For Neeram Pularumbol (As the Dawn Breaks), my follow-up record to the 2021 release on OnTheCorner Records (When the Waters Refused Our History), I wanted to do a deep dive into Indian percussion instruments that have strong links to communal rituals that are played in various sized drum-ensembles.
Since a big part of the Sunken Cages aesthetic is producing tracks that blend traditional Indian percussion and western electronic drums, I wanted to thoroughly research and study the drums and patterns beforehand.
Drums from Mumbai
Hailing from Mumbai, and having grown up listening to the sounds of the Tasha drum ensembles, I’ve always been mesmerized by the synchronized playing of drum-patterns and the earth-shaking sounds thereby produced.
Photo: Snehal Jeevan Pailkar
For the most part, western audiences may be familiar with the sounds of percussion instruments such as the tabla or dhol, which are prominent in a lot of Indian fusion to-date. Those drums are also more widely heard across various performances and nowadays are studied by musicians from all over the globe.
However, exposure to these large drums is less likely. Additionally, not being a purist, I wanted to capture the essence of those thunderous patterns and reimagine them in the context of all my own musical references, old and new.
Photo: Maneesh Goal
Drums from Kerala
Up until about 10 years ago, I quite literally had not heard about the drums unique to the Indian state of Kerala. North Indian cultural dominance had obscured my own sense of the diversity of musical heritages present.
Instruments such as the Chenda, Idakka and Elathalam are rarely heard outside their religious contexts. I was immediately struck by the unison playing of patterns as well as the splitting up of drum-parts which was comparable to the tasha-ensembles from Mumbai.
CHENDA MELAM
Photo: Aliaksandr Mazurkevich
PIQUE FESTIVAL 2026- OTTAWA, CANADA (BY John Finnegan)
Putting it all together
This live-performance of “Kerala” is a good example of how I approach producing a track. I play and loop various rhythms on my DrumBeam and mesh pads, and simultaneously trigger melodic sequences as well. Once I’ve recorded the jam, I go back into Ableton’s arrangement view and fine-tune the individual tracks, add additional effects, EQing, panning and so forth.