Music Review

Purbayan Chatterjee/ Sukoon (Catharsis), Sufiscore One of the highlights of Sukoon (Catharsis), the second piece from sitar exponent Purbayan Chatterjee’s

Yohani ft Muzistar/ Manige Mage Hithe, Self-Released This song is all over the place. First we had the Sinhalese rendition

Various Artistes/ Hum Hindustani, Dhamaka Records Every Independence Day, there’s a shower of patriotic song releases, and this year, this

Mukul Dongre ft Sourabh Joshi/ Dil Jo Chahta Hai, Self-Released Well-known drummer and percussionist Mukul Dongre tries his hand at

Prathamesh Tambe & Sayantika Ghosh/ Fish, Springboard Records Mumbai singer-songwriter Prathamesh Tambe teams up with Kolkata-based Dream-Pop artiste Sayantika Ghosh

Rohan Solomon/ We Demand Change, Self-Released Delhi artiste Rohan Solomon has been one of the most consistent singer-songwriters on the

Tubby/ Keh Rahan, Tubby’s Music Popular Mumbai composer and arranger Indrajit Sharma aka Tubby makes his debut as a singer

Shontelle, Feyago & Sarkar Muzik/ Asha – Help India, Good Karma With India going through terrible times because of Covid,

Mame Khan/ Shukran, Self-Released In this lavish production, Rajasthani folk singer Mame Khan gets into Sufiana territory. As the title

Sunidhi Chauhan/ Ye Ranjishein, SpotlampE Though one associates her more with the Dhoom Machale kind of racy stuff, Sunidhi Chauhan

Alexx ONell/ Twenty Days, Self-Released With its heartfelt lyrics, classy production and abstract black n’ white video, Alexx ONell’s latest

Namrata Dixit/ Hope, Self-Released Singer Namrata Dixit was inspired to write Hope after watching a film in which six artistes were

Toshi Sabri/ Teri Rooh, Aatma Music After the 2009 song Maahi from Raaz: The Mystery Continues, singer Toshi Sabri has

V. Selvaganesh and Swaminathan/ ECM – Taka Dhin Tha Di, PCSM For his new track, Taka Dhin Tha Di, ace

Bozio Nienu/ Lighthouse, self-released  He’s just 23 but Nagaland-based singer Bozio Nienu shows plenty of maturity on his new song

Nyasa/ Charkhe, Springboard Records The brainchild of Nilesh Salunkhe and Vaibhav Ramteke, Nyasa specialises in earthy, folk-based music. On Charkhe,

Viveick Rajagopalan and others/ Raat… Subah Si, self-released Everything comes together so magically in this song composed by percussionist Viveick

  Vasuda Sharma/ Mera Hai Tu, Self-Released After starting off with the Indi-Pop group, ‘Aasma’, singer-songwriter Vasuda Sharma did some

  Chirag Todi ft Yohan Marshall/ Be Easy, self-released Ahmedabad-based guitarist-composer Chirag Todi is the founder member of the independent

Shreya Ghoshal & Salim-Sulaiman/ Muraliya, Merchant Records/ Sufiscore Shreya Ghoshal has sung so many gems over the past 18 years.

Pragnya Wakhlu/ Akele Hi Sahi, Self- Released Six months ago, singer Pragnya Wakhlu released the English song Falling, which had

Prakash & Tubby/ A Prayer, self-released Known for his slide guitar skills, Bengaluru-based Prakash Sontakke sticks to vocals on ‘A

Jay Sean and Rishi Rich/ Nakhre, Break The Noise Records In the early 2000s, singer Jay Sean and producer Rishi

Various Artistes/ The Thillana- Lalgudi 90, Self-Released To mark great Carnatic violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman’s 90th birthday on September 17, his

    Jasmine Bharucha/ Fog Horn Blowing, Self-Released Old-timers would know Mumbai singer Jasmine Bharucha for her early 1990s album

    Mame Khan/ Sajaniya, Self-released Rajasthani folk singer Mame Khan has rendered some moving film songs, besides appearing on

Namo Fusion/ Ninnukori – The Unlock Version, self-released Last year, Mumbai band Namo Fusion released the album Namo, blending Indian

