TuneLab
Kaleekarma in The Lab Mumbai
Kaleekarma's trip through The Lab Mumbai is the kind of set you put on when you want to feel interesting—a globe-trotting, genre-agnostic cruise that makes your own record collection look painfully pedestrian. We are all secretly hoping someone asks 'what's this?' so we can pretend we've been into obscure Balearic edits for years. The vibe is laid-back and sun-drenched, even if it's just a studio in Mumbai; you can almost smell the incense. Technically, it's a smooth, eclectic ride averaging 112 BPM, dancing between keys like 10B, 5A, and 12A to maintain a warm, cohesive flow. The energy balance favors the mid-range (0.49 avg), allowing for rich melodic and harmonic content to shine over a steady but unhurried rhythmic bed.
This is mixing as curation, where the joy is in the juxtaposition: a leftfield house cut against a psychedelic disco remix, all blended with a crate digger's gentle touch. The selections are pure gold. Against All Logic's 'Now U Got Me Hooked' is a ten-minute opener of distorted funk and soul, setting a deeply musical tone. Romare's 'Down the Line' is a choppy, sample-heavy house gem, while Noel Harrison's 'Windmills Of Your Mind' gets a blissfully breezy Polo & Pan remix. The inclusion of Drake's 'Gently' is a cheeky, modern R&B interlude that somehow works perfectly.
Populous's 'Umi' offers aquatic, synth-pop textures, and Jimi Jules's 'Too Young for Me' brings a touch of sunny, vocal-led house. Even Beat Maniacs' 'Manchurian Diskosex' gets a sleazy, funky rework. The journey starts with the extended groove of 'Now U Got Me Hooked', finds a peak in the sun-soaked nostalgia of the Polo & Pan remix, and winds down on the earthy, organic percussion of Jacob Groening's 'Kopru Ortas'. A tracklist that feels like a holiday for your ears.