Editor’s Week In Review: Oct 9-15

Arjun S Ravi takes a look back at the week in Indian music, tracking October 9-15.

(Pics: Kunal Kakodkar)

We’re through another packed week in music. People ask me whether there’s enough going on in the scene to fill daily issues of Indiecision. We publish over 30 articles every week spread over five issues covering music from around the country and the world. That’s by far the most comprehensive coverage of music by any Indian publication. But the fact of the matter is, we’re not even scraping the surface yet. Let me put it this way, if absolutely nothing was to happen in the scene in the next week, we’d still have enough stuff that didn’t fit in our issues this week to fill up your interwebs all next week. We need more people!

The big news this week is that Canadian indie pop darlings Tegan and Sara will be in India in November! If you haven’t checked out their Chris Walla-produced latest album Sainthood yet, I highly recommend you do. It’s been a big week for international-bands-coming-to-India announcements. Swedish alt metal biggies Katatonia will headline IIT Bombay’s Livewire this December (do you know someone who knows someone who knows a walkie-talkie-sporting organising commitee member who will sneak you in?), one-time-Iron-Maiden-openers Cyanide Serenity will play four cities next month and next week will see Canadian reggae alt rockers Bedouin Soundclash playing a mini-tour of the country.

And we haven’t even announced the lineup for our very own festival, the NH7 Weekender, yet. Stay tuned for updates.

Speaking of tours, Bangalore folk fusionists Swarathma are currently on a pretty extensive tour of south India. Famed tapori impressionist and bassist Jishnu Dasgupta has been filling us in on the ups and downs of driving coast to coast in a Tempo Traveler. Check out their tour diaries by following this tag.

I highly recommend you check out our interview with Fin Greenall, better known by the moniker Fink. Greenall talks about being an artist and getting creative inspiration, and evolving that inspiration into a sound that’s unique.

This month’s Music Alliance Pact features an Indian band we’ve been digging all this month. Kochi alt prog trio Kaav have an eponymous three-track EP (our review) out that’s pretty refreshing and well worth a listen. Check out our interview with the band, in which they tell us about their origins and their influences.

Here are a few international records I’ve been listening to this week that you should check out

1. Disconnect From Desire – School Of Seven Bells: Their indie pop just went from small club to slightly bigger club. In a good way.
2. The Age of Adz – Sufjan Stevens: The Sufjan metamorphosis you never knew you were always waiting for.
3. The Place We Ran From – Tired Pony: Members of Belle & Sebastian, Snow Patrol, REM and others get together for a sombre, beautifully crafted album.

Stay cool, stay tuned.