and most loved aspects of West Bengal thanks to Rana’s writing. All the additional programming is by Raja Rasaily with Urmila Sutar as the Sound Engineer. The Dotara and Ektara keep playing all through the track and Tapas Roy is the man behind this. Many listeners might not be able to appreciated folk music in its truest form, but presenting it through some modifications like this definitely expands its reach. The track is mixed and mastered by Shadab Rayeen with assistant Engineers Pukhraj & Milan. The track is produced by Krutee Trivedi & Amit Trivedi with Executive Assistant Rajeev Rajguru and Manager, Aditya Hanchinal 9. Shambhoo Re Hansraj Raghuvanshi is a singer who ususally sings devotional songs and this one too is on Lord Shiva. It gives me great pleasure that my rankings cover all genres of music and devotional is not far behind these days. The track has many influences of Raag Charukeshi, which becomes apparent in the opening lines, interludes and stanza. Gulshan Kumar presents the track, and produced by DJ Strings. Hansraj has composed, written and sing the track. The Tabla, harmonium and flute add the traditional flavor, but the bass guitars are a constant presence creating an excellent westernized experience. 10. Go Grow Owl’s eye was a fabulous number and I had immense expectations for Rachel Singh thereafter. The Shehnai was a masterpiece addition in that single and here she brings in the Flute and who better to play it than Rakesh Cahurasia who thrives on some monumental pedigree. Rachel has composed and written the single along with Pierce Leon, but she plays the acoustic guitars and lends her vocals. Rachel is scintillating in delivering this and it requires exceptional vocal skill to sound so authentic and mesmerizing at the base scale. Joshua Singh has played the percussion and mixed the track. Rakesh’s flute interventions are subtle and spontaneous but they add so much of spice to the mix here. The flute solo after the first minute with the guitars in the background is something that will stick on to your minds, and kudos to the team, which makes a memorable single despite being a very simple composition. Ayan De has mastered the track with Naisha Bhargabi handling all the artwork. If you let this track “goâ€? forward, it will â€?growâ€? on you. 11. Until you found me 'Until you found me' talks about things in life which are bound to happen no matter what. The people we meet, the experiences we walk through, the emotions we feel and how it all connects has always made me wonder how each of our stories are being developed on this planet. Time has been kind enough to me because now when I look back, I see how my story unfolded and this song 'Until you found me' is a reflection of her in my story. Recorded, mixed and mastered at Shimmr Studios, Chennai. Written, performed and sung by Sidharth Nair Produced by Ashwin Vinayagamoorthy Guitars by Rishab Ravi Synth/keys by Nived NP Backing vocals by Kausthub Ravi mixed and mastered by Sivanesh Natarajan at Shimmr Studios, Chennai Music video conceptualized and shot by Rithesh Rohan R. 12. Palkein Keshuv Huria like many budding musicians graduated from AR Rahman’s KMMC in Chennai and the quality of that education is written all over the track here. Keshuv has produced, arranged, composed and obviously sung this single and there is nothing here that won’t make you fall in love with it. I sense a definite inspiration and influence of AR Rahman and that is never a bad thing, in-fact I keep getting reminded of “Agar Tum Saath hoâ€? and that is why this is probably based in Raag Desh. Otehre than that Keshuv’s composition stands alone by itself, and there is a melody which we find only in the 1960s and 70s and kudos to him for bringing back richness of yesteryears. Listen to the Accordion and whistle which are subtle but show that Keshuv is willing to experiment. The stanza is excellently composed with some support on the bass guitars as well. Once we get back to the opening lines, we can hear the Piano and strings in the background all complimenting each other very well. Usman Saghar Wazirabadi is the lyricist, Hammad Rashid is the bassist, and all additional vocals along with mixing and mastering are done by Reena Gilbert. 13. Do Gallan Neha Kakkar sings so many tracks that one could lose track if you don’t stay on top of it. In my honest opinion, a lot of what she sings doesn’t make it to my lists and rankings because they are repetitive and uninspiring. This one however is a melody I just couldn’t ignore and Neha is pitch-perfect in her delivery. The Sarangi kicks things off and it is played by Harpinder Singh Kang and closely behind we have Rhythm Shaw on acoustic guitars. Neha’s singing is exceptional with her usual emotive style but an indispensable component is Rhythm’s guitars. Rohanpreet Singh makes Punjabi sound so good when it is sung in a romantic melody like this. Garry Sandhu has written composed the tune, with music direction carried out by Rajat Nagpal. The verse produces even better singing by the lead vocalists who provide the right amount of tantalizing vibrato needed for the song. The track is produced, and programmed by Rajat, with mastering by Naweed. The Sarangi is recorded by Shawn and vocals by Rahul Sharma and Sameer Dharap. The percussions are excellently programmed and arranged because they take over and pause alternately. I loved the basslines too along with the harmony near the end of the track.   14. Mor We have had some amazing Punjabi tracks in 2021, and this starts off in a very predictable fashion, but the way the tune transforms with some sensational EDM and dance/pop influences is just top-draw. Ruby Khurana is the singer with Seji Dhillon’s composition. The introduction of the flute keeps the melody and likability on a high. There is one solo on the flute in the interlude and that deserves a round of applause for the creativity and skill exhibited. Go ahead and dance your heart out for this one. Ranbir Grewal is the lyricist.   15. Space for you Slight Diversion is an artist who has been around for a while now but this is the first time I have heard his composition. Kenneth Basumatari and Tapas Relia produce this track which talks about letting new people enter your space and life, just like how the artist has now entered my radar of musicians. His vocals are straight out of an American rock song of the 1980s, and he is ably supported by Kenneth on the bass guitars and Nikhil D’souza on guitars. You can hear the way guitars become the primary backbone of the track, especially watch-out for a duel on electric guitars battling it out with no strings attached, between the composer and Nikhil. 16. Aao Na Hitesh Rikki Madan was outstanding in his earlier outing for a Punjabi track called “Gal Sunn Zaraâ€? and it featured Sanjeeta Bhattacharya. I was thoroughly impressed with that breezy track which was a welcome deviation from the usual styled Punjabi singles which tend to be over-the-top. This one is a treat because it involves him and his young sons who are budding musicians. The Madans all sing, but Ariv plays the bass guitars, and Advay plays the percussions like Cajon, Shaker and Drum practice pad. Hitesh takes care of the rest of the business playing the guitars, Ukulele, keyboards and along with the composition and vocals he has also arranged, programmed and produced it. Manish Dhawan and Hitesh write the lyrics which talks about love and affection within close family members. The singing by these youngsters is quite good and the track feels like a good-old Bollywood song of the 1990s and it gets me to recalling “papa kehte hainâ€? maybe because of the string guitar strokes. Listen to the fabuolous acoustic guitar and bass guitar solos one after the other past the 2-minute mark. Hitesh has recorded the track and it is mastered by Andres Mayo. The sing of the trio in harmony is another interesting bit, but I certainly look forward how fine musicians these young boys grow into.

This is the list of Top Songs released in India for the week of November 21-28, 2021. This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 28th November 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 17 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country. Find the full playlist of Top Songs this week on SPOTIFY 1. Nagarodi He is the nephew of AR Rahman, the young boy who used to sing in many of Rahman’s songs as well. But that is not just how he is known to the world, he became a popular musician and still has some vast fan-following for his style of music which takes inspiration from ARR but also treads its own path. My personal view is that, after a brilliant early 2000s, there was a drop in his performance, but maybe that was because of some severe competition in the Tamil movie industry and exceedingly high expectations from the composer. GV Prakash Kumar has had many successes as an actor now, and in 2021 worked with global singers to create some rollicking English singles. This song is a supreme comeback and the quality of music reverberates with his earlier masterpieces. He ropes in Ananya Bhatt from the Kannada music space and she delivers a slick and glamorous performance on vocals. The bass guitars are incredible and remind me of Maestro Ilaiyaraja’s works. GV also lends his vocals as the male lead along with the dynamic Arivu who has penned these impressive lyrics as expected. Raj Kumar Amal is the producer and the track is mixed and mastered Jehovahson Alghar. Adter the impressive opening lines, we have the rap intervention by Arivu supported by rhythms. The interlude has a humming by Ananya followed by some programmed instrumentals and this is where I sensed some Hindolam Raaga influence, including in the verse. Lalit Talluri plays the fabulous flute. 2. In the Air The band from New Delhi was formed back in 2004 and released their first album back in 2009. The younger generation probably hasn’t heard of them, but I hope music enthusiasts get their thirsts quenched with this spell-binding EP called “Unisonâ€? which was live-in-concert. I loved 3 of the 5 tracks including “In the Airâ€?, “Gates of Dawnâ€? and “Milanâ€?. This particular song is based on the poem by the sufi mystic and poet Baba Bulleh Shah. The EP was a live performance recorded at the Oddbird Theatre back in 2018 but the music streaming platforms are just playing them now. Ujwal Nagar is the Hindustani vocalist who is simply stunning and he is accompanied by Rohit Prasanna’s mesmerizing flute solos. Aman Singh plays the drums and all the western side of the fusion elements come from Gaurav Chintamani’s basslines and Abhishek Mathur’s guitars. There is absolute tranquility listening to the flute, drums and guitars in unison and this is where I felt there was some Kaafi Raag or Karaharapriya influence. Anindo Bose plays the Keyboards and handles the mixing at Plug ‘Nâ€? Play Studios. At the halfway mark, we have Chayan Adhikari vocalizing in English and this immediately feels like a rock ballad and what an exemplary track on fusion. Sarthak Pahwa plays the percussions. The other two tracks I strong recommend have been mentioned already and this EP is worth all your time. I will be doing a full review of it later as one of the best EPs of 2021. The Video was shot by Tushar Dixit, Shubham Singhal, Shiv Vardhan, Video Edited by Tushar Dixit, Photography by Shiv Ahuja and Shrey Gupta, Lights by Priya Mathews and Sound Recorded by Ayush. 3. Starfall Pranay Bakshi a.k.a. Cosmic Grooves is a music producer and he has been quite impressive and the last time he and Anoushka Maskey combined to create a track called “eventideâ€? it turned out that it turned all tides, it was so good that it appeared in the top 10 for that week in the entire country. This time around Cosmic Grooves has an EP called A New, Clear Winter, and it is one clever title featuring Anoushka and Shaurya Singh. Pranay does the production, composition, arrangements, mixing and mastering as well. Shaurya’s vocals are engrossing and they keep you hooked on in addition to the guitars that keep playing. Anoushka combines brilliantly and the two vocalists keep things mysterious and dark and as the instrumentation picks up, it is impossible to not enter a zone of trance. There is an electric guitar portion supported by drums and the top-hat, that enhances the emotional connect with the track. When a song leaves that feeling of wanting more and makes you wish it played on an endless loop, the track has achieved its purpose. 4. Humse Khafa Assamese musicians continue to impress and scale higher peaks and the latest to join that long list is Sujan Sinha a.k.a. Suzonn and although I love a song set in Assamese lyrics, this one in Hindi is equally good. The single is written, composed and performed by Suzonn, and it begins with the Flute solo by Bhaskar Jyoti Kalita and guitars by Pritom Gohain Boruah. The vocals of Suzonn are so pleasing helped by sounds from the keyboards and synthesizers. The stanza has a very ring o it as well and we have some excellent production and arrangements keeping the background filled with Keys and Strings. Anubhav Gogoi does the music production and Pankaj Borah has mixed and mastered the track. 5. Ilapeythu Moodumi It has to be a output that reflects profound quality when a respected composer and an established composer get together for a song. While here you go, don’t you dare expect anything less as Sithara Krishnakumar sings for Ouseppachan’s score. Sandeep Mohan’s bass guitars are nothing to short of perfect and Ouseppachan himself plays the violin solo. The song has very strong influences of Anandhabhairavi raaga according to me, and Sithara’s delivery only enhances the beauty of the tune further. The interlude has some excellent strings arrangements along with the solo violin, and Ajeesh Anto on keyboards provides some necessary back up for the track. The sound engineers are Sai Prakash who does the recording, and mixing as well with Harishankar on mastering duties. BK Harinarayanan’s lyrics are effective in this song. The tabla is played by Sunil. 6. Besharam Si Nazarein It is gratifying to see that one of your favorite musicians consistently delivers quality music all the time. Abhijeet Srivastava has composed, sung and produced this very enjoyable track and what I like about his music is that it is never run-of-the-mill and there is always a peculiar but likable mix of modern sounds with some melody as well. Gibson George and Abhijeet are the producers with Ashish Manchanda being the EP. Abhijeet’s voice is one incomparable asset that he uses to his advantage, and the song never feels flat or empty because there are so many intricate sounds that are playing in the background and I love how Abhijeet employs the pause just before the interlude. The trumpet is played stylishly by Walter Dias, with some backing vocals by Aniruddh Anantha who has arranged it as well. Hansika Pareek opens her account in the verse and we have some excellent keyboards being operated and Hansika amazingly compliments Abhijeets singing and the way the two sing the title line is spectacular especially when they sing in unison. Aman Moroney plays the electric guitars, and the beautiful words are written by Shayra Apoorva. The track is mixed and mastered by Aman, and recorded by Abhijeet, Aman, Priyank Barwer and Reagan Almeida. 7. The world keeps Turning When music runs in the family, it generally in itself is a proxy for judging the musician’s abilities. This track is written, composed and sung by Piya Podder and another musician who has contributed immensely is Barun Sinha who has co-composed, produced, mixed and mastered the track. The change of rhythm and tempo in the track is something that I love about this and another thing that stands out is the trumpet and drums combination which makes me feel like I am listening to the marching band. Aman Kumar Singh from the band Advaita who have already been featured at No.2 in his week, while Chie Nishikori fro Japan plays the Trumpets and Trombone and we have already her as a part of Chizai’s glorious album early this year. Barun , being the multi-instrumentalist plays the Piano, acoustic, bass and electric guitars. 8. Navamalayalam We have some familiar names again in this track from the world of Malayalam music and I love this track which to my mind has some influences of either Karaharapriya or Reethigowla raaga. As it starts off with Sachin Balu on the Veena and Sumesh Parameshwar impresses with his bass-lines. They both show their skill-sets straightaway and you will know that you are going to spend the next few minutes enjoying a wonderful melody. The man in focus however is Arun Alat who has written, produced, composed and sung this beauty and the singing part alone has Bhadra Rajin to accompany him. Sachin who himself has impressed me many times with his own musical scores, plays the Veena with some style. The Kazoo is a nice instrument to replicate a Nadaswaram and Abhijit Anilkumar plays in the interludes. The stanza is another elaborate extension of the songs opening lines and the track is mixed and mastered by Hari Shankar, while it is recorded by Dil Vinu and Nishanth. Bhadra Rajin sings her lines in the lower scales brilliantly and that was quite an unexpected deviation from the track 9. Kahaniya The band calls itself Folk Masti and it really does live up to its name by sticking to the folk genre but adding some delectable twists to it. The main man in the band is Vipul Panchal, who is vocalist and guitarist as well and these are the two predominant portions in the track. I do love the Keys played by Samadhan Guldagde which adds a nice Jazz style to this helped by Roshan Aade’s catchy Cajon. The whole rhythm section along with the slowish tempo and Vipul’s singing style sounds like a Hindi Film song from back in the 1970s. The Harmonica interlude is another inspiring attempt, although it was quite brief, and finally one needs to credit Shree Shankar for the mixing and mastering. 10. Jaane Kya Laage Sometimes it takes a man who has been around for a while to delivery some old time magic. It is at least true for this track as Amc Aman who has been around since 2009 as a singer and composer mails this tune. How amazing it sounds to hear the legendary Alka Yagnik and she has still got it. Bhaskar Kalita who has already played the flute for another track this week once again sizzles in the wind here. The combination of the flute and Keys in the background works brilliantly especially with Alka’s mastery. Wait for the interlude with the programmed Sitar and we have to credit Anubhav Gogoi and Aman for their programming expertise. Arafat Mehmood writes the lyrics, and the stanza is well composed and It all takes me back to some of AR Rahmans greatest Bollywood music. The second interlude is a flute solo and the engineers have done a great job as well with Larry Lobo on recording and B Sanj on mixing and mastering. 11. Naan Thoda It is not very surprising to see great indie music in Hindi, because that is where the talent really is, as Bollywod is bereft of any skillful composers. That is not true for music in the south as some of the best music comes from movie albums, yet it is heartening to see some one like Santhosh Dayanidhi spring up a surprise like this one here in Tamil indies. But raise your hands and clap for this phenomenal singer who just bamboozles you with that voice. It belongs to Shaktishree Gopalan. The interlude has a lovely bit on the Piano but just the way it sounds, reminds me AR Rahman’s “Munbe Vaâ€? interlude, and Santhosh himself handles the keyboard programming while the master Keba Jeremiah is on guitars. It is an elaborate interlude, with an additional Violin solo by Vignesh and kudos to Santhosh for that. Listen to the fabulous violin in the background as she sings “Minnal pattu pootha muttuâ€?, and A Pa Raja writes these fantastic lyrics as well. Sathish Priyan is the music supervisor, and Pradeep Menon mixes while Suresh Permal masters the track. Daving Ling is the music co-ordinator. 12. Pove Pove Sometimes it is effective to use your trump card right at the beginning, and that is what the composer Ghanashyam has done here with Sandilya Pisapati the violinist. The track starts off with a serious mode and that could be because of the violin playing supported by the Keys. Swarag Keerthan is the singer and his delivery maintains the pathos probably intended in the first place but also tends to enchant with his voice. Throughout the first 1 minute, Sandilya continues to intervene with some beautiful segments in the background adding a very essential layer of richness. Ghandhyam also plays the guitars and mixes and masters the track. The stanza might seem like it just replicates the opening lines to the untrained ear, but there are deviations the composer brings in to escalate the quality of the tune. Satya SK is the lyricist. The song just uses vocals, Keys and Violin to put this melody forward, once again a testament to that fact that good music doesn’t take much more than intent and talent. 13. Tanha Rahun Main Pratyush Dhiman is a young singer-musician, a.k.a. Prats and his single simply blew me away. The mesmerizing flute is section is composed by Prats himself and he also pens the lyrics. The singing is excellent and despite its slow tempo, all the arrangements offer so much for the eager ears. The interlude on the flute is a replay of the opening lines of the song but this where I sensed some influence of Raag Hamsadhwani. It is not a complicated song, but when the right vocals and instrumentals are placed, they can touch the right nerve. The track is mixed and mastered Hanish Taneja. 14. Jaane Do Tushar Joshi has written, produced and composed this track and this is the second time this musician has impressed me after “Ek woh palâ€?. The outstanding guitars by Jobin David really entice me from the moment I hear them, and he also plays the electric guitars. Listen to the mild strings being played in the background that sort of lifts up the track to a whole new level. The use of backup vocals in layers works well for me, and the track is mixed and mastered by Aman Agarwal. Without the vocals of Tushar I can’t imagine the song would have been this pleasant. Aaroh Velankar is the recording engineer, along with Rupjit Das and Maharshi Jani. Rohit Kelkar does the artwork, and the lyrical video is by Ravindra Kelkar. 15. Mann Maaze I knew of his potential much before his show at the Indian Idol in 2021, as he was featured and reviewed in the space as a composer and singer and we are talking about Ashish Kulkarni. This is a song where he only sings, but the duo of Dinesh-Kapil, have created this beautiful track. Dinesh Patole has written the lyrics and composed the tune while the arrangements are done by Dinesh, Kushal Bharatia, Kapil Chhajed and Vishal Tidke. The violins by Kartk Tarte, kick things off along with the Keys by Vishal Tidke. Ashish’s vocals are gentle and though the tune has a very familiar Marathi tune, the Keys and arrangements provide a western flavor. Kushal Bharatia does the production with Saurabh Lodha on mixing, mastering and recording duties. There is an excellent aalap in between and it gets taken into the background with Sagar Salunke and Krishna Totare’s flute. Let us not forget Vicky Hajeri’s guitars, which are strummed to our delight. Some of the best minds on sound engineering have assembled here with Nitin M Krishna and Ronak Runwal on mixing and mastering duties. 16. Scars Minshul Jain is a singer-songwriter and I am hearing her for the first time, but I can assure you that this song will scars in your heart, ones of joy and immense gratification for the sheer quality of singing and composition. The musical direction is by Apoorv Kumar and Shubanshu Gupta who belong to the band “Beyond Horizonâ€?. Their song ‘Musafir si Zindagi’ was featured on my website 3 weeks ago. Anyway this one is all about Minshul as she writes, composes and sings this stunner. The keys are stunning at the very beginning and they accompany Minshul’s vocals right through. The way the tune progresses I get a sense of Elton John’s “Believeâ€? and that is a huge compliment in itself. The highlight according to me is the line where she sings, “Scars on my soulâ€?. The track is mixed and mastered by Apoorv. The harmonies at the background layers also add to the likability. 17. Akhanda The last song on this week’s list is scored by S Thaman who has programmed and arranged the track as well, and the man never takes a break from entering my lists. The song is a dramatic anthem praising the Lord and one singer who can extract the necessary emotion needed for this genre, through his vocals is Shankar Mahadevan. We have triple the fun here with his sons Siddharth and Shivam also singing here in harmony. Give a big hand to the Live percussions played by The Gongura Band and Dhol by Sound of Bombay Dipesh and Team. Jobin David is playing the sizzling electric guitars and the synths glorify the song. Subhani and Suba play the Ethnic Indian strings in the interlude that simply stand out. The track is mixed and mastered by Shadab Rayeen with assistance from Pukraj and Milan. Ananta Sriram is the lyricist and the track is recorded by LV Prasad and Osho V.

