UPLIFT YOUR MOOD THIS QUARANTINE: LIST OF 15 BEST TAMIL SONGS FROM APRIL 2021 IS HERE!

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Free Will

After the resounding success of ‘Enjoy Enjaami’, the platform maajja is making quick strides in the world of music and here this month there are 4 top-notch Tamil tracks by diverse artists spanning across genres as well. Pravin Saivi is a singer-songwriter composer/producer who also plays the guitar and here he combines with musician Sakthi Amaran. This track called “Free will” is written, sung and composed by the duo and it is a rich rendition of a Tamil song in R&B style. Karthick Devaraj does the Strings and Horns arrangements which play the biggest role in the success of the track and he also has done the piano and additional programming. The wonderful trumpets are played by G.Jayagopal and Ben and the Trombone player is H.Martin Vijay. The singing is well nicely arranged in two layers and Pravin also plays the Nylon guitar here. Two stalwarts in the Tamil music scene in Manoj and Sayee Rakshith play the violins and they just ooze quality in the interludes and they are accompanied by the savvy Viola by Rangapriya. Without the drums we just wouldn’t get the perfect R&B feeling and one needs to credit Kumaran SS for that. The double Bass is played by Shallu Varun and this whole team makes this one enriching musical experience of world class. Abin Pushpakaran has mixed and mastered the track while MT Aditya Srinivasan, Ashwin George John and Anish Mohan are the recording engineers. This is one of the freshest pieces of music I have heard this year so far. The singing and lyrics are excellent and I am saying this again because it is possible that the plethora of live instruments take away all the cake in this track.

Idhu Varai

Staccato is the pride of Chennai, as this band creates some sensation original music and this one falls right in that category and this too is on the maajja platform. The lead vocalists, Gowtham Bharadwaj and Niranjana Ramanan, are the protagonists in the band and they do a very fine job here especially with Gowtham’s tongue-twister type rapid humming. Manoj Krishna and Madhana Gopal are in with additional vocals. Bruce Lee pitches in with a terrific electric guitar bit along with Abinandan in the interlude quickly followed by Sayee Rakshith on the violin which is scintillating as usual. Shallu Varun and Napier Naveen stun you with their bass guitars in the second layer. Sandip Ramanan and Vinnie Henrico play the drums that pick up the tempo at the right instances. Saurabh Joshi is on the Tabla and Navin Iyer plays the flute. The track is mixed & mastered by Navneeth Balachandran, and produced by R.H. Vikram. All additional programming is by Prashanth Techno with Hafeez Aswin George as recording engineers.

Jazzudass

Sathyaprakash marches on with yet another single that he sings and composes. It is nice to see musicians exploring new genres not common to India and Tamil especially. Here comes one more Jazz specialty with some soulful singing by Sathyaprakash who just gets incredibly creative as goes along with improvised notes and his falsetto is so real and raunchy. The trumpet and trombone by Babu remind us of some yesteryear Ilaiyaraja tracks. The way the keys and violins and viola combine is just magical and Bhuvanesh Narayanan needs to be credited with the arrangements as well playing the keys. Manoj Kumar plays the violin while Rangapriya plays the viola and violin. Shallu Varun plays the double Bass and Abin Pushpakaran has mixed the track. Ahamed Shyam is the lyricist.

Kadhal Aagalaam

Due to the second wave of covid-19 these tracks and video releases have been delayed by maajja, but thankfully we get to hear these awesome numbers at least. This is composed and produced by Pravin Mani who has been composing many tracks of late. A terrific singing display by Magisha Baheerathan as she soars into the skies with her vocals. The lyrics are written by Navin B and the splendid guitars are by Serg Dimetrijevic. It is wonderful to see indie music shining bright like this and Magisha does create higher expectations in her upcoming projects thanks to this rendition.

Kumiyadi

Ghibran is a true all-rounder composing songs for movies, indie singles, devotional tracks and refurbished folk as well. One of the great songs written by Mahakavi Bharathiyar, Kummiyadi celebrates womanhood like no other. Ghinran arranges and produces this electronic and techno-folk sung by Suganthi and Amirthavarshini. The usual suspect Gold Devaraj has assisted Ghibran along with Dr. V Sritharan. The track is mixed and mastered by Chandrasekharan. Listen to the amazing and funky Nadaswaram programmed that often plays in the song. What better way to rid our worries off than to dance to a tune like this and words by the Great man. Production management is by Andria Miranda and Britto David.

Minsaaramaai

The album has had a couple of singles released already with 2 different musicians and the 3rd single is again composed by Hari Dafusia. He sings this as well with the rising star Sreekanth Hariharan who does a fabulous job with an endearing performance vocally. The notes are quite impressive in the charanam especially when the lines go “Imaigalai Moodiye”. Hari himself has played all the instruments in the track along with mixing and mastering the track.

Mudhalum Mudivum

Nothing is better than getting to witness some new talents emerge and that is why we need to support indie music so that there are no Chinese walls for aspiring artists. Haris SR is the composer here and he creates a soothing melody uplifted by some pitch-perfect vocals by Anand Aravindakshan and Aarthi MN Ashwin. Both these vocalists deliver with elan and reach higher scales with immense ease especially Aarthi.  Stanley’s flute solo and Aakash’s guitars guide us through the interlude. Hari and Bhuvanesh Selvanesan have done the programming and the highlight of the track is when the duo sing in unison.

