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The Emerging Record Labels In India

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fwd life The Emerging Record Labels In India1

Making sure that good, homegrown music is heard!

Text: Devika V Menon   Photos: Various Sources

Artists are aplenty when it comes to talent, especially music. Music is therapy, and it moves and connects people. For someone who can’t differentiate a guitar from a bass, I believe anyone who can do so is talented. There’s so much more to music than what meets the eye.

Founded in 1887, almost 130 years ago, was the first and oldest record label, known as the Columbia Phonograph Company, which is now known as Columbia Records. For the uninitiated, a record label is like a publishing company, where there is never ending search for musicians and good talent that they think the world needs to hear. In the international music scene, there are only three major labels since 2012, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group.

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In India, every movie is a musical. They’re jam-packed with song sequences. Record labels sign up movies and then release the songs from that particular movie as an album. Major labels like T-Series and Saregama still do the same, but the music scenes in India have come a long way since. There are more artists coming up with soulful music that is not part of the film industry. There are bands that have become so popular that labels have requested for their songs to be a part of movies.

There’s more to music than just what’s in the movies. There are many more genres than our usual love songs and songs of heartbreak. EDM, House Music, Reggae, Jazz, and many more, are genres of music that are quite well known around the globe. Whatever music we are familiar with, are all artists signed up by record labels. Having said that, there has been a surge in music makers in India. Be it bands, singers or musicians, they all want their work to be recognised. This need gave rise to record labels in India.

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Several labels have come and gone through the years, but these are the ones that we think will stick around for a long, long time!

Pagal Haina is a Delhi-based label by Dhruv Singh. They don’t have any particular genre, but if Dhruv believes in them, they are taken onboard.

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Azadi Records, founded by Mo Joshi and Uday Kapur. They choose music that has a socially relevant cause.

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Qilla records, in Delhi, by Madhav Shorey and Gaurav Malekar has been quite focused on Underground Dance Music.

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Lowlit Records is a genre-less music label that is uncompromised and forward thinking. Lowlit records is run by Vishnu PS and Nikhil Kaul.

Makthub Music Records has a penchant for high-quality dance floor tunes, nurtured by Techno veteran Arjun Vagale.

High Chai Records’ contribution to the electronic music scene in India has been as great as their urge to finding the best and latest of dub, dubstep drum and bass sounds from the region.

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Dualism, by Sahej Bakshi and Tej Brar, has an objective to help Indian Music fans discover their next favourite artist.

Kadak Apple Records believe that all good music sounds Kadak, Started by Tejas Menon and Krish Makhija, they describe themselves as a Not-for-profit organisation.

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Devon Records is one of India’s premium EDM based music label, based out of Mumbai. This label is dedicated in promoting genres of music like House and Dubstep.

Wind House Records was the first House Music label in India. Also from Delhi, Hamza has made a mark for himself and for House Music in India.

ennui.BOMB’s brains, Rishu Singh, has been bombing musical boredom since 2004! They function as a Record Label, Artist Managers, Booking Agents, Concert Organizers & Consultants.

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Consolidate, launched by Rahul Giri, was once a music collective and a blog, but now it is also a Record Label.

Most of these record labels above have been kind by giving us some amazing music to listen to. Have anymore to add to the list? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Ashwin Bhaskar I Making Waves In The K-pop Universe

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The limelight is nothing new to the 27 year old Singer-Songwriter Malappuram native, Ashwin Bhaskar who went crazy viral last year for his insane dialogue remix – Perfect Ok. He is back and is making waves in the world acclaimed K-pop music universe as well.

Ashwin has released a cover collaboration of the Korean hit single Tattoo with the original singer herself – AleXa and is racking up raging views. The music video currently Trending #24 on YouTube Music is a huge shoutout to all the K-pop die hard fans right here in Kerala and we couldn’t be prouder!

Watch it here:

Checkout his music on Spotify and his latest single Story In A Nutshell.

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The Upcoming and Released Album Calendar

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It’s nearly impossible to keep up of everything that’s coming out each year, with more music being released every year. The options are seemingly unlimited, ranging from pop to hip-hop to alternative to K-pop to country, not to mention vinyl, re-releases, and collectible editions.

