Rock Street Journal

Remembering Amit Saigal - Founder, Rock Street Journal

Great Songs/Singles 2023: Part 3/3
We're ending our list of interesting songs and singles released this year in Indian indie with this set of 9 tracks - please enjoy! Without further ado:

- Jogiya
- Maryanne
- Nargisii and - Ghum
and - No Escape
- Faltu Advice
and .c - Garaj
- Uncertainty
and - Jhalleyaa

#2023

Great Songs/Singles 2023: Part 2
We did part 1 of our year-end list of great singles yesterday, and we’re doing another today. Looking back on this year is always an interesting experience because we do forget just how much was new; mostly because it seems like January was a whole decade ago. Don’t believe us? Google “movies and tv shows released January 2023” and see what you find.

Anyhow, here are 9 more singles we enjoyed, and we hope you will give them a listen too if you haven’t already. Read more at the link in bio.

- Blue Sweatshirto - Breezing Through
and .sahni - If I Could Fly
Umi ( and ) - Falguniind - Lacuna
- There's Something There
*tamengi7 - Noor
- Ordinary
- Fly (feat. )

#2023

Great Songs/Singles 2023: Part 1
The number of great songs/singles released this year is very high, so we’re going to split our list into at least 3 parts if not more. By the way, fun fact of the day: a song is called a ‘single’ when it’s released on its own; the term comes from when music used to be released on wax cylinders and only a few minutes of music could fit on one of them.

We’re going to talk about 9 songs or singles in each list, and we’ll do one a day.

Let’s get into it, shall we? Read more at the link in bio.

- Waking Reverie
- Letters To Christchurch
- Homebound
- Aracadestep
- Wild Wild Women
- 2006
- Indigo
- wyd tonight?
- figure it out

Written by
#2023

Through The Cracks: 9 Honorable Mentions 2023
One thing you can’t ignore about Indian indie these days is the sheer volume of its output. We have listened to hundreds of releases this year, if not more; not all of them have landed on a feature or a review here at RSJ for a variety of reasons (taste, feeling, time and many more). But a piece of music not always being our speed does NOT mean it should not be highlighted. We are all different kinds of listeners, and there’s a lot of stuff we didn't cover that you might enjoy. So let’s do you all a solid and briefly talk about 9 releases that we didn't end up featuring. Until now, that is. Read more at the link in bio.

- The Iceberg
- Save The Living
x - Growing Up
- Differences
- Kill The Parasitemusic - The Fall
- Entammo!
- limbo
- Yearrning feat.

Written by
#2023

10 Great Albums/EPs That Came Out In 2023
Contrary to the popular belief that one-minute shortform content would completely ruin attention spans and listening habits forever, Indian indie has resolutely stuck out its bottom lip and made EPs or albums all year anyway. And they've been good at it. Read more at the link in bio.

- Thinking Ahead Of Time
- The Story Of Jonah Stone
- Sidelines
- yaqeen (raw/unplugged)music.official - Manic Mode
- Anxious Attachment
- From These Cracks A Flower Grew
- Dancing In The Dark
- SOVEREIGN
- Ember

#2023

RSJ Wrap-Up Week 2023
Let’s make this simple, shall we? Over the next seven days, from the 25th of December to the 31st of December (better known as Christmas and New Year’s Eve), we are going to recap a surprisingly strange year in Indian independent music. We’ll be doing lists of our favourite albums, singles and so on; we will also do lists of what you might want to listen to in the winter or in the rain or at a house party or on a road trip or at the airport, and more. What!? Read more at the link in bio.

Shashaa Tirupati, Vayu And Elephant Gym Team Up For One Of The Coolest Collabs Ever


If ‘Jhalleyaa’ doesn’t convince you of the fact that we live in a good timeline, nothing will. Just look at the artists involved on this song – is essentially a highly talented vocalist/multi-instrumentalist who’s done film work and is doing indie music too, is a highly talented lyricist who has also done work on lots of mainstream Indian popular music, and is THE Taiwanese math-rock band that has attained close to legendary status in the genre at this point. And yes, they’ve made a song together. And it’s a good one. What!? Read the full review at the link in bio.

