Peter Cat Recording Co. - Bismillah

Delhi's Peter Cat Recording Co. sound like a late-night cabaret band playing somewhere between an old Bombay jazz club and a Paris side street, and Bismillah, released in 2019, is their most fully realised record.

Led by singer and guitarist Suryakant Sawhney, the group have built a following well beyond India with a style that blends alternative rock, old-world crooning and loose jazz textures. Bismillah was recorded mostly at a farmhouse in Sainik Farms on the edge of Delhi, with a few songs cut in Paris at Robin le Duc's Spectral Studios, where Sawhney and le Duc also mixed the album. It came out on the French label Panache.

Floated By is the standout, a swooning ballad with Sawhney's rich, theatrical voice gliding over horns and keys, and it is easy to hear why it was chosen as a single. Where the Money Flows, the other single, carries a wry, slinky charm, while Heera and Memory Box lean into dreamy, slightly melancholy atmospheres.

There is a sense of nostalgia for a place that never quite existed, filtered through warm, unhurried production that lets every instrument glow.

For listeners who love the great crooners as much as indie rock, Bismillah is a seductive, singular record and a fine introduction to one of South Asia's most distinctive bands.