Besti/Sayam Qureshi and Mohit Manuja, SM Music This one is sure to impress pet lovers. In Bestie, singer Sayam Qureshi

    Raghav Chaitanya/ Maangi Duaein, Merchant Records This is the first release of Merchant Records, a label floated by

  Prateek Kuhad/ Kasoor, Self-Released Here’s yet another reason to prove why singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad is one of the best

  Tauseef Akhtar and Cheryl Balwani/ Rain, Asli Music Ghazal exponent Tauseef Akhtar has collaborated with singer Cheryl Balwani on

  Druv Kent/ Till We Meet Again, self-released With his pleasant voice and remarkable sense of composition, singer Druv Kent

Prashanth Srinivas, Swaroop Khan, Sukanya Purkayastha/ Thaare Bina, RagaHaus Music Composed by Prashanth Srinivas, ‘Thaare Bina’ is a smooth blend

  Indian Ocean/ Akhiyan Udeek Diyan, Times Music Popular Delhi fusion-rock band Indian Ocean now releases its own take on

  Sharat Chandra Srivastava/ No Passport Control, self-released Besides his solo projects, Delhi-based violinist Sharat Chandra Srivastava is best known

  Shreya Ghoshal/ Naa Woh Main, OnePlus Playback Over the past two decades, Shreya Ghoshal has undoubtedly been India’s most

    Sowmya Raoh- Yeh Hai Stree; self-released On International Women’s Day, singer Sowmya Raoh teamed up with some leading

  A.R. Rahman/ You Got Me, Nexa Music Ace composer A.R. Rahman pumps up the jam on his new English

  In the first fortnight of February 2020, there have been some really soulful indie music released. The biggest come

  Classic Kid Sid/ Na Jaane Main, Artist Aloud Last year, Classic Kid Sid, the brainchild of Siddhant Sharma, had

Bagga Khan Group and Syncopation/ Kashi, Anahad Foundation Here’s an interesting blend of Meghwal bhajan from Rajasthan with contemporary jazz.

Anupama Roy/ Imkaan, self-released Legendary Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz wrote as much about protest as he did about hope.

    Sandeep Chowta/ The Arrival, Namma Music Sandeep Chowta is largely known in Hindi film music circles for providing

Mithoon ft. Arijit Singh and Asees Kaur/ Intezaar, VYRL Originals Probably the most hyped and marketed song of the year,

Latest independent music releases- reviewed by Musicplus

It’s got protest, meaning and depth. Clearly, Bengaluru rapper Brotha V’s ‘Vaishnava Jana To’ is one of the most hard-hitting songs in a while.

  Divine/ Kohinoor, Mass Appeal The release of the film Gully Boy earlier this year helped expand rapper Divine’s audience

Music Plus got the latest independent songs reviewed. We have six songs out of which some are brilliantly made and some, not so much. Read more

Delhi Sufi-rock fusion band Advaita has been on the scene for around 15 years, releasing the albums Grounded In Space and The Silent Sea.

Independent releases from August 2019 reviewed Music Plus takes its pick of five top singles released in August NarendraKusnur

These days, in the Indian indie music scene, the focus is on releasing singles rather than albums or EPs, and ensuring their availability Read More

  February 2020 had a limited set of releases in Malayalam by its own standards. Trance (Jackson Vijayan), Ayyappanum Koshiyum

One can confidently say that the Malayalam film industry is one of the foremost when it comes to pushing the

  The last decade saw a huge leap in the quality of films coming out of the Malayalam film industry.

The 2nd half of November hardly had anything to write home about. From that perspective, the 1st half of December

  It is no secret that the Malayalam film industry makes some of the best films in the country with

The 2nd-fortnight of October was dominated by smaller film and non-film releases. Except for a single each from the Mammootty Read More

The film music releases in the first fortnight of October were mostly songs from films that had released singles in the last few weeks. Read more.

The festive releases continued to flow through September 2019, for Malayalam film music. Manoharam (Sanjeev.T), Uriyadi Read More

  As expected, the 1st half of September saw a lot of releases leading up to Onam on Sep 11.

