By Surangya Kaur
A considerable chunk of our population is veering away from Hindi music and switching to English tracks instead. The reason behind this is very simple. Music for Bollywood dominates the Indian music scene. And the kind of Bollywood music being produced today can set anyone’s heart off it. Crass sounds, obscene lyrics, schlocky compositions, all combined can get pretty depressing indeed.
Due to lack of good choices, contemporary Hindi music had slowly started diminishing from my playlist and had almost completely disappeared until a few weeks ago, when I came across this website, Soundcloud. Now a lot of you will already be familiar with it but I know a lot aren’t. And even if they are, they are still using it to listen to popular artists instead of exploring the wide array of new, upcoming musicians.
Soundcloud is a platform through which anyone can release their music. If you select a track to listen to, it generates a whole playlist for you with songs having similar sounds by artists with similar origins. I happened to bump into one such artist and that led me to a myriad of musicians creating Indian indie music, still not getting the kind of recognition they deserve.
Here’s a shout out to some of those artists who have generated some truly soul-stirring compositions:
1. Shankar Tucker: Although English, this guy is a connoisseur of the clarinet and his music has the sounds parallel to that of classical music. He has done covers of old ghazals, many of which may sound better than the originals to us. Some of his best songs and instrumentals:
- Piya ft. Shriram Iyer
- Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo ft. Rohini Ravada
- Lemongrass
- Kinara ft. Mughda Hasabnis
2. Yatin Srivastava: A 19-year old musician fascinating with his guitar. His songs are of top notch quality, enough for him to be getting a record deal of his own. Let’s hope that happens soon!
- Unexplained ft. Takar Nabam
- Home ft. Pranav Pahwa
- Feared
- Fascination
3. Utkarsh Varma: He’s another youngster who is mean with his guitar. His instrumentals can hold one in a trance like state.
- Dream
- When she smiles
- Belle
- Struck
Other musicians you should keep an ear out for: Ram Lakhan, Purple Elephants, Illusionaudio, Shaurye Chavravarty, Pratul Tandon, etc.
These are the smallest fractions of the people with their hearts set on bringing about a revolution in the face of Indian music. All they need is our support!
Do mention your favorite Soundclouders in the comments!
