‘SAB KUCH MIL GAYA MUJHE VOL. 1.’ by EXCISE DEPT is Out Now!

Multi-faceted collective EXCISE DEPT recently released their highly anticipated debut full-length album, ‘SAB KUCH MIL GAYA MUJHE VOL. 1.’

Led by artists Rounak Maiti, Karanjit Singh and Siddhant Vetekar, EXCISE DEPT first took shape in 2020 during the pandemic as “an outlet for frustration, anger, hopelessness, satire, and love.” Their genre-bending releases have generated a sizable cult following due to their distinctive approach to music, storytelling, and well-thought-out visual details.

‘SAB KUCH MIL GAYA MUJHE VOL. 1’ (SKMGM) is titled after the expression ‘Sab Kuch Mil Gaya Mujhe’ or’ I Received Everything.’ It is closely associated with the trio’s music discography and spews lyrics in Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, and English. The ten-track album, which also harbors previously released singles – ‘LIFE’S A GAME,’ ‘CTRL ALT DEL,’ ‘BIRHADA,’ and ‘BAARO MAALA’ – was released on India’s 78th Independence Day and talks up themes of nationhood and identity while also dabbling in absurdity.

Peeking into SKMGM VOL 1, ‘KOYALIA’ unwinds the record with a spine-chilling monologue fanned over an unnerving hypnotic/ambient score, followed by ‘TOXIC’ cooking up a chimey, hip-hop flow. ‘STEN,’ referring to a submachine firearm, sees a multilingual rap medley layered over a dark pulsating rhythm.

‘ANGULIMAAL’ dishes out a mischievous tune with rapid rap segments. Its title alludes to Buddhist scriptures, specifically the narrative of the outlaw known as Angulimala (Finger Garland), who hung the fingers of his victims around his neck to assemble a grotesque souvenir.

‘AMI JAANI’ spins a slick bass-heavy beat, sealed with fierce rap bars and horn segments etched over rhythmic drum action, while ‘PARDES’ ushers in a gritty rap canvas also squeezing in a dialogue from the Indian film ‘Pardes’ (1997).

The group shared via a press statement, “This is a chaotic album for chaotic times. Rejecting the nearly epidemic-level tendency of Desi artists to rebrand themselves as representatives of a universal “South Asian” -ness or “Brown” -ness, EXCISE DEPT’s take on identity is far more schizophrenic. It exists somewhere in between all the politics, vulgarity, violence, and culture wars that clash constantly in their efforts to define us as Indians. It doesn’t actually know what it means to be Indian, and in turn, does not claim to represent Indian-ness. Nonetheless, it is undoubtedly and unquestionably Indian.”

Find EXCISE DEPT on: Instagram | Apple Music | Spotify | Website

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