  The 2nd fortnight of August had limited releases in Malayalam. But with Onam round the corner we can expect

A Carnatic musician who plays the Sitar and is also part of the Mewati Gharana lineage having trained under Pandit Jasraj for over seven years, Read more

  True to the type of films the industry churns out, most of the music remains rooted and closer to

The expectations on March were quite high with summer holidays around the corner. Anirudh’s ‘Master’ and the 8 composer soundtrack

  The 2nd fortnight of February had a lot of surprises in store, starting with an ace director turning rapper

  The 1st fortnight of February had a lot to look forward to, with singles from star films, ‘Soorarai Pottru’

    It is a new year and a new decade. The last decade had some decisive trends and it would be

  As the curtains draw to a close on the 2010’s, here is a look at what the Tamil music

  The decade that went by was exciting and puzzling in equal measure. Exciting, because of the bevy of talent

  Two special talents made their film music debut during the 1st fortnight of December. The highly anticipated ‘Darbar’ that

  The second fortnight of November offers an excellent assortment of tracks featuring a handful of debutants.this review features some

  Tamil music releases in the first half of November had something for every kind of music lover. With an

Despite the Diwali season, the music releases in the 2nd half of October in Tamil were quite limited, with Radhan’s ‘Adithya Varma Read More

The 1st half of October was rather tepid with respect to new music releases. Apart from the complete soundtrack of Puppy. Read More

Apart from A.R.Rahman’s ‘Bigil’, that had a massive audio launch and Justin Prabhakaran’s ‘Nadodigal 2’ (the 1st single released in July),

Tamil music review from the first half of September 2019 Imman produces a solid soundtrack, for Pandiraj’s ‘Namma Veettu Pillai and many more

August 2019, especially the 2nd fortnight saw a spate of releases across languages and offer a fascinating concoction of genres.

  The music in the first fortnight of August revolved around relatively low key releases of which Siragu & Adutha

  Tamil music in July 2019, saw the precursor to 3 of the upcoming big star releases, Ner Konda Paarvai

  The first half of February 2020 was rather quiet in terms of releases for Telugu music. The 2nd half

  After a rather listless January (barring ‘Jaanu’) one was hoping Telugu music to bounce back to form in February.

The first half of January was quite listless for Telugu music. The 2nd half fared slightly better thanks largely to

  The Telugu music in the last fortnight of the decade that went by had quite a few prominent releases

  The Telugu releases in the 1st fortnight of December were very few in number. But most of the tracks

    The second half of November had a good number of releases. Thaman & Suresh Bobbili lead the pack.

The releases in Telugu this fortnight, offer promise with Thaman.S leading the mix with some of the younger (in terms

  The 1st fortnight of October was rather disappointing with hardly any album or track warranting a mention and hence

  If a Chiranjeevi movie is slated for release, it is hard to look beyond it in the Telugu film

  Apart from Anirudh’s Gang Leader and Mickey.J.Meyer’s Valmiki, that are sitting pretty on top of the charts in Telugu,

  These are interesting times for the Telugu music industry. Bahubali’s success has opened the gates to larger markets and

Telugu music releases in the 1st fortnight of August were mostly extensions of the releases in July, with one or 2 tracks read more

  Ever since ‘Bahubali’ happened there has been a constant effort by southern filmmakers to showcase their films to the

  The second fortnight of February was a mixed bag with some real highs and some that just fizzled out. There

  Sandalwood’s music releases in February 2020 featured mostly upcoming talents. ‘Shivaji Surathkal -The Case of Ranagiri Rahasya’ and ‘Malgudi

  The 1st fortnight of the new decade had limited releases for the Kannada industry. Dinga that released right at

  We did not publish a review of the Kannada music for the 1st half of December, considering the releases

  Katha Sangama and Babru were the two significant releases in Kannada during the second fortnight of November. The former

  The first fortnight of November had a slew of releases that offered very little in terms of quality and

Music Plus reviews the Kannada songs that released in second half of October which generated enough interest and offered a bunch of nice melodies. Read more

Kannada music releases from the 1st fortnight of October were limited and were mostly extensions of movies tat had singles released last month. Read More..