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 14th November 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 15 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country.  Find the full playlist of 15 tracks on SPOTIFY 1. Samayave The quality of music especially that gets scored in movies in the south is light years ahead of rest of the country. For many decades since the 1970s it was Tamil that was dominating thanks to geniuses like Ilaiyaraja and AR Rahman, but since their departure and as they faded away, music from Kannada and Telugu music industries have been nothing short of splendid. I can’t remember how many times it has either been a Kannada or Telugu track that has topped my weekly charts. Anil CJ is the proud composer and arranger of this magnificent number from the album “Kadalatheerada Bhargavaâ€?, sung by another stalwart Viay Prakash who is having the time of his life singing chartbusters. Manonmani’s Sarangi starts things off and we can feel the pathos already. The slow and mild strumming of the acoustic guitars by Bruce Lee Mani creates the expectations for the song and these are not the only two mastermind instrumentalists in this song. Behold the moment when Vijay Prakash starts singing, and within the first minute we have a crazy amount of live instruments like the Mandolin and Santoor played Seenu, and best part is the most stylish basslines played by Carl. The way the track pauses after Vijay finishes singing Samayave is magical. Kiran’s flute solo dominates the interlude, and after a beautiful verse, the bass guitars provide a perfect end and landing. Manjunath NS on the drums and percussions is the perfect support cast along with some well-arranged backing vocals by Varun Pradeep and Harsha Uppara. The second interlude has another genius in Rajhesh Vaidya tease you with his Veena solo and some scintillating mix of Tabla, by Venkat Rao, and Hi-Hat drums. It sounds like a world-class fusion piece by itself. Varun Pradeep plays the keys, and also mixes the track, with Nick Burchall mastering. The outro is worth all your time, with the Veena, bass and hi-hat drums. The lyricist is Dr. V Nagendra Prasad and the recording engineers are Giridhar Divan, Bob T Phukan, Akash Sivakumar and Shakthi Vel 2. Ghar Aao Na Salim-Sulaiman are like demi-gods now, the Bollywood’s music scene is just not good enough for them, thankfully the indie music space deserves their presence. This is the second track in Bhoomi 2021, after a phenomenal one called “Ja Ja Reâ€? a couple of weeks ago. This one is right down the brothers’ alley with some good-old fusion and we have one of the most precious voices of the 2000s in Sundhi Chauhan. Salim- Sulamian produce and compose this mind-bending track and if their score invokes inspiration, Sunidhi’s singing matches that ash she is technical spot-on in the classical bits and, creatively buzzing in the free-flowing Jazzy bits. The track has got all the usual masterminds at work here with Raj Pandit and Jarvis Menezes on keyboards with the former also co-producing the track. Salim Merchant is on the keys, killing it and Sulaiman is on the Zen drum and percussions. We hear the Piano and bass guitars by Rushad Mistry providing the background tones as Sunidhi just convinces us with her vocals that we better go back home (Ghar Aao na). We have Shraddha Pandit to thank for these words that mean and matter so much, as we just hear a faint introduction of the Sitar by Megha Rawoot. It enters into a phase where the track sounds like a pop/dance number and we have some stalwarts in Aftab Khan on mixing and mastering, with assistance from Vatsal Chevli. Raj and Aftab also do the recordings for this track. The guitar bits are solid thanks to Nyzel Dlima, Ankur Mukherjee and Muheet Bharti. Muheet recently has been going solo with his compositions and singing and here he plays a vital role with the guitars and mandolin as well. More magic happens after the 150 seconds mark when the tempo drops a few notches, Sunidhi changes her style, and we get introduced to the Tabla and Sitar in full flow. Swarupa Ananth is on the traditional percussion while up until now it was the energetic Darshan Doshi on drums. The keyboards and flute also take a supporting cast role and we are back to where we started. There can be nothing better than instrumentalists and singers having fun while performing and that is what we get with Sunidhi showing her wide range of skills, doing some peppy improvisations and aalap intermittently. After all these words I still feel, I can never do even 5% justice to the quality of the song itself, so go listen.

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 7th November 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 17 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country.  Find the full playlist of 15 tracks on SPOTIFY 1. Alemaariye - The soul of Rathnakara B Ajaneesh Loknath is his name people, but mind you it is not easy to be him. He is one of the best composers in India today and how he manages to wave magic into every score is beyond me. The guitars and strings welcome you with open arms and set you up for something spectacular. Durwin Dsouza is a fantastic guitarist and producer and he teams up with Sumesh Parameshwar for the guitar duties for this track. The singer who is probably India's finest adorns the track with his mesmerizing vocals and he goes by the name of Sanjith Hegde. Ajaneesh also accompanies backing vocals in this track, which is deeply emotional and meaningful thanks to Rohit Padaki’s lyrics. Chennai Strings Orchestra is instrumental literally in bringing the excellent strings to life, conducted by Yensone Bagyanathan. There is deep confusion in our minds about whether to focus, on the strings, or Sanjiths voice or the splendid bass guitars, and it is a wonderful confusion to have. There is a wonderful segment after the first charanam where Sanjith gets into a sufi zone singing the Lord’s praise. Narayan Sharma plays the solo violin while Bhutto is on the flute. The Keyboards are handles by Ajaneesh Loknath, Midhun, Rakesh, Vineeth Menon, Henry Robert, Sumesh Anand and the rhythm section by Ajaneesh, Kalyan Chakravarthi , Ricky Dzosa and Benny Johnson. There are two important roles played by women in this track with Shruthi and her group excelling on the live percussions. Then we have the great visuals thanks to Shreesha Kuduvalli who is the DOP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbSV889CwBc 2. Aarzoo The saxophone at the start is so amazing and you wonder what kind of a song this is, but I already know we are about to hear something special. Gala Soler from Argentina makes me speechless with her sax solo, and within a short time, Bawari Basanti soars with her vocals rendering this traditional number. Aarzoo the EP is due soon and the title track already is creating a huge interest. Bawari has also composed this fusion master-class with lyrics penned by her and Faiz Ahmad Faiz. Ejaz Hussain is accompanying with his solo on the Sarangi in the background, giving it that rustic folk texture. Vedang is the additional producer but the overall production along with mixing and mastering is by Siddh. The excellent artwork is by Karthik Nambiar. The outro with the vocals, and Sax and Sarangi is a fitting end to this track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8X_hEro9pk 3. Vultures Anami is a musician I haven’t heard of before listening to “vulturesâ€? and I am elated that I finally did. This is her second single and I definitely want to go back and understand how and why I missed her first one. What I love about the track is how she decides to focus on a topic that we have completely become oblivious to. Vultures scavenge on dead bodies, but it is sad to know that the population of these birds is on the decline. Anami has sung, composed, written and even done the artwork for this track. The guitars and her voice keep the song in its tranquil state but the strings drive the pathos and gravity of the songs message quite well. Varun Murali who belongs to this band “Swarathmaâ€? has produced, mixed, mastered and arranged for the track and he needs to be complimented for the songs final outcome. The use of harmonies is a nice a way to portray the song as an anthem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqxm3PQ15hM 4. Bhetiyaade Yaake Nanna Arjun Janya has earned a reputation for scoring excellent melodies in Kannada movies, and he continues to impress with yet another song from this album. I had already reviewed and featured “Kudi Notadaâ€? which ended up being the best Indian song of May 2021. The track is sung by two splendid vocalists, with Sonu Nigam who has been the absolute favorite in Kannada and Saindhavi who has been making an impressive comeback across south Indian movie space. The song starts off with some Hindi lyrics and just the way it sounds like “Ishq binaâ€? and maybe it is also because we have the same vocalist singing it. The bass guitars play a support role right from the beginning giving the track some style along with Sonu’s catchy voice. Saindhavi starts singing the charanam, which is excellently composed adding richness to the track. Her ability to reach the higher scales is her gift. The use of the strings section is fantastic in the second interlude along with a gospel-like harmony. The lyrics are penned by Kaviraj. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t0qY7RfGG0 5. Sahi Nishant Mittal is a multi-instrumentalist who also is an entrepreneur. He has built up so many start-ups, but when he can create songs like this, it surpasses everything else he does, and that is just my opinion as a music aficionado and reviewer. Abhishek Pawar has produced the track but it is basically a one-man show. Nishant composes, sings, and writes this sleeper of a track which starts off slowly but catapults into something awesome. He also plays the acoustic guitars in the opening lines, and then also plays the drums and bass guitars. The drums and bass guitars add a wonderful layer after the first 90 seconds, with the electric guitars dominating past the mid-way point. How Nishant manages to transform this track from a slow sober melody to a rock ballad is something Ill just keep guessing. Kudos to him and I cant wait to hear more from him in the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzPjR9C9IAM 6. The legend is born This is one heck of a song, and it reminds me of some splendid numbers from the western world, and the guitars at the beginning are symbolic of Country Music from the US. P Vijay Ananth is this young musician who has worked on numerous famous movies as an assistant director to Justin Prabhakaran, and here he shines for a short film’s score. He dons many hats for this track like that of the vocalist, rapper, and flautist. IN fact he has also worked on the recent music of Meenakshi Sundareshwar the Netflix film produced by Karan Johar. Aadhan Vadivel has directed this short film. Makuvi’s lyrics are inspiring and they sund even better when coming from the vocal chords of Vijay who is singing at the higher end of his range with ease. The swaras are sung very well with husk and attitude by Lavanya Jayamohan and Ramya Rajagopal. Sam Solomon dominates the scene playing the electric guitar, bass, ukulele and Mandolin. The song sounds a lot like AR Rahman’s ‘Aaromale’. Balaji Teki has played the Violin and Viola and he has a field day on his solo interventions. The flute solo also sounds fantastic and sounds more western than Indian classical, which works well for me. Melvin Davis has mixed and mastered the track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOy5_Lg69NQ 7. Kaisi Ye Jeet? Have you ever heard of the term pyrrhic victory? Well it is a victory where the costs far exceed the benefits, and the band Antariksh are once again bring their rock-genre to life with this fantastic track and the message that they are trying to convey is the so-called victory over Covid-19 is never worth celebrating looking at the loss of lives and livelihood. Varun Rajput is emphatic as the lead vocalist and he also plays the electric guitars which is a solid 30 seconds is the track. Varun also has produced, written the lyrics along with Joshua Peter and recorded the track along with Gaurav Chintamani. Dan Thomas is splendid as the drummer and the sober setting, after the opening 30 seconds is dominated by Shrikant Biswakarma’s electric guitars and acoustic guitars. Joshua backs up as a vocalist and playing the keyboards, which are very essential to add as an instrumental layer to the track. Tanshuman Das’ bass guitars create a wonderful style quotient to the track. At around the 4-minute mark, it is a wonderful segment with just the bass, Keys and mild drums. From there it enters a purely rock phase with the electric guitars and heavy drums. The track is mixed by M Krishna Rao and mastered by Donal Whelan. All the artwork is by Pranjal Kaila. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QvEIfTSYEY 8. Misplaced I listened to the track, and with every passing second, it grew on me. It slowly became addictive and I knew I had to feature it and review it this week. But I couldn’t find any details of the composer, producer, and instrumentalists on You Tube. Then when I went to Instagram I realize why the track is stunning, it was produced by the one and only Raag Sethi. He and compass box studios never ever disappoint. We have Dharun Vyas singing, writing and composing this splendid track, and Meera Desai providing the female lead vocals. Shankar plays the guitars and bass and Protyay Chakraborty has mastered the track. Trusha Vyas handles all the artwork along with Udit Parekh. Its simple in arrangements at the beginning, as Dharun just uses his very pleasing vocals to pull the track along. Meera, accompanies him in the backup vocals, and the bass guitars start to slowly gain traction. Dharun’s voice is like a breath of fresh air, I love the line where he sings “ I don’t see you anymoreâ€? as the notes make a slight unexpected twist and just as he completes, Meera begins to sing with amazing grace and style. The singing in unison is charming, but the way the vocals are arranged ( Meera is credited with the arrangements) as Meera sings “Tomorrow we don’t knowâ€? is fantastic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvFuDkZVt2s 9. Aasman Ke raaz Aditya Kalway probably composed and sung in one of the best tracks of 2021 back in February with his single “Kalabaaziyanâ€? and if you haven’t listened to it, I vehemently recommend it. After a long his second single has definitely not disappointed as this one too his written, composed, produced and sung by Aditya. This track is supposed to be an expression of the artist’s sadness and resurgence from that pain, thanks to all the family and friends in his life. Ajinkya Dhapare has mixed and mastered the track, and Anushika Luthra has supervised all the artwork. The synth work is quite catchy in the track and harmonies and programming in the song deserves credit. The style being so different from “Kalabaaziyanâ€? makes me feel excited about Aditya’s potential and a composer/producer but one common point that is ravishing in both the singles is his voice and I hope he gets many opportunities in the movie space. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmELMBBZ0RQ 10. Dooriyan This youngster from Mumbai is a singer-songwriter and producer and he has single-handedly created this wonderful piece of music, as he writes, produces, composes, mixes and masters the track. Akshath Acharya has composed the score for a very famous Ad film involving Big B and also won a major talent contest back in 2019. The voice definitely sounds like someone who is seasoned and hope he capitalizes on this gift he possesses. He employs a lot of programmed instruments and that works well because the inherent tune and singing are the highlights. The basic structure of the acoustic guitar and drums suffice. Ritwika has done the illustration, with animation by Saharsh. The track might be simple, but it shows promise and that was what I am looking forward to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s20BD8ag8Cc 11. Azal Nikhil Swaroop has impressed me with his singles, like “mannâ€? and “Best friendâ€? both making it to the weekly best list previously. He makes a hat-trick with his latest ‘Azal’ which he has written and composed and offered the vocal duties to Shraddha Sharma. The video for the song is quite well directed and touching and Nikhil also contributes to the story behind the video. The video is filmed by Pulkit Kalra, Tejasvi Garg and has the following people appear on screen viz. Victoria Ann Joy, Shiv Advitya Kaul, Samisht Sehgal and Nehal Swaroop. First Love is one of the sweetest memories for all of us and this song and video touch upon that lovely subject. Nikhil’s voice and the acoustic guitar give a serene setting and when Shraddha and Nikhil sing in unison it makes you feel like nothing is as important or pure as music. Keshav Dhar deserves all the credit for the programming and arrangements as we hear strings and harmonies, all adding to the likability of the track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BXlpZjYPA4 12. Destiny Tarang Joseph follows up with his earlier hit “Feeling emptyâ€? as he once again just uses hi vocals and Piano to simply stun you. I believe his whole musical package is world class and he is living proof that a song that can be simple in structure and instrumentation can also amaze a music lover. The singing is ecstatic and makes you want to groove to it. The keys are so beautifully played and arranged. The brief period where the Keys pause and there are vocal harmonies is a welcome change in tempo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iJGlSRkVPE 13. Pyar Di Kahani The famous dialogue in Jerry Maguire goes “You had me on Helloâ€?, and just like that this track had me right at the beginning with the violin fiddling. It is simply a piece of gem, as we have two established Punjabi musicians in Ammy Virk and Sunny Vik are featured here. Sunny composes this melody sung by Ammy with Raj Fatehpur penning the lyrics. The concept for the video is by Avinash Pandey and Shweta Slathia, while the video is directed by Navjit Buttar. The acoustic guitars and violin just make way for Ammy’s fabulous vocals. The synth programming and rhythm sections along with the humming is beautiful as the interlude. The verse, has wonderful intervention on the Harmonium and that adds to the beauty. Sunny Vik, is someone whose music I look upto now, after his earlier “Paaglaâ€? was a massive hit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EphMiBecr_Y 14. Tu Mera Kaarvaan This composer about a month ago created an impressive Bangla track and when I decided to listen to tracks in Hindi as well. This is a very 90s Bollywood type of a melody and I am more than happy to recommend it because its miles away from the deploring quality of current Bollywood music which is just remixes and rehashes. Buddha Mukherjee has composed, sung and arranged while Saloni Thakkar is the female lead vocalist. The keys and guitars cover most of the instrumental apparatus, with Monotosh playing the guitars. The singing by the lead is the highlight of the track, the first interlude with the flute and the electric guitars is a nice melodious bridge that leads in to the verse with some wonderful singing by Saloni. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO7pnAFX4lA 15. Sahane Torede Pranava Karanth shines once again after his previous song, which I loved to shreds called “ Cellphone gelatiâ€?. IN fact that ended up in the top 5 of the week that particular time. Just like his previous single this too is rich in quality and also has some fabulous singing by the composer himself. The track is about the helplessness and vacuum a man feels when his loved one moves away for good. It is also a song that opens up the topic of mental health, which must get a lot of attention. The concept and direction is by Raghav Bhotika who is also the EP for the track. Pranava but is fantastic as a singer, lyricist, programmer and composer for the track. The keys accompany the vocals right from the beginning and then we hear some Lo-fi influences as well. The track is mixed and mastered by Bharath BJ and Gopu Krishnan and Siddhart Kamat do all the additional programming. The in

