Week on Week: The VICE India Mixtape

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).

This week, I’ve rounded up a bunch peeps behind the sick new Mumbai festival titled Terminal-1 (and some behind the decks), happening on January 18-19 at Famous Studios. The lineup boasts the likes of Mount Kimbie (!!!), Aux88, Alienata, and a shit ton of homegrown talent including personal favs such as Peter Cat Recording Co, Sid Vashi, Kumail, and more.

“A track that shows the group’s versatility and beautiful structure of melodies from all styles of techno and the beautiful way Aux88 incorporates Japanese culture and stylings of German heroes Kraftwerk. The LP and track will be long sought after for years to come.”
—Aux88, pioneers of Detroit’s bass-heavy techno scene

“Heard this song at a Resolute party, one of my favourite parties in New York. The sun was rising over the city and it was just about 100-150 people in the room dancing with this track blasting on this amazing sound system…such a special moment. It's an unreleased track and the artist is a friend of mine from Romania, Vlad Arpasu. No one does it better than the Romanians! I can dance to this kind of stuff for hours…”
—Jai Anand, founder of Milkman!

“Thanks to one of the greatest Gs of all time for sending me this 🔥 panty dropper. Fingers crossed, one day we see the man first-hand on a floor near us. Hear me drop more of these at Terminal 1 next weekend!”
—Yohann Jamsandekar aka Spacejams, resident Milkman! DJ

“San Francisco based Ose aka Arushi Jain originally hails from Delhi. A classically trained Hindustani vocalist, she's crafting some beautiful sounds using modular synths and her voice. She brings together classical vocal tradition with glitch, ambient and noise in a fresh-sounding and distinctive way. As I'm opening up the festival on Saturday, I'm looking to warm up the room with ambient and experimental sounds before the all-out assault that's sure to follow in the later hours. This is my favourite track from her debut EP, you can check out the rest of her music on Bandcamp and her monthly Boxout.fm show."
—Manaalina, DJ (check out her show here)

“Dude Energy's crafty deep house instantly uplifts my mood. One of the first techno songs I fell in love with. Since i'm a graphic designer, I look at the artwork of this track as inspiration for a lot of my graphics. It’s a peppy beat with a sun-kissed sheen that makes my feet tap instantly. You don't need to be a tech lover to love this one!”
—Nida Merchant, graphic designer at Milkman!

“I love this track from the first time I heard it 3 years ago. It is one of those electro cuts that you can put on at any time in a session. I normally like to play this from the beginning, because the intro is magical. Then, when the beat arrives, I just feel like jumping! Always working, space funk vibes. Glad to have released this beauty on my label Discos Atónicos.”
—Alienata, DJ and self-proclaimed sound obsessive

“Yaar, someone make this Suryakant Sawhney a superstar already. His solo project, Lifafa, just dropped his debut album Jaago a couple of days ago‚ and I can’t get enough of it. Nikamma is a such a tune, and I can’t wait to watch him play the entirety of this record (#hopeful) next weekend, and hoping the audience are left flabbergasted by what the fuck hit them. Genius songwriting, effortless vocals and intricate, beautiful production. More please.”
—Naman Saraiya, producer and looking forward to Jaago-ing into 2019 soon enough

Buy tickets to Terminal-1 here .

Check out our previous editions here.