Namaskara One and All,
Rohit and I have had slightly different weeks so far. Hectic working hectic twerking. Rohit went back to Bangalore for a little bit and seems to have chilled like mad with his family. Also, he sent me some AMAZING videos of him and his friends in a car singing and dancing along to music in traffic and its too funny (hit me up in secret if you wanna see, don't tell Rohit). Though it seems this last week he has been mad busy with the end of the financial year (big boy talks). I, on the other hand, tried RAMEN for the first time! It was soo good :') Rohit said he had expected me to have tried it already it seems, something about a slight south Asian obsession (I have no idea what he is on about ~desu) I also went for my first Sofar gig in the Netherlands and I am s h o o k. Please please please go to the Sofar website and check them out if you haven't done so already. They put up absolutely stunning gigs with excellent artists and we both have been going for them for a while now.
Now, on to the sauce, no ketchup.
Playlist on Spotify • Playlist on YouTube
San Francisco Street - Sun Rai (AKA Rai Thistlethwayte)
Album: Pocket Music (2013)
This track makes life seem simple, like a vacation. A little bit of pop and a little bit of funk and a healthy scoop of jazz, this is the perfect Sunday morning audio sundae. This US-based Australian artist has a nice soothing voice that doesn't jostle your ear and cuts through the instruments just right. Ain't nothing better than just sitting back and chilling and this is perfect for that.
Sowa - Fatoumata Diawara
Album: Fatou (2011)
This artist from Mali is a shining example of African women empowering other African women through music. Her music is based around her own experiences and speaks to her audience through it. This track is about adopted children and her personal experiences as an adopted child and her step-mother. She twists her music to convey the emotions of the story she is narrating and finds beautiful melodic ways of addressing difficult topics such as adoption.
Remind Me - Emily King
Album: Scenery (2019)
“This has to be one of my best finds recently. Emily King manages to perfectly blend 80s Pop with like a very rustic RnB sound. This song is all about reminiscing over something (anything) and the music seems to play perfectly into that. It starts off with these popular pop chords and then progresses into thumping dance beats with a lot of skillful vocal layering by Emily. This song will make anyone who is feeling down feel better for sure." - Rohit
"Rohit texted me this track link with a very excited set of messages asking me to check it out ASAP. Emily King has this sound that sticks to you, it starts off really chill and then picks up without being too energetic. I'll admit, this song took a little while to grow on me, but I really enjoy it now XD I'd suggest listening to it when walking around and add this to your wandering playlists." -Suchet
Manavyalakinchara (Mist of Capricorn) - Agam
Album: Manavyalakinchara (Mist of Capricorn) - Single (2018)
Agam is magnificent. Their sound brings together the best of Carnatic and rock music to make for an unforgettable live performance. They are very popular and well loved for their music that focuses on intricate classical melodies recreated on the guitar and complimented by Harish Sivaramakrishnan's grasp and control of classical vocals. This piece, in particular, is a rendition of Tyagaraja's piece with an Agam-esque rock twist. They even managed to bring in a choir in this one. If you can catch them live, absolutely go for it. Even being unable to understand the lyrics won't stop you from having a blast.
Stomp - Skrat
Album: The Queen (2014)
"High Octane Awesomeness" is what Rohit called Skrat in the comments he added, and that's easily the best way of describing them. This Chennai-based rock band is one of our faves from the city (others being The F-16s). Skrat has a way of putting a whole storyline across through their music, and all their albums have themes. First is a Samurai (Badass) with a thirst for beer, then comes a Queen and her iron handed reign over her company, and most recently a Bison General who comes to bring calm in the chaos after the Queen. They are fierce, ferocious and flamboyant and if there is anything you should take away from this piece is that they are an absolute treasure live. The energy just keeps coming man, makes you go wild and headbang like mad. Rohit was right when he said high octane, that's for sure.
Anyways, we really hope you enjoyed this! Thanks a lot for reading it till the end, it means a lot to us! Do write back if you have suggestions/feedback/thoughts/music to share, or if you just want to say hi, here are our Instagram handles: @rohit_mathew & @iyer.suchet. We fuel up with feedback so filling out the form would be very helpful. kthankxbye.
Someone great once said "Man's not hot". That just didn't sit right with us (considering we were in Chennai and fuckin hot). Not to mention the hot hot chai we were sippin, which is what you should be sippin with teamix #7. Also please bring back your friend and chair, because you'll need them as well.
That brings this letter to an end, we hope to see you soon :D
Rohit & Suchet