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 250 tracks released in the week ending 31st  October 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 15 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country.  Find the full playlist of 15 tracks on SPOTIFY 1. Antha Ishtam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRNGSm5Tg9s&list=PLnzHXmlVC7npK2MzFdVmUJAMKhRrg-c6H&index=24 S. Thaman is a blockbuster creator as almost all his songs get received amazingly in the South, but he is just not about creating these mega hits, he also generates huge interest owing to the quality of output, arrangements, diverse instruments used etc. Here he brings in one of the most celebrated female voices of south India i.e. KS Chitra. Thaman, programs, arranges and composes this masterpiece which ends up being the best track in all of India. Chitra doesn’t sound a day older or rusted from where she left things off back in the 1990s and 2000s. We already hear the strings section in the background and it is arranged by Prabhakar V and assisted and conducted by Ravi Raghav. The grandeur in Thaman’s tracks comes from all the phenomenally talented artists he brings on board like Sandilya Pisapati on Violins, Subhani on the Mandolin and other Asian strings. Phani Narayan is splendid on the Veen as usual in the interlude, and we have a solid verse to follow. All the additional Harmonica we hear is played by Dinesh P while Kabuli Rath plays the Mouth Organ and Blues, and Patrick plays the Accordion. The song is recorded by Osho V while the mixing and mastering are done by Shadab Rayeen with assistance from Pukraj and Milan. Ramajohayya Sastry is the lyricist and Sri Krishna does the vocal supervision. Manikandan is the musician's co-ordinator. The track seems to have some influences of Anandabhairavi raga. 2. Set me free https://open.spotify.com/track/46nuXutKnY3fy4myMKBN4O?si=eb1caab78069436a Rohan Solomon is one of my favorite singer-songwriters and this is not something I just randomly say about anyone. This guy is fantastic as a composer and singer as well, but his consistency would make any musician jealous. He has been featured on my rankings multiple times and this one like others is written, produced, performed and mixed all by himself. Harshit Verma does all the scintillating orchestra arrangements and co-composes it with Rohan. The guitars, bass and drums form the support line for the splendid vocals of Rohan, as he traverses up and down the vocal scale. The strings section becomes an essential component just like some of his earlier tracks and Harshit deserves a massive kudos for these arrangements.  The track is mastered by Dan Millice and Harshit is also the assistant engineer for the track. The Big Beat is the media strategy and reputation management firm handling Rohan. 3. Ja Ja Re https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe56s1RDniI&list=PLnzHXmlVC7npK2MzFdVmUJAMKhRrg-c6H&index=13 Merchant Records are truly champions of new music and the Sallim Sulaiman brothers here compose and re-arrange an original Bandish called Ja Ja Re by Naimat Khan ‘Sadarang’. The brothers compose and produce the track with IP Singh’s lyrics. Vishal Dadlani and Sattar Khan Langa are the singers with the former bringing in some modern stylish vocals and the latter being more traditional in delivery. This is the first installment of Bhoomi 2021 and the song starts off with some superlative bass guitars by Rushad Mistry and drums by Darshan Doshi and reminds me of “Pottu vaitha kadhal thittamâ€? by the Maestro Ilaiyaraja. Sattar Khan’s vocals take over from there in what sounds like Raag Bhimpalasi and the support cast is massive in the form of Nyzel D’lima on guitars, Raj Pandit , Jarvis Menezes and Salim on the Keyboards. There are backing vocals provided by Habib Khan Langa and Saadiq Khan Langa. Don’t forget to pay attention to the creative Horn section in the background played by ID Rao and Robin Fargose. Vishal Dadlani joins in with his vocals which is more in the pop/dance style and he is supported by Raj Pandit in backing vocals who also has co-produced the track. The brothers have just created a gem here and not just that, as Salim plays the vocorder and Sulaiman plays the Zen drum. Kenneth Gerald uses the innovative talkbox, and when Sattar Khan does the swaras , Vishal does the scat-singing. The song is recorded by Aftab Khanand Raj , while the folk artists are recorded by Sunil Dadhich, with Bax Khan being the Jodhpur Folk artists co-ordinator. The track is mixed and mastered by Aftab with Vatsal Chevli as the mix assistant. 4. Bekhudi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agIL-ipMMeg&list=PLnzHXmlVC7npK2MzFdVmUJAMKhRrg-c6H&index=16 This was like a bolt out of the clear sky, and something like this happens every week, with some splendid music emerging from an artist I have never heard of. Dev Negi is not the one I am talking about, as he has sung in many Bollywood albums, but I am referring to Swaransh Mishra who has written and composed this excellent track. The keys are engaging and with some an endearing voice and performance by Dev Negi.  I hear some splendid arrangements of instruments as well on the keyboards maybe and all this happens thanks to another Indie musician Gajendra Verma. The electric guitar is excellent right through but especially in the opening parts and interlude. The stanza has a nice ring to it thanks to the rhythm and Dev excels in his vocals in the verse. I am delighted to see a woman engineer handling the mixing and mastering for the song and she does a fabulous job, this Nikita Bharani and these are exciting times for talented musicians. 5. Insha Allah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8Y2r5yf--A&list=PLnzHXmlVC7npK2MzFdVmUJAMKhRrg-c6H&index=5 There have been some splendid musicians from Kashmir and some languages just sound sweeter than the rest especially in the form of music. I can think of some names like Pragnya Wakhlu, Rahi Sayed and so who have been dominating the indie music scene and this guy Yawar Abdal certainly is making his mark with the release of his debut album ‘Aabad’. I liked a couple of songs at least in this but was certainly blown away by the track Insha Allah. It is cathartic and takes into a meditative state thanks to the singing, instrumental arrangements and overall impact. Yawar is a Pune based IT employee who quit his job to pursue his dream of glorifying Kashmiri music and poetry and Thank God he chose music over a boring job. He has written, composed and sung this masterpiece and it is produced by Bhushan Chitnis, Swatantra Sarode, Anurag Sawangikar. The track has some wonderful Rebab played by Sufiyan malik and how can there be any Kashmiri number without this unique string instrument. Bhushan plays the guitars and bass and also does all the programming. The drums add to the wonderful presentation of the songs tempo and it is Anurag who plays them. Swatantra does all the mixing and mastering. The vocal range of Yawar is just unimaginably good as he shifts from the low to the high scales seamlessly. There are traces of Raag Asavari based on my limited knowledge. Yawar took inspiration of this track from the way the main line is recited in dargahs and mosques all over Kashmir. The guitars and drums give it a rock color over the Kashmiri sufi base. 6. Pyaar Ek Tarfa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awRp_51-ueo&list=PLnzHXmlVC7npK2MzFdVmUJAMKhRrg-c6H&index=15 Amaal Mallik has been having a good year in 2021 with some good releases and his best work was probably reflected in the songs and BGM of Saina. This is one more feather in his cap as Amaal sings and composes and gets the Diva Shreya Ghoshal to do the female vocals. The stunning woodwinds by, who else but, Paras Nath, almost seals the deal within the first 10 seconds. Vaibhav Pani a trusted musician who works with Amaal has produced, and arranged this track along with Amaal. But that is not all, Vaibhav plays the acoustic guitar as well. Sahil Shah is on the drums and hes gets the track moving along with a nice tempo and then we get the moment we waited for, entry of Shreya. This is honestly a walk in the park for the songstress and she delivers without even hurting a muscle, but hearing her in the higher scales sounds magical, singing the title line. Paras Nath is playful and inventive on woodwinds in the interlude and bassline support is provided by Roland. Maonj Muntashir has written the lyrics, with mixing by Vijay Dalal and mastering by Dale Becker. Samir DHarap and Chinmay Mestry are the mixing assistants while a huge array of young musicians assist in the music itself like Ansh Radia, Yash Narvekar, Shishir Samant, Luvdeep Saini, Riz Shain, Ankush Bhardwaj, Vivek Bharti, Gaurav Sanghvi, Anyay Patil and Rujul Deolikar. 7. Mera Pehla Pyaar https://open.spotify.com/track/6YP1eui6PxoAfq3enbMgKk?si=0ab41d7680d34424 Nikhita Gandhi has been extremely busy of late singing all kinds of songs, across genres, like devotional for Ganpati, hip-hop with Badshah and love songs for many movies. This one is another sweet slow melody with Javed Ali as her accomplice in vocals. Karan-Lakhan the do compose, write and direct this touching new melody that is lifted by some effective singing and delicious guitars by Nandish Chorawala and Mihir. NIkhita Gandhiopens proceedings and she has this mild husk in the voice which is traditionally not used in a love song but this one clearly works. Anurag Singh plays an important role in the track donning the roles of a programmer along with Mihir, as well as mix and master engineer. The interlude on guitars is savvy and oozes too much style. We can also hear backing vocals in the opening parts itself and that is through Harman Kaur, Mihir and Fenil Shah. Although JAved joins pretty late, he makes up for it with his emotive singing. Karanveer Malhotra and Lakhan Khanna have created expectations and I hope they live up-to it every time. 8. Pehra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GaPamF1vuE&list=PLnzHXmlVC7npK2MzFdVmUJAMKhRrg-c6H&index=3 You just cant keep him out of the weekly rankings of India’s best music. Saptak Chatterjee after a brilliant part played in Shivash Chagti’s Porcelain, now has hiw own composition called “Pehraâ€?. His unmistakable voice delivering the words in a Hidustani style and ghamakas just lifts your spirit. The track is an ode to parents and parenthood and it is produced, written, sung and arranged by Saptak. Ishaan Tyagi’s delighful Piano plays right fmor the beginning and sets the tone for the rest of the track. The strings are programmed beautifully and then the song soars higher as Saptak reaches for the higher scales. The track is apparently showing influence of Raag Bhimpalasi but it was unintended. Saptak mixes and Shawn Hatfield masters the track. Shrikant Biswakarma plays the electric guitars and that embellishes the outro section which has backup harmonies, strings and Keys all coming together. 9. Invincible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZnh1MHqzTk&list=PLnzHXmlVC7npK2MzFdVmUJAMKhRrg-c6H&index=8 Leave them behind’ was a fabulous track and definitely not run-of-the-mill by Aditya Narayan who goes by the moniker Meadows & Rust. This track appeared in May and I have been waiting for his next single, and finally it is here. Aditya shows he is not a one-hit wonder as this track has some splendid instrumentals as well. Ajay Jayanthi after last week’s violin foray in “Akelaâ€? by Charan, here he is again with another phenomenal display. Aditya produces, composes and sings this deeply meaningful track that in a lot of ways reminds me of Madonna’s “Frozenâ€?. Keshav Dhar mixes and masters for this one which has some excellent arrangements and watch out for the mystique created by the violins and beats. Farzeen Kapadia handles all the artwork. 10. Jugnu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcbJNlgpYlI&list=PLnzHXmlVC7npK2MzFdVmUJAMKhRrg-c6H&index=9 A beautiful this was, and although I was sent this song a month ago, I could only lay my ears on this one a week ago. Better late than never I guess. The song is apparently a dedication to all people who struggle and fight battles to achieve their goals. Never giving up is the crux of human life and the songs texture excellently brings out that emotion through the music composed by Aseem Sharma who has also penned the fabulous lyrics. Visakha Sharma’s vocals are brilliant and they convey a sense of sadness, and matched brilliantly by Aseem who is Visakha’s brother. The vibrato and voice texture are of superior quality coming from Aseem. The music direction is by Ivaavi who has also done the mixing and mastering. The guitars and beats are good enough to provide a simple support line to the melody and melancholy in the tune. The video is pretty engaging as well with direction by Rohit Soni, Aashif Hussain as his assistant and Shoonya on the cinematography and editing. 11. Bezubaan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8EIK6JU9zc&list=PLnzHXmlVC7npK2MzFdVmUJAMKhRrg-c6H&index=7 I was just bamboozled by the track as I had no idea who this group called Namak was, but the music was rich and resonated with me. Apparently the name Name comes from an amalgamation of Naman Talwar and Palak Kumar, as this male-female duo create music that is precious as Salt itself. A trombone starts things off in style, with the guitars slowly playing along. Palak’s vocals sound sweet and raw in a very nice way. There is a sudden change in tempo aided by the guitars, played by Kartikeya Issar, which I really loved. As the song motors ahead, Palak introduces some elements vibrato and then the Keys jump right in. Naman sings in the second layer as a backup vocalist and as we cross the half way mark, an electric guitar solo ups the energy and ante and the vocals arrangements that follow are fabulous, showing how just layered humming can be very effective. The outro has a nice symphony of guitars and keys also played by Naman. The track is produced by Naman with lyrics and composition by Palak. 12. Balma More https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2s2_3kXS9I&list=PLnzHXmlVC7npK2MzFdVmUJAMKhRrg-c6H&index=2 Akshay Chopra’s flute in multiple forms plays the perfect curtain raiser for the track. The mild vocals of Shalini follow and then we have the composer and singer Rishabh Ghai delivering his vocals. The beats are a lovely addition and establish the fusion style intended in the track. Keme (The Maker) has produced, written, recorded, mixed and mastered the track. The flute, vocals and beats form very unique concoctions that just sounds very inviting and keep your foot tapping. The track especially when the swaras are recited, remind me of “Gurus of Peaceâ€? composed by AR Rahman and sung by the great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 13. Cold Cold Night https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK5x24lUP18&list=PLnzHXmlVC7npK2MzFdVmUJAMKhRrg-c6H&index=10 I have always enjoyed Raghav Meattle’s singles because they are simple yet soulful, and a few months ago he was featured along with Nikhil Dsouza and Rajan Batra for a brilliant track called “Shades of Greyâ€?. This one is once again miles away from complexities but it touches the right nerves as Raghav, writes, sings and composes along with his guitars. The track is produced Ashish Zachariah and the song undergoes a delightful transformation form just being simple to sizzling and that is thanks to the production, mixing and mastering, by Vivek Thomas, which adds multiple layers to the track. There are strings in

https://youtu.be/LUEw0lBS068 It starts off and takes me back many decades in time to “Aduthathu Ambujathaâ€? which was an iconic song in all of Tamil music. Krithika Nelson is a musician that caught my attention a few months ago with a splendid track called Nee/Naan and like I have always claimed, there can be nothing more gratifying than listening to a composer who knows exactly what she wants to express and executes it with perfection. Now let us go back to this track at hand I love the visual imagery is conveyed brilliantly through the singing, instrumental programming and arrangements. The Thavil is positioned perfectly and the rhythms programming must be applauded. Krithika has composed, written and sung this one and isn’t she rising? What absolutely thrills me is that she just shifted gears and planes from her Nee/Naan which had pathos and sobriety to Pi Pi Dum Dum which is a rush of sugar and spice coated all over a joyful wedding scene. The vocals add important layers to the track and this is where Arjun Chidambaram is involved. The “Pi pi piâ€? humming is excellent and reminds me a lot of Dhee’s texture and tonality, and Arjun takes up the lead position also singing some lines in between. The “I am only here for the sappaduppaâ€? is witty and relevant considering how true it is for most people attending weddings. The acoustic and bass guitars provide just enough string support without disturbing whatever transpires in the foreground. The Nadaswaram has a Lo-fi modulation which is interesting and to put all the Pi Pi and Dum Dum as vocal sounds rather than instruments is innovative. I can see how this song can certainly be a very good choice to be played during the marriage season as a nice ice-breaker between the bride and bride-groom’s families The lyrical video has some funny and apt animation by Shyam Kabi who has also done the VFX. S Manikandan handles the art direction and illustration. A person who grew up in TN and especially would know what “kadala podarthuâ€? or “kadala varukkarthuâ€? would mean and it is interesting how those animated groundnuts are depicted. When I heard the lyrics and song I was eager to know how the video would turn out, and it is intriguing without any disappointment. Why did I assume that the girl saying “I’m only here for the sappadu paâ€? was just a relative attending the wedding? The real twist was knowing it was the brides singing these words! The track is produced by Jerin C Raj and mixed and mastered by Mervin T Thomas. In all fairness I have come to expect even more from Krithika and that is not a bad thing for any artists to hear. Her singing and creativity stand apart in this one but she needs to and she can extract much more from her repository to give us all music of even higher quality. 

