The South Asian region is brimming with new underground electronic music producers releasing everything from house and techno to experimental tracks and bass music, all tied together with pristine production and an appreciation for low-end bass. While they’ve only started flourishing in the past couple of years, they’re the outgrowth of a scene that’s been building slowly over the last two decades, one that includes a network of festivals, venues, DJs, and promoters.
The history of electronic music beginning in the region is long and winding, stretching back to early forays like the NID experiments in late ’60s India, and early ’70s, and the proto-acid rajas of Charanjit Singh in ’82. There was also the world-famous Goa trance scene that peaked in the ’90s and continues to soldier on as psytrance. There are other contemporary musical developments as well, including underground hip-hop, electronic fusion, and a local AfroDesi remix culture similar to diaspora movements like LA’s No Nazar and London’s Daytimers. But the regional underground electronic scene’s new developments stand out, with a genre-agnostic approach expressed through original productions that tone down most overt references to their South Asian musical heritage.
Many of the current scene’s players and sonic output can be traced back to venues like Mumbai’s Zenzi Bar and the Magnetic Fields Festival. Rafiki, who helped lay the framework for a lot of what’s happening now through his full-service label Krunk, says he first experienced drum & bass at Zenzi. It inspired him to become a DJ, and he began throwing his own parties at the venue in 2007, playing jungle, breaks, and drum & bass. The bass music scene grew over the years, attracting up to 800 people a night at local venues during its peak, eventually incorporating speedier UK dubstep and glitch hop. Rafiki was throwing events all over the country alongside a couple of other local bass music collectives. By the mid-’10s, four-to-the-floor beats started to overshadow bass music, with a massive techno scene and a healthy house music circuit spreading across many Indian cities. But there still were only a handful of local producers by this point and DJs were still playing Western productions.
It’s now realistic for an underground electronic music DJ to build a career touring within the country, which last year overtook China as the most populous nation in the world. Krunk alone does 30-40 events per month, in addition to several festivals a year. The circuit revolves mainly around the four major cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Goa, but venues and parties are now happening in second and third-tier cities as well. “The music has traveled all the way to far parts of the country and people are happy to come out and have these experiences,” says Monophonik, one of India’s earliest and more successful producers. But he goes on to point out that the smaller cities can be a bit trickier to play. “Audiences in the more metropolitan cities are much more open-minded towards new forms of music. So if I were to play in a smaller city I’d play it a bit safer. They’re more used to four-on-the-floor.”
While India is the powerhouse of the region, other countries have seen pockets of growth as well. There’s Jambutek and Thattu Pattu in Sri Lanka and the Grasslands Festival in Nepal. Pakistan has witnessed exponential growth in the past few years as well. “As someone who started when there was nothing—like four or five producers in all of Pakistan—what we have now is a pretty big deal,” says Rudoh, one of the country’s most established producers. “We had no idea this could happen.” Resident Advisor recently premiered a mini-documentary on the budding Pakistani scene and Boiler Room threw its first event there in 2022. Unfortunately, because of the conflict between the Indian and Pakistani governments, it’s very difficult for locals to travel between the countries, so Pakistani DJs don’t get to take advantage of the Indian touring infrastructure.
With the explosion of DJs across India, being a producer offers an edge. “We have too many DJs in India now,” laughs Rafiki. “But it’s helping the scene grow because they create more parties and clubs. And the number of producers has really started increasing in the last two years. It’s very rare that only DJs get booked for festivals anymore. You definitely need to be an artist now. Ninety percent of Indian acts we book produce their own music. The shift is pretty evident.”
Here is a selection of tracks from the region over the past year or so.
Adil
“Solitary”
Adil hails from Nagpur, a city in the exact center of the subcontinent, and he produces a range of music from beat tapes to intricate bounce flips of local rap hits. “Solitary” drips with powerful emotion, a slowed-up future garage track with pitched-down vocal hymns and rumbling subs contrasted with soaring synths and glittering arpeggios.
Ishan Mukherjee
“Kolm“
This emotive, lo-fi techno track is full of crunchy basslines and reverb-drenched countermelodies, with buried but sturdy kicks and swinging hi-hats. Ishan Mukherjee is based in Hyderabad and moves back and forth to Bengaluru, throwing events with the Safar Collective. They host events every two or three months featuring emerging and established artists from different genres and release concept compilations with Indian and international acts. He says that the events draw between 100–150 and 50–75 people, depending on the night. While they’re not losing money, most of them are not building a career off of it yet. The collective’s most recent compilation, Perceptions I, was released earlier this year, and features mainly Indian artists.
