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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.