Check out these upcoming and released Albums-

Sept 3-

Drake, Certified Lover boy

Sept 10-

Diana Rose, Thank You

September 17-

Daughtery, Dearly Beloved

September 24-

Diddy, Off the grid Vol 1

October 1 –

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennet, Love for sale

October 8-

Lala Lala, I Want the Door to Open

 

Words by: Malavika Venugopalan

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The Musical Journey of Adheef Muhamed

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The 15-year-old boy, who won first in Urdu recitation at the 47th Kerala State Kalolsavam from Trivandrum, is now waiting for his upcoming Tamil movie track release, mesmerizing many.

Playback singer, Adheef Muhamed with his new release ‘Vidhooram’, found his passion at a very tender age through various school curricular programs like singing Mappila pattu and Urdu recitations. Later the baby steps he took as part of having fun during school days, turned to a passion driven career with his magical voice behind many songs mumbling on many lips.

Adheef came into limelight with his viral cover of ‘Mukkathe Penne’ which was released in the year 2014. The friendship bond between the friends and culmination of talents has made the cover happen along with the band ‘Elayappam’ featuring Nipin, Vishnu, Ebi, Sanu, Ramkumar. ‘Pazhamthamizh paattu’ was the first cover from the band, with an entirely different mood with Arabic arrangement. Their cover songs were more captivating to the audience during that time, and that paved the way for many other opportunities for them.

“During break times, we used to go to a nearby tea-shop to enjoy our tea break in between the jamming sessions along with discussions, and ‘Elayappam’ was the snack we all used to order unanimously which later became the name of our band. It was also a realization of how food and music were connected,” he said, reminiscing the initial days.

Adheef being the first person to suggest this name for the band had a genuine connection to the title, as it was closely knitted to their friendship and life.

His last independent work named ‘Goodman’ was an experimental track which was released before the pandemic as a visual treat. He gives the credit to the amazing crew which consisted of the lyricist Vinayak Sasikumar, DOP Venu Sasidharan Lekha and the wavelength they have in terms of unique output of the track.

Talking about his works he says “The future is all about independent music, which I knew right from the beginning, and I was always interested in collaborating with different talents and that’s how the beginning of my official YouTube channel happened. ‘Muthu Nava Ratnam’ is a song which is closely gelled with my family since it was the song my mother used to sing for me to sleep. And I always wanted to do a cover version of the song as it’s very much relatable to us”.

“I don’t compromise on video as I believe it’s an important element in every track of mine and I give 50-50 efforts to both audio and video. I strongly believe that the visual element was one of the main reasons the song has got its reach, although the song itself has its essence of magic no matter what the visual was.” he added.

‘Maraigirai’, a Tamil track released in the year 2019, is a familiar track with 12 million views in YouTube trending even now with a huge fan base. When asked about the success of the song Adheef says.

“For me success is the impact the songs have on people who listen to them. I happened to talk to a person who was a survivor in life, who told me once that ‘Maraigirai’ helped him throughout his healing process which made me happy, and I think responses like these are the true definition of success for me.”

He says, the places or people surrounding him were not into a professional music career and he is grateful to himself and to the evolving process along with the band, in trying out new things and this drive was the push for stepping onto the next opportunity.

“I never dreamed about becoming a playback singer and I’m very content with whatever I have right now and I’m grateful for all these opportunities I got, and the path I have come across.

I have seen both the phases of Malayalam cinema, where becoming a playback singer was a difficult opportunity, and the current scenario where many talents are finding opportunities in movies and they are growing through different digital platforms in the social media.”

Adheef has sung in many different languages. “The pulse of Malayali audiences are different from other industries in terms of acceptance” he remarks.

The fast phase of the growing Malayalam music industry with upcoming talents can be seen everyday with many drastic changes. As time goes by, I think there might not be typical song sequences in the Malayalam movies. As a drift comes in the making of the movie the growth of independent music can also be seen evidently” he says.

Sharing about ‘Vidhooram’ and its happiness

 

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A post shared by Adheef Muhamed (@adheef_muhamed)

“This is the first time I’m approaching something like this track which is very much ambient, and I’m experimenting with a low base tone in my singing. I’m getting many positive responses for this track” he said while talking about his recently released Independent track ‘Vidhooram’ by Ryan Biju Sam and mixed by Abin Paul.

Out of the box thinking and understanding the pulse of the audience is what makes Adheef Muhamed different, and drives him to go ahead with his passion.

Check out his new Tamil track from the movie ‘Lift’ named ‘Hey Bro’ starring Kavin and Amrita Iyer, Music by Britto Micheal.

Words by: Anjali Ram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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