MIRZHA
“Home“
MIRZHA is a Delhi artist adept at wringing feeling out of ones and zeroes, creating passion with digital tools that take you on a flight. Fuzzy but rich synths and skittering percussion lay the foundation for ping-ponging, melodic blips and comforting vocal hues in this future bass-adjacent track. He’s affiliated with the EDM-driven Quality Goods Records, which often surfaces Indian artists along similar lines to MIRZHA within its more generally brain-rattling output.
Tasnneem
“Aren’t I?“
Bengaluru’s Tasnneem—one of a distressingly few female artists in the scene—dropped this chill acid squelcher on Qilla Records (which has a new compilation out called Chakravyūh and is one of India’s older underground electronic labels.) “Aren’t I?” is a slow churner that builds a vibe while progressing in subtle but engaging ways, full of steely percussion, stabbing retrofuturistic synths, and hypnotic reverb.
Rudoh
Vell – “Burning Trees (Rudoh Remix)“
Pakistan’s Rudoh dropped this track full of rolling hand drums and skittering breaks, which flow beneath punchy bass melodies and airy pads, and are followed by edgy midrange melodies and strange effects. It’s a remix of a cut by Vell, founder of the Bangkok-based Boiled Wonderland Records, that constantly evolves and keeps offering welcome surprises. There’s been a lot of interaction between the Thai and Vietnamese scenes with the South Asian scene. Rudoh helps run Jugaar, a label that fosters those relationships. He’s also performed at multiple clubs and festivals in Thailand.
Salr
“Chasing Euphoria“
This minimal shaker by Salr is designed to keep the serotonin flowing beyond sunrise, shuffling along in a timeless space neither here nor there. It begins with delicate syncopation, then shifts into heavy 4-by-4 kicks with big analog synths. It’s followed up by chanting vocal melodies and, for the finale, a touch of distant, warbling strings. The track was part of Goa-based Bonk Records‘s compilation Bonkscapes Vol. 1, a release featuring everything from ’90s Bollywood samples and dhol rhythms to liquid drum & bass and peak-time bangers.
Monophonik
“Tumbi“
2 x Vinyl LP
Monophonik creates the primary sounds for his music using modular synths, then surrounds them with altered samples and digital effects. He fleshes out this acidic, breaks-y track with house-y streaks and atmospheric effects. It was released on Jugaar and performed with Rudoh at the recently-shuttered Bangkok club Never Normal in what some people are calling the first-ever B2B set between artists from Pakistan and India. Rudoh is a little more shy than others in calling it the first, but says, “If you think of the chances and circumstances to bring such artists together, it’s very rare. It’s common for the diaspora in places like London, though.”
OX7GEN
“June Moon“
This is a smooth, lo-fi house track with soulful, metallic synth melodies by Mumbai’s OX7GEN and Goa’s Schlick that builds into a solid groove with bass-y melodies, plinking arpeggios, and spacey effects. It dropped on Krunk Kulture, the record label affiliated with Rafiki’s larger company. They focus on releases mainly by South Asian artists, including those from Nepal and Sri Lanka. Rafiki says that Krunk flew under the international radar, despite 15 years of history, until the launch of the label two years ago, opening up a new level of exposure beyond the country’s borders.
MUKT x Captain Fuse
“Vaari“
Mumbai artists MUKT and Captain Fuse usually travel in the AfroDesi edit and rap scenes, and are more commonly associated with crews like Ghelo. But here they pair up for a near-spiritual jungle track, with warbling vocals riding over deep bass melodies and sparkling keys. Midway through, it slows down to focus on a simple but engaging metallophone melody before diving back into shiny synths and bubbling subs for a breakneck conclusion. The two have a more recent future bounce track together called “Slow Down,” but “Vaari” hits too deep to pass up here.
I7HVN
“Hotlock Groove“
Minimal? Tribal? Tech house? All of the above. Bengaluru’s i7hvn is a genre-hopping producer who manages to crush all of these different sounds into a deep and dark roller of track, complete with intricate subtleties and regular switch-ups. Heavy swinging highs and clattering percussion dance around metallic hand drums and hard kicks while chanting vocal clips round out the mood. He’s the founder of the experimental Safar Collective, but this track comes courtesy of prolific techno label Observant from the same town. As large as India is, the underground electronic scene is still clearly very tight knight.
Synister
“Atonal Kingdom“
And finally, we sign off with a sultry techno cut from Bengaluru’s Synister (the techno alias of well-established psytrance artist Braindrop). “Atonal Kingdom” lulls listeners into an elevated state with panning effects, cavernous reverb, and chilly white noise. It’s a fairly simple track that keeps things interesting with a subtle but constant evolution. The release comes courtesy of Goa techno stalwarts Occultech Recordings, which you can rely on for your big four-to-the-floor fix.
