Trapping the sound of Hindustani trance

Amarjot Kaur

In their pre-university days, Rohit Gandhi had persuaded Anil Prasad to take up guitar lessons. In three months, he got the hang of bass guitar and together they formed a heavy-metal band which won some college-level competitions. But that didn’t quite flag off Argenil’s journey in the indie music scene. It took a few hits and misses, and some trials and tribulations, for this ‘Hindustani trap’ duo to release their first EP Swadesh. Racking up the number of indie trap and house musicians, Argenil has paved its way into the mainstream with its second five-track EP—She Did It.

Fusing the indigenous sound of Hindustani classical with electronic dance music (EDM) in their initial album, the Bangalore-based duo is now shifting focus to a self-composed genre ‘Hindustani trap’. Backed by two music labels, one being the international Sunset Entertainment (who have worked with Troyboi, Craig David, Ashanti, Jamie Foxx, Timbaland, Shakira, Jason Derulo, Keri Hilson, Pussycat Dolls, P Diddy, and Nelly Furtado), while the other a Delhi-based music company, Limn Entertainment, the duo is hoping to make a place in the commercial music industry. For now, they are having a good run.

In Chandigarh to perform at Rebelle Bar and Kitchen, Sector 7, the duo is on a ten-city tour to promote their new EP. They are all set to be featured in Apache Indian’s new song featuring Raftaar, called Punjabi Girl. In fact, one of the songs in She Did It, called Dholna, has been sung by Deveshi Sehgal who sang the unplugged version of the song ‘Daryaa’ for the movie Manmarziyaan. This electronic music duo has also collaborated with UK-based rapper Yatez and upcoming American rapper Eddie in their new EP.

We go back to the start. “I play some nine instruments. My mother used to play an octopad—that’s how I got into music. In 11th and 12th grade, I started playing drums with Anil after convincing him to play the guitar,” says 25-year-old Rohit. Though engineering tore them apart, physically, as they got admission in different colleges, music brought them together. “In 2012, we started an audio-video solution company called Two Pawn Productions. We are self-taught audio and video engineers. Operating a studio out of a one-bedroom recording setup, we were producing music for friends who wanted to etch a career in music. In November, last year, we made a new professional studio,” says Anil (24).

Soon, the band’s debut single Tha-di-ki-na-thom was aired on the US radio channels and they did an opening gig for RoyBoy too. “In March, this year, we signed with Sunset Entertainment and even met vocal producer Jim Beanz in the US,” they say.

About their gig with Apache Indian, Anil shares, “We have always been inspired by Apache India; he’s a legend, when it comes to reggae music. Our EP features the remix version of Apache Indian’s two-year-old reggae track Mariana,” they say. The duo has remixed his new song Punjabi Girl too. “In fact, our remixed version is featured in the video of his original song, you can see us there too,” says Rohit.

Fusing Indian instruments and music with EDM, the duo has used nadaswaram, violins, flutes, table, Ravanhattha, and thavil in their new EP that covers everything from reggae, trap and dubstep to folk and hip-hop. 

After Chandigarh, the duo will be performing in Gwahati, Indore and Mumbai to promote their new songs.

amarjot@tribunemail.com