Indian Music

Chennai Express is coming soon on bollywood platform :-) One more superhit by SRK and Deeps after 'Om Shanti Om' http://dhin.ag/11PjmX1?

A supergroup consisting of #MickJagger, #JossStone, #DaveStewart, A.R. Rahman , and Damian Marley!! Check out #SuperHeavy now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTF7T1Nw5OU

"Here I come, I like your face, do you like my song?" Like it? Just sing it…. Lalalalalalala! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPKG1-3LXBs

The Indiecision Five at 5 is your one-click stop to check out great music curated by NH7.in’s editorial staff and users. This time around, music agent extraordinaire Debayan Deb brings you back the rock you’ve been missing in this edition of Five at 5. 1. Moby and Mark Lanegan – ‘The Lonely Night’ Honestly, I never saw this coming. One of my favorite vocalists collaborated with one of my favorite DJs. This one-off single was released on Record Store Day. Husky vocals of Lanegan with Moby’s slightly opera-like electronica drives this one home. 2.  Arctic Monkeys – ‘Do I Want To Know?’ Arctic Monkeys just dropped this today! There was never any doubt about Alex Turner’s songwriting skills, but I tell you what with every new song and every new album it keeps getting better. 3. Queens Of The Stone Age – ‘Sick Sick Sick’ I have to admit I have been revisiting a lot of the older material of QOTSA, at least post the release of …Like Clockwork. This song really does it for me. Sick riffs, sick song, sick video. 4. Swarathma and Dualist Inquiry – ‘Naane Daari (Dualist Inquiry Remix)’ Folk Fusion from Bangalore with dubstep from New Delhi, how about that? The violin intro leading to the bassdrop is what makes you listen to this track over and over again. 5. The Pixies – ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’ Kim Deal left The Pixies, however their music will never ever get old. Check out previous editions of the Indiecision Five at 5 here.

There’s a lot happening in the world of Indian indie music and culture every day. Here’s our pick of the daily news, served up in one handy spot. This is your Quick Fix. Sharik Hasan’s New York Quartet India tour announced Jazz pianist/composer Sharik Hasan is set to embark upon an eight-city tour of the country, beginning today. Hasan will be touring with his band, which was formed in the Manhattan School of Music. The jazz quartet comprises Raviv Markowitz on double bass, Philippe Lemm on drums and Adam Larson on the saxophone. The tour will be supported by the newly-established True School of Music, which has a strategic partnership with the Manhattan School of Music. Check out tour dates below. June 19 – NCPA, Mumbai June 20 – Shisha Café, Pune June 22 and June 23 – Windmills Craftworks, Bangalore June 25 – ‘Music Works‘, Blue Frog, Mumbai June 28 – Princeton Club, Kolkata June 29 – Calcutta School of Music Workshop, Kolkata July 1 – Lamkaan Workshop, Hyderabad July 2 – Western Music Foundation and The Marriott Hotel, Hyderabad July 3 – US Consulate, Chennai July 5 – The BFlat Bar, Bangalore July 6 – Heritage Jazz, Goa July 13 – Coctails and Dreams Speakeasy, New Delhi TBD, July – Blue Frog, New Delhi Sound Avatar to play Boiler Bar Thursday Mumbai’s weekly electronica night, Boiler Bar Thursday, is now a regular fixture at Chez Moi, Oshiwara. Next week’s edition, which takes place on June 27, will host Mumbai drum ‘n’ bass producer Sound Avtar. The night will also feature a set by Fuzzy Logic, the solo electronica project of Slow Down Clown dummer Arfaaz Kagalwala. The gig kicks off at 9pm, and the entry charge of Rs 300 includes one drink. Sound Avtar recently played an opening set at Oji’s Escalate gig in Mumbai (pics), stream that set below. GMI Sessions performance video released The Global Music Institute, Delhi, recently celebrated its second anniversary with a concert on June 13. The concert saw performances by pianist Sharik Hasan, Tarun and Aditya Balani (of Adi Suhail Tarun, Tarun Balani Collective and Aditya Balani Group), and Advaita vocalist Chayan Adhikari, along with other Delhi musicians and some special guests. The institute has released a live video from the concert, with a performance of ‘Belief’ by the Tarun Balani Collective. Check it out below. That’s all the news for today. Stay tuned for more daily editions of the Quick Fix.

