There’s something quietly radical about Mridanga, the latest single by North Axis Project. In a time when electronic music often runs on pre-programmed loops and templated drops, this track arrives like a breath of earthy air, rooted, organic, and alive with intention. It’s clear that a little patience for this beautifully layered single is too little to ask for. Some things are worth waiting for, and Mridanga feels like one of them.
Madhulika Gupta | BeatCurry Team
Right from the first few seconds, Mridanga tells you it’s not here to follow a formula. It opens with the unmistakable heartbeat of the ‘Mridangam’, a South Indian classical percussion instrument, that’s placed right at the forefront, not as an ornament but as the very soul of the piece. But what unfolds after is far from traditional.
North Axis Project doesn’t lean on a single beat or loop to carry the weight. The track evolves constantly, like a living organism. You can feel the creativity in motion, not just in its shifting layers, but in how these layers interact, conflict, and harmonize. The middle segment of the song, in particular, mirrors the movement of tide and breath. There’s a rise, a pause, a swelling release. It surely is not just sound, it’s sensation.
Listen to Mridanga by North Axis Project on Spotify:
However the factor that makes Mridanga truly special, is the music’s ability to anchor nostalgia in a futuristic frame. The use of an earthen pot in the percussion is an intimate detail, subtle but transformative. It evokes the rustic warmth of home, like the comfort of sitting on your balcony in the monsoon, surrounded by familiar scents and sounds. It brings a tactile, grounded feeling, even when the synths soar high and the bass deepens. It reminds you where you come from, even if you’re thousands of miles away.
Close your eyes while listening, and you can just as easily imagine a street-side Chenda Melam procession in Kerala as you can a Berlin club soaked in dim lights and sweat. That seamless fusion, that exact emotional geography is where Mridanga quietly excels.
Woven into live loops and textured electronic layers, Mridanga’s deep, tactile sound finds a new home somewhere between the experimental corners of electronica, the pulse of world music, and the darker alleys of techno.There’s restraint in this composition, but also depth, which in hindsight, is a deliberate decision to make every sound count, every pause matter.
Inspired by Siddharth Bhayani’s recent travels across Kerala, the song doesn’t aim to imitate the culture. The composition honors it through and through, translating its essence into a modern context without losing soul in the process.
Mridanga is a focused listen and that is the highlight. It asks you to sit with it, to notice the shifts, the silences, the intricacies. And if you do, it rewards you, with nostalgia, with groove, and with a rare kind of depth that’s both ancient and fresh. So, while the full track is yet to be released, trust us, it’ll be worth every second of the wait.
Listen to Mridanga by North Axis Project on Spotify:
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