What’s up party people! The action for the Fifa World Cup in June is heating up with the release of the official album including Shakira’s Dare (La La La La) and Pitbull’s anthem We Are One. The whole album looks great with its Brazilian fusion beats. Also check out Sam Jade’s official Socceroo’s World Cup song Up! It’s a catchy and fitting anthem for our national team, available as a single on iTunes.
Melbourne’s funkiest band The Bombay Royale have announced a new album The Island of Dr Electrico with some fresh new beats coming out 2 June. It’s the follow up to the hugely successful You Me Bullets Love, and to celebrate they’ve got a free download of Kis Taref, which is not on the album itself. Check out their label Hope Street Recording’s website (hopestreetrecordings.com/electro) for more info. I’m looking forward to the release and some more Bengali cool.
There have been quite a few Bollywood films and soundtracks over the past month. I’m not feeling all of them but one I do like is Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s 2 States. These guys are the gold standard for Indian music alongside AR Rahman and they rarely disappoint. Not to mention their amazing high energy live shows as witnessed down under a couple of years ago. As usual there are some beautiful melodies including Mast Magan by Arijit Singh and Chinmayi Sripada. Arijit’s a man in demand at the moment; he also features on Sajid Wajid’s Main Tera Hero. Songs include Besharmi Ki Height (Benny Dayal, Shalmade Kholgade) and Palat Tera Hero Idhar Hai (Arijit). Elsewhere Kanika Kapoor’s Baby Doll from Ragini MMS 2 has taken off, controversy or otherwise!
Priyanka Chopra’s renowned as a Bollywood actress and of course former Miss World. She has 12 million fans on Facebook alone and nearly 6 million followers on Twitter. What’s interesting for me though is her singing. She’s really showing some promise with this. There was In My City with Will I Am but what really caught my attention was the release of Exotic with Pitbull last year both as a single and a string of remixes. It was a success and the video was well received with 37 million views. Now she’s continuing her good work on the scene with a new single I Can’t Make You Love Me on Interscope Records. Check it out on iTunes, she really is a talented and versatile artist.
In Punjabi cinema, Disco Singh has been a massive hit and the music stars popular vocalist Diljit Dosanjh. I gotta admit this guy both looks good and sounds good. He’s got the proper Punjabi vibe without sounding crazy hardcore. In other words his voice is nice and he sounds relaxed! There are seven songs, all of which are short and sweet and worth checking out. The ones grabbing the limelight and doing particularly well in the charts are Happy Birthday and Sweetoo. I do like the clever use of Punjabi and English in the words of Happy Birthday, continuing the trend of mashing it up in a way which is cooler than my bro Taz Stereo Nation.
Scottish Punjabi Sukhi Dosanjh is in the house with a new album including Ghagre De and Gabru. I think it’s pretty good with its trademark bhangra sound. Sukhi’s both a singer and songwriter who’s been on the scene for a long time. Dhol Beats International (DBI) has teamed up with Saini Surinder on Aambh Dha Boota, a good mix of hip hop and hardcore desi Punjabi vocals. Yankees Gunjan and Bikram Singh have also collaborated on Kawan 2, which is the follow up to their original slow song Kawan. It’s a decent effort and if you liked the first one you’ll enjoy this too. Finally, some dance vibes from Tigerstyle who certainly enjoy their electronica beats, their latest single is Shartaan with female vocalist Sakina. It’s worth a listen.
That’s it for this month! For more on the latest in the scene, check out my weekly radio show Mumbai Masala at www.pbsfm.org.au (available on demand online or live in Melbourne on 106.7 PBS FM, Monday evenings 7pm-8pm). You can also listen using TuneIn app or PBS Radio’s iPhone and Android apps. Get in touch with me on Twitter and Facebook. I’d love to hear your feedback on this column and the show via my website www.richimadan.com, info@richimadan.com. Peace out.
Published in The India Sun (Indian Magazine in Austrlia)
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