Rahul Giri is the Godfather. I mean, not literally; it’s not like he spends days on his rocking chair, smoking a cigar, ordering hits on nieces and nephews who step out of line. In fact, he’s quite the opposite. Giri, if you ever spot him at a gig, is a nondescript, unassuming lurker. He sticks to a corner, or somewhere near the sound console. He’s dressed most often in a checked shirt of some sort, staring intently through his thick-rimmed glasses, and talking only if absolutely essential, and only with people he knows and likes. Even as a performer, Giri steers clear of flamboyance and glitz. He plays his contorted, chopped up, eccentric little arrangements from behind the console as _RHL, or as one-half of Sulk Station, the hugely popular trip-hop group. Sulk Station released their debut album Till You Appear in 2012, but seem to be on a perpetual hiatus (although that should end soon).

The focus of our little story, though, is Consolidate. Giri has become the de facto ringleader of a delightful movement of experimental, left field electronic music coming out of Bengaluru. Prodding forward this exciting young scene is Consolidate, an independent artiste-collective-turned-record-label which Giri started and runs. Like all things today, Consolidate, too, began life as a Facebook page in 2013, with an accompanying Soundcloud group. “A lot of cool stuff was happening here,” says Giri, over the phone from Bengaluru. “I wanted to create a community which would share each other’s music, support each other. Over time, random people started submitting music to us on the group; I began to discover more artistes.”

It was a small collective of like-minded musicians sharing each other’s work and trying to build something. Giri would put out mixtapes and organise gigs under the Consolidate banner, giving a stage to a range of diverse artistes. With considerable support from Shoumik Biswas (aka Disco Puppet), and Aniruddh Menon (who’s just released a stunning solo album called Lovesongs and is part of experimental outfit Machli), Giri decided to turn the whole thing into a record label, also serving as an informal agency to manage the artistes. They started off with a collaborative single called ‘Peach Tea Since July’ in late 2015. It’s when things became ‘official’, with a debut compilation release, FRNDS & FMLY 2016 , coming soon after, in January 2016. Since then, albums by Worm’s Cottage, Disco Puppet, and Aniruddh Menon have been released under Consolidate. March will see a new album by Aerate Sound, and in the pipeline are releases by Pardafaash, Disco Puppet, and Blind Night. In total, Giri reckons, they have around eight-10 artistes on the line-up, and a bunch of floating members.

For some reason, in India, the underground electronic circuit sees lots of ‘labels’ and ‘artiste collectives’ popping up from time to time. They’ll stick around for a release or two, before disappearing into the abyss — thanks to a lack of motivation, absence of regular income, or just shifting priorities. Often, it’s just a bunch of friends getting together, and the whole thing peters out. Giri is certain Consolidate isn’t going to suffer the same fate. “We had a community first,” he says, “we knew what we were getting into. That’s never been an issue. I’ve been lucky with the kind of people I’ve found. They’re all very prolific and don’t give a f**k about the ‘scene’. They don’t want to do gigs as their primary source of income; they’re all designers or something or the other. That desire to be part of a clique or an agency to gig regularly and ‘build a fan base’ isn’t there. For them, it’s art. They’re all dedicated and very motivated. If anything, they’re the ones pushing me.” It’s reached a point where Consolidate has such a long backlog of artistes whose music they want to put out that Giri is forced to ask them to wait; getting new people, then, becomes second on the list of priorities.

Consolidate’s line-up is Bengaluru-centric, but that’s not really by design. Giri would want to get artists from around the country on board, but it just so happens that he’s discovered plenty in Bengaluru itself. He confesses, after a little probing, that he’s stopped listening to most music from the other major electronica centres in the country: Mumbai and New Delhi. “That’s more of a ‘scene’ scene there, and you can hear it in the output. I can’t think of an album that’s been on repeat; things I can go back to on a regular basis.

This aspect, really, is what sets Consolidate apart: While the artistes each have their own sound, their own identity, they also fall under this abstract canopy, united in their wandering sensibilities as experimental artistes. Internationally, too, you have these labels with a distinct character in the kind of music they present. Think of the iconic Warp or Ninja Tune and the singularly experimental aesthetic both these labels embraced. Their artistes stand out in their own right, no doubt, but so does the vision of the label backing them. It seems, from the outside, that Consolidate is based on that same spirit of exploration, with a high degree of commitment to the curation of the music.