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing  more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 24th  October 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 15 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country.  Find the full playlist of 15 tracks on SPOTIFY 1. Adiye https://youtu.be/HRD2-_bU4K0 I listened to the song and I was simply blown away, I knew from the start that this track will make it right to the top. Dhibu Ninan Thomas I believe deserves way more opportunities, or maybe he is being very picky in his projects, either way He really scores, when he scores. For those of you who want to hear some of his other splendid tracks, listen to “Othaiyadi pathayileâ€? from the album ‘Kanaa’ and “Pesatha Mozhiyeâ€? from ‘Kombuvacha Singamda’. This track is a further move away from repetition, and if the first was a folk and second a semi-classical melody, this one is modern day alt-pop in its roots. It is a testament to Dhibu’s skill as a composer but the track I feel belongs to Kapil Kapilan and this is one of the best vocal performances of 2021 and I am saying it after listening to around 8000 songs released in India in this year so far.  He simply is near perfect in his delivery in what is a very tough song to negotiate. There are other amazing stalwarts at work here as well with Keba Jeremiah on guitars and Naveen Napier on the bass guitars, and their contribution kicks off straight form the start. Sruthiraj is excellent on percussions with various sounds adding to the rhythm. The humming is well arranged and we have Avinash Satish and Hariharan as the recording engineers. The interlude has some splendid rhythm and beats accompanied by Rithu Vyshak’s brilliance on the Violin, Viola and Cello. Kalyani Nair has done all the strings arrangements. Dhibu cleverly uses vocal sounds both for harmonies and rhythm all through the track with mixing by Balu Thankachan and mastering by Shadab Rayeen. Kapil manages to captivate you with every note he sings in the verse and you should just surrender to it. The lyrics are penned by GKB. The end aalap is a masterclass by Kapil 2. Duniya Jise Kahte Hain https://youtu.be/Sb5LrNeVYjI Papon and Pratibha Singh Baghel are at it again with a new refurbished version of a Jagjit Singh Ghazal, and just like the earlier track this too is solid with some fabulous additions, layers of instruments and overall arrangements. Papon produces it with all the mixing and mastering by Pankaj Borah, Pranjal Borah assists and also records the track. Gautam Sharma is at his innovative best and you can feel that with these percussions and helped by Kamlesh Sagathia on the Tabla. Manash Choudhury is fabulous on the bass guitars and the zing can be heard in the lower layers. Ishan Das also plays the acoustic guitars and co-produces the track which is a breezy version of Raag Yaman. Papon and Pratibha make a solid pair and they are a listener’s delight. Manas Kumar’s solo on the violin can be heart in the first interlude before also intervening in some places in the verse. ID Rao on the saxophone is stylish in the second interlude and that is a brilliant innovation to bringing in the sax for this classical Ghazal.  The track is quite long at more than 6 minutes, but who cares when it sounds marvelous. The Sarod played by Sarang Kulkarni can be mildly heard during many instances in the background. 3. Modutha Nannane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3acKecqOKI All competition can move aside, and just give way to Sanjith Hegde. He is probably one of the 5 best singers in the country today and there is no way you cannot notice his ingenuity and skill. He sings with immaculate ease and emotes every note like he is actually on screen singing these words. This is track is another Kannada melody that will haunt you from the movie ‘Love you Rachchu’. The composer has legacy and heredity all over in his genes as this son of a genius saxophonist called Kadri Gopalnath. Kadri Manikanth has produced, composed and played the sax and aerophone in the track. It takes just a few seconds to impress with Abinandan David on guitars and Sanjith’s humming and a saxophone solo. R Puneeth Arya has written the wonderful lyrics with mixing and mastering by K Dhanasekhar, and recoding by DJ Lethal. Sanjith dominates and his vocals reverberate in the higher scales and thanks to Manikanth’s well composed verse we have a wonderful melody. 4. Tareefu Maadalu https://youtu.be/IpKZVG5isCA Nakul Abhyankar, is not just composer, as he is primarily a singer. I had to drive this point, because of his recent success in music scoring and I definitely feel that Nakul is cut out for the job. Here he is the lead vocalist along with Shwetha Devanahalli for the movie “Mugilpeteâ€?. The Keys play a major role in the pallavi section of the song and I get a sense of Kaapi Raaga here and apparently there is some influence of Keeravani and Madhuvanti raagas as well. Shiva Surya plays the Veena, and Janardhan on the violin, make the interlude quite special and even during the flamboyantly composed stanza, they make their subtle appearances. Sridhar V Sambhram is the brains behind this score as he composes, programs and arranges for the track. The strings are excellently arranged during the verse and the track is mixed and mastered by Sajayan with Vihaan Aarya handling the singers’ co-ordination. The lyrics are written by Bharath S Naavunda & Sridhar. 5. Porcelain https://youtu.be/dIqDu_EaKIY Shivash Chagti is a Delhi based singer-songwriter who has won many accolades right form his early days in the field, and that can be understood when you hear him perform in this exemplary fusion track bring together some of the most renowned artists in the indie space. Shivash plays the guitars as he vocally touches your heart and Madhur Chaudhary is the bassist. It seems like we are listening to a wonderful, lullaby of sorts and that is when Saptak Chatterjee bursts onto the scene with his famed Hindustani styled vocals. Saptak also has mixed and mastered the track with Dan Thomas on the drums but the seamless way in which these two styles are stitched into a single track is where Shivash scores. The track fills your heart with joy and great promise looking at the talent around but it does break your heart when it ends like Porcelain. Wish the track never ended. Saptak’s vocals enter a shift in notes which I certainly couldn’t predict and with a guitar solo, and humming and scat-singing by Shivash we land on the opening lines again. 6. Surkh https://youtu.be/Y3QG6YbGDOY I have already had The Lost Symbols, featured and reviewed here on the blog with their earlier track Riha. The band is comprised of Aman Raj on lead vocals, Gunjan Soral on lead guitars, Arun Singh Naruka on drums and Rahul Sharma on bass guitars. The track starts off with just Aman’s vocals and lead guitars and you know somewhere soon the track is going to shift gears into something more solid and rock-like. There it is with the electric guitars screeching, and drums banging you are uplifted into something truly worth your time. The acoustic guitars have a solo moment of brilliance and then the track hits cruise control. The lineâ€? Iss kaynaat meinâ€? is so catchy and you keep humming it even as the electric guitars dominate the scene. There is a tete-a-tete between the bass guitars, electric guitars and drums which is quite enjoyable. This pure rock track better be on your playlist. 7. Dil Kya Kahe https://youtu.be/BO0vFzcVZWo Here it is, one more track under the label of Merchant Records and you know that it is going to involve elements of either creativity or superior output or both. Muheet Bharti is a playback singer who has been very active in the Telugu music industry, but of late has been an important cog in the wheel of Salim-Sulaiman’s musical journeys.  This one is written, composed and sung by Muneet and it shows he is ready to take the center stage and make others notice. The track had a R&B feeling to it and Muheet’s vocals render that style quite effectively. One can hear the Piano and bass guitars acting like the spine for the track with a wonderful trumpet solo in the interlude. The verse is held together by Muheets singing which is almost like walking on thin ice, but he holds steady ground and delivers with excellent finesse. The notes are not something you can predict as the trajectory of the track in the verse especially is skillfully composed by Muheet. Aftab Khan has done the mixing and mastering. 8. Ankhein Mili https://youtu.be/2dHoCmqxS60 It is quite rare these days that in a mainstream Bollywood movie, we get a very enjoyable tune that is original and not like another million songs already existing. Chirantan Bhatt is the composer for this Vidyut Jammwal action flick called Sanak, and this is the best song in the album. Raj Barman is a well-known singer in Bangla music and he has a very similar voice quality and tonality to that of Arijit Singh. Shon Pinto is like the star of the song for his splendid guitars which keep playing on your mind. Manoj Yadav is another expert whose lyrics perfectly fit the mood of this chirpy dance number. The rhythm and the trumpets are a great addition and Vinayak Manohar deserves credit for the arrangements and programming. Vinod Verma handles the mixing and mastering. The song generates an environment of Latin Jazz as well and Raj’s singing is free-spirited as he traverses along improvising on vibrato. 9. Vaddanam https://youtu.be/3k2tPRd6KPU The movie has amazing music from the composer Vishal Chandrasekhar, and I did feature one in my list last week. This wedding track is composed by the star S. Thaman and involves a plethora of celebrity singers like Geetha Madhuri, ML Gayathri, Aditi Bhavaraju, Sruthi Ranjani & Sri Krishna. There additional vocals by Satya Yamini, Manisha Eerabathini, Ravali Paritala, Sahiti Chaganti, Srinidhi Tirumala, Abhikya. The ethnic strings and Mandolin stand out in the track and they are played by Subhani with the dependable Sandiliya Pisapati playing the unmistakable electric violin and Jobin on the electric guitars. The female harmonies are outstanding and just this week there has been another similar song by AR Rahman called “Allipoola Vennelaâ€?. The violin solo in the interlude is classic Sandiliya and it goes well with the Snyth programming and percussions. Thaman has arranged and programmed the track with additional programming by Osho V. The track reminds me of AR Rahman’s “Uppu Karuvaduâ€? from the album “Muthalvanâ€?. Raghuram is the lyricist and Shadab rayeen has mixed and mastered the track with assistance from Pukhraj and Milan. 10. Akela https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x61cMD8y8jE This track came as a complete surprise, as I have never heard of Charan before this track, I find myself lucky to be able to discover such new and fantastic music. The video features actors, comedians and reality TV show contestants and aims to spread the message of how bad loneliness can be. The track is produced by Utkarsh Dhotekar and he has also done the wonderful Piano arrangements. Charan, the Mumbai based musician has written, sung and composed the tune with Ashwin Kulkarni mixing and mastering the track. The Keys are imposing and with the heavy beats we get the depth of the message. Ajay Jayanthi, the violinist plays the solo in the mild interlude and he also has done the string and violin arrangements. Charan’s vocals are delivered with immaculate emotional sensibility. The gravity of the message is also conveyed through the pathos of the violins and strings. 11. Act Like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzDHx3CbpMQ This is the wonderful world of modern music with electronic sounds, aided by loads of synth programming and like some great man once said, change or perish. There is great music in every genre and style and this is the sole purpose of my work and I am indeed glad I found, and reviewed this track by Yohan Marshall a.k.a. Yoda Drunk. The song reflects on recovering from a heartbreak as Yohan writes, composes and sings it with Harsh Vardhan Gadhvi on guitars. Nirmit Shah has hit a purple patch and after producing last week’s number 1 song in India called “State of the artâ€? by Ananya, here he is again producing, mixing this funky number. Cherish the wonderful innovative sounds that the team brings to light and you will love the synth laden line “Come what may, I wontâ€?. 12. Badarwa https://youtu.be/kgA7uubBa5M Gautam Kale is incredibly consistent, and he experiments in bringing the classical Indian music together with many excellent additions like modern western instruments and arrangements. He composes, writes and sings this original which is probably influenced by Raag Desh. Shubham Kannungo has produced this number and played the bass and acoustic guitars as well. Tejas Vinchurkar flays it like a pro on the flute and Keshav Tamhankar supports on the Piano. Akshay Jadhav is on the Tabla, and the track is mixed and mastered by Prasad Maha. The interlude has some multiple layers of different flutes and it feels magical and mystical. The use of the Tabla and drums simultaneously works quite well in the later-half of the song. 13. Kitne Majbhoor ho gaye https://youtu.be/SWUIX3WdGB4 14. Asar Tera https://youtu.be/M1vxVKF3FOU I am a fan of Shubham Semwal, there I said it. It is not the first time I’m featuring and reviewing his work and he just continues to make great strides in this world of indie music, when it is way too easy to falter and become irrelevant in no time. I also like his small coterie of amazing musicians like Roop Ghuman and Arjit Singh who have worked on writing this song with Arijit also playing the keys. Miko Bono plays the acoustic guitars and Rafael Freitas makes his presence felt on bass guitars. Shubham composes, produces, sings and mixes this number while Sam Moses has mastered it. The guitars and the singing are like the spotlights and you just cannot take your focus away from them. The bass guitar solo is groovy in the interlude, and you get an even better treat when Shubham slowly enters the zone of falsettos. This is foot-tapping good, feels like a master-class on guitar strumming! 15. Ujagori https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45fPh0HTIDE The tradition of melodious Assamese numbers making it to the best in the country continues! The combination of beautiful sounding words and an underlying focus on mellifluous notes makes these tracks from Assam simply superb. Bhaskar Opswel is the performer and he is singing with an incredible voice which is destined to captivate. The lyrics are penned by Manika Devi and Mandeep Kumar composes, produces, mixes and masters this splendid number. All the artwork and video editing is by Sagarika B Riku. That bit with the programmed flute sound is something that always sounds fabulous and it has been well placed here. The number is complete with an equally melodious stanza and some harmonies in the background.

