- Sanaya Ardeshir leans into her pop instincts for an EP of luscious R&B.
- Sandunes is one of the most prominent electronic music producers in India, and it is easy to understand why: her highly musical style mixes global club sounds with the sumptuous sway of R&B and louche hip-hop in interesting ways. Her breakthrough 11:11 EP last year delivered smoky beats that bathed in the glow of neo-soul with the production prowess of Los Angeles beat scene music. On her !K7 follow-up, Spare Some Time, she fully leans into the woozy R&B aesthetic, highlighting not only the intricacy of her production but a budding songwriting talent too.
Each of Spare Some Time's four tracks pairs Sandunes with a vocalist, and past collaborator Landslands fares best on "Burn Every Bridge." On the surface, it's a lilting breakup song, but close listeners are rewarded with a world of detail, as Sandunes' synths curl around the vocal melodies like creeping vines. What she's doing here isn't always terribly original (the fuzzed-out basslines and croaking vocal on "Fifty Percent" will give you early James Blake, for example, but with each new release Sandunes' musical voice becomes clearer, with a sound that is both soulful and complex.
Tracklist01. Love It Less feat. Jbabe
02. Burn Every Bridge feat. Landslands
03. Fifty Percent feat. Ramya Pothuri
04. Simple Thing feat. IAMI