Fusion Frontrunners Advaita, Agam, Thaikkudam Bridge and More Feature on Salim Merchant’s Soundchk Series

Heavy-hitters and surprise acts from India’s independent circuit have made it to composer, producer and singer Salim Merchant’s new song series Soundchk, which completed its first season with eight new songs, one each from Advaita, Agam, Voctronica, Agnee, Thaikkudam Bridge, The Revisit Project, Antariksh and Syncopation.

Starting out in July with Agnee’s starry, journeying jam “Mallaah” with lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya, Soundchk – which has been rolled out by Merchant Records in partnership with app Cred’s magazine Periscope – has been led by project head Shivansh Jindal and curated largely from Salim Merchant’s firsthand interactions with independent artists.

From being a keen follower of acts like Agnee and Thaikkudam Bridge to meeting The Revisit Project founder Abhay Sharma, catching Syncopation at a gig in Lucknow, and seeing Pineapple Express smash it at a collage festival show, Merchant says his role – with the exception of singing on Pineapple Express’ “Musafir” – has been of a hands-off producer who feels “the best way is to just let people do what they do best.”

He adds, “We chose these amazing bands depending on our music taste and what we like and everyone brings a special something to the project. Voctronica… we’ve known them for a while. I’ve always wanted to work with them.”

Being the only act on Soundchk without any instruments – a familiar distinction that follows them everywhere they go – Voctronica say they were contacted by Jindal about the project in March this year. It led to their song “Maujooda.” Vocalist Arjun Nair says, “With Soundchk, we wanted to lean into the electro/disco/funk spaces we’ve been pushing lately in our palette, but more so, we wanted something that people could sing along to.”

Another powerful composition presented on Soundchk was Advaita’s “Palkan,” a soaring production that saw the New Delhi fusion act back in their prime. Advaita’s Anindo Bose and Ujwal Nagar say, “We’ve had listeners message and call us about it and how happy they were to hear a new song from Advaita after so long. Soundchk was an opportunity for us to write something fresh and exciting.”

In between jazzy, funky songs like “Shine” by Syncopation and The Revisit Project’s “Making A Move,” there are soaring cuts like “The Seventh Ocean” by Agam and “Giddh” by Thaikkudam Bridge,” plus the more heartfelt ballad-like pop-rock tune “Dastan-E-Dil (Shine Your Light)” by Antariksh.

Agam’s bassist Aditya Kashyap says about their contribution to Soundchk, “The new song is very representative of the soundscape that Agam wants to create – it’s heavy, progressive and with a mixed meter structure, all done whilst maintaining the soul of what one would expect from a raga based Carnatic composition.”

Even as Merchant Records forge ahead with their other live performance IPs like Bhoomi,  Salim Merchant assures that there will be more seasons of Soundchk coming up. “The story will continue till we make this a massive, massive IP and then we just continue to spread happiness through Soundchk,” he says.