Songs you should listen to: Part 6

Over a month since the last one in this series, so five songs this time.

Mother Earth – Sharreth/Chithra (The Green Symphony)

Found this thanks to @SoundtrackIndia, first single from composer Sharreth‘s album The Green Symphony released by singer K S Chithra‘s official music label Audiotracs. Over 13 minutes in length, the song features some mindblowing progressions typical of the composer, testing the vocal range of Chithra. The shuddha dhanyasi raga based song has Balabhaskar on violin and Balasai on flute leading the arrangement. Video directed by Deepak Fain expectedly features a lot of green and sprawling scenery juxtaposed with studio shots of Sharreth and Chithra. I hope they make this album available online!

Ae Rab – Dhruv Ghanekar/Master Saleem (Coke Studio at MTV Season 4)

Coke Studio at MTV’s latest episode featured the very talented (but underrated, like a lot of genuine talents) Dhruv Ghanekar. And among his three songs from the episode, this happens to be my favourite. The sufi bit of the song apparently draws from a Bulleh Shah work, and Dhruv sets to a loosely raag bhairavi based tune and gets Master Saleem (haven’t heard him in a while) to deliver along with him. The way the song starts off isn’t particularly impressive, but wait till about 2:40 when the flamenco elements kick in and from there on it is a heady ride! The guitars, bass, claps, all gelling with the dark tune brilliantly.

Papa Hai Na – Shamir Tandon/Neeti Mohan (SBI Life)

Balancing out her single on Mother’s Day in a reunion of erstwhile band Aasma, singer Neeti Mohan released another single for Father’s Day titled Papa Hai Na, composed by Shamir Tandon. The song comes under SBI Life’s banner and the video features Neeti and her father, lyricist Brij Mohan Sharma. Sweet song that would rate among Shamir’s better compositions, it features some lovely violin by Manas Kumar.

Barsan Laage Nain – Vasuda Sharma (Attuned Spirits)

One of my favourite songs from Vasuda Sharma’s debut album Attuned Spirits from 2013 (even featured on my top 25 non film songs of the year) recently got a swanky new video that features her new band called Sharma & The Besharams. Interesting video that matches the structure of the song itself – while the song has jazz elements providing the backdrop for Vasuda’s classical-tinged (shades of brindavana saranga) rendition, the video switches between visuals of the band performing in an old school jazz club sort of setting and a bharatanatyam performance (by Lakshmi) in the same venue.

Palli Vaathil – Sanjeev Thomas/Sayanora Philip (Epic Shit)

Another 2013 song to get a new video this week was Palli Vaathil (still don’t know why it is titled so when the actual song goes Palli Vaalu), Sanjeev Thomas’ adaptation of a Malayalam folk song for his album Epic Shit. A video celebrating womanhood apparently, to go with a song that extols Goddess Kaali.