By Ranjini Achuthan
In no particular order, we put together a list of some of the best music to have come out from Indian independent music industry in 2020. Mainstays deliver, debuts mark their banging arrival, surprising entries and unequivocal winners gives this otherwise turbulent year, a resilient and gripping playlist of brilliant music to remember by.
1. Thermal And A Quarter: A World Gone Mad
It’s the four-member rock stalwarts at their angry best. Lyrically their most opinionated and musically their most thoughtful, hard hitting, elaborately complex and lucid clear album yet.
2. Girish And The Chronicles: Rock The Highway
The old school charm of Rock and Roll is still alive. Rockstar Girish Pradhan and the band proves it beautifully with the 13 track banger of an album that is unabashedly traditional and rightly so.
3. Till Apes: Lift Off
The album is as disruptive and novel as it can get with an arresting mix of hip hop, R&B, melody that is surprisingly soulful. Till Apes is one of the best debuts to emerge in the Indian Indie scene in 2020.
4. Benhur
The duo from Kerala makes for a unique listen as they bring in unexpected world sounds and even traditional Indian sound in their predominantly English indie folk tracks. With baritone vocals of Amal Jose being used in the most dramatic fashion, Benhur released 4 songs, the kind of music that a music lover should and would get excited by. Definitely one of the best finds of the year.
5. Lojal: Phase
Unpredictable, intense, beautifully weird, Lojal is up in the list for the sheer innovation of Martin Haokip who walks the thin line of madness and unsettling music.
6. Inalab: The Commons
Gaurav Balani gets experimental with a genre blending 5 track EP with varying themes and sounds that could make for a mad roller coaster ride. Folk, Rock, Electronic genres amalgamates in a riveting fashion and one might feel, change is the only constant that binds this stellar EP together.
7. Dhruv Visvanath
2020 has seen Dhruv Visvanath put out a lot of music. Rich soundscape with a contrasting mix of optimism and melancholy seems to be the running mantra for his tracks and the artist finds place in the list for consistently acing the game. Write, Mountain King and Dear Madeline are our picks.
8. Saby Singh: Yahaan
Silences make for the best kind of music and Saby Singh makes sure he has a winner with this outing. Raw and gentle emotion sweeps the listener into calmness with this beauty of an album that talks about mental health and identity.
9. Tre Ess: Sipping Off Troubled Waters
Sumit Singh Solanki touches on issues that plague the interiors of Jharkhand like tribal land rights and the simmering tension between indigenous inhabitants and the government over various geographical and political issues. The collaboration heavy album voices the need to bring the country’s attention to the less cared and covered region of the country through some sensory overload of conscious rap interspersed with dark melodies.
10. Swadesi: Chetavni
Placed at 10 only because it has 10 tracks, Swadesi brings out an album of revolution that voices protest and anger against the current establishment that, according to the group, is a blot on democracy and human rights. The grim realities of dirty politics, casteism and religion all gets bashed in this boom bap, folky, jazzy, soulful, conscious rap poetry of resistance and rebellion.
Find these and more brilliant music in the Indiegaga Editor's Picks 2020 playlist on Spotify.
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