Hello, back from the dead or to make it less grim – back from the lo-ong undeclared hiatus I took from this blog just because my other parts of life warranted more attention, and this blog space is strictly a carefree hobby of mine.
I have been listening to a lot of music like I always do, and I noticed I wrote a post on my then current playlist a lo-ong while back. I discovered some new music in the last few months, courtesy of YouTube recommendations, TV series of different regions, fan videos from those shows, as well recommendations from my peers. And of course, since I have listened to all kinds of music throughout my life, there are a lot of old music of different genres from back then. For some reason, listening to some of those songs sitting far away from home, reminds me back of my life there, and just feels familiar and comfortable.
Without further ado, here is the link to my mixtape for this month. Music has always been an integral part of my life eversince I grew up in a family of people who loved, appreciated, and even participated in art. My young aunt used to be a singer, and I remember in my childhood days, my failed attempt at learning classical Bengali songs. I prefer appreciating over participating. We used to have dozens of mixtapes from Classical Bengali, Classical Indian to early Bollywood music in our previous home. Also, growing up I had my own collection of mixtapes, CDs, & Mp3 collections. Obviously, I could not carry all those mixtapes and CDs with me when I moved here. However, nowadays with everything being digital, it is easy to find music even from those eras on YouTube. I do miss the old world where things used to be tangible and you could boast your collection of mixtapes, CDs, or even vinyl records if you had them.
Some of the Bengali songs in this playlist, I literally had not heard in years. There used to be this Bangla underground band called Icons, sometime in the late 90’s or early 20’s probably. Two of their songs – Snato & Oporanho – from that album used to be my absolute favourites. I listened to them perhaps decades ago and did not even remember the song titles. But recently, on a complete random day, I remembered the tune and some words with the help of which I found the songs on YouTube. It literally transported me back to those times. I used to have this handy Mp3 player on which I used to listen to these songs late at night while it was raining outside. I love the composition, the tune, the lyrics and the way the crescendo builds up – it used to go perfectly with that kind of noctural monsoon weather.
Then, there are some of my old favourite English songs I discovered back in my fresher days – one of them is called Diary of Jane by Breaking Benjamin. I no longer listen to loud music or hard rock but this song – I could listen to even years down the road – there is something about the guitar chords and his voice that appeal to me. Another favourite of mine from this series is Poison and Wine by The Civil Wars – I absolutely adore these duo and still not over the fact that the band no longer exists – but anyone who loves great music with poetic lyrics about complex relations, should give it a go.
Coming to my recent findings, most of them I discovered through fan videos of this Netflix show I was recently obessessed with called Shadow and Bone. It is a show adapted from a book series of the same name which I read a few years back. If you love dark fantasy, great effects, and/or Ben Barnes who played Prince Caspian in Chronicles of Narnia, then you might give it a try. One of the songs in the playlist directly includes the fan video called Survivor by Destiny’s Child, and there is another one called Paint it black which is a remade version. I liked it better than the original which is very rare for me. Both these tracks have this dark and eerie vibe which even though not my typical taste, I happened to like in these instances. Some of my other current favourite English tracks from this series include Arcade, Another Love, and We Don’t Talk Anymore- I love these songs mostly for their pleasant composition and easy lyrics.
There are two recent Hindi songs I discovered randomly through Youtube recs called Khaare raste and Koi Jane Na sung by Raghav Kaushik. He has such a soothing voice that I immediately fell in love and the lyrics are amazing too.
It wouldn’t be a complete playlist if I did not mention one of the recent coke studio tracks by Shae Gill & Evdeki Saat called One Love. I have always been a fan of coke studio and just love Shae Gill since I discovered her on Pasoori. This song has a great upbeat vibe too which I can listen to on loop.
Welcome to Tas Musings ღ 