With more and more artists from India entering the Dance Music Scenario, it has become essential to analyse who are actually making the cut above the rest. Here’s my compiled list of rising talent to look forward to, this year. (In Alphabetical order)
1. Anish Sood: Born and brought up in the party hub of India, Goa, Anish sood is undoubtedly one of the quickest to rise to fame. Starting his career at an age of 16 years, he played at college parties until he got signed for his maiden Sunburn festival, after which he has played in all major festivals like EVC, Aamby Valley and Storm Festival in Coorg. He also hosts a weekly podcast along with Sunburn called “Sunburn On Air” on which, he has also collaborated guest mixes with the likes of Afrojack and Hardwell. Listen to the latest episode of this podcast curated by Anish Sood, here:
2. Argenil: This Techie duo from Bangalore, have produced some tunes that have been streamed over 30 times on the US Radio. They have got a lot of backing from renowned artists. They are however, speculated to be coming up with their own EP, which will be out soon. Keeping in mind, the fusion of indian instruments to produce what they call “Hindustani Dance Music”, they certainly have the calibre to get the crowds dancing this year. Listen to their very first release, “Tha-di-ki-na-thom” , right here:
3. Arjun Vagale: Born in Delhi, Arjun has been a very persistent name in the Indian electronic music scene. He was the man to get the I Love Music Academy to India, to give a chance to other budding producers. He has played alongside many big names in many big festivals, which has also led him to release his first solo album, which differentiates him from the other names in the Indian scene. Listen to one of his more popular songs here:
4. Kerano: Delhi based Kerano, mysteriously rose into the arena when Tom Swoon, announced his new single in collaboration with him. A lot of speculations were made, but the track went on to be a success such that is sat at #4 on Beatport. Kerano is the first Indian producer to achieve such a milestone and has toured alongside the Polish producer Tom Swoon. Listen to “Here I stand” :
5. Lost Stories: The duo, is only the second Indian artist to play at Tomorrowland in Belgium. They fared 16th on Vh1’s top 100 videos of 2014 with the remix of Afrojack’s “How you like me now”. They have opened for many major artists like Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, Martin Garrix, Steve Aoki, Laidback Luke amongst many others in their tours . They released their first album back in 2013, and have been working hard on remixes and own compositions ever since. They’re also known to infuse many bollywood numbers to give a twist to their tracks. Watch the video of “How You Like Me Now” right here:
6. Nucleya: With his latest album called “Bass Rani”, he is taking the Indian electronic music scene to another level. He has played alongside many big artists like Skrilex, Diplo etc in festivals ranging across the world & will be playing the Mad Decent Block Party in India. He is certainly one of the quirky and creative budding artists. He has unique capability to fuse Indian stereotypical music, with famous Indian artists, and make something really funky out of it. His new album, “Bass Rani” is full of tunes which are either remixes or his own productions alongside veteran artists like Sivamani. Nucleya also performs along side Bandish Projekt, which he has also co founded. Listen to his famous album here:
7. Sartek: Sartek released his debut track ‘Apocalypse’ on Magik Muzik/Black Hole Recordings and is the only Indian to release an original single with the label which was owned by the legend, Tiesto. The track got support from Marcus Schossow, Myon & Shane54, First State, Anjunabeats Worldwide and many more. Sartek has also toured extensively with Asia’s largest festival, Sunburn. He has recently collaborated with Lucky date and released a tune on Hardwell’s record label, Revealed Recordings. Listen to “Don’t need love”, right here:
8. (S)haan: The heir of the Sunburn empire, has been touring extensively across the world. Apart from being the first Indian to play at Tomorrowland, this artist has gone to a whole new level with the introduction of a whole stage curated by him at Sunburn Festival called the “Shaan and friends” stage. He has regularly been releasing new tracks along with some originals. The latest to catch the crowd’s ears was his remix of the very emotional “See You Again”, which was a tribute to the late star, Paul Walker. Shaan has also released singles with vocals of major artists like Lauren Evans. He is also very active on various social media, which makes him really amicable with his followers. Listen to his remix of Charlie Puth’s single, right here.
Also read: I’m the Shahrukh Khan at Sunburn – says Shaan
9. Zaeden: With regular gigs and brilliant collaborations, Zaeden makes it well into my list of rising stars. His thumping collaboration with American DJ, Borgeous, has already seen about 1 million views on Youtube. The music has bettered ever since his initial remixes of Coldplay’s Magic and Maroon 5’s Animals. Releasing this new track with Spinnin’ record, this young boy definitely shows some promise. Watch his latest video right here:
Bonus: Aneesh Gera: A sportsperson in the making, who “accidentally” made a seamless transition from sports-pro to music-pro. He’s one of the very few folks out there who focuses more on the production than the DJing. Add to the fact that he holds a degree in Audio Engineering from SAE, we can safely say that he’s in control of his music and more importantly, his equipment., which is very hard to come by nowadays. His music encompasses a wide range of sub-genres, as is apparent from the record labels he’s signed on to: ERIK MORRILO’s Subliminal Records / PAUL THOMAS’ Ultraviolet, MISS NINE’s 925 music,FATBOY SLIM & SONNY WHARTON’s WHARTONE RECORDS / PACHA RECORDS ,BLACK HOLE RECORDS etc.
We definitely need more artists like him in order for the saturated dance music scene to break free from the shackles it currently finds itself entangled in.
With more and more Indians wanting to take EDM as a career, the future of this country is definitely bright in this arena for the years to come.
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