The independent music scene is indeed a small community in relation to the much larger Indian music industry, but it’s still difficult to get noticed. For scenesters, it’s always difficult to find the freshest and newest acts but every year around September, one compilation serves as a barometer for some of the best indie music. Stupid Ditties, the annual Indian indie “un-metal” compilation, is a project that has been taken up with great enthusiasm by veteran scenester Rishu Singh. The first mixtape/compilation that Singh created was We Are The Scene, which focused mostly on Indian metal, back in 2004. After just two editions of the compilation, Singh decided against putting out We Are The Scene because other metal compilations had started to make the rounds and this is how Stupid Ditties came about. Putting together the best non-metal indie music soon became an annual ritual for Singh (who has professed his great affection for creating mixtapes in our zine article here) and over the years has kept up his perennial quest for hunting down and compiling the year’s indie music. Music journalist and Mumbai Boss editor, Amit Gurbaxani spoke in glowing terms about Singh’s compilation especially when it comes to exposing people to new acts, “Stupid Ditties was and is hugely important both to the bands and the fans of the Indian indie scene. Like the Great Indian Rock series of compilations, the Stupid Ditties sets, which started in the days before Facebook and Bandcamp became ubiquitous promotional tools, helped bands from across the country reach out an audience they may not have been able to reach on their own. Today, even though it’s not hard to find the music, the compilation works as a helpful curator of the new ‘un-metal’ music out there. Personally, the series has introduced me to the music of Adam and the Fish Eyed Poets, The Lightyears Explode! and Blek, bands that I now count on list of my favourites.” Six Stupid Ditties compilations have been released and the diversity of the music on the playlist makes each of these compilations unique and diverse in their own right. Artists try to get onto the compilation and send Singh their music in the hopes of making the grade. This has always been the case according to Sky Rabbit frontman Raxit Tewari, who says that artists would go out of their way to get included onto the compilation, “Stupid Ditties back then was one of few compilations people recorded singles for. Today, it has become this exhaustive, democratic being where one finds some really fresh, alternative sounds. Some of these tracks come from towns that many artists haven’t even performed in.” This is a sentiment echoed by Blek frontman Rishi Bradoo, “For me, Stupid Ditties was a launch pad. Every year, there are brand new bands and for any of them to make it onto Stupid Ditties is definitely a breakthrough. Rishu has a really heavy DIY ethic and he genuinely believes in giving away this music to everybody he could. That’s why I’ve seen these CDs in some of the weirdest places and that’s also why I think it’s a reasonable way for new bands to break into the scene.” Stupid Ditties 666 was last year’s compilation. In so many ways, the compilation is a representation of the state of the indie music scene in India with tracks from new releases making it to the final playlist. Stupid Ditties 7 is going to be no different and from what we understand it’s going to be called Lucky 7 – Stupid Ditties. We spoke to Rishu Singh who told us more about why he chose this title and what expects from the next edition. “I’m expecting it to be beautiful and wonderful. I think what’s going to effect it this time is that I don’t have a job this time around and so I can put some more time in it! Mira Malhotra is doing the art this time around which I’m very excited about. It&

After the massive hit single, Blurred Lines, Robin Thicke is due to release his album on July 15. Don't miss out, pre-order now https://itunes.apple.com/in/album/blurred-lines-feat.-t.i.-pharrell/id621101249?ls=1&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Rare Pic: ANR with Nagarjuna and Sushanth's mother Naga Susheela

Following highly successful seasons in Pakistan, Coca Cola’s critically acclaimed music property finally came to India in 2011. Dubbed Coke Studio@MTV, the Indian edition’s first season saw ex-Colonial Cousin Lesle Lewis take on the role of producer and mentor for over 30 artists. Season two of the show saw eight producers create music for an episode each, and resulted in some stunning material. The season saw episodes that featured Amit Trivedi, Nitin Sawhney, Clinton Cerejo, Shantanu Moitra, Eshaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa, Karsh Kale and Hitesh Sonik (read our episode-specific interviews with each producer here). Now, the franchise is back for a third season which will start airing this August. “For Coke Studio, we discussed what would be the theme for season two and we came up with two words that came up very strongly – celebrating diversity, and celebrating originality. We wanted a different sound, where Coke Studio is the sound of India which is a variety of sounds. Then, we needed to go to people who had different interpretations of what the Coke Studio sound meant to them. Therefore, the idea to have multiple producers.” Aditya Swamy, EVP & Business Head of MTV India, who conceived season two, told us last year. “The filter was about people who are known to experiment, who have dabbled in diverse kinds of music. For example, the fact that Clinton (Cerejo) had started doing gospel music, then did ad films and then Bollywood and Tamil films, that to me was the exciting part about why we chose Clinton, not just because he’s a great producer. The fact that Karsh (Kale) is known for Table Beat Science and then the DJ circuit with electronic music makes Karsh an interesting proposition for me. The fact that Amit Trivedi is the next wave of sound today in Indian cinema – like what Rahman had brought in the mid ’80s, and he had a signature sound for Indian film music. Today’s modern, edgy film sound is actually Amit Trivedi,” he said about his choice of producers for season two. Watch a performance of ‘Madari’, produced by Clinton Cerejo for season two, below. This year, the show, which is scheduled to start airing in August, follows the same format with eight producers each producing original music for an episode of the season. While Clinton Cerejo, Hitesh Sonik and Amit Trivedi will return to Coke Studio@MTV for Season 3, the 2013 edition also features some of the country’s best producers including Papon, who has been a featured musician on both seasons of the show before, Bollywood composer duo Salim-Sulaiman, Mumbai ad and film music producer Ram Sampath, and, undoubtedly one of the country’s best musical talents, AR Rahman. Each producer working on the show brings radically different visions and sounds to the table. For example, on season two, Clinton Cerejo strived to create something different from the material he’s normally known for in the advertising and film realm, while Amit Trivedi used Punjabi and Rajasthani folk elements to bring out, as he explained to us, the “crux of the country”. This year too, we can hope to see some interesting collaborations, with each producer pushing the boundaries in terms of the artists they choose and the music they create for the show. Each episode also sees performances by artists curated by the producer, and season two saw the likes of Harshdeep Kaur, Swanand Kirkire, Piyush Mishra, Vishal Dadlani and Benny Dayal, among others, perform on various episodes of the show. The last episode of the season is a multi-producer medley, and features six upcoming artists from around the country. Last year, Bangalore Carnatic rock act Agam, Hari and Sukhmani and Papon were among those featured on the season finale. The finale of season three will also be a multi-producer episode, with six young artists working together to create original music for the show. This year, Coke Studio@MTV also teamed up with Blue Frog fo

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