10 Best Indian EPs of 2022

From instrumental prog-rock to easy-going offerings, hip-hop and more, here – in ranking order – is the crème de la crème of Indian independent EPs released this year

- Anurag Tagat and David Britto

10 Zyakuni in My Backyard – Zyakuni in My Backyard

INDIAN ROCK REALLY was waiting for someone to make a no-nonsense, driven record and it’s a surprise that it comes from the capital where live bands are often parched for gigs and sharpening their sound. Zyakuni in My Backyard offer a lot of diversity on their five-track self-titled debut EP. There’s a wedding song of sorts in the form of “Parking Lot,” followed by a dreamy, balladlike “Missing Bridge.” In the vein of artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Zyakuni in My Backyard are painstakingly bare and yet refined in their craft on lo-fisongs like “2 Glow: Fade,” but amp it up marvelously and theatrically on “Eliza’s Cure” and “Storm,” rounding offa diverse rock record from a scene that was really lacking in the recent past. – ANURAG TAGAT

9 Raja Kumari – HBIC

AS IF IT WASN’T ENOUGH to adapt Alisha Chinai and Biddu’s indie-pop hit “Made In India” into a resolve-building hip-hop banger, Raja Kumari released her EP HBIC (that’s Head Bitch In Charge, if you’re asking) as the inaugural offering from her own label, Godmother Records. Songs like “Manifest” cover familiar ground thematically, but the singer-songwriter and rapper takes stock of how she’s on a whole new level. Raja Kumari needs the world to know where she’s at and she has assistance from KR$NA (“On”) and Shah Rule (“The Don”) for a glittering, club-friendly record that’s made on her own terms, just like she always wanted. — A.T.