GEAR UP FOR THE LIST OF SOME OF THE EXCITING SONGS RELEASED THIS JUNE 2022!

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Anbe

The very first time I heard her was in a track that almost ripped me open thanks to the pathos and her vocals, but I kept complaining that it ended so abruptly. Krithika Nelson is no novice and she planned it that way to indicate how the departure of a loved one from our lives can feel abrupt. This time around I’m so glad she went longer than a couple of minutes. This has all the elements of pathos too and probably brought along by the influences of Raag Charukeshi. Krithika has written, composed and performed this while Jerin C Raj has programmed, arranged, mixed and mastered the track.  This track too carries a message of love, heartbreak and pain and that gets conveyed through the beautifully written words, and vocal delivery by Krithika. The song has a flavor of Vidyasagar’s “Thalattum Katre vaa” sung by Shankar Mahadevan. The use of synths, programmed strings all create the right aura and tonality and especially the sound of the heartbeat. The different ways Krithika sings the word “Anbe” alone is engaging and interesting to hear.

Dhandasoru

I am not entirely sure, but I think Adithya RK did perform this song live in Super Singer show where he contested last year and even did quite well. It is now the time for him to take it and deliver it as an indie official release and it does connect quite well with the audience. He has been quite busy singing for many musicians like Biju Sam, Vijai Bulganin and even Anirudh. This song is a pleasant ride and there is much more to cherish than just Adithya’s vocals. I believe he has the voice that will clearly stay ahead of competition thanks to its uniqueness and his ability to leverage on it by picking the most suitable songs. Simeon Telfer who has been featured before in our lists, has done the programming with additional programming by Vinodh Ravi SUndar, Bharath Raj, Balaji Krishnan (who has done the rhythms). The chorus team does a fabulous job here comprising of Mtihusree, Sajni, Kanimozhi Kabilane ,Arun Gananavel Balaji Krishnan, Jaison P. Mathew and Bharath Raj. Adithya himself plays the acoustic guitars, with Simeon on electric and bass. Jaison P plays the lead guitars and the track is mixed and mastered by Pradeep Menon, with Riyasdeen Riyan on the Dolby mix and master. The lyrics are fantastically witty but kudos to the vocal arrangements and the trumpets programmed on the background.

En Kanmani

The movie is having some very mixed reviews, but I think in terms of its music, it has been a pleasant surprise. Rocketry has a varied group of musicians and the end result is brilliant. Sam CS who has worked with Madhavan in Pushkar-Gayatri’s “Vikram Vedha” has scored the BGM for this, with Billy Dawson composing the songs. Interestingly the lyrics of the song are written by Nambi Narayanan himself, with Dan Konopka working on mixing and mastering of all the tracks. The song sounds like a nice melody that we have come to hear and expect from the singer-songwriters of the West. Aditya Rao is the shoulder on which the song stands tall and rises, as he also plays the role of the vocal arranger. The ability of Aditya to reach those higher scales and do his aalap is simply astounding and he mildly enters the Falsetto zone as well, all coming off quite well.

Enakku Mattum

D Imman scores in his true and patented style taking a classical Indian ragaam and adopting a very nice modified and modernized version or influence of it into a movie song. The song becomes likable by a larger audience without losing any grip on its core melody and that has become a successful formula for the composer. Keba Jeremiah is brilliant on guitars, as he plays the steel, electric and acoustic guitars. This song has influence of Naatai Ragam and one can hear similarities with that Vidyasagar song “Thom thom thithi thom” sung by Hariharan. Nakash Aziz smashes this vocally as he has the perfect tone and texture to sing this breezy number along with lots of attitude. Balasubramani plays the Nadaswaram, while Nathan is flamboyant on the woodwinds, Clarinet, but it is Maxwell who makes the song sound groovy on Trumpets, while Manoj plays the Violin Solo. There is a massive team of vocalists on Harmony involving Santosh Hariharan, Deepak, Shenbagaraj, Aravind Srinivas, Narayanan, Vignesh Narayanan, Veena Murali, Sowmya Mahadevan, Deepthi Suresh, Abinaya Shenbagaraj, Ala B Bala and Soundarya Nandakumar. Yugabharathi writes the interesting words for this song, and the ravishing percussion are performed by Babu,Pradeep,Raja,Balu,Manoj,Saravanan,David,Chiranjeevi and Azhagiri with Kaviraj conducting. The song also bears some similarity with “Dear Brotheru” song composed by Imman and sung by Nakash himself. The track is produced by Ranjan D Imman. Listen to that modified delivery by Nakash singing “ Enakku Mattum Yen , Yen , Yen”a reducing the number of times he says the word with increased pauses, and that sounds like the highlight of the song.

