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Music

Week on Week: The VICE India Mixtape

A song for each day of the week, throwing in a mix of new releases and some #throwbacks too—everything from homegrown hip-hop to Bollywood (uh-no?) and K-pop—we gotchyu.
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Credit: Fawaz Dalvi

Attempting to keep up with new releases is exhausting. And the never-ending quest to discover an act before they hit >1000 plays on Bandcamp is all but rewarding. Having given up full-time music writing a little while ago, more often than not, I find myself feeling a mix of FOMO and IDGAF about new, local music while compiling my Spotify playlists. With this feature, we (that is I) aim to put together a weekly mixtape—without being (a) judgemental asshole(s).

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For this week’s edition, we’ve got the peeps from Mixtape to throw in some reccos—from the team out there and some of their artists—to brighten up your Fri-yay!

“Happy Man” by Jungle

“This band holds a special place in my heart. The way I discovered them, their story as a band, their growth and everything else is just inspiring for me in every way!”
—Naveen Deshpande, Founder @ Mixtape + lighting engineer par excellence

“Din Raat” by Lifafa

“I've watched Lifafa perform a couple of times and got introduced to his music through these performances. He's an artist I found myself trying to dig deeper into after a show and that is always a great feeling. I love his groove. Similar with Peter Cat Recording Co, he's been able to carve an identity that is unique and easily accessible. And for just that I will always be interested to hear more.”
—Anu Anna George, Artist Manager @ Mixtape + fellow Sky Rabbit lover

“Liquorlip Loaded Gun” by Sticky Fingers

“Sticky Fingers is one of those rare bands for me where I can listen to almost their entire discography and not skip a single song. Australian reggae-rock, drenched in colours of summer and the beach, their music has feel good written all over it. This one in contrast is a bit more moody but captures the vibe of the band. This song means so much more to me now after spending a month in Australia with my brothers from Skyharbor while recording our last album, playing this record a fair number of times, driving alongside the ocean in the Australian east coast.”
—Aditya Ashok, Producer @ OX7GEN

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“Flake” by Jameszoo

“Flake” opens Jameszoo’s 2016 album, Fool, and we chose it because it exemplifies of a lot of the qualities we love to hear in modern electronic music, and in music in general. It has interesting sounds, cool harmonic and melodic ideas, and injects a distinctly human character into the electronic elements of the music. ‘Flake’ begins with a unique and captivating combination of found sounds, synthesisers, keys, and drums (among other elements), and presents a general sense of wonderful weirdness. It then unexpectedly moves into a funky hook that grows beautifully, marries various warm synth-sounds with tasteful piano-playing, and admirably makes all of the sonic strangeness holding the track together wholly accessible."
—Paraphoniks, Mumbai-based producers who made this!

“Shutdown” by Skepta

“I'd been following Skepta for a while before I finally saw him play the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury a few years ago. The way he held the crowd of a 100,000+ people together through his entire set really changed my perspective about Skepta as an artist, and Grime music overall.”
Sainath Bhagwat, Artist Manager @ Mixtape and DJ @ Carius

“Hideaway” by Jacob Collier

“Jacob Collier delights the listener with an easygoing melody that sits on top of a rich instrumental bed, while the rhythm counters the groove in a subtle grace. Pure compositional class and a band favourite.”
—VOCTRONICA, who you might know from here, here or here

“Lovedrug Climbdown” by Pentagram

“Man, I love this band. I really, really do. It’s a pity that real life, artistic differences (or a hiatus here and there) and busy AF personal schedules end up hampering the progress on new music, touring and other harmonious shit in the life of a band. Like a wise ex-boss once said to me, “Band’s are people too, man—and they’re not making the music for you. The sooner you learn that, the better it will be.” I reckon the wait for new music from the band has all but extinguished from my life, but I don't want to lose the joy in watching them live. So play a goddamn gig soon; let’s make it a Penta-party!
PS. Don’t miss the kickass music video by Sameer Kulavoor."
Naman Saraiya, Producer, reminiscing the 2014 Lovedrug Climbdown Tour

Check out our previous editions here.