Baalti & Lapgan’s ‘Threads’ Connects Indian Musical Memory With Club Culture
This article explores how South Asian DJ-producers Baalti and Lapgan come together on their collaborative album Threads, tracing a dialogue between archival Indian and Pakistani sounds and contemporary club music. It also touches on the breakout single Lime Tikka, its nadhaswaram-driven club energy, and its accompanying video that reframes rural rumours and collective fear into a coming-of-age narrative.
In early 2024, South Asian DJ-producers Baalti and beatmaker Lapgan disappeared into the California desert for what they describe as a psychedelic songwriting retreat. What emerged from that isolation is 'Threads', a new collaborative album that pulls decades of Indian musical history into contemporary club spaces without sanding down its edges.
'Threads' sits at the intersection of their respective practices. Lapgan brings his sample-driven approach, rooted in archival Indian and Pakistani recordings and shaped by hip-hop’s loop logic. Baalti counterbalances this with dense, percussion-heavy dance constructions that draw from bass music, house, dub, and South Asian sound system cultures. The collab produces club music that feels restless and referential at the same time — tracks that move with the looseness of early Four Tet or The Avalanches while staying grounded in regional sonic memory.
Their first single 'Lime Tikka' also offers an early sense of the album’s direction. Built around the nadhaswaram, the South Indian reed instrument, the producers describe the conception as wanting it to crash into the club “unannounced,” bringing ceremony, noise, and humour into a dancefloor context. The track has already lived a long life in their sets, generating a steady stream of ID requests across festivals, radio sessions, and club nights —from London and New York to Delhi and Goa — well before its official release.
The single is accompanied by a music video directed by EXCISE DEPT (Karanjit Singh and Rounak Maiti), which expands it into narrative form. Set against a rural Indian backdrop, the film follows Satellite, a young girl who becomes obsessed with space after learning that her birth coincided with the feared crash landing of Skylab in 1979. Drawing from real rumours that spread across parts of Telangana at the time, the video reframes collective panic as a coming-of-age story. Homemade spacecrafts, folklore, and landscape sit side by side, turning desi science fiction into a story about curiosity and belief.
As an artist, Lapgan’s reputation has been built on his ability to recontextualise overlooked sounds, whether through his solo releases or collaborations with artists across continents. Baalti, meanwhile, has seen rapid global recognition over the past year, driven by releases that connect regional South Asian references to contemporary club energy and a live show known for its physical intensity. In 'Threads', these trajectories converge in a long-form conversation — between archive sounds and dancefloor; folklore and rave, reflecting how South Asian music histories continue to circulate, mutate, and find new life in unexpected spaces.
If you enjoyed reading this here's more from Homegrown:
Homegrown Handpicked: A Playlist Of Our Favourite Tracks From December 2025
Rebels Of The Sand: How Tinariwen Channelled Tuareg Struggle Into Their Global Sound
Mary Ann Alexander's New Single Lays Bare The Art Of Intimacy