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 17th October 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 16 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country.  Find the full playlist of 16 tracks on SPOTIFY 1. State of the art https://youtu.be/TVGAd-yCNyc I love the title, and though it does seem like it means “high qualityâ€? as a phrase, I believe Ananya Sharma wants to talk about the state in which this art-form also is in viz. music. Ths Mumbai based singer-songwriter goes on to sing about that delicate balance between quality and likability. The track starts off with Ananya’s enticing vocals but closely supported by the Keys. Anurag Naidu doesn’t just play support staff here, a d you can imagine that the track would sound flat without the Pianos, even though Ananya adds a meaty layer of vocals in there. The writing gets deeper almost drawing the picture of what a musician feels every-day in today’s world, but then we are drawn to the flowing strings section in the background. It is not just one, but at-least a couple of layers of instrumental arrangements that reverberates in your mind thanks to the work of Luca Petracca who has done the strings arrangements. I would have closed my eyes every-time I played this track just so that the noise and distraction from the outside world stays away. The use of harmonies right at the end adds a wonderful vocal layer in addition to the instruments. The track is mixed and mastered by Nirmit Shah. 2. Vennelo https://youtu.be/0aEMl6LPlxU Truly Telugu music scene is unstoppable now, and I wouldn’t mind telling that again and again, because that seems to be the truth. When you want quality to be delivered “Just Call Anuragâ€?. He is one of the best in the game and there is not a genre he cannot crack. R R Dhruvan a.k.a. Raghuram is the composer for this song from the movie “Miles of Loveâ€? and he also has written the lyrics for the track. The violins at the start are like a curtain raiser lifting slowly and beautifully for the act on stage to begin. The guitars add an element of romance against the serious backdrop of violins, all leading up-to Anurag’s vocals. The bass guitars, harmonies and rhythms are subtle but stylish additions in the opening segment itself. The violin’s brilliance emerges again in the interludes and the notes are so amazing that they remind me of a Genius names Ilaiyaraja. Just wait for the mind-blowing harmonies during the line “nammaleni theeru lonaâ€?. Kudos to the composer for this vision and execution. 3. Believe in you https://youtu.be/WOZX91l20fg Tannison Mathews impressed me a few months ago with his single “More of anythingâ€? and I had it reviewed and listed in my rankings of the weekly best of Indian music. This one too is written, composed and produced and performed by Tannison. Wilson Lakra is the co-producer and the audio output is top-notch for this one. Tannison is much more than just a musician, as this young singer-songwriter from Bhopal also is the co-founder of a positive-news and constructive journalism led magazine called The Optimist Citizen. The Keys and Strings section are the highlights of this track as they grow on you with every passing in second. The interjection of the strings are also perfect in placement as they allow all the focus on Tannison’s voice and lines at times and then when the emotions need to be kindled, the strings rise, helped further by some back-up vocals and harmonies. Hansraj Shankushal has recorded the track. 4. Jei Aynan Dekhcho mukh https://youtu.be/SXF_AUXTR0w A few years ago I was roaming around the City of Joy along with my wife and there was this wonderful concert featuring the band Fakira at the Rabindra Sarobar and I was stunned by the quality of the singing and the overall performance and this was long before I tried my hand at reviewing music. I am so elated to review a song now featuring the lead vocalist of the band who is also known to many as Timir Biswas. He has Arijit Paul and Subhadeep Pan also as lead vocalists in this track written, conceptualized and composed by Diganta Das. Pranjal Das and Sagi have also played their part in writing the lyrics. The guitar becomes a crucial companion in the track especially the electric guitar which makes it sound like a rock number thanks to Chayan Chakraborthy (watch out for a solid solo near the 3-minute mark). Sandipan Parial is scintillating on the drums ably supported by Diganta and Prasanto Mahato on bass guitars. Other percussionists in the track are Gaurab Chaterjee on Dubki, Arnab on Cajon and Dasgupta on the Tabla. Nabarun Bose plays the Keys and Srirup Chatterjee does the mixing and mastering. I have a sense of satisfaction when the track draws to a close for the sheer nature of this track being a classic rock number with no loose ends. 5. Malupu https://youtu.be/c1Km6BUz-lI We have the second Telugu track in the top 6 and this is by an artist I have not heard before, so the talent just keeps surprising me more and more. Manish Kumar sings and composes this fabulous number. I really can’t make out whether I like his singing or score more, but it’s a delightful dilemma to have. He also has arranged and produced the track which has become a huge hit on social media, and why wouldn’t it? We got to hand it down to Keba Jeremiah for being brilliant on guitars both acoustic and bass. The interlude is decorated with the Strings played by Balaji and team and then the flute by Satish. Keba manages to get your attention in the background even amidst all this. Saroja’s Dilruba shines through in the background during the charanam portions. The lines in the end of the verse than land on the pallavi are excellently structured with a chorus of female voices in the background, comprising of Pavani, Kavya, Vyshu Maya, Brinda and Manju. There are some portions with a solo female lead sung by Pavani. The track is mixed by Sabin Jose and mastered by Tamil composer Ashwin Vinayagamoorthy. All additional programming is by Ajmal while strings are recorded by KK Senthil Prasath, guitars and bass by Ashwin, Dilrub and flute recorded by Bhavani Rakesh and male lead vocals recorded by Bhavani and Aditya. The lyricist is Kittu Vissapragada 6. Madhu Radhiye https://open.spotify.com/track/1NDBgvG5wM7Q7LY8cg1Ham The music culture in Sri Lanka is quite string and vibrant and some of the very popular Tamil songs emerge from that small island nation. Here we have Super Singer (Tamil reality show) winner from the very first season Nikhil Mathew taking the lead vocalist role and smashing it. The track is a perfect example of melody should be inter-twined with modern sounds and let us thank Smith Asher for this composition. He has also arranged, programmed, mixed and mastered the track and co-written the lyrics with Kisski Kishore. Smith belongs to this boy band from Sri Lanka called Teakada Pasanga which means “boys who meet up at the tea shopâ€? and the band comprises of Krish Manoj and Nirosh Vijay. The guitars are played by Smith himself and they keep playing with Nikhil’s enchanting vocals in the foreground. Amriytha Amarnath comes and goes wither mild humming in the interlude. The verse is nicely composed as well, with all singers chipping in with fantastic cameos. 7. Manasulone Nilichipoke https://youtu.be/dPC5WBJtmWc Vishal Chandrasekar is the composer for this enchanting melody sung by none other than Chinmayi Sripaada. There is a definitely touch of Karaharapriya that I sense, and Vishal is gifted and using popular ragas as a base to further his own style and execute them well.  Punya Srininvas is a rock Tsar not just a rock star on Veena and she displays that in this track almost competeing for the top performance spot with Chinmayi. Sindhuri’s back-up vocals add a nice layer but Chris Jason on bass guitars is simply unavoidable. It is time to focus on the fabulous interlude solo on the Veena and when the verse begins, you get a sense of the rhythm and keys both played by Vishal with assistance from Arvind Raghunath. Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry is the lyricist. The track is mixed and mastered by Ishit Kuberkar while Avinash and Hariharan are the recording engineers. 8. Nahi Rehna https://youtu.be/orsB1-gBgLM The duo Abhin & Tanish first grabbed my attention with Sab Baatein Hai, which ended up being the best Indian track of that week back in August. This track too is written and composed by the duo and the track deals with escaping the pressures and demands of the modern world, in search of love and peace. The guitars are strummed to great effect with Abhin Joshi singing the lines “Nahi Rehnaâ€? filled with grief. Aman Arakh has produced, mixed and mastered the track along with another popular indie artist Sayantika Ghosh. She has also done the backing vocals for this track. The electric guitar solo is a wonderful piece pas the 1-minute mark with mild vocals from Sayantika. The outro portion is a good union of vocals, drums and guitars before ending it like calm after the storm. 9. Tu Aawaaz hain https://youtu.be/iJ-9RtzF1O4 Hriday Gattani is an exciting young talent and not only does he sing for AR Rahman from time to time, I in-fact had come to like his compositions very much. His previous single with Sunidhi Chauhan was at the number 3rd spot for the back in July and here too doesn’t fail to surprise me positively. This is a one man show unlike the previous single as he writes, composes, performs, produces, mixes and masters his way to glory. The violins and guitars start off but it is so difficult to pay attention to anything else but his creative vocals laden with vibrato. One can clearly sense the hunger in Hriday’s vision when he creates music, when it is so simple to make any run-of-the-mill music and search for likes, views and other metrics. The predominant sound of violins programmed takes away the cake. 10. Humnava https://youtu.be/gNyaqIkIVxE A complete surprise package this one was for me, as I had no idea or prior knowledge of the musician, Kabeer Ali. It starts off brilliantly with the guitars and just hearing those notes I knew there was something worthy enough to listen to. The track is written, composed and also performed by Kaber Ali, and there are some backing vocal arrangements in the. The composer ups the ante after the first 60 seconds and that is when this feels like a rock number from just being a casual romantic track. The introduction of the heavy drums and electric guitars is a worthy addition in this track produced by Anubhav Silas. The line “Chali Chaliâ€? is the highlight showcasing Kabeer Ali’s singing and having some fantastic electric guitar bits at the end.  background.   Mixing and Mastering and Co Production is done by Ankit Silas.  Bhakti Kalidhar is credited with making the lyric video. The track is a total blast and in the end you are left wanting more. 11. Teri Meri Jo https://youtu.be/5u1pCwhXt_c With every new release, Rishab Rikhiram Sharma sky-rockets in to my book of favorite and dependable musical talents. I have featured and reviewed at-least 3 tracks that he’s been involved in and “Teri Meri Joâ€? is a heartwarming number involving some very creative facets. It is the 4th track in his album “Navarasâ€? and Rishab has sung, produced and most importantly sizzled with the Sitar. The choir plays a huge role in the outcome of the track and the participants are Anushka Mahajan, Brandon Allen, Dale Stuckenbruck, Lukas Roamanski, Manjul Sharma, Pavitra Rajeev, Priya Venkatesh, Rama Gopalakrishnan, Riddhi Thakar, Sanjay Sharma and Suman Mallipattana. The video also is quite engaging shot inside the Flushing Ganesh Temple in NY with dancers Pavitra and Suhana Jag. It starts off like a Gospel thanks to the choir but slowly moves in to classical Indian mode with influences of Raag Hamsadhwani which becomes very evident in the solo Sitar interlude. The bassist is Alex Desiveres, Vishali Bawa handles the cover art-work. Rishab excels at the singing bits as well, and I especially love the vibrato before landing on the chorus humming in the end. 12. Bayaan https://youtu.be/_5rpcw-bIDs 2020 was a phenomenal year for Dhruv Visvanath with some fabulous hits, and regular features in my rankings and I even used to call him our own Phil Collins. Now he goes a step further and produces some amazing music, and in the process helping other young musical artists to shine. Siddharth Bhargav a.k.a. SidB has written, composed and sung this very breezy track that I fell in love with the very first time itself. The guitars help the mind flow to a calmer place, and what works really well other than the lead vocals are the harmonies thanks to both SidB and Dhruv. The track feels like a river gaining stronger currents and flowing with ferocity and the keys played swiftly in the background add to this. SidB manages to sing for a considerable stretch of time in the falsetto tone and in the closing stages the fine production and programming come together really well. Dhruv has also mixed and mastered the track. 13. O Raahi https://open.spotify.com/album/1XaQEbVBKWJR76szID65yL?si=lRxVMtswQBqX6aRmEjL98g Rajiv Sundaresan is making this a habit, and a good one at that. It was his Darmiyaan a couple of weeks ago in this list and he is back again with another humdinger.  Here he works with singer Yashita Sharma and the duet is a fast-paced romantic number which can easily disguise itself as a dance number as well. Nyzel Dlima is fantastic on his constant role as the guitarist in the track and from then on it is all about the programming and production work helped a great deal by Abhishek Ghatak’s mixing and mastering. If Rajivs’ vocals add energy, Yashita’s adds elegance and that is why this track has something to offer to everyone. Rajiv experiments with full freedom in the last 1 minute or so and that is when the track treads paths that you wouldn’t expect. Kudos to Merchant Records once again for being the label behind this number. 14. Safar aur Baarish https://youtu.be/JFnKQPpWI4w Who doesn’t love music back form the 90s, especially global pop back then. This three-man band is formed by musicians who hail from Uttarakhand but they met in Ludhiana. The name of the band is philosophical, coined from two words Raw and Materials, indicating how the base for anything refined, proceed and final is this initial input. Krishna Singh is the lead vocalist and he has written and composed this number with Robin Raturi on drums and Amit Rawat on guitars. Krishna’s vocals soar as high as the hills they travel to in the video and trio make sure they maintain the tune’s trajectory true to its melody. The track is produced by Pop Shop Music.15. Tere Jaisa https://youtu.be/tvgaAU817H8 This series did really impress thanks to some excellent writing and performances and the sequel season had some exciting music by Karthik Rao. The song Tere Jaisa stood out and it has been written and composed by Vaibhav Bundhoo. It is produced by Keshav Dhar and Vaibhav, and to bring in one of the finest female vocalists in Kamakshi Khanna was the game-changer. The tonality of her voice is unparalleled and she elevates the track to something that sticks on your mind for long. The keys and guitars are like two guiding lines that help the track stay true to its genre. The gospel-styled harmonies and basslines are unmistakably good. Vaibhav makes a late entry as the vocalist and he delivers it with style. We get a very enjoyable 90 seconds or more in the end having both the lead vocalists, and harmonies coming together to leave an after-taste filled with love and romance. 16. Fear https://youtu.be/UT2UUTLKHdI

This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 10th October 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 16 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country.  Find the full playlist of 16 tracks on SPOTIFY 1. Aalo Ta Tumi Naao https://youtu.be/t6wuJ9b69Kw The top spot for the week quite deservingly goes to this fabulous Bangla song. It all begins with the soothing keys and all that credit goes to Shamik Chakravarthy who not only has composed this but also made all the arrangements. Alivia Jasim owns the voice that truly holds the track together. Raja Chowdhury is simply brilliant on the guitars. right through and especially in the interludes. There is a recognizable strings section during the verse and we have Tarun Das on the recording and Goutam Basu on mixing and mastering. Alivia uses her vocals skillfully to jazz up things and also provide some good old classical vibrato as well. The lyricist is Rajiv Dutta. The last minute or so has some excellent electric guitar solos only to to be matched by Alivia's singing. 2. Ila https://youtu.be/Ft8buEPYMgs Sithara Krishnakumar is one of the best vocalists in the country today, and its is her ability to stun you with her vocal stability and subtle likable shifts in tonality. The track starts off with the guitars by Liboy Praisly and they resonate something like Saraswati Raag because I could hear a bit of ""Karpoorai Bommai ondru"" by Ilaiyaraja. Mithun Jayaraj is the composer with Binesh Damodaran, Venu Varrier and Yoonas Khan. The strings are strong and imposing along with a woodwind instrument and it could probably be the Saxophone. Mithun's singing touches you along with Sithara's magical voice and as the song progresses we get a sense of maybe an influence of Gowrimanohari raaga. Dhanush Nayanar has done the sound design, with Sreejesh Nair handling the mixing and mastering. Nikhil Ram's flute solo comes into the second interlude and all the pathos gets captured through the choice of the instruments, the arrangements and emotive singing. 3. Bhimpalasi https://youtu.be/irLwYvFKe0E Anirudh Varma is a Pianist and composer who I have come to pay a lot of attention to for his excellent and consistent work. Not just instrumentals, even vocal tracks are amazing when he is part of it. An album called ‘Homecoming’ is coming up and this is the 1st single in that . The composition is all about love and care that we extend to our closest ones and quite evidently it is based on Raag Bhimpalasi. Anirudh plays the Piano,keyboards and also handles the arrangements and composition. Rohit Prasanna's provides the ideal opening needed with the tranquil flute solo, and we can already hear the guitar support from Shrikant Biswakarma and Abhishek Mittal on electric and Madhur Chaudhary on bass guitars. Mohit Lal on the Tabla and Dimpal Kumar on the drums keep the tempo in check with flavors of classical and western music being induced when they alternate. There is an excellent array of classical Hidustani vocalists in Aanchal Singh, Aastha Mandle, Kavya Singh and Vaishnavi Tyagi. Saptak Chatterjee another favorite young musician of mine gets involved with Anirudh in vocal arrangement and production. The flute interventions are top-notch and they help achieve a sense of calmness amidst the fast paced singing and wonderful tongue-twisting Konnakkol by Santur Kundu. The track is recorded, mixed and mastered by Anindo Bose at Plug 'n' Play Studios and Aastha;s vocals are recorded by Jagdish Bhandge. The roles played by the electric guitar and bass guitar are indispensable. I certainly cat wait for the remaining tracks from the album. 4. Radhari Jonney https://youtu.be/uURLz4aMJoo How awesome is this for Bangla music, as we have one more right here in the top 6 ? Anurag Chatterjee and Niharika Nath are the lead singers in this melody but it is the latter who serenades us with her sweet voice. Sushanta Nandi is the flautist and he blows us away further into the melody composed by Anurag himself. The bengali lyrics are penned by Anurag and Raja Chatterjee. The beats and the harmonies are something that completely took me by surprise in a very positive way. The lingering effect and sound of flute persists well in to the interlude. the verse is wonderfully written and structured and helped by some pitch-perfect singing. Arnab Chowdhury does the musical arrangements but Jakiruddin Khan's guitars are like the beautiful beads on a string. Antarip Adhikary has mixed and mastered the track. 