New Music: From Crossover Jazz to Feminist Punk

“Raindrops” by Ms Larsen ft Ruud Jolie 

Italian singer Linde Lorraine Larsen aka Ms Larsen can go from being a warzone photojournalist to moonlighting as a songwriter and studio vocalist for major record labels and fronting goth rock band Lunacy Box. But after dissolving the band in 2010, Larsen finally has a new solo single out called “Raindrops,” which also features industrial/goth rock riffs courtesy of guitarist Ruud Jolie (from Dutch metallers Within Temptation). Larsen, who is based out of the World Heritage site city of Ferrara, found inspiration in an obscure poetry collection by Indian academician and writer Satinder Bajaj’s 1976 book The Summer Sun.

Standing Feathers by Worm’s Cottage

Bengaluru producer Rishabh Iyer has a new “night” album as a follow-up to his 2015 debut full-length Tour Guide Impostor, which he described as more of an “evening” album. Vibe words aside, Worm’s Cottage wanders through down-tempo spaces, coupling it with his modulated, often undecipherable vocals. While “Intransient Love” twists and turns, songs like “Pleasant Swelter” and “Where I Want To Be” have a club-friendly hip-hop flow. Standing Feathers is the first full-length release by Bengaluru-based label Consolidate, led by electronica producer Rahul Giri aka _RHL from downtempo/trip hop duo Sulk Station.

Fracking by Reckoner

Brooklyn-based Indian guitarist and producer Sumanth Srinivasan clearly loves UK alternative band Radiohead. If that doesn’t explain why he’s chosen the moniker Reckoner (a song off their 2007 album In Rainbows), his new release Fracking should provide all the evidence. From darker ambient songs like “Sprpklsm (Please Don’t.)” to collaborating with vocalist Pardafash aka Sandhya Visvanathan (from electro-acoustic group Machli) on “Shoveling” and the electronic-rock track “Kindred,” Fracking is described as a “short play album”, with visual accompaniment ranging from experimental film footage to video game playthroughs for each track.

“Dharma” by Tarun Balani

Tarun Balani leads a brand new collective through shape-shifting jazz, dizzying time signatures and stellar improv on his latest single “Dharma”””also the title track of his upcoming album. Recorded at New York’s Big Orange Sheep studios (along with the rest of Dharma), the track sees the New Delhi-based drummer and composer join forces with guitarist Alex Pinto, Sharik Hasan on piano, Joshua Crumbly on bass and Tiziano Bianchi on trumpet, and is the first hint of a record that draws from a “wide spectrum of music, ranging from Bach to John Coltrane, and beyond.”

“Authority” by The Vinyl Records

Feminists can be sure to find a new anthem in The Vinyl Records’ latest””“Authority” is a clanging, power chord-driven revolution-starter that recalls everything retro and Riot Grrrl. The retro-themed lyric video sees the (former North East-based) all-girl post-punk band crowdsource pictures of women across cultures and ages raising a middle finger to patriarchy, as if their belligerent chorus (“Patriarch..Authority/Phallus oppression/ Destroy, destroy”) weren’t enough.

“Shell” by Bianca Love

Mumbai-based singer-songwriter Bianca Love, on the other hand, reveals a woman’s more vulnerable side in the video for “Shell.” Love finds a cozy niche in a local pub to hide away (rather apt, given the song), pluck her six-string and pour out an acoustic serenade about running away from her feelings””“When I go into my shell it don’t mean that I don’t care/ It’s just some things are too much for me to bear.”