Top 25 Albums Of The 2000s: 25-16

The Indiecision Decade In Review is our retrospective of the last 10 years in Indian independent music.
These are our picks of the best Indian indie albums of the last decade.

#25: This Is It – Thermal & A Quarter
It is perhaps a candid admission that Thermal & A Quarter chose to title their latest album This Is It. For a band that’s been around over a decade to be this forthright about their career is a risk they did not have to take. But if a band of their stature did not believe that their latest album was the best work they did, it wouldn’t be a worthwhile proposition now would it?

#24: The Exit Plan – Teddy Boy Kill
To say that Teddy Boy Kill is ‘Indian electronica’ is perhaps an undersell. The reason their album, The Exit Plan, makes the impression that it does is because it is uninhibited by the need to reflect any local musical influence (read they didn’t throw a sitar in). It focuses instead on creating dancefloor anthems that stand tall by themselves in an international soundscape that still considers EDM from the subcontinent a novelty.

#23: Going Nowhere – Lounge Piranha
Lounge Piranha took their own time releasing this album. These are songs they’d been playing for a few years, demos of which were floating around the internet forums well before the album’s release. But the delay paid off. The songs came back refined enough to sound complete and raw enough for first time listeners to be taken by their experimentation. We’d heard these songs before, but not quite like this. The self-loathing implied in the title, and in the songs though, is classic Piranha.

#22: [untitled] – Bhayanak Maut
There’s no denying that in the last year or so, Bhayanak Maut has gone from being an Indian metal also-ran to genuine headlining material. While responsible for some of this is a new lineup, new management and heavy gigging, the transition would not have been possible without the steamroller of a second studio album they released this year. There is no more compelling argument to watch Bhayanak Maut live than the tracks on this record, and for any band, that’s a job well done.

#21: Compose Oppose Dispose – Pin Drop Violence
The release of Pin Drop Violence’s debut album made more of a statement than any of the tracks on it. Sure, it piggybacked on a Slipknot release but when those unsuspecting kids put that CD into their discmans and turned the volume up, they would have little reason to refute the fact that PDV was as class a metal act as any international band. And they didn’t need masks to make an impression.

#20: Nights In Shining Karma – blackstratblues
When Warren Mendonsa moved to Auckland, it was a black day for Indian rock. When he released a collection of home-made instrumental tunes on which he also played bass and keyboards (his brother Zorran programmed the drums), he reminded us why he had been hailed as one of the country’s best guitarists in just his early twenties. Nights In Shining Karma was filled with homages to all his biggest blues-rock influences from Stevie Ray to Dire Straits, each one played on his trusty black Strat in that inimitable Warren way.

#19: Raghu Dixit – The Raghu Dixit Project
Baul music meets Bob Marley was how Raghu Dixit described ‘Hey Bhagwan’, arguably his signature tune, and for once, it wasn’t a case of a musician hard-selling his wares. On this and other tracks on Raghu Dixit, he wraps reggae around ragas and blends bharatanatyam with the Beatles in the most organic way possible.

#18: It’s OK, It’s All Good – Pentagram
When Pentagram got around to recording their third album, they had – as most wise men do – figured out their audience down pat. So they made a record on which every track was carefully constructed to electrify the crowd: uncomplicated songs powered by muscular beats and meaty riffs, and driven by compelling, sing-along choruses. As a result, It’s OK, It’s All Good sounds even better live than it does on record.

#17: Home – menwhopause
menwhopause make no bones about who they are, or who they want to be. They’re a rock ‘n roll band from a country that doesn’t quite get it yet and they use that as an opportunity. Home is a biting commentary about our times. It says what it has to say without being pretentious or overly contrived. India is the way it is because of the unique sensibilities of its people. The fact that they gave away this record for free was fittingly poignant.

#16: Thank You. Come Again – Helga’s Fun Castle
Helga’s Fun Castle was a band that sounded as great on stage as it did on paper. Initially comprising Zero drummer Sidd Coutto, Acquired Funk Syndrome guitarist Meghashyam Adoni, Blue Screen Death bassist Johan Pais and Medusa/Pin Drop Violence drummer Jai Row Kavi, they claimed to be four guys just having a bit of fun on the side. But these were four guys with some serious songwriting chops. Thank You. Come Again is a great testament to the value of going with the flow – these are eight easy songs that unabashedly doff their hat to influences such as Bob Marley and Red Hot Chili Peppers, but are far more than just jammy tributes. They are the work of a band that’s not being intelligent but smart, a band that’s having fun but not playing the fool, a band indulging themselves, but not insulting their audience. Very little pop-rock stands the test of time but when you consider the crowd response Coutto gets when he performs the songs with his new act Tough On Tobacco (often with a line-up featuring many of his former bands), you see how well these tunes have endured.

The Indiecision Decade In Review