5. Mere Warga https://youtu.be/e-TuBq5QTO0 Brilliance on the Violin, and there it was , the track's fate sealed to be in this weeks top 5. Kaka is the man behind this show entirely as Singer, lyricist and composer as well. The keys in the background drive the quality of the track forward with music direction by Sukhe Muzical Doctorz . The singing especially in the verse where he reaches the higher scales is worthy of mention. The violins just dont strike us at the beginning but in the interludes as well. The track is mixed and mastered Yograj Singh & Suyash Singh. The film and video we see is by Scope Studios. The female Lead is Akanksha Puri and the Second Lead Sophia Doon in the video. The tune might not be something we never have heard before, but the arrangements and music instrument choices keep this one apart from the rest 6. Khali Khali Agide https://youtu.be/3jxybRgdvfI Raghu Dixit and Vasu Dixit are becoming very dependable composers not just in the indie space but movie-based music as well. This movie has got some people talking about the acting performances of the lead characters but what I am interested in is the was the music adds layers and Vasu doesn't disappoint. Shilpa Mudbi is the female lead vocalist and she possesses a voice which is not you run-of the-mill tone and that itself keeps you intrigued. The Sitar in the interlude is exquisitely played by Shruti Kamath and this where I sensed some Raag Gowrimanohari(Patdeep in Hindustani) influence, and it is interesting how she lands back on the opening lines. Joel Sakkari is solid on guitars and the verse has both Shilpa and Vasu singing in harmony. Pranav Swaroop's violin solo in the second interlude is another piece worth listening to. The track is mixed and mastered by Hriday Goswami with lyrics by K.Kalyan. Watch out for that lovely background on violins just after the beginning of the second verse. 7. Under My skin https://youtu.be/coliCAcFuzY This is one surprising track that really caught my attention, and though the initial sounds were nothing spectacular but the moment Kaja Riedle starts singing, it gets elevated. The song is written by Kaja, a singer-songwriter from Berlin and an artist who goes by the name ButtonChutney. Utkarsh Amarpuri from True School of Music is a musician and producer and he has mixed, mastered and produced this track. The singing and production are of superior quality and the sound of the keys and guitars and some EDM touch all add some value or the other. 8. Kichu Kotha Baki https://youtu.be/QvmrgKWuMRo Bangla music must be on a high, with its 3rd entry in this week's best of Indian music. Ashmi Bose sings like a Pro at the top of her game and it is the beautiful words of Buddha Mukherjee that bring a smile to your face even if you cant follow the language. He also has composed, and arranged this wonderful track and I must say that the label Soumya's Academy does support and promote good quality Bangla music. The guitars by Monotosh are simple yet solid as a support cast while the song did show some influence of Raag Maand. The track is Mixed & Mastered by Zamar Indian Ensemble. The interlude is laden with guitar strings and the verse is a display of Ashmi's vocal skills. The lines in Hindi "" Chhodh denge hum"" alone sound like a piece out of a Bollywood romantic track, while otherwise it is a slow, sober bengali track. 9. Thodi si dua https://youtu.be/Or36oCTxadQ Merchant Records need no introduction nor accreditation, as they continue to produce, support and promote some of the best of Indian indie music. This particular track is composed, written and performed by Kamakshi Rai with Garima Obrah also contributing to the lyrics. I am constantly reminded of this famous track ""Baby I love your way"" by UB-40. Karan Parikh's guitars constantly act like the connecting link in the track which revolves around some effortless singing by Kamakshi. The track is Mixed & Mastered by Aftab Khan at Headroom Studio. With just 45 seconds to go, the notes get a mild shake-up and it is always interesting to move away from any monotony. Garima does a splendid job in writing lyrics in Hindi which carry the same emotion as the ones in English written by Kamakshi. Tallz a.k.a. Karan Jhaveri produces this track and also lends his voice. 10. Akhiyan Udeek Diyan https://youtu.be/m150XHFpECU This is a re-creation of an old masterpiece by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, sung by Master Saleem and all the credit to the music direction goes to Manan Bharadwaj with Sarthak getting involved in the arrangements and programming along with Manan. The singing is obviously something that stands out in the song and it makes you feel like it is an original by the genius Nusrat ji. Mayukh Sarkar is splendid on the guitars especially the bass-lines. The original lyrics were penned by Khawaja Pervez and the track is mixed and mastered by Eric Pillai. 11. Jhula https://youtu.be/BPr8MWz7gK8 Sayani Palit is always on my radar, because she not only sings like a dream, but also composes some brilliant music. I believe this one has some element of Raag Desh in it. This track is sung by Sayani while it is produced by Suvam Moitra. A component of the track that strikes as brilliant and innovative is the beats, and rhythm with so many things happening and all that credit goes to Avirup Das Bunty. Swarajit Ratul Guha's flute solo is something to cherish as he gets very creative and also maintains a classical style also when needed. We can hear the sounds of Harmonium as well and though the tune is not something unheard of, the creativity is seen in many ares like I expressed. 12. Ro Dena https://youtu.be/OgfTUYhUhzI Mohit Dogra does some excellent production , as I still remember his Nasamajh O dil. This is another excellent track in Punjabi sung by Pallavi Chaudhary with musical and lyrical credits going to Mohit. It can be seen that all the excellent sounds of the guitar also are programmed to great effect by Mohit. Bharat Goel another admirable composer does the mixing and mastering. Pallavi absolutely steals the show with her delivery. 13. Munthiripoovo https://youtu.be/mXSfnMPxEBI It is never easy to remake a movie and get the same effect as the original, well there have been some who believe it is better than the original 'Andhadun'. Leaving the movie review aside, I feel the song here certainly creates an amazing setting. Jakes Bejoy is growing in stature with every album and this one as well has his stamp. It begins with the wonderful keys , maybe because the hero is a pianist if I am not wrong. Jakes has also sung this song which has some wonderful chorus singers in Jasil M.J, Alex Peter, Austin Shymon and Shwetha Ashok is the female backing vocalist. Amal Antony does all the vocal chorus arrangements. Sumesh Parameshwar is the multi-instrumentalist in the track playing Ukulele, Guitalele,Banjitar and bass guitars all these collide so well into creating a wonderful effect. Nikhil Ram's flute intervenes with style and substance and ll this happens with Shruthi Raj's foot-tapping percussion. The track is produced by Jakes, Alan Joy Mathew, Abjaksh S and Glady. The harmonies and beats clearly are the elements that makes this a fun, enjoyable track. There is a brilliant interlude, on the Piano which is an exhibition of Jakes' skill as a composer. Midhun Manoj is the recording engineer, and the track is mixed and mastered by Balu Thankachan with assistance from Hari. Nihil Ram is next to brilliant playing the flute with consummate ease and elegance. The lyrics are written by BK Harinarayan. 14. Jamunar Nila Joley https://youtu.be/ZyQ0hcQVVcA Jamunar Nila Joley is an ancient Brajavali folk song about finding God in the turbulent blue waters of river Yamuna. But where this track stands apart is the way the composer, fuses the folk music with modern sounds. Composer Vishal J. Singh just appeared on my playlist and weekly rankings last week with ""Come away"" and this is an equally good track, but deserves even more credit for the creative fusion. Siddharth Basrur is the lead vocalist and the terrific violinist Ajay Jayanthi plays the stringed instrument. Andrey Sazonov plays the woodwinds quite impeccably. The guitars in the background especially the bass help build the excitement but what keeps you glued on to it is the voice of Kasturi Nath Singh. Siddharth's vocals are enchanting to say the least and it has to be Vishal's production and programming that brings together these lovely instruments, and I guarantee you will fall in love with the violins that keep playing right through. There is no better way to keep our folk music alive than create fusion versions like these. 15. Aaram se https://youtu.be/_LIgItMi2u4 What is Vijay Prakash having for breakfast these days? I would definitely like to know, in fact the whole music industry would I guess. This is the 3rd consecutive week where we have the brilliant singer appear in our rankings. The track is probably an electronic/pop and dance track but it is Vijay's ability to sound convincing in this genre especially when he can also sing slow melodies with poise and purpose. The sole purpose of Bas55ick is to bring EDM to Kannada music and he does that pretty admirably here. Adolf Shervi'n's solo on the saxophone is something to cherish and the use of a live instrument is refreshing in an EDM track. Harshith V does the mixing and mastering and Siddhu Raj is the lyricist. Adithya Nayak has done the sax arrangements and recording. 16. Safar https://youtu.be/ylnTqG7Rulg Parikshit Sharma is an independent and acclaimed electro-pop music producer and performer but I am hearing him for the very first time. This guy has been in the business since the age of 19 , and I am glad I got to listen to his music and it straight away brought his track to this week's last place. He has composed, produced and performed this one with lyrics by Sharmila Ranade. The track is quite enjoyable and the beats and drums are just excellently programmed in to the scheme of things. The vocals keep coming in layers helping the audio experience. The lyrical video is made by Shrey Joshi and the Mixing & Mastering is also by Parikshit Sharma . The vocals are recorded by Rupak Thakur

1. A walk through Brindavan https://youtu.be/IDHftb3rqr4 Devan Ekambaram composes this brilliant number which is a coming-together of some terrific live instruments and musicians. The stars at the beginning are Nel Bucktowar on the Soprano Saxophone, and Vijay Gopal on the flute. There is an outstanding 21-piece string section that will blow your mind away and we have Aalaap Raju on the nylon and bass guitars, Shyam Benjamin is on the Piano, while the Tabla and percussion are played by Vikram Rozario. Let us not forget the majestic violins played by Arun Ramamurthi and VS Narasimhan. The track is based on the Neelambari Raagam. Devan excels in creating this western and Carnatic fusion. Srinivasa Raju has played the delightful Mandolin, Sarod and Harp. The unsung hero of many of AR Rahman’s hits passed away recently. The song just got Nominated at the Hollywood Music Media Awards in World Music genre, and it is the only entry from India 2. Rhapsody https://youtu.be/dHkK9kI4fQ0 Rajhesh Vaidya is a genius, and he displays that both in his playing of the Veena and his composition. Madurai R Muralidharan has written the lyrics, produced and also performed on the Konakol which becomes like a wonderful battle with the Mridangam played by Kesavan along with Veena. One can hear the Ghatam and Tabla in the background played by Sai Hari and Praveen Narayan. Malavika Rajhesh does a small vocal bit with Kumaran on drums but the show is all about the Veena. Sai Shravanam does the mixing and mastering, and recording is by Ashwin and Joshwa. 3. Postradition https://youtu.be/0hHa2nE4VA0 This is one funky track that is fraught with style, oomph and a fusion sense that almost is unpredictable. We have Joshua Bailed and Angelo Spampinato on the drums keep the tempo charged up while Christian Li is at his innovative best in the Synth and he also handles the Piano and all other keyboard arrangements. The Tenor Saxophones are played by Alex Silver, Gabi Rose and Jared Yee and they represent the most hummable portions of this track. Rasika Shekar on the Bansuri is an A-list star and she induces the traditional texture to the track. Julia Adamy is on the bass guitars and Pran Brandi mixes with Kevin Reeves on mastering duties. Shubh Saran based in NY deserves a round of applause for composing, producing and arranging this number and roping in all such global talent. Alex Conroy has recorded the track. Can’t Wait for his “Inglish�. 4. Reach out https://youtu.be/wHqpoc-2C0w Tajdar Junaid has composed this immersive track and also played the main guitars which start things off. He also manages to arrange for the track which involved the strings you hear in the deeper layers. Warren Mendosa another stalwart joins in the party with the 2nd guitars. The track never transforms from its original intent and texture to captivate it you through its somberness, and you will surrender to it. Michael Pyannikov has mixed and mastered the track. 5. Days of Isolation https://youtu.be/ahNjnfSfQeQ Chandresh Kudwa takes us along the road to perdition and hell with this splendid hard rock number and he is nothing short of brilliant on the electric guitars. The drums are equally splendid and what else would you expect with Gino Banks holding the sticks. This is a track showcasing two dexterous artists at work. I definitely do sense a bit of Raag Bhairav when Chandresh strums his way in into higher planes of musical nirvana6. Hues of Dawn https://youtu.be/wrorNqdHAyY Keshav Mohankumar composes and plays the Violin in this fantastic piece set Kalyani Raaga, and he is supported by some fabulous musicians like Shamith S Gowda on the Ghatam, Sujayeendra Rao on the Tabla, Samrudh Srinivas on the flute. The wonderful keys we hear in the background are played by Sai Shiv Lakshmi Keshav while he also does the mixing and mastering.

The SPOTIFY play list has all the tracks https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0M98Xu6wjheeoHwXkDE7j4?si=46bbe493735644e2 1. Palnilavin Poykayil https://youtu.be/zczCSWDn9Q8 Ranjin Raj almost always shines through beaming with a glimmer of hope that good music still exists and continues to reign supreme in the modern day India. Ranjin proves his mettle in this song which tops the charts and we have another brilliant singer in Sithara Krishnakumar delivering the lines with a scintillating voice. The notes played by the acoustic guitar are not run of the mill as you can hear Sumesh Parameshwar deviate and play a nice bit every-time Sithara completes the opening line. Sumesh also plays the bass guitars in the track produces, arranged and composed by Ranjin. Vinayak Sasikumar is the lyricist. The interlude is just a show of class by Kamalakar on the flute and when the verse begins, Sithara draws you closer with her impeccable vibrato, and the bass guitars along with the strings section by Cochin Strings comprising of Francis Xavier, Josekutty, Herald Antony, Francis Sebastian provide apt support. Anthony George does all the additional programming with Balu Thankachan on mixing and Shadab Rayeen on mastering duties. Mani Ratnam and Sai Prakash are the recording engineers. The second interlude is decorated by the strings section. 2. Run https://youtu.be/abyO_NsSOx0 Vasundhara Vee is a vocalist, voice-over artist and educator from Delhi and she has been one of the prime forces in the the Jazz/Soul music space in India for many years now. Here she simply sizzles, soars far into the skies and it almost feels like a masterclass in singing. The track is brilliantly produced, composed and arranged by guitarist/producer Dhruv Ghanekar. The wonderful lyrics are also written by Vasundhara, and we have another composer in Neuman Pinto on the backing vocals here. The bass guitars and beats provide the perfect accompaniment along with harmonies. The track is mixed and mastered by Joseph George and the video is created by Karan Takulia and Jason Vaz. The scat singing and her improvisation towards the end sounds phenomenal towards the end. 3. Ide Swarga https://youtu.be/ElqpJuFX9dI A couple of months ago, the first single of Love Mocktail 2 was simply outstanding with a melody that still fails to leave my heart. Nakhul Abhyankar who is one of AR Rahman's trusted aides and technicians keeps singing in Tamil and Kannada a lot but never discount his composition skills as well. he gets in another master-blaster of a singer in Sanjith Hegde to deliver this fantastic sequel to the first single. Listening to ""Ide Swarga"" is like enjoying the bliss and peace of heaven as the title suggests. Nakhul other than composing this, also takes part in the backing vocals along with Ramya Bhat and he also mixes the track. The initial humming itself tells you that you are in for a treat in this track. Raghavendra Kamath is the lyricist and we have John Paul on the acoustic guitars and Keith Peters on the bass guitars and the guitars play a solid role right through and you can hear them in the second layer behind Sanjith's vocals. The harmonies work well with Keith's bass-lines providing solid comfort. Reuben Machado who also plays the flute, enhances the value of this sing with his Saxophone solo in the first interlude and all this sounds like a beautiful Michael Bolton track. Sanjith's singing is beyond compare in the verses with the saxophone playing mildly in the background. The track is mastered by Suresh Perumal 4. Kanmaniye https://youtu.be/umi5lPVKkP8 This is the 3rd song in 2 weeks for Vijay Prakash and Kannada music is certainly riding on a high. As expected Vijay sings this one with great poise singing the words written by Shree Talageri. Anand Rajavikram is the composer of this fabulous melody and he also does this inspiring arrangement with strings section woodwinds, guitars and flute. The strings are orchestrated by Srikanth Krishna and the strings Quintet by Francis and team. The beautiful woodwinds will impress you beyond doubt in the verse following up every line that Vijay sings and they are played by Bharath Aatreyas while Abhishek Bose plays the guitars. I personally get a sense that the track has some influence of the Cranatic Raaga Kaapi. Anand does the backing vocal as well, The track is recorded by Midhun Manoj. and Ashwin. The verse is beautiful with enchanting notes and strings all the way almost feeling like a Ilaiyaraja masterpiece. Let us not forget the guitars especially the bass providing some great accompaniment and oomph to the track. 5. Aaj Phir Tera https://youtu.be/fdnpB4AJjXk This wonderful band focussing on Hind-Urdu projects was formed in 2017 by Lucknow born Vaibhav Sharma, the band currently comprises bassist Anish Nair, guitarist Keshav Parthsarathy who also plays for Anand Bhaskar Collective, drummer Saurav Dutta and keyboardist Nishant Nair . I loved their earlier track called ""Ae Dil"" and it was featured and reviewed on this blog a while ago. Vaibhav has also written the lyrics and plays the Kazoo which is gaining awesome popularity as an instrument. The track has a very 80s pop feeling, and isn't that enough to fall in love with a number. Vaibhav's singing is fabulous supported in the backing vocals by Keshav, Anish and Nishant. The track is mastered by Vivek Thomas and all additional programming is by Ariel Samson. The drums are wonderful giving the tempo to the song that is delightfully 80s. We have some vocal improvisation by Vaibhav and then he plays the Kazoo as well after that giving the song great flavors just like the chocolate ganache shown in the video. 