Family paatu

A composer of his standard should get to score more often, but for now I am glad that at least RJ Balaji is giving him the opportunity he deserves. Girishh Gopalakrishnan did exceedingly well in “Mookuthi Amman” and he continues from where he left especially bring back the vocalist Jairam Balasubramanian along with the legendary Bombay Jayashri Ramnath and Debapriya Adhikary. Girishh has composed, arranged and produced all the tracks in the album. His trusted aides come to the fore again, especially this brilliant vocalist who specializes in Opera styled singing Anjana Rajagopalan. Anjana does all the vocal supervision and production with Girish handling the rhythm and keyboard programming. The song I though reminded me of some great numbers like Maestro’s “Sorgame Endralum” and “Om Namaha” and “Isaiyil thodanguthamma” which are all set in Hamsanadham Raagam. But there are traces of Sarang also, and later when I had a word with Girishh I was informed it is more of Shuddh Sarang. Some more terrific instrumentalists like Vedanth Bharadwaj and Keith Peters play the electric and bass guitars respectively. The Sitar in the first interlude is played by Samanwaya Sarkar with the flute being played by the master Lalit Talluri, and here I was reminded of the charanam of “Thendral vandhu ennai thodum”. Debapriya Adhikary also plays the Swarmandal which is like an Indian harp. Listen to that moment when Bombay Jayashri starts singing her lines and it is nothing short of breathtaking, especially when the lead vocalists sing in unison. I truly hope Jairam gets to sing more in Tamil. The second interlude has the Santoor and Sarangi played by Kaviraj Singh Dhadyalla and Murad Ali respectively. The Tabla is played by Ganapathy with mixing and mastering by Sai Shravanam and the thought-provoking lyrics are penned by PA Vijay.

Get up and dance

This Indian classical percussionist Viveick Rajagopalan composed and produced this Fusion Rap project called ‘Ta Dhom Project’ and when you hear the 9 songs in it,you will be understanding the inherent message of oneness and the glory of music itself. There could be a million attempts by every other kind of celebrity to talk about unity and annihilation of religious and caste differences but none can come close to the power of music. I stand up and salute Viveick for this attempt and apparently a single project has never had so many languages being sung. I am reminded of How TM Krishna the vocalist/activist also conceptualizes great projects like these bringing in all kinds of musicians from all backgrounds on a single stage. I loved this song, which was composed, produced by Viveick and he also plays the brilliant solo on the Mridangam. The rap begins and we have not one but 3 amazing rappers MC Awaaz, MC TodFod (who recently passed away) and MC Artslord, for the first time 3 is never a crowd. Listen to the beautiful and strong message in Tamil “ Jathi matham illa nammala pirikka, nadanam iyarkai isai nammala inaikka”. The messages continue further saying “get up and dance and all your illnesses will go away”. Towards the second half before the rap by MC TodFod begins there is one amazing and unique sound like a ‘vessel filled with water’ that is being played on, it is called the Chavndka and Shashank Govind Hadkar masterfully plays it.

Kannethire

A fascinating movie it must be with creativity knowing no bounds when it under the helm of R Parthiban as its director. He is creating the world’s first single shot non-linear film in the world and has roped in the services of AR Rahman for the music. Last month the Shreya Ghoshal number was featured among May’s best tunes and now we have another song from the movie, which is a delightful melody. Sarthak Kalyani is the male lead vocalist ad I have known him from his various indie projects. He is a very talented composer and singer and it feels nice to see him getting an opportunity to sing in Tamil although this is not his debut for A Rahman. It is simple in structure but there is magic in the tune and singing and accompanying instrumental arrangements. The sound of the guitars strumming is unbelievably soothing thanks to Keba Jeremiah who also plays the Charango. The way Sarthak sings the line in the low scale “Un punnagaiyil punithamagi poveno”. The use of the strings section in the background creates depth and variety to the song along and ARR uses the Chennai Strings Orchestra with Jerry Vincent as the conductor. Hiral Viradia is another excellent singer and engineer who works with AR Rahman in many of his projects and she does the humming in the interludes and you will love the notes how they tread along an unpredictable path. Sarthak’s diction of the Tamil words are truly inspiring and just as he sings the pallavi again, Kmalakar’s flute solo plays in the background gently. Nakul Abhyankar is the music supervisor and he has also mixed the track with Suresh Permal on mastering. Riyasdeen Riyan does the Apple digital mastering. This is one of ARR’s gentlest and heartening melodies since “Moongil Thotam”. Parthiban himself is the lyricist for the song and he shows his love and command over Tamil.

