Diwali is here and it’s time to party!
Be it, rounding up your friends and family for food and drinks, or just turning up for a party, you better be ready for some hard-core dancing. So, we have curated a playlist containing some of the most dhinchak (for the lack of a better word) music made by some of the local talents that will get you and your friends grooving. Step aside, DJ Waley Babu, Beat Pe Booty and the likes, this Diwali party just got real:
1. Nucleya – Lights (Ritvix Remix)
Credits: Crumpled Paper (Ron Bezbaruah)
He is one of the few musicians from the Indian indie scene who has made his music reach beyond the urban crowd. His Indian-influenced electronic music has grown to be so popular that people from all corners of the country have started tattooing ‘Fuck That Shit’ on their arms and filling up venues across towns to shout back his lyrics and dance like there is no tomorrow. Say what you may about his music, you can’t deny the fact that when it starts playing, you just can’t get your body to stop. His entire work could probably feature in this list, but this remix is probably one of the best songs you can play to get the party started.
2. Ganesh Talkies – Dancing Dancing
Credits: www.mehtakyakehta.com
One band that we believe needs no introduction. Known for their clichés, flamboyant costumes, and high-energy live performances, Ganesh Talkies was born out of over-the-top drama that we love Bollywood for. Instead of debasing local culture, they decided to embrace it and make something out of it. Catchy beats, groovy vocals fused with a dance-pop/Band Bajaa vibe; these are perhaps apt descriptions of the sound they produce. Their music is often a blend of alt-rock, reggae, ska and pop, therefore creating the perfect music for any party.
3. Madboy Mink – Sharaabi
Credits: www.musicaloud.com
Madboy/Mink is a collaboration between Imaad Shah and Saba Azad. The two rose to fame for being one of the quirkiest and most fun acts to watch these days. Influenced by blues, dirty disco and electro swing sounds, the duo create songs that makes you want to get your booty shaking. Listen to it here.
4. Su Real – Soldiers
Credits: www.whatshot.in
New Delhi-based bass producer Suhrid Manchanda – who performs under the moniker Su Real – creates music that is loosely influenced by trap house. Credited with having brought the Trap genre to India, DJ Su Real is known for his epic drops and catchy hoops that work together with meaningful pop culture references, making his work almost poetic. He fuses traditional desi motifs with international dance music to create songs that will destroy dance floors. His album Twerkistan is a real work of art and the perfect addition to your diwali playlist.
5. Aqua Dominatrix – Kali Kali Aankhein
Credits: Sachin Soni
Producer Akshay Rajpurohit adopted the moniker Aqua Dominatrix for his electronic avatar. His songs range from disco-infused synthpop to techno and acid. This song taps into his Bollywood-loving part of his personality and is a perfect number for your Diwali dance party.
6. Dualist Enquiry – Sleepwalker
Credits: www.youtube.com
The brainchild of producer and guitarist Sahej Bakshi, Dualist Inquiry’s brand of guitar-driven live electronica has sky-rocketed him to success ever since he broke on the scene a couple of years ago. His dreamy and mellow, yet uplifting tracks are great to just sway against. This is one of those tracks that you can play towards the middle, when people need to save their energy, but don’t wish to get off the dance floor.
7. Lifafa – Iraddon
Credits: facebook.com/lifafatunes
Lifafa is the solo project of Suryakanth Sawhney, the frontman of Peter Cat Recording Co. The experimental, dreamy crooning and Bollywood samples —his creations are unlike anything else. In the first go, it won’t seem like the perfect dance number. However, just take a moment, play the song, and now, imagine you are a few drinks down and all you want is to slowly sway your body and chill. Told ya. It’s the perfect song.
8. MALFNKTION – Hindustani Rascal
Credits: www.bandcamp.com
Aditya Alamuru has been producing electronic music since 2014 and his style has since evolved into a blend of electronica, hip-hop and ethnic sounds from Hindustani music, Indian films and field recordings taken during his travels around the country. Hindustani Rascal is a concept album that came into existence after a whole year’s worth of experimentation with Trap, Electronica and classical Indian music. The entire album is filled with sick beats and bass lines. It is supposed to be a homage to Mumbai and Hindustani music. We dig.
9. Achint Thakkar – Tere Bina Nahi Lagda (DnB Remix)
Credits: pyramind.com
Achint Thakkar, the former frontman of psychedelic rock band Rosemary, set of on his solo world music project around three years ago. Since then, he has dropped a remix album of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Radiohead songs called ‘Reinventions’, a few singles and the album ‘Shalimar’. He is known to create generally upbeat music, and this particular remix is our personal favourite. Listen to it here.
10. Live Banned – Ringamukka Kats
Credits: youtube.com
Live Banned is a flamboyant, spunky band that makes music that can be best defined as ‘addictive’. Since all the members are fluent in South Indian languages, they decided to draw on from popular music from each of these languages and fuse it with great riffs to create the perfect dance tracks. This particular song is pretty much a tribute to all the best dance numbers from Tollywood.
11. La Pongal ft. Shaa’ir + Func – Today
Credits: www.youtube.com
La Pongal is a platform for folks music created by ‘Darbuka Siva’ that is on a continuous journey to explore indigenous and traditional forms of art. They create music that is inspired from traditional styles of music, culture and people of different parts of the country. In this particular song, the group collaborated with Shaa’ir + Func to create a high octane folktronica.
12. Swet Shop Boys – Tiger Hologram
Credits: www.diymag.com
The band is a collaboration between New York’s Heems (Himanshu Suri) and NW London’s Riz MC (Riz Ahmed), two amazing artists who decided to bring together their collective experience as musicians with working class immigrant roots. The Trans-Atlantic Indo-Pak duo have fused their worlds together and their songs have heavy influences of their roots. Their music draws from a gumbo of Qawwali hand claps, hype harmonium, Bollywood string drama, spiralling sitars, Western synths, and an arsenal of drums – from 808’s to tablas and tars, dholaks and doumbeks. It’s probably wrong to classify them as local talents, but it just seems even wrong to not include this song in the list. This is probably one of the most Bollywood-esque non-Bollywood song.