Our Picks for Bandcamp Friday: Electronic, Post-Rock and More

Hundreds of millions of dollars of later, we’re at the final Bandcamp Friday of the year. For the next 24 hours – until 1:30 PM IST on December 5th – all music purchased via the music marketplace ensures that the money goes entirely to the artist, with Bandcamp foregoing its revenue share once again.

While heavyweight and newbie artists and labels alike have been putting their catalog on the streaming platform following huge traffic over the months, India’s independent music makers aren’t far behind either. We round up recently released albums, EPs and singles by Indian artists that you can get behind today.

Dolorblind – Forbidden Fruit

 

Written and produced in his hometown of Patna and in New Delhi, producer and visual artist Rohan Sinha aka Dolorblind’s new EP Forbidden Fruit is a shapeshifting, club-friendly collection of songs. Invoking ambient movements as well as introspective keyboard/piano and synth leads, the beats remain energetic and clever, with Sinha drawing from themes of youth and its accompanied feelings.

February 31st – From A Room

 

Mumbai-based producer and guitarist Lakshman Parsuram has been putting out material on and off, but his new EP From A Room as February 31st makes up for any sort of absence. If you like sprawling, understated yet impactful instrumental rock, From A Room delivers spectacularly.

BLOT! – The Brightest Dark

 

New Delhi producer Gaurav Malaker  aka BLOT! has slowly been making his comeback to live and DJ sets with performances in Goa, Rajasthan and in the capital as well since October. During the pandemic, however, he’s been releasing a handful of songs, including an EP called The Brightest Dark. As expected, it’s tempered, intelligent music for seasoned ravers.

Krunk Kulture/Various Artists – Ganga Jamuna – Flavours of the East

 

With their second compilation out in November, Mumbai-based music agency Krunk’s recently launched recordKrunk Kulture offers more diverse electronic music on Ganga Jamuna. Keeping with the culinary/cuisine-themed titles, the 16-track album features everyone from producer Yung.Raj to Japanese producer Daisuke Tanabe, veteran producer Kohra and more.

Angad Berar – A Broadcast Underwater

 

Now based in New Delhi, guitarist and producer Angad Berar follows up a trio of singles with an expansive yet sparsely arranged new album called A Broadcast Underwater. Unlike the radiant, groovy psychedelic songs on his 2019 album Elephants on the Beach, this is a much more measured, ambient record, sharing composing duties with Nisshtha Khattar.

The Multiverse Concept – Postcards From Nowhere

 

Pune/New York composer and guitarist Aksheya Chandar aka The Multiverse Concept teamed up with producers Shubham Gurung (formerly of post-rock band Aswekeepsearching) and Adhiraj Singh (from experimental metallers Noiseware) to create Postcards From Nowhere, something he describes as “sonic postcards to the world.” There’s prog, post-rock, ambient and more on offer in what is a tempered collection of songs.          

Spryk – Apex

 

Debuted at Magnetic Fields Festival in Rajasthan last year, Mumbai-based producer Spryk aka Tejas Nair originally presented Apex as an arresting audio-visual presentation but now he’s got the album out for a different listening experience. Grappling with questions of innovation, desire and the peak of human potential, the producer dives into electronica, downtempo and buoyant beats across seven tracks.

Anuragi – Lockdown

 

Singer-songwriter Rajesh Anuragi has been releasing music from as early as 2012 and like a lot of artists, he took to composing during the pandemic. His fourth album, called Lockdown, brings together gentle, earthy and folksy Hindi pop-rock across seven tracks.