Indian Musicians Revive Album Culture With New Releases, EPs & Expanding Collaborations

The first fortnight of May has seen the release of some much-awaited albums. Indie artiste and percussionist Karsh Kale, who played some new tracks at the Lollapalooza festival in Mumbai in January, is finally out with his new release Dust. Then there is the album Raanjha using Sufi and folk music with Israeli musician Shye Ben Tsur, rock band Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and folk ensemble Rajasthan Expesss. Finally, Indus Creed’s vocalist Uday Benegal has come out with his five-song EP Human Be.

What’s heartening is the tendency of musicians to release albums and EPs, rather than just put out singles, as has been the common practice over the past seven or eight years. Of course, the use of the term EP, short for extended play, is weird, as it essentially refers to a physical vinyl record which was shorter in length than the standard LP, or long-play record. In the streaming era, EP is used whenever the artiste releases four or five songs as against longer ‘albums’, but there is no standard rule. Instead of classifying them by length or number of songs, it would make more sense to just say ‘album’.

In the west, the concept of releasing full-length albums is still common. Every Friday, there are 15 or 20 new releases. An album is a good indicator of the artiste’s style, and reflects his thought process in creating a set of songs. Of course, singles are easier and more economical to produce, but in India, there has been a clutter of new releases, with many songs getting lost.

Having said that, there has been a rise in the number of albums (including EPs) over the past few months. Even last year, there were some good releases like Pankh, the indie album of Kaushiki Chakraborty and Shantanu Moitra, Delhi-based Anirudh Varma Collective’s Sabr and Ahmedabad group aswekeepsearching’s Kyun?, among others.

One fabulous album this year is Delhi electronica duo Midival Punditz’ Love and Machines. The brainchild of Gaurav Raina and Tapan Raj, the Punditz have been pioneers in a genre that blends electronic music with Indian elements. The new album features well-known artistes Shubha Mudgal, Malini Awasthi and Papon, besides upcoming talent like Shruti Pathak, Hansika Pareek and Vishal Vaid. Folk music from different regions like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Punjab is used effectively.

Talking of collaborations, British musician Damon Albarn’s virtual band Gorillaz uses many Indian musicians on its new album The Mountain. While Asha Bhosle sang the song The Shadowy Light, other numbers feature vocalist Asha Puthli, sitar player Anoushka Shankar, sarod brothers Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, and flautist Ajay Prasanna. Though sounds from other global regions are used, Indian music is quite prominent here. Even Karsh’s new album Dust has its share of collabs – with keyboardist Salim Merchant, flautist Ajay Prasanna, sitar player Purbayan Chatterjee, sarod player Alam Khan and singers Pavithra Chari, Komorebi and Ankur Tewari. On his Parvana, Delhi singer-songwriter and producer Char Diwaari does songs with Sonu Nigam, Indian Ocean, upcoming singer Gini, playback singer Sanjith Hegde and hip-hop duo Seedhe Maut’s Encore APJ.

On the ghazal front, senior artiste Hariharan has released Jaan Meri. From the title track to Bas Mere Khwab and Baat Se Baat, he is in fine form, making this a must for followers of this form. In the same genre, Sudeep Banerji has released Dilkash. Releases in other styles include electronica artiste Dolorblind’s No Signal, kirtan exponent Radhika Das’s Lightfall, Indo-Swiss pop singer BombayMami’s Peaceful Attitude, Los Angeles singer Malvika’s online/ irl, Mumbai pianist Brite Roy’s instrumental album From Shadow To Sky and American pianist Chad Lawson’s meditative Awakening: The Stillness Within, featuring Purbayan on sitar and Rasika Shekhar on flute.

Obviously there has been a resurgence in the album trend, with some interesting collaborations. Of course there’s no point just releasing albums, and one hopes artistes do enough promotional tours to back the launches. One can take a cue from the Kaushiki-Shantanu album Pankh, which had shows all over India, popularising each song.