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Kolkata Artist Mezzanine Bay Goes For A Space-y Rock Jam With 'Inarticulate Ro'
makes music under a project called Mezzanine Bay. On his debut single, he goes the route many artists went not too long ago; the synth-heavy and psychedelic world of Tame Impala-ish rock music. Do y’all remember that craze? Boxy drums, an entire guitar store’s worth of flangers and modulation pedals, and vocals that were semi-buried in a dense, swirling mix? That sound migrated to hip-hop, but ‘Inarticulate Ro’ stays squarely in the rock realm, and happily so. Read the full review at the link in bio.

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Speaking To A Rapper Named Vish
Reality shows about music are a bit odd because of the idea of ‘suspension of disbelief’, and this is also why they work as well as they do. Are these stories true? Are they manufactured? So, when a genuinely wholesome story does turn up, it’s fulfilling in a very real sense.

One of these regards .worldd , a rapper from Gangtok currently on 03 REPRESENT. He happens to have a speech impediment (and hopefully we have stopped harping on this as an empathetic society), but it completely disappears when he starts rapping. There couldn’t be a better advertisement for the power music has to change a person, so we decided to get to know him better. Turns out he’s both nice and talented, and of course, that comes from the inside. Read the full interview at the link in bio.

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Mumbai Metal Artist Apocryphal Djents It Up On 'Drown Under'
Modern-day progressive metal and its subgenres have gone from what used to be some of the more experimental types of heavy music to some of the least. But that’s not a bad thing; there is a difference between being ‘formulaic’ and being ‘solid’ or ‘reliable’. Mumbai’s Karan Sanchala (whose solo project is called ) plays by the rules on his single ‘Drown Under’, a collaboration between himself and fellow artists and . The result is simply… a good, nicely written song. Read the full review at the link in bio.

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Tarini's Excellent Debut EP 'From These Cracks A Flower Grew' Is A Keeper


There’s a quality to Chennai singer-songwriter that makes her stand out; she’s a hell of a writer. This is on display on every song of her debut EP ‘From These Cracks A Flower Grew’, a release that does nothing wildly innovative but ends up being a wonderful listen anyway. In a way, this is every bit as impressive as acoustic indie music that takes risks.

And that’s because getting the basics absolutely right and experimenting with the form often yield equal results. In fact, the former might even work out more often. Read the full review at the link in bio.

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Queendom Talk Music, Performing Live, Their Sound And More
have been up to interesting things over the last months (and years, actually). They are vocal-driven (as everyone will know), but it's the way they use their voices that makes them so interesting; it’s layered, multi-genre, and highly varied. You will hear everything from jazz inspirations to Indian popular music to electronic textures in their music. And to hear said music, you might have been in Pune earlier this month where the duo (technically a trio consisting of Brecilla D’Souza, Damini Gautam and Ananya Sharma, but Ananya is out of the country right now) played a set at the festival. So, we thought we would ask them about it. And themselves, of course. Read the full interview at the link in bio.

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Riddhi Vikamshi's 'Suno Morey Mohan' Successfully Adds To What Is Fast Becoming A Fusion-Pop Tradition
Fusion music with Indian elements has its own long story, of course. From Alice Coltrane to Shakti to Goa trance, the idea of putting the musical traditions of India and, well, the West together and seeing what happens is nothing new. Even if you ignore the fusion movement as a genre, the overall idea of including Indian classical (and non-classical) music in Western structures is not remotely new. Forget Zeppelin and The Beatles; Indian music has been sampled in hip-hop for years and years now.

Nagpur’s approaches this idea from the opposite angle, which is to combine classically Indian-centric melodies with elements of Western popular music. Indian artists are doing this a lot these days, and ‘Suno Morey Mohan’ proves, yet again, that it works. Read more at the link in bio.