“It’s mostly intentional,” says Giri. “I reach out to people who have an original, unique, signature sound. You listen to Disco Puppet or Aniruddh [Menon]’s music and you can guess it’s by them half the time. Those are the kind of people I want. The thing is, it’s a combination of finding unique, cool, experimental stuff, and finding people who’re trying to do interesting things. I reach out to a lot of people who often don’t give a shit; they’re lazy or their ego comes in the way. The ones I work with are willing to work in this kind of a situation. If I find someone I like, I’ll put them on,” he says.

He doesn’t spell it out as such, but making money off of Consolidate isn’t much of a priority. Sulk Station, his two-piece electronic band, took a bit of a break after touring on the back of Till I Appear , after Giri got married to the vocalist, Tanvi Rao. “Life happened, so we took a break from that. For two years,” he says, “we were gigging with the album. After that, we also got sick and tired of the live scene.” Now, the only way they’ll go back to playing live regularly is if they set up a whole band and it’s fun for them. In the meanwhile, Giri’s day job — his primary source of income — is playing DJ sets as _RHL; he’s also writing an EP under that name. With Consolidate, Giri functions on a revenue-sharing model. Album sales — which aren’t much, he says — are split equally between him and the artistes. He takes a small cut for live gigs, but only for events organises himself. Arguably, the benefits for the artistes outweigh his own.

It takes him a while, and some counting backwards, for him to figure out his exact age. “Thirty-five,” he says, before correcting himself. “No, I’m 34; I’ll be 35 this year.” He’s been part of the electronic scene in India for some time and, needless to say, has built up a fair amount of goodwill. So he helps out artistes on his roster in any way he can, forwarding gig opportunities, not worrying too much about the financial returns. The focus, clearly, remains on building up this movement from the ground up.

A friend Giri and I both have in common once told me, “Giri’s an asshole.” He may be soft-spoken and easygoing in conversation, but that shouldn’t be mistaken for meekness. Giri is opinionated about music to the point of pigheadedness; he believes in it as a kind of sacred art, which propels him forward. He doesn’t waste much time in the posturing that often accompanies any supposedly ‘cool’ music movement. Regardless of one’s opinion of the music, there’s a certain swagger to the underground electronic scene: Everyone looks good, dresses well and speaks in fancy English and contemporary slang. They’re enthusiastic and approachable, even if superficially so, and they all have their eye on the ball.

Giri doesn’t quite fall into that specific ‘type’. He acknowledges as much, and believes his personality type — not abrasive exactly, but just not as easily bendable — often works in his favour: “It helps me in terms of that belief and conviction being a driving force. Personally, within a small circle, there are people who care about what I put out. But it also doesn’t help because I don’t have the social skills to form friendships. It gets in the way of gigs, of getting exposure. If I put out some music, will anybody even share it? It affects the commerce, the financial side of things,” he says.

Biswas, too, cites Giri as sort of a towering figure for the Consolidate roster. Most of the musicians are younger — in their mid-20s — and, in a way, Giri helps shape their drifting vision, acting as a mentor really. “He’s a f**king prick,” laughs Biswas. “That’s why he’s a great person to have around. He’s not going to sweet talk you. He’ll tell you, “ Tu ch****a hai (You’re a dumbass). You need more people like that; I respect his opinion. Even the little things, he’ll push you to do them, tell you not to be lazy. It’s a weird word to use, but I feel ‘safe’ with him.” The underlying respect between the artistes and Giri works to develop a single-minded focus on the art. The creative processes are all deeply individualistic; Biswas says: “We choose what we want to do; we don’t have to work with each other. We do our thing. But once I’m done with the album, I’m like, ‘OK, now this is his album. I’ll do what he suggests, unless I feel very strongly about it.’”

But then there’s the other side. The big, bad, evil world of commerce; the music industry . Giri says, with mild bitterness, “But I’m not part of that ‘sick broo’ community, with all the camaraderie that comes with it. A lot of the people I work with are making music because it’s ‘art’.” His goal, really, is to spread the music as far and wide as possible. He points out how music journalism in the country is weak, to the point where there aren’t any real blogs or places for people to discover new music. A wounded “Thanks!” is my immediate response, but it’s an important point to make. A lot of people, this writer included, ended up discovering a range of exciting music through blogs. “Dissemination of new music is very difficult. There are small bubbles everywhere, and no one wants to step out of them.” The role of Consolidate, then, becomes almost of a blog’s, as he wants people to find new artists through the umbrella he’s created. It’s already happening. Following their most recent release, Lovesongs by Aniruddh Menon, sales of all the others on the label shot up too. He wants to build on this over time, with immediate plans including developing a better website, getting merchandise in order, just being a proper ‘label’. But more than that, he just sounds excited about all the music coming up.

Akhil Sood is a freelance writer based in Delhi

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