6. Roshe https://youtu.be/jJiPABP4OJA Kashmiri songs have a flavor that take us to the beautiful land itself just by listening to the splendid music and words though I cant follow a word of what is being said. I have featured ad reviewed many artists and their originals and renditions from Kashmir and this joins that list. Roshè is an age old Kashmiri Folk song originally by celebrated poet Habba Khatoon. This version is sung by sisters Meyhaa Kilam & Kaira Kilam and we have the rockstar Amit Kilam from Indian Ocean providing some backing vocals as well as doing the mixing, mastering and all instrumentation for the track. The Piano introduces us to the folky melody and the sisters then perform a wonderful act that can be enjoyed in total peace and solitude. The bass guitars and the beats are essential in keeping us engaged more than the just the singing. Amit's backing vocals are emotive and display a range of emotions. If I am not wrong there is some Kafi thaat influence that I hear when the sisters sing. I love how the song moved into a lower scale, while generally we see songs in the AR Rahman era moving up a scale towards the end. 7. Adiga Adiga https://youtu.be/QKGCRtGiq2I S Thaman and Telugu music continue to scale higher peaks with consistent good music week in and week out. This is another excellent track sung by Sp Charan, after I don't know how long, and female lead vocalist ML Shruti. We have Kalyana Chakravarthy penning the lyrics. Shruti is splendid singing her lines showing adequate ease in the higher scales and she is supported by a massive array of fabulous singers in the chorus namely Sahithi Chaganthi, Harini Ivaturi, Sruthi Ranjani, Harika Narayan, Satya Yamini and Aditi Bhavaraju. Interestingly I have featured all of these singers as solo performers in my blog before. The violin and strings have become a regular tool for Thaman's musical scores and here the Chennai Strings are involved with arrangements by Prabhakar and conducted by Ravi Rahav. The song is recorded by Osho V and Biju Nair while Shada Rayeen mixes and masters it assisted by Pukraj. The vocal supervision is handled by Sri Krishna and Manikandan is the musicians co-ordinator. The production is of high quality and the second interlude is loaded with all the goodness of an Ilaiyaraja composition. 8. Yeh andhkaar https://youtu.be/CdX8i3T8Alo The song is riveting and keeps you hooked thanks to the singing and composition by Deepa Nair Rasiya. She is an award-winning composer/vocalist; a world musician in Indian classical music, semi-classic music, rock fusion, and Sufi music.  In ""Chants of India"" she has worked with Beatles' George Harrison and Pt. Ravi Shankar. The track is produced and arranged by Nimrita Kaur and the quality is retained by her brilliance. The 'andhkaar' is felt through the vocals and instrumentation as there is a mystery and darkness that they propagate. The Sitar in the first interlude is magically played by Roopa Panesar. Adam Whitaker as done the mixing and Donal Whelan the mastering. Meera Rasiya appears in the video and it is sho by Kate Griffin. 9. Twin size bed https://youtu.be/zML8Qgbw98M Kruttika Sequeira is a singer-songwriter, keyboardist and composer from Mumbai, India and she has worked majorly in R&B/Soul, Jazz , Blues and Instrumentals . A lot of her work is influenced by Alicia Keys, Carole King, Bonnie Raitt, Adele and Sia. She even has an associate degree in Vocal Performance from Musicians Institute in Hollywood and she specializes in Songwriting, composition, arranging for songs and vocals as well as keyboard accompaniments. Kruttika recently released her EP called ""Snow"" with 5 tracks and I loved ""Twin Size Bed"" the most. She has written, composed, arranged the strings and performed this number. Vinayak Pol is awesome on the drums and we can here the constant Pianos along with the strings section. Sheldon D'silva plays the bass guitars and Anthony McCarthy is on the acoustic guitars. Akshat Shinde is the recording engineer along with Gino Banks from Mumbai and Navneet Rao and Kruttika record from LA. The electric guitar solo and then the backgrounds in the Keys sound terrific past the mid way mark. Kruttika is flamboyant in her vocals and she also mixes the track with Nate Wood doing the mastering. There is also something about this track , mabe teh singing, or the arrangements but it could have been a perfect track for ""No time to die"" as a Bond movie OST. 10. Come Away https://youtu.be/Gt7pROTVNoY This another splendid track making into the top 10 for the week with Vishal J Singh producing an performing along with two more vocalists in Urmila Sivadas and Surya Prakash Medhi. The lyrics are written by Tanushree Saha and all the lyric animations are by Nilotpal with artwork and animation by Pranjeevan Adhikary. It starts off slow with just the vocals and Keys giving off a Blues vibe , and Urmila takes over there and she sings with almost an English Jazz style but it does sound pretty damn good. The combined voices add greater glitter to the track and when the lines say ""Come away"" the genre almost shifts from Blues to Pop/Rock enhanced by the electric guitar solo. The outro portion with all the vocalists, the drums, and guitar is breath taking in effect. 11. Love to you https://youtu.be/LPqfAsY21z4 RIKA is Chandrika Darbari and this British Indian singer has already caught the world by storm, and now she is collaborating with an acclaimed Indian musician Ankit Tiwari who has scored many jingles and songs and albums in the Hindi music space. Another stalwart in Arko Pravo Mukherjee has worked with RIKA in writing the song. This has a modern pop/EDM texture to it but is really catchy all the way. DJ Phukan has produced this number and Ankit and Phukan have programmed the track. The Guitars are played by RIKA while Drop Vocals are that of Ayush. The track is Mixed and Mastered by Eric Pillai 12. Aeri Sakhi https://youtu.be/8LTKPye0gzo The track is a rendition by the classical singer and vocal coach Ronkini Gupta and the lyrics are by Amir Khsuro the legend. The track is produced and arranged by Sriram Sampath while it is recorded, mixed and mastered by Saikat Sarkar. The production is very modern with some lo-fi effects but the highlight other than Ronkini's vocals is the Mridangam used. The flute solo does the needful in the interlude and then its back to her singing that captures the beauty of this track set in Raag Desh. 13. Darmiyaan https://youtu.be/9hmXwVQGguA Rajiv Sundaresan is one work-horse who keeps composing and performing at incredible frequency. This is a track I just loved and it is under the label of Merchant Records. This one too is composed & sung by Rajiv Sundaresan with some savvy strings in the background straight away. The Keys also provide some very effective accompaniment , especially the solo for a brief moment before we get some backing vocals from Rishikesh Kamerkar. The beautiful words are written by Saaveri Verma. The track is produced, mixed and mastered by Tapas Relia. Rajiv brings his A-game in this track as a vocalist with some beautiful singing especially in the higher scales. 14. When Im alone https://youtu.be/LUY6L0q3JxM Ananya Birla doesn't need any introduction, as she not only is Kumaramangalam Birla's daughter , she also is a global music superstar having worked with Sean Kingston and AR Rahman etc. She studied in Univ of Oxford as well, but all that aside, she really does a fabulous job in this track which is produced by Chris ""TEK'"" O'Ryan. Tejas Menon another supreme talent who has been featured on this website before writes the lyrics along with Ananya and Jehangir Jehangir . This enjoyable number is Composed by Tejas, Jehangir Jehangir and Ananya while it is Produced by Jehangir Jehangir, Stuart DaCosta and Tejas. It is one to stand up against the rest of the global musical productions thanks to some excellent singing and arrangements. if you have listened to Tejas before you know that there are figments and fragments of his score written all over this track. The keys The vocals are recorded by Aria Nanji while it is mixed by Chris ""TEK"" O'Ryan and mastered by Joe Bozzi. 15. Shukrana https://youtu.be/170Up4gj_OU I loved the first single by Siddhant Mishra from his album ""Ehsaas"", and I did review the first single on my blog a few weeks ago. “Shukranaâ€?, the second single is a song of gratitude. The track is written by Nikhil Chinchankar and composed/produced by Siddhant Mishra. He brings in one of the most accomplished and endearing vocalists of our time in Abhay Jodhpurkar. Jobin David's guitars and the wonderful ethnic strokes by Dwaipayan Ghosh. These play a wonderful accompanying role along with Abhay's vocals. Siddhant himself plays the bass guitars and after a delightful acoustic guitar led interlude, the verse gets equally interesting and melodious. The recording engineers are Pranjal Borah, Rupjit Das and Nitin Dubey mixes the track with Pablo Schuller mastering it. Engineer.

1. Torture song https://youtu.be/EHUnXT9eTHk OK, before you even go in to listening to and understanding the music in this track, have fun watching this delightful video which is all about the most adorable labrador. I have been planning to have one of my own and this song clearly pushed me closer to that decision. Nobin Paul is an excellent musician, probably one of the best in South India at-least, but if I have a complaint it will be that he doesn't score too often at-least at the frequency at which I desire. Vijay Prakash kills this one as the lead vocalist with his insane attitude and Nobin's vision as a arranged and programmer is showcased here. Nagarjun Sharma' writes these funny and interesting lyrics and we have Nobin Paul, Chethan Naik, Madhwesh Bharadwaj, Nikhil Parathasarathi on the back up vocals and also Arnava, Achintya, Akarsh, Abhay, Tanvee, Saanvi, Anusha, Kausthami doing the lovely kids chorus. Sruthi Raj and Kiran are outstanding on the percussions which makes you tap your feet, but the highlight is the trumpet by Babu and Clarinet by Nathan. The small interlude bit with the clarinet and kids humming in the interlude certainly reminds of ""Jathikathottam"" from the move 'Thaneer Mathan Dhinangal'. Sumesh Parameshwar the exponent on guitars, both bass and acoustic, can be heard doing his thing to perfection especially during the solos and watchout for Balasubramani's wonderful Nadaswaram intervention. The verse is such a melodious earful and Nobin has to be commended for this. The track is mixed and mastered by Balu Thankachen with assistance from Hariharan. For guys who want to listen to Nobin Paul's album that impressed me a couple of years ago , check out the movie ""Bill Gates"". The outro bit on ths track is a masterclass on the Clarinet with kids chorus and percussion adding great layers. 2. Naa Chelive https://youtu.be/W6lB6NRR5n0 Sid Sriram is now back to becoming his usual busy, prolific best with songs across all the south indian languages. Leander Lee Marty is a indie musician who has scored a few Tamil indie singles last year but this one is definitely a stand-out number. It however straightaway and probably even in some instances further into the track reminds me of that great number by AR Rahman called "" Aaromale"" from 'Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya'. Keba Jeremiah's acoustic guitars are unparalleled with a terrific solo on the electric violin by Shyam Ravishankar. The verse begins with a sense of peace just the vocals, and drums by David Joseph but the tempo and energy picks up mid-way with a lot of work by Leander on the synth and keyboard programming. Jeba's electric guitars can be heard accompanying Sids' outstanding vocals and he sings with incredible freedom and and passion. The aalap he does is mind-blowing helped by some backup vocals by Leander himself, and Napier Naveen on the bass guitars. Chitran writes the lyrics and Music Advisor - Roger Rex is the music advisor with session management by Nisha Shankar. All recording is done by KS Maniratnam and Vishnu with Sid's vocals recorded by Keerthana. Shadaab Rayeen does the mastering for the track. 3. Song of the seas https://youtu.be/hagYEgjX370 This is the debut single of Mumbai based singer-songwriter Anoushka Sivasankar and the basis of the song is the all the Biblical reference to the splitting of the sea as we have seen and heard of in the Ten Commandments. To continue along this path of Christianity based jargon, I think this is Baptism by fire for Anoushka and God does she shine through brilliantly. The video itself a great watch and it is directed by Siddharth Ahuja with assistance by Hritik Punjabi. The track feels like a gospel with some fabulous backup vocals but the vocals of Anoushka acts like a bait that we just cant stay away from. Shivam Kale is spectacular on the electric guitar solo with a close second contribution by Shlok Chiplunkar on the drums. Anoushka does a even better job on her production and composition, which keeps you engaged all the way till the end which she has also written. 4. Veyil Choodum https://youtu.be/EYCENUrhyE8 Fine blame me, but I really did not know that this talented actress could sing so well. Aparna Balamurali has acted in some excellent movies and the one to remember was her role with Suriya in ""Soorarai Pottru"". We are used to actors singing away with their mediocre voices these days, but this woman is bringing her absolute A-game here in this delightful melody composed by Amith Sajan and Anjali R Warrier. Dhannajay is credited with the concept and direction. Sanwin Jenil plays the subtle flute in the background and the song at times reminds me of ""Poove Sempoove"" by Ilaiyaraja. The humming with a backup harmony is a wonderful addition to the track. KP Balamurali plays the solo Veena on the interlude aided by Keys. Meenakshi Manohar is the lyricist. Aparna is excellent with her minute vibrato and when the notes shift too she delivers it with a great touch of professional ability. There is a touch Raag Maand if I am not wrong in this track and it is mixed and mastered by Saji R. 5. Ishq Fitoori & Kahe Muskay Re https://youtu.be/lFuLuikCFMo Shabbir Ahmed is a well know lyricist, and he recently impressed me with a wonderful song on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi called ""Gajanan"" sung by Sachet Tandon. Now he has this movie album as well and I thoroughly enjoyed not just 1 but two songs . This once called Ishq Fitoori is sung by Mohit Chauhan and the other is called ""Kahe Muskay Re"" by Shreya Ghoshal. The great thing about these two numbers, other than the fact that it is sung by two brilliant vocalists, is that they have some terrific instrumental arrangements and end up being loop-worthy melodies. Shabbir also pens the lyrics for the songs in this album. Dawood Khalu is his assistant in music and it is all recorded by Rahul M Sharma with Samir Dharap assisting. The tracks are programmed by Prasad Sashte and Mix & Mastered By Vijay Dayal. The instruments, rhythm and percussions we hear is conducted & performed By Dipesh Varma . We also have the solo on flute by PMK Naveen Kumar. The interlude for Ishq Fitoori is loaded with a whole of Flute goodness and Mohit shows why he never disappoints you when he performs. All the instruments and arrangements give you a feeling of a Ismail Darbar Song according to writer and reviewer Karthik Srinivas, but I feel there is some Ajay-Atul influence and magic as well. Kahe Muskay Re feels a lot of ""Chori Chori"" from the movie ""Kareeb"" and it too has some amazing instrumental arrangements especially the flute. It opens up and also feels like ""Sairat Jhala Ji""aided by some wonderful basslines, rhythm and obviously Shreya's delivery. 6. Yun Zindagi ki raah mein https://youtu.be/B7D3G4QsPa0 This is a new rendition of a famous Ghazal sung by the legendary Mehdi Hassan. I can trust Khwaab Music (Nishant Nagar) and Divyam Sodhi to combine and provide justice to this with their own rendition. Bohot Bechain which released in May was a terrific number and I featured and reviewed it here on my blog and they have struck again. Divyam sings to perfection being slightly aloof when he has to and grabbing onto the notes with poise as well. Kirti Virmani and Shikhar Virmani are responsible for the artwork. The instruments are kept to a minimum but boy do they create a beautiful concoction with Mansij Madaan on guitars, Mahavir on the Tabla, and Amarpreet on the delectable Harmonium. All arrangements are production credits go to Khwaab. There is some Raag Behaag and Raag Khamaj influences here. 7. Kyun Chhodh gaye https://youtu.be/0QTXTrRtIOI Rajkumar Sengupta is a wonderful talent in sea of great Bangla musicians, but what sets him apart like Anupam Roy, Joy Sarkar and Nilanjan Ghosh, in the current crop of composers is that they all innovate and expand the horizon of genres rather than depending on the genius Rabindranath Tagore alone for their music. This one sung by Ujjaini Mukherjee is mixed and mastered by another dependable composer in Krsna Solo. Ujjaini has now made it to my list in two consecutive weeks but her style of singing in this one is miles apart from the 'Du Chokhe Harai' she sang last week. Rajkumar produces and composes this dreamy yet guitar-laden track which definitely reminds me of ""Thoodhu varuma"" sung by Sunitha Sarathy and composed by Harris Jayaraj. Prasanto Mahato plays the bass guitar and the lyrics are penned by Soham Majumdar & Devankan Chakroborty. The Esraj sound programmed by Rajkumar adds to the mystery and pathos of the track. 8. Mohabbat Ho gayi hai https://youtu.be/0u8gFYWWTKo Jazim Sharma is an exponent at picking some fantastic ghazals and breathing new life into them with his own renditions. He did one a couple of weeks back with ""kaahan Aake rukhe raaste"". This original beauty is set in Mishra Desh Raag with the words by the great poet Janab Farhat Shahzad Sahab. Anurag and Raaj are the composers while Jazim is involved in the arrangements. Jatin Vaswani is the producer with Partha Protim doing the mixing and mastering. Manas Kumar's solo Violin is a huge asset right through the track. The Piano and guitars also decorate the track but Jazim Sharma's vocals, vibrato and delivery, along with the violins are the brightest starts in this galaxy. 9. Bondhu re https://youtu.be/IA33KcabLII Nisha Satpute a write, director and lyricist is involved in making an album focussing on the Navarasas of emotions. This is teh third such single dedicated to Karuna/ sorrow. This Bengali Ghazal is written and composed by Niladri Mukherjee and quite exquisitely conveys the emotion of sadness and I do sense an influence of Raag Saraswathi in this. This could also be thanks to the emotive singing by Pranab Biswas. Atharv Joshi has produced the track. Apurv David's percussion arrangements come to light and they take us straight to the lands of Bengal. There is a lot of talented musicians involved here with Nitin Muralikrishna mixing and Tushar Pandit mastered track. The interludes are woven with the splendid sounds of Sarod by Sarang Kulkarni and we have the flute played by Mrugendra Mohadkar. All the artwork is by Pranav Pammi and animation is by Shivam Kumar. We cant wait to hear what the other 6 emotions are going to be conveyed as in musical form. 10. Sale https://youtu.be/R9RGdzzVzhw Who doesn't know the band ""Euphoria"" if you were born and raised in India? They took the whole nation by storm with some amazing music that was sung by every boy and girl and Dr. Palash Sen was admired for his on screen presence and singing. Well this album ""Sale"" could be one of the biggest musical comeback stories in Indian indie space and after listening to the 7 tracks i Can assure that they are certainly back. All the songs here are composed by Palash Sen while he and a few others have written the songs together. The 3 tracks I loved the most are ""Baavra"", "" Kesariya Balam"" and ""Khwaamkhaa"" and each of these has a different genre and taste which further showcasing the talent of the band. Some of the musicians who has contributed to the success of this project are DJ Bhaduri on bass guitars, Aditya Shankar Benia on all the acoustic, and electric guitars, Prashant Trivedi on all the drums, Tabla and percussions including their programming. Rakesh Bharadwaj plays the Khadtaal, Rajasthani Dhol and Dholak in ""Kesariya Balam"". Vishal Dixit contributes on the Piano and Synth. In Khwaamkhaa there are some amazing tamil vocals sung by Viashali Barua and Krutika Muralidharan with Lokesh Anand playing the Shehnai. Also Murad Ali plays the Sarangi in Kesariya Balam. ""Baavra"" has father and daughter , Kyna Sen, doing the lead vocals and is very reminiscent of the 2000s' Bollywood music which had some good pop thing going on. Kesariya Balam is a wonderful slow melody with the fragrance of Rajasthani Soil covered all over. It is sure to draw your attention with an intended sense of melancholy. In""Khwaamkhaa""we have a rock/pop track accompanied by great drums, electric guitars and a catchy humming that will never leave your head. 11. Rangu Raate https://youtu.be/H0Jp94F0LIM Vijay Prakash makes it two in a week with another typical performance here for a song which I loved. The guitars stand out and they are played by Siddhart Kamat who also does all the music programming which play an effective part in this song loaded with a lot of sounds in the background. The singing reminds me of the days when Vijay Prakash numbers for AR Rahman in Tamil which had a romantic expression just like this one. V Nagendra Prasad is the lyricist and Bharath himself does the mixing and mastering. The song is elaborate with two verses and it maintains the melody not just in the opening lines, so credit to the composer for that 12. Naakaamyaab https://youtu.be/RkD8qU_vo5Y This 3 man band from Bhubhaneshwar has been creating singles and an EP too before this and their aspiration is to become a rock band creating impactful music. Their EP Bahaane is something I am yet to listen to, but when you have a 3 track EP and 2 of the 3 are worth mentioning and reviewing, then it is quite something. In their latest EP ""Peher"" I loved ""Naakaamyaab"" the most followed by ""Kahin"". The band comprises of bassist Satyam Nayak, guitarist-vocalist Ashutosh Verma and guitarist Aditya Atmakuri who also has written the lyrics and composed the tunes. Naakaamyaab is slow , sober and a rock ballad with a wonderful harmony, and programmed strings and keys running in the second layers. The guitars are impossible to neglect and Ashutosh's vocals possess the perfect texture for the emotion that the track sets to create. ""Kahin"" is a more peppy love track which sets your heart racing and the hero is again the guitars here and sets the perfect environment for a long drive and this could be your perfect companion. 