Naaku Chevandhavarae

If it was Vandana Mazan who impressed last month with her single, it is the turn of her sister Vagu Mazan as she sings, composes, produces and arranges this stand-out track in a folk-rock style. This is the first of 100 songs to be released in a project called ‘Natpadu Theral’ written by Vairamuthu where every song will have a different composer. Vagu is simply on fire with her stupendous singing of the folk variety and she also plays the guitars and bass. Additional drums arrangement by Goel Wesley, and look out for the fiery Nadaswaram played alongside electric guitars with Padmanabhan playing the former. Additional keys arrangements are by Gowtham Raj with Vaishnavi Kannan as the sound engineer and Gowtham. Mixing is by Vagu herself and S .Sivakumar has mastered the track.

Nesamaguren

I am thoroughly impressed with Stephen Zechariah as a composer for his relentless effort to keep creating new music at a run rate unmatched by anyone in India. The second asset of his that I Like is that succeeds at keeping music simple by sticking to the basics, like good vocals, catchy melody, an array of live instruments and he even goes by a structure well known to Tamil music fans. This is another wonderful track sung, composed and arranged by Stephen and here he brings in a super star in the form of Saindhavi as the female lead-vocalist. There is also a raw likability in Stephen’s voice. The Pallavi itself will impress you, and you hear Manonmani on the Sarangi, and Manoj Kumar on the solo violin in the interlude. Keba Jeremiah plays the nylon guitar and bass as well. The charanam is beautifully structured as it travels from one note to another and the humming bit is to die for. Sriram does the keyboard programming, and Vicky B does the rhythm programming. The track is mixed and mastered by Pradeep Bhaskaran, with additional programming by Kumar Morgan and additional rhythm programming by Arjun Vasanthan. T Suriyavelan and Jaya Rathakrishnan have penned the lyrics.

Payanam

This is a very simple tune composed by Nikhil San and though the singers possess a strong Malayalam tongue it is still very well sung by Chimmu Jaykumar and Sanjay Shankar. The highlight of the track is the harmony in the charanam right at the start which sounds very rich in a folkish sense. The keys keep accompanying and they are programmed by Sreenu Perumplavu. Ramesh plays the flute that you hear in the second layer in various instances. Ranjith Desing is the sound engineer.

Ra

Raj Thillaiyampalam is consistent and good as a composer as this Sri Lankan musician once again creates a fine melody. Narmadha Sivarajan impresses you with her serenading voice that just makes you want more and just watch-out the titular line as she does some very likable vibrato. Varuon Thushyanthan has written the lyrics and Thisal Randunu’s guitars are superb right through the track. The track is mixed and mastered by Thilina Boralessa.

Saarale

Balaji Gopinath seems to be another young talent to look out for in the future, as he comes up with this not-so-simple yet stunning melody of sorts. The notes are complex and it is not something that you would remember and sing along easily and that is why Haricharan & Aarthi MN Ashwin deserve extra credit for not just pulling it off but excelling while doing so. The track is also produced, arranged and mixed by Balaji and mastered by Balu Thankachan. The track catches your attention right from the get-go with every note making the track even more delectable. The keys are so strong and convincing and when Haricharan sings the opening lines you just fall in love like when the first drops of rain (Saaral) touch your face. Aarthi’s voice is like honey dripping and you will be all set to play this song on loop multiple times just to feel that greatness of music in your veins. Anthony Faze is the lyricist. The humming in unison which also forms the interlude probably exhibits a lot of skill and desire from the composer’s perspective. Vishnu Namboothiri is the recording engineer

Thatti Putta

This is a first as we have the Maestro Ilaiyaraja and his son Yuvan working together for a film. The song has all the stamps of the genius with a slow catchy tune and some fabulous interludes with the Chennai Strings in full flow. This orchestra is conducted by Violin Prabhakar and co-ordination by Gaffar Ahamad. Napoleon's flute opens up the track and the songs of this album called “Mamanidhan” are produced by Yuvan. The charanam is splendid with so many variations that only this man is capable of. Pa. Vijay is the lyricist.

Unnal Unardhene

Ajesh is a very talented musician and his songs always end up becoming very likeable and the reason is that he fuses very relevant and fresh sounds with a time-tested melody. Here he employs the vocal prowess of Haricharan and the ease with which he can attain and perform at the higher scales is noteworthy. The two tracks in this album that were released first came back in 2019 and did steal the hearts of many, and so it is nice to get the remaining tracks now. Ajesh also supports wonderfully with his backing vocals, but the flute solo by Josy lingers on in your mind constantly. Keba Jeremiah is as usual being imposing on the acoustic as well as electric guitars and that is the reason the track sounds charged up. The track is mixed by MT Aditya Srinivasan, and mastered by Navneeth Balachandren. Ku Karthik is the lyricist.

Vaa Sakhi

The final song of April to round off things is once again released on the maajja platform and this is one awesome semi-classical track composed & produced by multiple artists viz. Maalavika Sundar, Ravi G, Ramkumar Kanakarajan, Akshay Yesodharan, Reshwin Nishith & Sayee Rakshith. The track is set under the influence of Nataikkurunji raagam and it is sung with a lot of loyalty to the carnatic style by Maalavika Sundar. Get enthralled by the violin solo by Sayee in the interludes.  Saurabh Joshi & Ishit Kuberkar are the sound engineers. Ahamed Shyam & Bharat Sundar are the lyricists. The bass guitar and drums play a splendid support role and elevate the quality of the track. The harmony is quite impressive as well.

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