Shakkar

2011 Songlines Newcomer Artist Award-winner Raghu Dixit has been busy of late composing and performing as a playback singer for film, and making his acting debut in last year’s Baang. Which partly explains the decade-long wait for Shakkar. Translating as ‘Sugar’, it’s a belting, eight-track celebration of joy and perseverance prompted by a bout of severe depression. Sung in Hindi and Dixit’s native Kannada and featuring an impressive list of guests, the album is tagged #SongsAboutStayingAliveWhenYouDontWantTo. It’s self-therapy as bravura soul-bearing. ‘Shakkarpari’ gets things off to a euphoric start fuelled by Béla Fleck’s bright, bubbling banjo. There’s a hard-rock edge to ‘Alemaari’ lightened by Rajhesh Vaidhya’s veena; Kolkata-based John Paul takes lead instrumental duties alongside Dixit’s ardent Hindi vocals on ‘Priyotoma’. Stylistic variety matches spirited vitality throughout the record, Raphael Rocha’s horns accenting the jazz-laced ‘Cheenta’, Casey Driessen’s singing fiddle adorning Dixit’s balladeering baritone on ‘Do Saanson Ke Beech’, the peppy electric guitar of Snarky Puppy’s Michael League spurring on the infectiously excitable ‘Geeya Geeya’. The Raghu Dixit Project’s Shakkar is indeed as sweet and moreish as sugar.