We could start off with some generic, overused comment about how to sum up a year like 2014, but if anyone has to do justice to writing about the freshest new music from the Indian scene, there’s no point using clichés.
While the year included releases from established bands such as Soulmate, with their energetic, moody blues on Ten Stories Up , The Raghu Dixit Project and his enchanting folk trip that was Jag Changa and metallers like Demonic Resurrection, Scribe and Bhayanak Maut turning it up a notch with their own albums, here’s a roundup of newer artists who made a mark, along with a few releases from 2014 that deserve more listeners.
Hoirong
What’s there to say about noise rock, lo-fi and still kinda-post-rock that hasn’t already been said by every music journalist before? This Delhi/Bangalore quartet, which started out as the solo project of guitarist Kamal Singh (formerly of Lounge Piranha), has been a prolific bunch. Hoirong has one EP ( Nursery Lies ), their second full-length album ( Dandaniya Apraadh ) and a handful of singles to their name in 2014 that’s made them the darling of hipsters and music critics alike.
Madboy/Mink
Vocalist Saba Azad and guitarist/synth player Imaad Shah released their debut EP All Ball in April 2014, and when they did their multi-city tours it felt (at one point) that you would be sated if you just watched them once. The repeat value for watching the duo perform the same tricks, rehearse the same lines (and in Azad’s case, the same dance moves) was putting them in danger, but once they started playing new material and added a live drummer and bassist, they have live energy that makes us look forward to their next release.
Faridkot
When Delhi pop rock band Faridkot’s vocalist IP Singh sang ‘Laila’ on their 2011 album Ek , anyone could have seen them fitting into a Bollywood soundtrack. But after a few years in the dark, Faridkot returned with new members and with their psychedelic rollercoaster that was Phir Se? Cheekily titled, Faridkot took the experimental route with their second album, adding harmonies like never before. They didn’t exactly trade in love songs for poetry about inner and outer space exploration, but they proved there was space for both in Hindi rock.
Parvaaz
If they didn’t have the most ardent fan-following in Bangalore, they wouldn’t have crowdfunded their debut album Baran successfully, but that backing isn’t just what makes Parvaaz amazing.
They take influence from the likes of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and make it sound incomparable at some level, with lyrics in Urdu and Kashmiri that you wish you had a transcription to. Baran was epic, progressive rock sculpted at its best.
Lifafa
Delhi “chudail-step” artist Suryakant Sawhney clearly doesn’t care about categorising music, which is why his second release, the four-track EP In Hi Ko , is a mind-expanding trip. Sawhney uses his synth, his skills as a producer and best of all, his mesmeric voice that sounds like a yesteryear Bollywood serenade artist, to take us deep into his somewhat dark world of twisted disco-meets-electronica.
The Ganesh Talkies
Bappi Lahiri might be well into politics at the moment, but if he took the time to look into his state’s greatest new band, he’d know he has done his job inspiring people. The Kolkata pop rock band takes on Bollywood disco and mashes it with punk, rock and pop on their debut album In Technicolor . The band sings about kitsch (much like their own loud-coloured stage fashion), falling in love and best of all, how to fight for your rights.
The Down Troddence
According to calculations, Bengaluru-based folk metal monsters The Down Troddence released their debut album How Are You? We Are Fine, Thank You on the first day of 2014. Regardless of that, the band cast their net far and wide in 2014, playing across the country, telling people to ‘Muck Fun Mohan’, reminding us of ‘Forgotten Martyrs’ from revolts and crunching the best grooves of the year on ‘Nagavalli’. Don’t be surprised if TDT’s net gets cast overseas in the coming year — their music needs all the listeners it can get.