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Mizoram Beatmaker Yugi Jumps Into The Production Scene With His Beat Tape '23.73, 92.71 Kan Inah'
There’s a massive stream of new music in these times; be it hip-hop albums, indie mixtapes, or compilations of beats; every day, an endless set of tracks is put out onto the ever-moving conveyor belt of consumerism. A key to being recognized in this rat race is adding elements that stick out not only for being a beautiful piece of art but also something unique.
A great example of this a new release from , a 15-track beat tape. Its name is quite literally his location (no, not his IP address) - “23.73, 92.71” are the geographical coordinates of his room in Aizawl, and “Kan Inah” translated to English from the Mizo language is "my room." But that’s not the only well-engineered thing to be found here. Read the full review at the link in bio.

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Avyay And Perp Go Well Together On Their Delightful Single ‘Bottom Of The Sea’
(Urmila Sivadas) and .ayy have been doing ‘the music thing’ for quite some time now, actually. Perp started out when young, and Avyay has been working with artists for years now. So, when they combine their talents on a collaborative release, one should expect quality writing and good production. Both of these are very much present on ‘Bottom Of The Sea’, a lush and engaging bit of mellow pop. But technique isn’t everything; a song with good ex*****on can be almost comically boring without strong ideas. Luckily, this song has those. Read more at the link in bio.

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Utsavi Jha Is Another Artist Reaching The Big-Time, And It's About Time
When we last covered singer-songwriter , she was two singles into her career. The one we wrote about was a bluesy little tune called ‘Picnic’, and it was very obviously a song that would stick in most of our heads. Well, as it turns out, most of you seemed to agree; she’s since been on Spotify playlists, done film work, and had a slot at last year’s Weekender. Now, she has a new single out called ‘Tum Jaise Ho’, which is quite emblematic of an Indian pop music trend in 2023. Read more at the link in bio.

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RIP Goa Gil (1951-2023)

Most of the electronic music world knows Goa Gil as one of the founding voices of the Goa trance and psytrance movement, but he was also quite the cultural pioneer in an Indian scene that had a completely different cultural outlook in his time.

Gilbert Levey started a movement and sound in the 80s in a small state in India, during an innovative period in electronic music, and managed to integrate elements of organic Indian culture into a traditionally inorganic and synthesized art form. This is something we take for granted today; there's aspects of Indian spiritualism in all kinds of electronic music. But it did start somewhere.

It started on the beaches with Goa Gil playing his long sets, famously with DAT tapes (his whole career, in fact). And even though his time on our planet ended yesterday, his legacy is still felt in every party, every summer, and is now an indelible part of our musical history. Thank you.

A New Instrumental EP From Delhi's 'Turqua' Is Out Today, And You Should Try It
Aditya Jha or .aditya primarily plays guitar, but his debut release (as Turqua) has a bit more to it than that. It’s quite short, is ‘Memories Of A Demented Turtle’; even so, it has an air of freedom and a willingness to explore offbeat ideas that many longer projects in this vein lack. Read our full review at the link in bio.

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Kolkata Artist 'French Girlfriends' Impresses On His Wavy, Psychedelic New Single
Members of the Kolkata scene (and of the indie persuasion) probably know Subhas Mazumdar relatively well. He’s been in quite a few bands before and released quite a bit of stuff; is a new solo project. He’s had two songs out under this name; ‘I’m Not Sure Exactly What I’m Feeling’ is the second. It’s a slick, vibe-y combination of dreampop, synthpop and electronic grooves that doesn’t seem to want too much attention. It’s more of a track to quietly vibe to, which is always welcome in a world dominated mostly by linear songwriting. Read the full article at the link in bio.

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The LAVI & Foenix Train Is Well And Truly Worth Jumping On
Bangalore duo .ii & have been making waves of the funk-pop-R&B kind ever since their EP ‘No Phones At The Dinner Table’ came out last year, and they’ve had quite the run since. Some shows, a great single ‘Ghum’ that came out relatively recently, and a spot at this year’s Weekender; all this is nothing to scoff at. There’s plenty of reasons to follow these two as they continue to do cool things in the general scene – they’re groovy, they’re very much ‘of the time’, and they can write songs equally appropriate for a quiet listen and a live-gig dance sesh. Read the full article at the link in bio.

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You Can Expect To See COSTHETA All Over The Scene Real Soon
What is going on this decade, people? All kinds of genres are finding a second wind, many of which were almost universally disliked just a few years ago. The 80s - hated until the tail end of the 2010s, now cool again. Emo came back as emo trap/hip-hop. Pop-punk is now topping charts, for crying out loud.