Mittai Mittai

We have here probably the best song of June, with Sathosh Narayanan proving the league he belongs to. I recently read Karthik Srinivas’ review of this song and he was correct in asking or wondering why Vijay Narain never gets to sing a lot while he definitely should be. He is in prime for in the song and I am happy Santhosh keeps calling him back for all the lead vocal duties. The female lead vocalist is Karthika Vaidyanathan and the sisters, she and Keerthana are having one of their best periods getting ample and good opportunities as vocalists and deservedly so. The female vocals and the Ukulele by Joseph Vijay start the song off. It is the mostly a Vijay Narain show especially the way he sings “Adiyo mayil aanene, mazhayo athu naan thane” with the synths adding beautifully. The humming in the first interlude by Santhosh is interesting and the stanza is just Vijay’s delivery of some beautiful lines in the higher scale where he is extremely comfortable. Joseph Vijay also plays the acoustic and electric guitars, with Naveen Napier on bass. The second interlude with Karthika’s humming is something you will get addicted to, as she just sings like an endless joyful dream. Aditya Ravindran plays all the additional keys along with Santhosh’s masterful arrangements and programming. Vivek writes some exquisite lines that just bring a smile to your face. Santhosh shows his mastery once again as he creates two stanzas with minute but very noticeable differences like the scale for Kathika is much lower, and the lines are sung by both lead vocalists one after the other in the second stanza while in the first it is just Vijay Narain with pauses in between. The rhythm in the song is another memorable element according to me. The track is recorded, mixed and mastered by Rupendar Venkatesh with Meenakshi Santhosh as the musicians’ co-ordinator.

Mudhala

Nivas K Prasanna is right up there with some of the best talents in the space of music composers and he goes about once again to prove me right. He has a knack of getting the pulse of the younger generation, their likes and dislikes. Nivas also keeps the core melody as an essential for all of his songs and that is why he is not bound to fail too often. Madhan Karky writes the lyrics and one of my favorite singers of recent times, Kapil Kapilan takes the role of lead vocals. Kapil has hit a purple patch, and whenever he songs it turns to gold. Naveen’s flute decorates the interlude but once again it is Keba Jeremiah’s electric guitars and Samson Benjamin’s acoustic guitars that set the perfect tone in the stanza, but I was pleasantly surprised by Darini Hariharan’s splendid vocals, control and sweet voice. She also turns the Jazzy groove on when she shifts to the lower scales. The way the charanam ended it reminded me of Karthik Raja’s “Intha Siripinay” sung by Hariharan. Alex Samuel Jenito is the senior music producer, and Hevin Booster does the sound design along with music supervision. KS Maniratnam does the mixing and mastering. Kapil dominates when the song takes a rock0styled turn towards the end.

Nee Podhum Anbe

These sisters have been rocking of late, singing, composing and all aspects with Vagu Mazan even singing for AR Rahman in “Cobra”, and she is also a brilliant instrumentalist. Vandana Mazan goes entirely solo in this indie project as she produces, composes, writes, performs the song and even conceptualizes, directs and edits the video for the song. The sister Vagu chips in with all the mixing and mastering duties. The song has some excellent layers of bass guitars, Keys and acoustic guitars acting like the perfect base on which Vandana stands and delivers a vocally enriching performance. The EDM influence in the interludes fuse well with the overall tone of the song, and I was amazed with the Veena sounds in the interlude. Sharan Nagalingam is the DOP in the video. The bass guitars also clearly stood for me like a silent assassin lying in wait. Vandan excels in showcasing her wide vocal range in the song.

Paadhai

A wonderful song comes up thanks to some excellent collaborative work from artists around the nation. The song is written by Anand Kashinath who has featured many times here and my articles for Tamil numbers on Behindwoods. He also has produced this brilliant number. Kev and Anand collaborate and worked on this song back in 2020, and like great Tech companies were born out of garages, songs like these originated in rooms during lockdowns. In-fact go read up on this bizarre yet inspiring story of how Kevin Paul a.k.a. Mr. Kev stayed inside his room vowing never to come out till he finished composing an entire album. Kev does the vocals in the first half with Vaisakh Somanath singing the latter part. Kev plays the electric, acoustic and bass guitars, with Baidurjya Banerjee relishing the solo in the middle. It is Vinay Ramakrishnan. I will be listening to the other tracks from this album pretty soon. The track is mixed and mastered by Sajin A Stanly. The electronic sounds from some solid programming adorn track and then Vaisakh takes the track to a newer high with his vocals.  The drums are not just run-of-the-mill, but Vinay is outstanding especially combining with that solo along with Baidurjya, and this segment is pure magic, good enough to outclass any global rock single. The song has a texture and tone resembling “Aaromale” by AR Rahman.

