India is a country with such an embarrassingly rich musical history that it boggles the mind as to how good it is, and it’s not merely their traditional music.  Jazz, pop, progressive rock, metal and everything else you can imagine seems to flourish there, yet there is only one problem.  There is very little effort exerted to spread their fine music culture outside their borders in the way, say, South Korea or Japan have.

As this blog is focusing more on outside music, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay and our friend Raffaele Pezzella have compiled a list of the best experimental musicians from the Sub-Continent.  All of these are new names for me, so to say this is an exciting release is an understatement, but Unexplained Sounds Group consistently surprise me.

The standout track for me is Ajivika by Hemant Sreekumar.  It reminds me of some of the older ritualistic experimental music I used to enjoy on cassette like Kallabris.  Engaging, weird, a bit creepy at times, but this comp is something else.

Hear Aijivika below: