New Delhi artist Raman Negi. Photo: Maan Boruah
The passage of time can do a lot of things, including help an artist like Raman Negi establish his identity as a solo artist. Two albums in – Shakhsiyat in 2022 and now, Chaltey Purzay in September – Negi has an answer for anyone who clamors for his past and it’s likely “No, thanks.”
After all, he’s accrued a fanbase who have loyally followed from his time in The Local Train, through all the changes in style and songwriting. Production choices – courtesy of renegade bassist-producer Gaurav Chintamani – too have been wildly different in ways that they surprise at every turn on the eight-track Chaltey Purzay.
Chintamani also produced Shakhsiyat and it feels like there’s a rock-and-beyond influence that’s more apparent on this new album, drawing from electronic at times, but still rooted in guitars at times. It honestly can’t be pinned down and that’s part of the allure of Chaltey Purzay – Negi offers a glimmer of something familiar and then subverts it, establishing independence in his voice.
Gaining over 200,000 organic streams over the weekend of its release on Sept. 29, 2024 across platforms, Chaltey Purzay sees Negi address many things about the artist he’s been and offer a powerful look at the artist he’s become – unbothered, focused and flourishing (maybe even moisturized).
Negi has said in a statement about the album, “Chaltey Purzay is as about the world as Shakhsiyat was inward looking. After having written consistently for a few years about my most personal thoughts, Chaltey Purzay is a departure from all that. It talks about the people who shape my world, it’s about my place as an artist in the larger machinery. It’s about looking around and letting my inherent curiosity take over and then documenting my observations into songs. Chaltey Purzay is literally a term for a curious, clever person who is full of intrigue about the unknown. So this is a saga of figuring out how the world works. In some sense, it’s reflecting on the aftermath of everyday life from the perspective of an artist who is still figuring his place in the world.”
Press release statements are succinct summations, but there’s plenty of proof in Negi’s ornate, often verbose Urdu and Hindi lyricism. The soaring, sass on “Darmiyaani Ungli Chronicles,” the opening track, makes for the perfect sing-along rock song – complete with fuzzy, blues-informed solo. Negi sings, “Hai inki soch mein chhed o tu dekh lage hain akal pe taale.” He’s clarified that he’s addressing this to so-called fans who only have a unidimensional understanding of his art.
The twinkly guitars of “Zeest” is Negi just being his free, playful self without thinking about what people might say. Just when you think it’s the softest song we might get from Negi at this point in his life as an artist, we hear “Kismet.” With plenty of mentions of love fed through indie rock influences and lyrics like “Ranjishein na koi/Na khud se na jahan se” (which is already an oft-quoted lyric by fans of the album). it’s the slam dunk on this album. On “Kismet,” Negi is giving people what they want, but on his own terms.
Later, on “Farzi Kirdaar” comes U2-esque echoey rock that oozes with confessional lyrics and electronic hues that lives up to his definitive yet expanding sonic palette. The groovy “Berang” was meant to fit into Shakhsiyat but it finds a home on this album. It flits and escapes easy categorization, sounding smooth like a Sade song – complete with a sultry guitar solo – but also baring his bellowing vocals as he echoes, “Mujhko sambhalo o yaaro.”
“Maazi” bursts with steely riffs that give off a friendlier punk sound (it exists, even if it sounds like an oxymoron) in which Negi urges everyone to change the world and not to be defined by one’s past. It’s a quintessential rock song that’s written in a way that it can become timeless. He declares emphatically at the end, “Darwaaze khol dil ki deewaron ke/Tu kehkasha aatish tu in raaton mein.” It’s the kind of lyricism that clinches Negi’s place as a wordsmith in Indian rock.
There’s a familiarity in the friendly wisdom of “Badshah Zero” – one of the lead singles that prefaced the release of Chaltey Purzay, but even more interesting is the intricate instrumentation and folksy elements – the harmonica and gang vocals that give you an impression you’re at a house party performance of the song. From the Foals-like indie rock of “Maazi” to Dylan and Beatles influences in “Badshah Zero,” it’s a testament to Negi’s wide-ranging influences.
Messaging is key to the album but not necessarily in a preachy way. Negi can get as much as he wants off his chest about the ways he’s perceived, but the poetry is what dictates a more world-wise tone. The album closer “Hukkah Paani (A 21st Century Poem)” is a commentary on the state of the world that could also, sadly, stay relevant for long. In putting it right after “Badshah Zero,” a song about the influence of social media in music, it also becomes a continued critique of what he satirizes as “couch krantikaari” on “Hukkah Paani.”
Even as Chaltey Purzay marks another outstanding album from Negi that breaks new ground in Indian rock – he will represent it at Bandland festival in Bengaluru in November and later, Lollapalooza India in March 2025 in Mumbai – the artist is probably aware that the needy detractors from his past may never stop clamoring.
The real fans, however, will stay and that’s who Negi is conversing with and pouring out stories for on Chaltey Purzay. There’s a version of him that still exists from a few years ago, no doubt, but he’s evolved and telling everyone else they should, too.