Podhum Podhum

I have always had huge respect for Rajaganapathy right form his Super Singer days, as he was unique. He had the ability to sing any style with versatility and his fundamental knowledge of classical music was unshakable. Here he displays his composition skills and I knew that it was always going to be his forte. Rajaganapathy, has sung, composed and arranged with all additional arrangements by this indie musician Allan Preetham.. Allan also has done the mixing, mastering for the track. I just love the line “ Iravugal thorum, ival mugam thedum” both in music and lyrics and all through the songs romantic elements are kept intact thanks to Naveen Samson and the song has many segments where it reminds us of Harris Jayaraj. The Keys, and harmonies are also excellent additions to the track is you place close attention. Pradeep Chandru and Rajaganapathy are the lyricists. As far as the video goes, Sanjay Sooriya is the DOP and editor.

Serithaana

This is so different from the rest of the songs in the list for the month and it reminds of one of the songs from the 2000s when Yuvan Shankar Raja dominated the scene. Even the vocals sound like they belong to him. Vidusan Kaneswaran is the producer, and he also has written and sung along with Supaveen Bavananthan and the two vocalists provide varying textures that complement each other well. Vidusan has mixed and mastered the track and the guitars are played by Jermiah Joseph with Percussions handled by Mathesh Sivanenthiran. The Lo-fi effect is well employed in the track.

Swasamae

Much like Girishh Gopalakrishnan or maybe a D Imman Vishal Chandrasekar uses the plethora of scales available in in the Indian Classical world and takes influences to wave a a very likable and melodious song. This too has many Raagas intertwined, and it starts off like Maestro’s “Manathil Uruthi Vendum”. The influences I could fathom are a little bit of Gowrimanohari, Bahudhari, Naatai and even some Kaapi Raagas. Rajesh Giriprasad and Mohan Rajan write these meaningful words but Brindha Sivakumar delvers these lines with honesty and a sense of sadness and vulnerability that is demanded for the theme of the song. The strings and vocal harmonies are excellent in conveying the pathos but listen out for that mild flute solo by Lalit Talluri in the background adding to the melody quotient of the song. Triya Sushma, Padmaja Sreenivasan, Aishwarya Khumar form the female chorus while Aravind Annest, Shibi Srinivasan, Pitty Vikram for the male chorus. The Veena by Punya Srinivas accompanied the humming raises the hair on your arms and neck if you know what I mean. The Budapest Scoring Orchestra is brilliantly co-ordinated and conducted by Balasubramainan G with Abhishek V as the co-orchestrator. Jai Ganesh does the mixing, AM Rahmathullah does the mastering and the musicians are supervised by Sinduri S.

Thodarum

Rama Priya Yegasivanathan was part of a debut single by another artist but this time she is singing in her own indie release writing, composing and performing. Sahul wonderfully produces the track also handling the Synths and Keys. These become important as they add lo-fi and modern soundscapes to the core melody. I don’t think the composer tried to use any particular scales but it sounds a lot like Shanmukhapriya Raagam to me. The song talks about the protagonist’s lost love and her yearning. All the commendable vocal arrangements are done by Lak, with Sahul doing the mixing and mastering.

Yosichi yosichi

The Pianist is on fire, as he should be for a movie where the protagonist is supposed to be an expert on the instrument. Aditya Ravindran who has been rising under the wings of Santhosh Narayanan once again smashes this one out of the park with fingers that feel and work like magic wands. The song reminds me of another recent number by Santhosh himself and sung by Aditya called “The Hmm song” from ‘Mahaan’. Haricharan is the vocalist and this becomes an important number for him, because he is showing a side of his we don’t know, zappy, vibrant and cool. Having one of the most gifted voice in the industry along with tremendous hard-work and abilities, Haricharan can elevate any song by a few levels but I haven’t seen him sing anything quite like this in a while at least. He and Santhosh have a go at the vocals and it is Vivek’s ingenious lyrics that sound funny and create interest. The line “enna ippo pogattum” supported by Keyboard programming is the highlight.  The track is recorded by Pranav Muniraj and mixed and mastered by Rupender Venkatesh. Meenakshi Santhosh is the musician’s co-ordinator.