M.S. SUBBULAKSHMI
RECOMMENDED BY VIGNESH SANKAR:
The only way I can describe my music taste is erratic. I don't think I really listen by genre. For me, it's more about whether a melody scratches a particular part of my brain. One minute I might be listening to thirty seconds of a Blood Orange song, and the next I've somehow ended up an hour deep into chenda melam, traditional Keralan temple drums, at a volume that probably isn't good for my hearing.
If I had to recommend one artist, though, it would be M.S. Subbulakshmi.
As a child, I was completely fascinated by Hindu mythology and South Indian temple traditions. My mum would often play the Suprabhatam, an ancient Sanskrit hymn sung at dawn to awaken the deity. Back then, I don't think I appreciated it in the way I do now. It was simply part of the soundscape of growing up, something that drifted through the house on weekend mornings alongside the smell of incense and breakfast.
A few years ago I found myself returning to those recordings, and they landed very differently. I became slightly obsessed with Subbulakshmi's voice and the extraordinary clarity and emotion she brings to Carnatic devotional music. There is something incredibly grounding about listening to someone whose voice has become woven into so many people's memories of home, ritual and everyday life.
Even though I don't understand every Sanskrit word she's singing, I don't really feel like I need to. Her music reminds me that understanding isn't always linguistic. Sometimes it's emotional. Sometimes it's simply the feeling of hearing something that has quietly accompanied you for most of your life, only to realise years later just how deeply it has shaped you.
So yes, my playlists are still a complete mess. Blood Orange will almost certainly be followed by temple drums, then Charli xcx, and somehow it all makes perfect sense.
For more recs like this one, check out the rest of vol. 009:
