Best of Indian Music weekly- 31st October 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 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
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
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
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 thittam� 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
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
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
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
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
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 “Pehra�. 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
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 “Akela� 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 “Frozen�. 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
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
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
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 Peace� composed by AR Rahman and sung by the great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
13. Cold Cold Night
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 Grey�. 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 the background which are exceptionally programmed and Rahul Narayan and Subhajit Pandit assist in the mixing. The whistle along with the guitars is wonderful to hear in the end.
14. Safar
Mayank Arya single-handedly smashes this one out of the park and I have been thoroughly enjoying this single for various reasons. He sings, composes, writes, arranged and plays the guitars and Keys for this track which for some reason reminds me of the band Fleetwood Mac especially with the guitars and rhythm, and in fact I feel like I am listening to “You can go your own way�. Mayank has got a very delectable voice with a tinge of an American accent while singing Hindi and thankfully that doesn’t sound bad at all and maybe after the mid-way point he comfortably starts singing in English. The drums by Parth Malhotra and high-paced strumming of guitars definitely steal the show for me. The track is produced, mixed and mastered by Jason Dsouza.
15. Madhuram
Sruthi Dhulipala is an engaging singer-songwriter based in the US and her song covers are quite impressive with the rare original releases too. This one called Madhuram was an instant hit in my mind. This is a semi-classical fusion number which takes inspiration from “Madhurashtakam,â€? a composition devoted to Lord Krishna describing his qualities and how sweet each of them is. The original hymn ""MadhurÄ?á¹£á¹akam"" was written by Sri Vallabhacarya, and Sruthi after massive amounts of research could hardly find any versions or re-arranged renditions at all. This is what led her into creating this wonderful piece with English additions in this song and this is written by Sruthi herself. She also lent her voice and made the arrangements for the unique fusion. The enchanting flute is played by Sruthi Balamurali, and according to Dhulipala, there are many ragas this one is based, including Khamaj. I however could sense some Behaag especially since the song reminded me of “Malargal Kettenâ€? by AR Rahman and sung by KS Chitra. The Keys are played by Bagwat Krishnan, but the flute solo in the background is simply stunning, especially when Dhulipala creatively adds English lines. Let us not forget, how beautiful Dhulipala sounds when she delivers the original lines. The track is mixed and mastered by Justin Crichfield and produced by Shibin Crisby. Nirmala Jadoonanan edits the video with the dance by Sneha Yarabati.
Author
I write album and song reviews of Tamil music every month for Behindwoods. You can also call me a sports nut, especially football, and I used to write articles on sportskeeda.com. I am a die-hard Argentina football fan and have travelled to South Africa and Russia to witness the FIFA world cup games. It is not just music, I love movies as well and you will find me quoting dialogues and moments from a lot of movies, as I believe every movie teaches me something new about life itself.