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

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.