There's a version of India's music scene that doesn't make the Billboard charts, doesn't play at Sunburn, and doesn't need to. It happens in basements, warehouses, rooftops, and small clubs, and it's been quietly building for over a decade.
Bangalore: The Heartbeat
Bangalore is arguably the capital of India's underground electronic scene. Venues like Anticlub and nights run by labels like Pumproom Records have built a genuine community around techno, house, and experimental electronic music. The scene here values quality over spectacle: long sets, dark rooms, no phones on the floor.
The crowd at a Bangalore underground event is remarkably cross-cultural: software engineers, artists, musicians, and students, all there for the music first.
Mumbai: The Hybrid City
Mumbai's scene sits at the intersection of commercial and underground. Nights like those at Khar Social, smaller rooftop events, and the growing community around labels like Qilla Records are pushing the city toward a deeper, more intentional sound. Mumbai also has India's most active DJ export pipeline. Several artists from here are now playing internationally.
Delhi: Loud, Unapologetic, Evolving
Delhi's music culture has always been louder and more aggressive, but the underground here is evolving fast. Spaces like Auro Kitchen & Bar and the rotating warehouse parties happening in the outskirts are building something that feels genuinely new.
What the Underground Wears
The aesthetic of India's underground music scene is minimal, deliberate, and anti-logo. It's not about wearing a brand. It's about wearing something that signals you're paying attention: to music, to culture, to what things actually mean.
That's exactly where Ctrl Alt Drip lives. Our music collection (Bass Is My Therapist, Techno: Music Without Borders, In Frequencies We Trust) was built for this community, by people inside it.
Explore the music collection →
CAD Mix 008 — Homegrown
Three artists carrying the Indian underground, one city each.
Arjun Vagale — Spektron
Delhi-raised, globally booked — the elder statesman of Indian techno.
Lifafa — Jaago
Delhi's Suryakant Sawhney making Hindi electronica that sounds like nowhere else.
Dualist Inquiry — 6am
For the hour the best nights end. Guitar-led electronica from one of the scene's originals.
Wear the scene: Made for the Underground × Pumproom Records · the full Music Collection →
Related reading: Frequencies: the Music Collection, annotated
Printed with water-based inks, shipped with zero plastic, 20% of profits to street dogs. The quiet part of every CAD tee.