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A Shift in the music scene
Witnessing the country’s alternate music scene bloom past its nascent stage and become a driving force for today’s culture has been a phenomenon of sorts. This entire decade, characterized by lyrical growth and massive strides in musical composition, has been a joyride for music aficionados, artists, and bystanders. It wasn’t long ago when being able to experience good techno, deep-house or even funk back home, felt out of the ordinary. Gigs at pubs were hardly as frequent as they are today and ‘club music’ identified with an endless clutter of Bollywood or Big Room EDM DJs.
A change in scenery was a welcome relief, brought about by the tireless endeavors of a few visionary curators. Fast-forward to the dawn of a new decade; even as the world stands still in face of the pandemic, artists, indie labels, and the alternate industry as a whole, continue to adapt, evolve and awe audiences with better, constantly evolving music. A major factor impeding the growth of alternate music is the limited demographic it appeals to. After all techno, deep-house or other intricately engineered genres of music, are an acquired taste and for most part require listeners to have a deeper understanding of sound.
All Star Sauce is pioneering a collective space for hip-hop and alternate music lovers alike
For a country taking baby steps towards production, curation, and distribution of the finer styles of music, the gap for a commercial listener to fit into the alternate scene is stark. An innovative Delhi-based outfit, All Star Sauce has stepped in to bridge this very gap. Carving out a sub-genre of future sounds that appeal to both commercial and alternate music audiences, has been the creative vision governing the new-age collective. With hip-hop and electronic sounds as its foundation, All Star Sauce aims to bring commercial audiences closer to experiencing experimental music along with creating a platform for homegrown talent to showcase their music.
“India has an extraordinary pool of underrated talent. Unfortunately, the demand for international artists and the audience’s desire to attend more fashionable events, are why most Indian artists barely find the recognition they deserve” quotes Kunal Chhabra, All Star Sauce founder and experimental hip-hop artist himself. Before venturing into the music distribution and curation space, Kunal played for years under the moniker ‘Monkyjunk’ and hence shares a personal bond with music. “Enjoying international acts is cool, but driving the conversation towards promoting Indian talent and providing a platform to budding producers, is key if for long-term growth of the country’s alternate scene” he adds.
Label, Curation, & Community
Having launched in September of 2019, the label is relatively new. The production, distribution and promotion of cutting-edge sounds go hand-in-hand with curation of top-end gigs. Besides functioning as a curator, the label also serves as a music community, focused on expanding the reach of future sounds and experimental hip-hop. Connecting audiences to sounds of the future and creating a sense of community has been a pivotal facet of the outfit’s direction.
All Star Sauce records, the collective’s label, debuted with well-received electro-pop single, ‘Water’ by artists No Tmrw and Lojal. Notable releases that followed were ‘The Sound of Solace’ by Three Oscillators; projects, ‘Lies’ and ‘Movement’ by acclaimed Pune-based producers, Katopris and Kayoti, respectively. Its curation campaign kicked off with ‘Easy Homie’, an experimental hip-hop showcase at TLD (The Little Door), Mumbai. What followed were Bombay and Delhi editions of the label’s IP, ‘Fresh’, where the concept of a chill Sunday-brunch met future beats, chill-house and alternate hip-hop.
Lastly but most importantly the company also serves as a music discovery platform, where the team features a filtered selection of fresh releases from both international and homegrown artists in the hip-hop, electronic or experimental space. Kovsky, Rae Mulla, Sixk music, Manin, Dropped Out, Nowhere But Here are indie artists that have received a feature on the All Star Sauce platform.
In Coversation with the founder, Kunal Chhabra, to know more about how they’ve responded to the pandemic and what’s next in store for audiences.
HG: How is All Star Sauce maintaining its presence at this moment and what’s the creative vision for the days to come?
Thankfully music doesn’t need physical presence to be experienced by listeners. Due to uncertainty, regarding live gigs in the future, we’ve chosen to digitize our community. Our focus has strongly been on nurturing homegrown talent and artists we have worked with, to create better music, using the ample time lockdown has given us. The label is working round the clock in close coordination with musicians to be able to release exciting new singles at the earliest.
Besides having an impressive list of fresh releases, our playlist project, Public service sounds’ has garnered massive traffic across streaming platforms. As part of the project All Star Sauce collaborates with distinct artists, collectives, and music platforms to offer a filtered selection of tunes in playlist form. These playlists can be shared and heard by users across streaming platforms. You can check out all the playlists here.
In its capacity as a label, what kind of value does All Star Sauce offer upcoming artists? What more can we expect to see from the platform?
Like I mentioned previously, All Star Sauce is a collective driven by a desire to promote homegrown talent and music. We offer complete guidance, distribution, and promotional benefits to every artist that chooses to release their music via our label. Our job is to drive maximum traffic towards releases from our artists and promoting their music across every platform, socially and offline. Our contracts with major streaming platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, and Saavn, helps us score playlist spots for all our resident talent and label releases.
An exciting development is the All Star Sauce podcast that will kick off super soon. I shall personally be in conversation with music curators and the country’s coveted artists on the podcast, where we shall throw light on every development in music, nationally and world-wide.
All Star Sauce is the face of future beats in India and we strongly recommend you to follow their platform and stay up-to-date with all its developments.
You can check out their Instagram here
You can drop them an email here
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