13. Leharaayi https://youtu.be/J1KpuR2Khz8 Sid Sriram again and this time for a Malayalam Supremo called Gopi Sundar who has been busy in Tollywood of late. The earlier songs in this album were quite good and to round things off Gopi ends things on a high note with this splendid track. Chirag Samtani plays the acoustic and bass guitars and he becomes an irreplaceable asset in this track. The track has a more EDM touch as well which is not something you would hear from Gopi, but it works damn well as he programs for the track as well along with the composition. OK Gopi's fantastic solo on the Nadaswaram acts as the perfect interlude connecting the pallavi and charanam and the wind instrument also keeps playing in the second layers in the verse. Balakrishna Kamath smartly plays the Mridangam as the it replaces the beats in the second interlude. Babu VK is the music production manager and the track is engineered by Ajil Kurian, Gopi Sundar with Mixing and Mastering by Shadab Rayeen. There are portions of the track which make me think if there is an influence of Abheri raaga in it. Sreemani is the lyricist. 13. Dont you drop https://youtu.be/OhY9Rbs00VE O Daapun is a duo from Assam and the great music from the corners of our country never stop surprising. Siddhartha and Bhargav Hazarika are brothers from Guwahati who have been inspired some great global artists especially John mayer but the more I hear this wonderful track I sense similarities to another band former by brothers who went by the name The Bee Gees. What I love about this track is the level of instrumental programming that has gone into it. It starts off with the guitars and I already hear the Hammond Organ, and even the Trumpet, all within the first 10 seconds. It is a wonderful song with some excellent singing and some worthy programming and production that brings in the Trombone and Saxophone as well. The bass guitars, drums and harmonies add great layers and let us not forget the cool, attitude that the vocals provide. Who wouldn't wanna just sway to this number which has elements of dance/pop and even jazz with all the scat singing in the end. Musicians from Assam sure do kick some Ass. 14. Clouds of Rain https://youtu.be/veEPBLO2hOc This Delhi based singer-songwriter apparently drew inspiration for his music from various great sources like Jimi Hendrix, John Mayer, Eric Clapton and Santana. The music that flows through this track clearly has been influenced by the great works of these geniuses as Varun who resides in Singapore now shines with ever note composed and delivered. He co-produced this track with Bharath Rajeevan who is the man behind the Keys and the bass guitars. Mukul Jain has mixed and mastered the song. The vo

This is the weeks best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 300 tracks released in the week ending 19th September 2021, I have rated and reviewed the 20 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week , without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country.  Find the full playlist of 20 tracks on SPOTIFY 1. Cheppake Cheppake https://youtu.be/RYjsDrNmFrM Haven't I been saying that Telugu music is probably re-scaling a peak of dominance and quality in the last year or so? Well If not, let me state it again with assertion. This took me back many years feeling like listening to a Ilaiyaraja masterpiece, and how much we miss them these days. If you were not brought up in South India, you wont understand what I am talking about. Chaitan Bharadwaj , Kudos to you for creating this weeks best Indian number and Deepthi Parthasarathy is splendid as the lead vocalist. The guitars by Arun Chiluveru are stunning from the get go, and we hear a mild flute also by Ravi Shankar. The strings section is elaborate and it fills your heart with joy and I feel Imam who has conducted the strings deserves a ravishing credit for this. The Violins are played by Sampath, Sastri, Babji, Sasi, Siva, Ramana, Mohan, Murali, Balaji, Balu, Vijay Bhaskar, Balaji, Viola by Sebastin, Baskar, Chandru, Vinaya Kumar, Gopi, Girijan, Hemanth, Anita Francis, Cello by Sekar, Viji and Double Bass by Francis. The intelude is a wonderful symphony with total dominance by Ravi Shankar on the flute. The verse and many instances have a second-line of chorus with female backing vocalists Vasa Pavani, Nemalikonda Manasa, Amrutha Varshini, Abhiikya Tanikella. Its amazing what a wide range Deepthi shows just within the verse itself as we also have SM Subhani handling all the middle eastern instruments that keep playing the layers and in the outro. Chaitan himself does all the keyboard and synth programming, with Hariharan doing the additional tone processing. The mixing and mastering is done by India's leading engineer Shadab Rayeen and assisted by Pukhraj and Milan. Chaitanya Prasad writes the beautiful Telugu lyrics. 2. Dhoore https://youtu.be/u07M5-qJp6E It makes me so happy that there are musicians creating such wonderful pieces with especially with elaborate array of live instruments. The number 2 song this week is from Malayalam and we have two spell-binding singers in the lead in K.S.Harishankar and Nithya Mammen and that itself takes care of 50% of the musical output. Now moving over to the creative side of things Ebin Pallichan is the brains of the song as its composer, programmer and arranger. Francis Xavier stings you with his Violin Solo at the very start and the whole grand show is by Cochin Strings comprising of Harald Antony, Francis Xavier, Carol George on 1st Violins, Josekutty, Francis Sebastian, Biju Panikkaveetil on 2nd violins, Mariadas, Jain MP, Danny on Viola, Albin Jose on Cello and Saju Jose on Double Bass. Josy Alappuzha then lays the mild groundwork for Hari to enchant you with his voice. Biju Annamanada is scintillating on the Veena and Sandeep Venkitesh gets the tempo going with his Tabla and Dholak. The title line is just filled with mystery and keeps you engaged. Nithya does a haunting humming in the intrelude followed by Josy's Flute and Biju's Veena interventions. Sumesh Parameswar keeps playing the bass and acoustic guitars for this one. After a high pitched end to the version, ""etho raavin maaya raagam thannu nee pranayame "" is a fabulous line and landing to reach the Pallavi and you just have to stand up in ovation for KS Harishankar's delivery. The secon interlude has a nice Dholak and Violin combination, and towards the end it feels like listening to ""Kadhalenum Thervezhudhi"" by AR Rahman. Nithin K Cheriyan is the lyricist and Nikhil Kakkochan has done the mixing, mastering and sound design and recording of string orchestra, woodwinds, percussion, guitars and veena. All assistance is provided by Louis Ansal, Mebin Dsilva and Prince George. Dhlolak is recorded by Shiju Ediyatheril and vocals recorded by Akshay Kakkoth and Sai Prakash. 3. Boonda Boondi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMQ6xwFbHbU&feature=youtu.be It is all in his name Meghdeep Bose. His music is like something that soars into the skies and touches the clouds (Megh) , his scores are 'deep' in creativity and finally when you have 'Bose' as your surname , do we have to debate about sound? He has been doing a terrific job in composing some stunning numbers and after creating the best Ganesh Chaturthi song ( Tu Hi Hai was featured on my instagram last week) here he creates a reverberating piece of music set in Miyaan ki Malhaar and Megh Melhaar. The vocals which are the most enthralling component of this number are by Shekhar Ravijani with lyrics by Manoj Yadav. Juhi Mahagaye and Trishita Recs( I'm a fan of her indie music, check her tracks I have featured on my blog) begin with their backup vocals and then it leads to Shekhar's amazing vocals with guitars, bass and strokes by Meghdeep in the background and the joyous percussions begin to take over with the female humming portions. Tejas Vinchurkar plays teh Bansuri to our delight especially the interlude. The Fames Studio Orchestra from North Macedonia is heavily involved in all the live instrumentals conducted by Sasho Tatarchevski with contributions from Laurent Koppitz as the sound engineer, Riste Trajkovski, Ilija Grkovski as stage managers, Teodora Arsovska as the protools engineer. All the strings scores are transcribed Japjisingh Valecha . What I love about the track is how the tune, and arrangements make us visualize the monsoon rains, and the fact that back up vocals are prevalent almost right through the track making the vocal arrangements also sound amazing. 4. Du Chokhe Harai https://youtu.be/F44qMzg6sXU This is a new web series in Bengali and they always never fail to astound you with great content visually and musically. Saswata Das does all the wonderful strings programming but the Esraj, a wonderful Indian string instrument, is played by Tathagata Mishra with design by Sravan Bhattacharyya and Dev Arijit. Ujjaini Mukherjee is at the peak of her powers singing this lullaby of sorts. Sourav Bhattacharya plays the piano with design by Dev Arijit. When the verse begins, there is also this humming in the background helped by the mild guitar strumming(design by Anitesh). Sravan is the composer and he has created a beautiful number here with some stunning live instruments. Ujjaini's magical voice is recorded by Gaurub Roy, with Shamik Guha Roy doing the mastering and mixing. The Esraj is a hugely impactful instrument in this track which is recorded by Avimanyu Chatterjee. Ritam Sen is the lyricist. There are some influences of Raag Gaud Sarang in this track. 5. Holding onto History https://youtu.be/a_0mMrfFi3U This artist took inspiration from Taylor Swift at a very young age and one must applaud Hungama's Artis Aloud which has promoted Krishaa as a singer songwriter with her debut single. Krishaa has written, composed and performed this amazing single which I loved right within the first minute. The superstar guitarist Nyzel Dlima has produced this track. The guitars in the foreground and strings programmed in the background are great accompaniments to Krishaa's vocals which are stunning to say the least. You will enjoy the female harmonies that decorate the track adequately and Nyzel's production stands apart in this track. Krishaa's sings about the deep emotions involved with break-ups and separation especially the ill-treatment, but it is not just the lyrics but the whole score that stays in your head and once its over, you do hold on to the history of listening to the number. Well done team Nyzel and Krishaa.  6. Know Your Hail Mary https://youtu.be/a7OJJ6O-mcA Brecilla Dsouza is a singer-songwriter trained in Jazz Vocals and hails from The True School of Music and she has been a busy musician touring many parts of India with her earlier bands ""My kind of blue"" and ""Queendom"". You can understand the training Brecilla would have obtained and skill that she possesses when you hear her in this track. The harmonies and Keys are important components that accompany the track right through. Pranav Kamat takes the credit for mixing, mastering and producing this number. I love the ""haa hu yee ha ha"" humming in the end with some great vocal interventions in the background. Yohaan Pissurlenker plays the bass guitars. Aafreen Ansari handles the artwork and is the artist manager.  7. Bheemla Nayak https://youtu.be/J5ee5OHIpIY A movie remade will not guarantee success just because the original is a well-made. The same holds true for music as well , and I must say that the title track gives me hope that S Thaman will do a fabulous job to at least match Jakes Bejoy's original. If Kalakkatha was fabulous in 'Ayyapanum Koshiyum' this track goes one step further in its sound quality and overall impact.  We have some established singers in Prudhvi Chandra, Ram Miriyala and Sri  Krishna along with Thaman himself. The woodwinds instruments with the folk music bit is a great start and that gets the job half done. Darsanam Mogulaiah and Alphons Joseph provide the backup vocals. The song has some amazing beats and percussion with Sivamani A on live percussions, and Dipesh Varma and team handling additional percussions and Vedachalam on the wood block.. Omkar Dhumal plays the sax, Shehnai and Oboe and Tapas Roy and Subhani handling the strings section. The song has everything needed to qualify as a great track with some fabulous sounds and make sure you have a great pair of earphones to enjoy all the intricacies. S Thaman has programmed and arranged the track but a lot of credit also goes to the engineering team with Shadab Rayeen mixing and mastering it with assistance from Pukhraj. There are many elements of the brass section as well in the track and the French horns, Brass trumpet and Trombone are recorded by Patric Chinnawaong. All the live violins, violas are recorded by Biju, conducted by Prasanna B and assisted by Ravi Raghav. Ramajogayya Sastry is the lyricist and Sri Krishna has done the vocal supervision. There is no doubt Thaman is talented but honestly this song is a much better display of his abilities compared to a lot of repetitive tunes he scores.  8. Anale Anale https://youtu.be/gW7XpvYfl5I A great composer-singer combination is like having a great crust and a delectable topping together making a delicious pizza. Ghibran is undoubtedly one of the best and the most consistent musicians in the country today and he gets in Haricharan to do the singing honors, Voila great pizza straight off the oven onto your plate! Bon Appetit it is. Gold Devaraj assists Ghibran as usual and Dr. V Sritharan is the supervisor. The Piano is a great addition to Haricharan's serenading vocals and Hary Nair and LJ Vijay provide all additional song arrangements to Ghibrans overall programming and arrangements. The humming "" pumpum pa pa pa"" is so delightful catchy and as expected Ghibran creates beautiful notes in the verse as well especially when the lines go"" aadhalai kadhali seivom naame"". The track is mixed and mastered by Abin Paul with Andria Miranda and Britto David doing the production management. N. Idhaya is the lyricist for this track and it is recorded and edited by Wesley and Chandrasekharan TK.  9. Ammadi https://youtu.be/yQHvaSalDxs Vijai Bulganin, is a trust-worthy name in the indie space and his consistent effort to delivery a popular yet melodious tune every time is note-worthy. He composes and sings this one with Nutana Mohan as the female lead. Lalit Talluri plays the flute like he always does in the interlude along with Subhani on the string instruments. Simeon Telfer is omnipresent on the guitars and also on keyboards and he has wonderful solo on guitars in the second interlude. Vijai is different from many composers that he even today focuses on creating a full-fledged track like the olden days with two stanzas, and two interludes. Nutana does her job as the female vocalist with perfection singing the whole stanza. Sathish Sebastian handles all additional keyboard duties, Robin Sebastian is the Melodyne engineer and Roshan Sebastian has mixed and mastered the track. Deepak Narayanan and Anand Gurrana are the recording engineers and Suresh Banisetti is the lyricist.  10. Mon https://youtu.be/_pSbTUQlOFc He has been on my radar for a year now but this Bengali single did really catch my attention and it is one pleasure ride if you love simple, soulful music. Ayushman Basu creates his 4th single here but his 1st in his native tongue called""Mon"". Mainak Bumpy Nag Chowdhury plays the bass guitars and Raja Chowdhury is on the acoustic guitars. Amit Chatterjee has done the mixing and recording with Arjun and Anu handling all the artwork. There is nothing complicated in the track except that Ayushman sings these beautiful sounding Bangla with great poise and it creates a sense of calmness as you listen. Raja's guitars are splendid as are the bass-lines in the background by Mainak. 11. Gallan Teriyaan https://youtu.be/BLqJ1V7cSmE https://youtu.be/BLqJ1V7cSmE I wish I could call them the ""Merchants of Venice"" , well that is how popular and amazing they are. The brothers Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant are at it again with a superb song, this time not just producing it, but also composing. Jonita Gandhi is a grade-A singer with an impeccable voice, and even better diction in many Indian languages. Raj Pandit who is a close associate of Salim-Sulaiman sings the male parts and also co-produces the track. Muheet Bharti's bass guitars already start playing teasingly and I loved the surprisingly excellent vocals of Raj, and maybe I have never listened to him too much as a singer. There are a lot of techno-sounds that dominate the interlude but Salim-Sulaiman excel at infusing these into their melodies. Listen to the beautiful shift in notes when Jonita sings ""Dil toh aapka bhi rangrez hai"". Amitabh Bhattacharya excels at writing these beautiful lines. The track is mixed and mastered by Aftab Khan. 12. You And I https://youtu.be/m2Q1D7S_MlE Rajiv Khati rightly names this EP ""About time"" as he has been in the process of composing and releasing these for many years. I am just happy it finally released and that is the feeling I got when I heard the EP and this song especially. He writes, composes, plays the guitars and sings this extremely pleasant and enjoyable single. There is a huge resemblance to Jon Bon Jovi in Rajiv's vocal texture and delivery and isn't that enough to fall in love with the track. After the 5 minute mark there is a brief pause, and then there is probably a slight change in the time signature, but the track is equally poignant in the last 2 minutes. 13. Allorode Pillade https://youtu.be/Sza1-EIIwUo Sahithi Chaganti has been on a purple patch, singing some amazing numbers with very renowned musicians. Her vocals have so much oomph that is is impossible to avoid and not get drawn to. Siddharth Watkins is the composer and he has done a fabulous job arranging all these spectacular live instruments. The Violin by Sandilya Pisapati, and rhythms by Chiranjeevi Mothukuri stand out. Pramod Umapathi intervenes on his flute solo delightfully in more than a few instances. Subhani's strings are well timed and they keep charming you in the background layers, watch-out for the 2nd interlude. The track is mixed and mastered by Vinay Kumar, programmed by Geo Jos and the lyrics are by Remix Umesh. 14. Yah Haalaath & Paar Hoga Tu https://youtu.be/LmAK2NYwnVE The series has created a wave with very strong reviews and I am glad Ahuthosh Phatak has excelled at creating some spectacular music at-least in the songs. Ill have to watch the series to know how good the BGM is. Ashutosh also plays the keyboard, electronics as well as bass and acoustic guitars. I especially loved 'Yeh Haalaath' which reminded me of ""Lady in Red"" by Chris De Burgh, and 'Par Hoga Tu'. Jubin Nautiyal who is probably the busiest singer in Indian today does a remarkable job singing 'Yeh Haalaath' with lyrics by Niranjan Iyengar. It is a serene, somber number which you feel like listening to staring at th