The Best Indian Indie Albums of 2023 So Far

10. Jamna Paar – Strangers From Past Life 

New Delhi bassist Gaurav Balani (from rockers Parikrama and electro-rockers Inalab) and flautist Shashank Singhania’s electronica duo Jamna Paar released their debut eight-track full-length album Strangers from Past Life earlier this year. The pair pack in plenty of soundscapes throughout the record from drum and bass to Indian classical and more. The album also includes a host of collaborators such as Apeksha Dandekar, Aditi Singh Sharma, Saptak Chatterjee and others to help bring the songs to life. – D.B. 

9. Ramil Ganjoo – Khaak 

Singer-songwriter and producer Ramil Ganjoo has a penchant for dream-pop and indie-folk that come together in a way that’s both familiar and fresh on his debut album Khaak. Sure, he’s created a couple of versions each of songs like “Khala” and “Waqt” to push the album into a solid nine-track collection, but there’s ingenuity in his craft. At the center of it – especially at the start with the opening title track – is a story of self-belief and self-acceptance, offered with warm guitar melodies, a few surprisingly dexterous solos and lush production. From juxtaposed offerings like “Sheher” and “Ghar” to the whimsical duet “Khala” with Vidhya, there’s something for everyone into singer-songwriter music. – A.T. 

8. Anurag Naidu, Alba Santos, Aniel Someillan, Isais Alves – Odyssey 

Mumbai pianist Anurag Naidu joined forced with Spanish singer Alba Santos, Cuban bassist Aniel Someillan and Brazilian drummer Isais Alves on the genre-bending eight-track album Odyssey. Odyssey overall is a beautiful concoction of Brazilian rhythms, jazz, R&B, neo-soul, Cubano, flamenco and funk music. The musicians on show deliver exceptional performances across the eight songs. Santos’ nifty and dynamic vocals add plenty of color to the tracks while Alves and Someillan are sublime with their solid grooves that lay the foundation for the songs, and Naidu is at his creative best with his deft touch on the piano, offering melodious moments and lots of dexterity.  – D.B. 

7. Demonstealer – The Propaganda Machine 

More than 20 years after starting out in his bedroom in Mumbai as a kid obsessed with extreme metal, Demonstealer aka Sahil Makhija has shown he’s not going to stop (despite the times his bands like Demonic Resurrection and Reptilian Death have been seemingly forced into slow-mode or dissolution, respectively). On his latest solo (but feature-heavy) album The Propaganda Machine, Demonstealer digs right into cut-throat black/death metal with plenty of melodic elements and big choruses. More importantly, he’s doing what every metal band has the chance to do but often doesn’t – call out manipulative politics, the oft-paraded “anti-national” narrative and more. – A.T. 

6. Blackstratblues – L .I/O.V.E. Vol. II 

Just like exactly a year ago, Mumbai/Auckland guitarist Warren Mendonsa released a live album for his blue-rock outfit Blackstratblues entitled L.I/O.V.E. Vol. II. The new live album includes songs from Blackstratblues that were performed in 2017 and features the core band; drummer Jai Row Kavi, bassist Adi Mistry, keyboardist Beven Fonseca and of course, Mendonsa. Although songs overlap from 2022’s L.I/O.V.E. Vol. I, the latest 15-track offering has its own charm as the band power through tracks such as the splendid “Anuva’s Sky,” the lofty “North Star,” and the pulsating “Renaissance Mission” among others. – D.B. 

5. The Bodhisattwa Trio – Frontier 

Kolkata/New Delhi jazz outfit The Bodhisattwa Trio teamed up with Croatia’s Mimika Orchestra on the journeying 11-track album Frontier. The instrumental concept album is served up deliciously with jazz-fusion soundscapes and includes intricate drum and bass grooves, melodic guitar arrangements as well as flowing horn parts. Some of the standout songs on the record include the surreal opener “Nuclear Apocalypse,” the hypnotic “Ghosts of Mars,” the raucous “Countergenesis” and the album penultimate track, the moody “Final Frontier.” – D.B. 

4. Dirge – Dirge 

Mumbai doom/sludge and post-metal band Dirge capture all the turmoil of inner and outer worlds with their self-titled album that came out in March. Across four tracks that trudge on with just a sliver of hope in mind, catharsis does come at the end of things. Songs like “Hollow” and “Grief” build on the band’s strengths and “Condemned” has far more experimentation than we’ve heard from Dirge before, going through quiet and loud with soul-piercing intent. It’s about five years between their debut album Ah Puch but the fact that this is a self-titled album tells you all you need to know about a metal band in their creative prime. – A.T. 

3. Dreamhour – Now That We Are Here 

Debo Sanyal aka Dreamhour, the Siliguri-based producer-singer keeps finding new ways to make synthwave exciting and there are perhaps only a few who can stick to a niche the way he has. With his latest album Now That We Are Here, there’s more elements of soul and pop mixed in with retro synths and more. With a few assists from vocalist Dokodoko, there’s indefatigable synth-pop cuts like “It’s A Song,” “She’s Everything” and “Own Tonight.” Dreamhour sticks to more indulgent retro-wave as well, on songs like “Pulp Motel” and the Bollywood synth-era informed “Rajdoot.” – A.T. 

2. Tsumyoki – A Message From The Moon 

With the release of his 2022 single “Pink Blue,” Goa-based Tsumyoki was on to something and he’s clearly been chasing it for a few years. The culmination of that is A Message from the Moon, an openhearted treatise, if you will, about heartbreak and getting past it. Written and produced for the most part as he grew out of the last of his teen years, the emotional growth is heard in leaps and bounds on songs like “Falling Down,” the breezy, escapist pop tune “Perfect Life” and “Feel Okay.” There are still darker, rock-leaning cuts like “Fonkey Monkey” with fellow Goan rapper Kidd Mange and “Figure Out” and “Hard Enough.” – A.T. 

1. Indian Ocean – Tu Hai  

On their first album since 2014’s Tandanu, New Delhi fusion stalwarts Indian Ocean still carry their protest music torch high, albeit in their own way. Tu Hai is focused more on humanity’s ecological footprint and all the other things that manipulates them. Through a rousing chorus of voices, they bat for hope on “Jaadu Maaya,” take on an enriching saxophone-aided excursion with “Jungle” and invite veteran percussionist Vikku Vinayakram on the playful “Iss Tan Dhan.” Cavernous fusion-psychedelic experiments abound as well, on the two-part title track and “Rebirth,” proving that Indian Ocean are still doing it their way in the midst of changing times. – A.T.