female south asian musicians who aren’t m.i.a.
shilpa ray - shilpa is indian-american and has a voice like someone hacking up velvet with a chainsaw. she uses an indian harmonium in most of her work. whenever i listen to her music i feel like i am smoking a cigarette somewhere in the highlands after being spurned a former lover.
song recs: ‘venus shaver’ if you want to rage against european beauty standards, ‘’liquidation sale’ if you want to rage in general, ‘lessons from lorena’ for crying at 2 in the morning about england’s shitty government a la yours truly
2. nadine shah is pakistani-norwegian and her music would not sound out of place in the soundtrack of a giallo film. her voice soars around you, it’s fucking incredible.
song recs: ‘aching bones’ if you want to feel like you are slinking aimlessly around the velvet-lined chamber your cruel father trapped you in in 18th century rome, ‘to be a young man’ to feel like you are an ancient vampire lamenting his youth, ‘never tell me mam’ for motherly angst. did i mention she’s from newcastle, and is therefore fam? oop the north
3. natasha khan, or bat for lashes, is english and pakistani and a literal forest nymph. she makes music for twirling round rosebeds to, possibly with a faraway look on your face.
song recs: ‘oh yeah’ for ascending to the astral plane, ‘travelling woman’ for solidarity, ‘bat’s mouth’ for when your lover is trapped in a bat’s mouth n’ that
4. sasha perera is sri lankan and a goddess. she was an electro queen with jahcoozi and now records sparse and vaguely terrifying music under the name perera elsewhere.
song recs: ‘polaris’ - someone on youtube described this song as ‘feeling like you are falling asleep in an humid attic with a jungle view’ which is v apt, ‘light bulb’ for a feeling of impending doom, ‘drunk man’ for slowly dehydrating in a desert while vultures circle above you
5. ecca vandal is a sri lankan australian and sounds like queens of the stone age fronted by gwen stefani (if gwen actually looked good in a bindi, lmao). she has only released a few songs so far but i am very excited about her. i think she sounds like what vod from fresh meat would sound like if she made music.
song recs: ‘white flag’ and ‘battle royal’ for stomping about, the ridiculously named ‘father hu$$la’ for slinking about
stormborns
areudirty
dailybridgerton
romaincrisis
yousharknotpass
pixelskylines