The 2nd fortnight of September 2019, similar to the 1st half, had a lot of variety on offer with Gantumoote’s (Aparajith Sris) Read More

The Kannada releases in the 1st half of September are an interesting concoction of genres and moods. With no big-ticket films on view Read More..

    The Kannada film industry or “Sandalwood,” as it is lovingly called, churned 243 films out of 1776 films released

The second half of August did not see many releases by commercial music labels. Instead, indie musicians came up with

The first half of August sees some patriotic songs as expected, but indie releases are non-existent this time. The commercial

The second half of July saw a rare phenomenon – brilliant songs across all sectors. From commercial to indie, the

The first half of July sees a mixed bag from the blues to rap. And inevitably, there’s the quintessential Bengali

The 2nd half of June witnessed a rare occurrence – all reviewed songs are independent releases. It also showcases a

The 1st half of June saw a mixture of independent and music label releases. Topics range from the pandemic to

The 2nd half of May saw really brilliant songs across genres. While Borno Anonyo brought rebellion and history, the dark

The first half of May saw all indie releases, except for one. But even that can be clubbed into this

The second half of April saw indie releases edging out commercial releases. Also, acoustic songs find the maximum space within

The first half of April sees a healthy mix of different genres. There is an indie song about cities while

Commercial music labels had a boom of releases in the second half of March. From songs for movies and web

The first half of March had a balanced representation of releases. On one hand, a commercial label released multiple songs,

The second half of Bengali music review from February saw only one indie release, that too from Shantiniketan. On the

The first half of February sees commercial labels brimming with new releases, with some indie acts signing up with them

The second half of January sees traditional old songs being given a new and modern avatar.  This will perhaps resonate

The new year sees a mixture of film and independent music. As usual, folk and Rabindrasangeet sees new renditions, while

The second half of December saw purely indie releases. Veteran rock bands reinvented themselves with modern sounds, while newbies also

  The first half of December has surprises that are usually unheard. From a Bengali ghazal to a much-awaited Bengali

The second half of November sees commercial music labels crowding out independent releases. Also, traditional folk songs get interesting makeovers,

Commercial film songs have crowded out independent releases in the second half of October. While there is a potpourri of

The first half of October is purely an immersion into the soft world of pop music centred around its favourite

The second half of September is dominated by film songs. Interestingly, the sounds have evolved from traditional formulaic efforts to

  Commercial music labels are back in business again with a major festival around the corner, Durja Pujo. Surprisingly though,

    The second half of August saw non-film music taking the trophy home. Also, there was no competition from

From a song disguised as an audio play to a devotional song released by a commercial music label, the first

  It is not unexpected that the bulk of new songs coming out now will be about the ongoing pandemic

  With the pandemic, artistes are resorting to making music from their own homes and relying on the magic of

  Elegy- Borno Anonyo If given a proper ear, ‘Elegy’ is a quiet song that seeps into the very nerves

  Bol Megh – Suchetana Sinha  The best part about this soothing song by Suchetana Sinha is its ability to

Palacchi Kothhaye- Prithibi This stellar song by Prithibi is the mouthpiece for existing urban life which is bogged down by

  Oi Je Jhorer Megher – Borno Anonyo  Borno Anonyo’s creations surpass the mere constructs of songs by including poetry,

  Khoda Tomar Meherbani – Saif Zohan  Revolutionary poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s poems and songs landed him in trouble and

  Gun Gun Gaiche – Arko Mukhaerjee  Arko Mukhaerjee never fails to surprise with his depth and understanding of the

  Chupi Chupi – Neil Mukho  ‘Chupi Chupi’ sounds like something old and nostalgic calling out to our senses. A

  The month of love was dominated by songs of love and sorrow and lovelorness, with the Bengali film industry

  Though it is usually the Bengali film industry which churns out song after song, being the bigger figure in

  Bengali film industry seems to be working round the clock, bringing out scores of songs for the incredible number

Music Plus reviews Bengali music from the month of October. From Bishorjon to Dana Vanga Pakhi’r Gaan, we’ve reviewed them all. Read more.

Here are the reviews from the latest Bengali music releases. Check out the new music release song reviews and many more. Read more