The Indiecision ‘10 is a recap of the year gone by in Indian indie and a recognition of the work of its artists and those involved with the creation and promotion of the music.
The Best Album Indian is the best album released by an Indian independent artist in 2010.
The Return To Darkness
Demonic Resurrection
It’s been a massive year for Mumbai death metal heavyweights Demonic Resurrection. The band played some mammoth international metal fests, were awarded the prestigious Global Metal award at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods ceremony in the UK, and were reviewed by what seems like every single metal webzine on the internet. All this came on the back of the band’s third studio album, perhaps the quintet’s most accessible release. The Return To Darkness finally saw DR walk the fine line between technical mastery and unaffected songwriting. Songs like ‘The Final Stand’ and album highlight ‘The Unrelenting Surge Of Vengeance’ reflect a band that’s found its feet and is ready to incite jump into a crushing moshpit. For a band that’s a decade old, this record signals a new beginning.
From Space
The Circus
New Delhi alt rockers The Circus first appeared on our radar courtesy Channel V’s Launchpad competition in 2009. At the time, the band was perhaps the rawest talent on the show – a fresh bunch with great material that, with refining, had the potential to be pretty damn awesome. A year later and New Delhi quartet put out a record that could well make them the Scribe of Indian alternative. Imaginative, often tongue-in-cheek songwriting meets effects-heavy guitar rock on this 10-track stomper, that’s as refreshing a listen on record as it is live. With a little direction and drive, these kids from the capital have the chops to make it big.
Snakeism
Adam and The Fish Eyed Poets
The idea that someone could make such an inventive album single-handedly seems a little ridiculous. Snakeism is a lot of things – at times dark and industrial, bluesy and sometimes optimistic in its harmonica moments, occasional outright cheerful teen-drama-happy-ending music – with some of the strongest melodies and most contemplative lyrics we’ve seen from an Indian band this year. Adam and the Fish Eyed Poets, the solo project of Kishore Krishna, expertly covers an entire spectrum of emotion with reverberant husky vocals creating an album deeply entrenched in late ’80s/early ’90s-ness and that leaves behind an aftertaste of Duran Duran/INXS/wanting Kishore to sign your boobs.
Mantis
Shaa’ir + Func
Shaa’ir + Func’s third album took the longest to make (a little over two years), but it was their most layered work to date, revealing new sonic flourishes every time you listened to it. Unlike New Day and Light Tribe, which were specific artistic statements, Mantis was more conceptually diverse, tackling a wide range of subject of matter from cultural identity (‘My Roots’) to consumerism (‘Sexy Scam’). Fans looking for artistic evolution found that Mantis was more a step left, than a step up but that was still a major achievement. There were all the trademark elements: sticky melodies, philosophical lyrics, breaks, blips and beats, and an even stronger sense of conviction that permeated each word and sound.
Mark Of Teja
Scribe
In the barely-two years between the release of Confect and Mark Of Teja, Scribe went from being a Mumbai underground metal scene band to a Norway-touring, Lamb-of-God-opening, headline material, nationwide underground metal scene band. Their obvious Bollywood affectations notwithstanding, the band honed a finely balanced asymmetric assault into a set of markedly refined arrangements that while still relatively angular, came together far more cohesively.
This is Scribe’s most tenacious album yet. The product of a band that’s as ingenious as they come, Teja could well be one of the defining Indian indie records of our generation.
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