Control ALT Delete 2020: Seven exciting acts for Mumbai's indie music faithful at upcoming festival

While other music festivals may pride themselves on a big-ticket headliner, crowdfunded music festival Control ALT Delete – now in its 12th edition – has always been about discovery. Taking place in a month when the calendar points to heavyweights such as Mahindra Blues Festival and Vh1 Supersonic, Control ALT Delete has slowly begun drawing attendees from across the country and Mumbai’s indie music faithful. If you want a glimpse of some of the must-see new talent waiting to be discovered this week at Roaring Farms in Malad, tune in below. Letters The Mumbai scene has often been dominated by thrash metal and death metal bands, but it’s seen a healthy resurgence of modern progressive rock and metal bands. While an instrumental act like The Jatin Talukdar Project is also performing at Control ALT Delete, we also recommend five-piece act Letters. Offering a shimmering, often mind-blogging instrumental blend of prog metal that doesn’t shy away from mellowing out, Letters have released two songs so far, ‘Toad’ and ‘Microchip Cookie’, leading with electronic-tinged riffage and odd time signatures that’ll click with you if you dig the likes of TesseracT, Animals As Leaders and Plini. Park Circus What started out as punk rock eventually found its space in irreverent, psychedelic hip-hop with a hit of funk for Park Circus. Releasing their debut self-titled record last year, there’s a wry sense of humour from rapper BC Azad, over beats by producer National Animal. Sample this line from their introductory track ‘This Is Park Circus’: “Nachenge London mein like Vijay Mallya/Don’t really care I’m like Ranveer and Alia/Selfie with PM/I don’t really vote/Send me a Khat man/Cuz I’m taking notes.” Performing at CAD with bassist Joy Roy, vocalist Rohini Bhose and DJ Valentine Gomes, expect truth bombs galore in Bengali, Hindi and English, especially their latest single ‘Krantikari’.

Honey’s Dead Formed in 2015 but active with a solid lineup since 2017, Honey’s Dead released their first single just last week, called ‘Dreamer’. Recalling the likes of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Jesus and Mary Chain and more, there’s a warm yet melancholic amalgamation of shoegaze, punk and alt rock heard on the song that’s off their upcoming EP Gone Today. Comprising members who shuttle between Kerala and Mumbai, Honey’s Dead are playing their first gig in a long time, which makes them effectively new and certainly lesser known on the festival lineup. Catch them with Rahsaan Kably on vocals and guitars, drummer Amith Nambiar, guitarist Apurv Agrawal, bassist Utkarsh Jaiswal and guest vocalist Anokha Kumar.

The Pirate Radio Created by guitarist-producer Chaitanya Bhalla (who’s been in reggae bands like The Ska Vengers but also post-hardcore unit Grammy Winning Effort) as perhaps an outlet where he can get into electro rock n’ roll, The Pirate Radio are one of the few acts at CAD without a release out yet, but a glimpse of it tells us that this is going to be a rager. The New Delhi act – completed by drummer Shardul Mehta, guitarist Shashvat Pandit and harmonica player/vocalist Udayraj Singh – dig into soaring solos, psychedelic rock over a bed of stomping garage-rock riffs and an electro-informed rhythm section that’ll make for all kinds of dance moves.

Full Power Rappers Frappe Ash aka Akshay Rawat and Yungsta aka Yash Chandra are coming straight out of Delhi throwing as many punches as possible with their project Full Power. First collaborating together in 2017 for the song ‘Sahi Hai’, the duo have released surefire songs like ‘Shauk Nahi’ featuring Mumbai’s rising rapper MC Altaf, which we might see performed live at the festival’s hip-hop stage. Songs like ‘Sahi Hai’ and ‘Flex Babe’ showcase a range that might just turn things upside down at CAD, with two MCs spitting bars in a familiar yet powerful Hinglish style. Also expect their newly released single ‘Baba Bruce’, the quick paced tribute to comedian Lenny Bruce.

Sameer Rahat Mumbai singer-songwriter Sameer Rahat played bass and sang for Urdu prog rock band Joshish, but his solo project leans heavily on Urdu poets like Jaun Elia and a bluesy solo set. Releasing his upcoming debut solo album Aamad, Rahat will perform sombre songs that talk about love lost but also explores his staunchly political consciousness as a musician. Songs like ‘Gyaan’ and ‘Kya Lena’ are two completely different moods about similar things – dissent against political oppression, questioning the powers that be and more. While Rahat is likely to have an early set in the day, his Urdu blues has no better home than a place like Control ALT Delete.

Serpents of Pakhangba The auteur of all things avant-garde with bands like Amogh Symphony, Mumbai composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Vishal J Singh teams up with vocalist Aruna Jade, bassist Manas Chowdhary and drummer Fidel Dely Murillo to launch the live debut of Serpents of Pakhangba at the festival. On home ground too, Serpents of Pakhangba clearly level in the weird, unsettling and unpredictable. Their latest song ‘Headhunters’ flitters from odd-time riffage to folksy rhythms and a next-level vocal range from Aruna Jade who can play coy and then dig right into what sound like low growls.