Raghu Dixit

Do you wanna feel good? Raghu Dixit does. He has an exuberant optimism that epitomises modern India. While announcing in the liner notes that he is a gold medalist in microbiology (ie he has a Master’s degree) and is a proficient Indian classical dancer, he has also had time to put together a debut solo album of swaggering confidence – not to mention a few Bollywood soundtracks, too.

Hailing from Mysore in the state of Karnataka, Dixit spent eight years with the band Antaragni before setting up this new project. His soaring vocal range, savvy fusing of reggae, rock and folk with outright pop, growling grunge guitar and silky 80s guitar breaks bring to my mind a young Khaled or Turkish rocker Haluk Levent. Electric guitarist Bruce Lee Mani creates a gorgeous rolling, plucked style akin to Mark Knopfler, and complementing the guitar is the rasping violin of Manoj George. The effect is accessible, infectious folk-rock, like a Bangalorean Waterboys.

Sung in Hindi, with occasional English and Kannada (a major Dravidian language spoken mainly in Karnataka), the album races out of the traps with the reggae groove of ‘Hey Bhagwan’ Dixit live favourite ‘Mysore Se Ayi’, followed by the uplifting Kannada song ‘Gudugudiya Sedi Nodo’, before mellowing into the seven-minute love ballad ‘Ambar’. Though the second half doesn’t quite have the urgency of the first, and could certainly earn the designation ‘cheese’ from cooler listeners – what is it with those token English language choruses? – for anyone who has abandoned themselves to Khaled’s ‘Nssi Nssi’ or Levent’s ‘Ankara,’ it hits all the right spots.