Week on Week: The VICE India Year-End Mixtape

Attempting to keep up with new releases is exhausting. And the never-ending quest to discover an act before they hit >1000 plays on Bandcamp is all but rewarding. Having given up full time music writing a little while ago, more often than not I find myself feeling a mix of FOMO and IDGAF about new, local music while compiling my Spotify playlists. With this feature, we (that is, I) aim to put together a weekly mixtape with inputs from VICE India staffers and friends, without being judgemental assholes.

And this week, I’ve put together a mix from people who are in the know of the music scene in India. Their reccos are our fave tunes from 2018.

“Living in Bangalore and not ‘looking’ like a person who speaks Kannada, it always surprises me when I find some South Indians who seem to have begrudgingly learned Hindi just to communicate with ‘North Indians’. Listening to "Hindi" by former Live Banned madman Amrit Rao and his new prog band The Madrascals was fun like that. Come for the riffs, stay for that hilarious gibberish in the end, which includes a tribute to Scribe and Dear Leader.”
—Anurag Tagat, freelance music journalist and Level 39 trainer on Pokemon Go

“It’s weird how wired I get every time I hear “Vekhi Ja”. The thing is, I don’t understand Punjabi beyond the odd word here or there (please don’t tell my family), so I have absolutely no idea what Prabh Deep is rapping about. I can roughly make out the intention, but I’ll fail any paper I may be asked to write about the lyrics. But the song is such a kick in the head that I can’t help but get pumped (the fuck) up.

It seems to start abruptly, almost like I—the listener—am intruding; like they’re already mid-song. The whole song has a sinister air—a relentless groove by Sez On The Beat ditches any melodic support, creating a drilling atmosphere for the vocals. And that’s really where the song comes to life. Prabh Deep, one of the most gifted voices in contemporary Indian hip hop, sounds like he’s been gargling rocks on “Vekhi Ja”; he raps with a ridiculous amount of purpose, a self-assured confidence coming through in each syllable. It’s menacing in all the best kinds of ways.”
—Akhil Sood, freelance culture journalist and guitar player for Hoirong, aka freedrone

“My pick for 2018 is “Juicy Cup” by the world-famous duo from Kumaon: IJA. I'm a rock ’n’ roll purist (at my best) but this single stood out for me. It's bouncy, fun and frikkin' lushhh. Also, I love how I can't tell if it's the sound of future or the past! I hope y'all diggit too.”
— Meg D'Souza, Creative, fashion & music writer, and Fool Player with The Underknowns

“Raghav Meattle has been doing a fine job of winning over pop skeptics lately, thanks to his comforting melodies and nimble songwriting. “Better Than It All” is the first single off the Mumbai singer-songwriter's debut album Songs From A Matchbox and it serves as a perfect introduction to his artistry and personality. When Meattle croons “I am not hoping for some miracle/I'm better than it all,” he could well be pointing to the tattered indie scene today. Gloriously hustling through an album tour and a successful crowdfunding campaign this year, Meattle's giddy idealism is perhaps what the scene urgently needs right now.”
—Nirmika Singh, Editor of Rolling Stone India and the one who understands the-hustle-is-real like noone else does

“‘Fuck these kids’ was the thought running through my mind as I watched young Debo Sanyal perform at a rooftop bar in Mumbai earlier this year. Performing under the moniker Dreamhour, Sanyal played a thrilling sundowner set of shimmering electro-pop to about 18 interested patrons (my current favourite kind of gig), and took a fat, MIDI-controller-sized dump on my admittedly lazy-ass theory that nothing interesting is happening in Indian electronic music outside of techno and whatever Rahul Giri is arsed to put out. Growing older in the music scene is all about medicine; take the red pill and become a jaded ‘dinosaur of rock’, or take the blue pill and become someone who mistrusts any young people who have talent you could never have. Fresh-faced Sanyal, still years away from the inevitable prescription, then promptly dropped his album VLLNS and what he left out in vowels, as legions of so-called Gen-Zs are mistakenly wont to do, he more than made up for with this would-be soundtrack for an '80s fantasy-horror-thriller flick. “Shobdohin” is just the track I've gone back to the most this year, but the album is full of standouts and if you haven't heard it already, listen to it now and embark on an interstellar journey inside Sanyal's Delorean-battling Bollywood baddies and somehow also the Master Control Program from Tron. But also feel fucking miserable.”
—Arjun S Ravi, writer/director of Standing By , and my first boss-friend-life coach

“I love the way they have used new tunes and sounds from a dark space. The album cover art is beautiful, and it suggests a shaman giving out the same drink to all surrounding a sacred ceremony. To me, it suggests a beautiful harmony and connection within the people—like everybody moving towards the same win, on the same path.”
—Tanvi Gupta, co-founder of Nariyal Paani and the one to discover the most kickass party venues

“For most other years, I’ve looked hard and really racked my brains to find a guitar-led rock song to make my recco, be it for the song of the year, or album. While this year has thrown up pretty interesting acts from across the country—some new, some finding a breakthrough, some just a couple of releases away from mainstream attention—hip-hop has just been everywhere. This Tre Ess joint features half a dozen rappers from across the country and presents a range of talent that is spitting in English and vernacular languages. Be it Cizzy’s muffled Bengali spitting, Tienas’ scream for attention or Gravity’s confident AF verse—this track is an excellent showcase of what’s going down in the underground, outside of gully rap’s moment, and should give us hope for more producers, and a constantly evolving scene outside of beer brands, sneakers and Bollywood movies. Keep it comin’, Tre Ess.”
—Naman Saraiya, Producer and really-trying-to-take-some-time-off

Check out our previous editions here.