Now rap-rock and nu-metal, of all things!? Its comeback started out ironic and then an unironic modern refresh; through Mumbai-based artist for example. If his single ‘FALTU ADVICE’ is anything to go by, we are in for the unlikeliest revival of them all. And absolutely no one is complaining. Read the full article at the link in bio.

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We're glad to have been mentioned in this evocative and detailed essay on the history of Delhi's independent music scene on - and written by our alumnus to boot!

His look back (and forward) talks about his journey as a listener, a writer and plenty of commentary about the scene's early days, the present and the future. RSJ has always been a living part of indie music, and we were fortunate enough to play a part in helping build the city's indie foundation a few decades ago. We hope to continue doing so looking forward - as Shomi says, "So much of this is the future that I had longed for during the good ‘ol days..."

Read the article on norient.com

Kochi's adnif Brings Back Music's Indie-coustic Era On The Sorrowful 'Maryanne'
is Balu Mathews; he sings, produces and plays a couple instruments too. 'Maryanne' is his second single; a lovelorn, wistful and genuinely pretty song about relationships done in the vein of late-2000s acoustic indie music. This chapter in music history is a strange one... it provided formative memories for an entire generation and was then promptly memed to death a few years after.

‘Maryanne’ provides a snapshot of that world; possibly a tear-stained snapshot with the imprint of a Facebook status posted at 11:20pm on a Friday on the back. We've all been there.
Read the full article at the link in bio.

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'whirlpools' By Chennai Duo Mayank x Aaina Is A Genre-Blend You Might Not Have Heard Often
The most gratifying part of following 'modern post-prog' (our inside-joke way of referring to the un-barrier-ification of an older genre) has been its slow but steady entry into more mainstream sections of pop music. Artists like and made the excellent decision of bringing a high level of technicality to contemporary styles of writing, and the general listening public made the excellent decision of liking it; now all of us get to enjoy a legit banger that just happens to be well written, well performed and showcases technical proficiency. Chennai duo x tap into this aesthetic on their very catchy single ‘whirlpools’.
Read the full article at the link in bio.

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'Serendipity' Is Just An Innocent, Clean Bit Of Fun From Anunyaa Iyer
This is going to be short and sweet. doesn’t have much streamable music under her belt; ‘Serendipity’ is only her second single. It’s one of these songs that actively loses almost all of its charm if one sits and analyses it, so we’re not going to. We’re just going to recommend it. It’s a nice, simple song. That should be good enough for you, no? Maybe we'll describe it just a little.
Read the full article at the link in bio.

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Shweta Srivastava Makes Music You Can Depend On
Special mention does go to Shweta from some pretty nice vocal harmonies and a confident vocal delivery. The final refrain that ends the song doesn’t explode into life from nowhere but stays in a comfortable place so you can sing along. Read the full article and listen via link in bio

Atmahatya's Andhaarer Doshti Bochhor Serves To Impress As A Comeback Record From Kolkata's Death Metal Pioneers
The rise of Kolkata’s extreme metal scene in the early 2000s saw an influx of bands who would experiment with the heavier styles of metal - a sound not completely foreign to the audience but yet fairly unwonted. Read the full review and listen via link in bio

Two' Is Singer-Songwriter Nitansha's Confident Foray Into Alternative Pop
These days the world of melancholy pop splits its time between modern pop and the nearly tidal-sized wave of emo-trap and hip-hop that dominates TikToks and playlists. India’s singer-songwriter scene of the previous decade has also undergone a similar scene, and Delhi musician Nitansha’s single ‘Two’ is so emblematic of that. Read the full article and listen via link in bio

KSHMR Teases A Project In India, Possibly?

American Super-producer and electronic music powerhouse KSHMR hinted at a collaborative album with a bunch of Indian indie artists on his social media. This is rather exiting news, given his huge catalogue of hits and the almost impossible diverse landscape of independent musicians and artists flowing into our country's scene. There's probably some great things in store with whatever is planning next, and those includes these shores, even better. Watch this space!