By Aina says the eaglewarrior / Editor-in-Chief – Columnist 

The month of January is always a complicated time. We have the winter blues, we’re still in the post-end-of-year meal digestion phase and we’re being made to feel guilty about Dry January. So to counter all this gloomy and somewhat depressive atmosphere, we have just invented “Fast music January”. The principle is simple: listen to good, happy and groove sound galore all month long and much more. But really, why limit yourself to “January” when you can be in a good mood all year round? To begin with, this “Fast music January”, we have found a little musical gem full of vitality and groove: Madame Gandhi .

1000 lives

Madame Gandhi , whose real name is Kiran Gandhi, is a young woman with a thousand lives. First of all, Kiran is known to be a recognized feminist activist. Indeed in London, 2015, she made the headlines of the press by entering the London marathon in free bleeding mode, to denounce the taboo which weighs on periods today.

Photo Credit: Sajna Sivan

Then she distinguished herself as a talented drummer, performing on MIA ‘s 2013 tour and playing for the legendary band Thievery Corporation , no less. Finally, she stood out with her project Electro: Mme Gandhi, released in 2016. We won’t tell you about the fact that she graduated from Harvard. You will have understood, Mrs Gandhi has multiple facets.

For fun, here is a performance by Kiran on the MIA project:

Trilogy

It was in 2022 that Kiran released his Ep “  Vibrations  ” via Sony Music Masterworks . It is part of a trilogy started in 2016 with “  Voices ”, followed in 2019 by “  Visions ”. Through these 3 musical chapters, Ms. Gandhi examines themes such as personal and sexual liberation, activism and growth in love. When Kiran talks about her music, she wants it to be bright, joyful, a celebration of existence. Through these interviews, she exudes a kind of positive energy that is contagious. We feel that she is driven by her desire to change mentalities or at least to do her part.

1000 Vibrations

Madame Gandhi offers us   an incredible musical palette in “ Vibrations ”. To help you discover his Ep, we have chosen to present only live versions. This is a bias because we find that live we perceive more of the power of our musical creativity.

Set Me Free is the first song we heard from Madame Gandhi. He immediately caught our attention with his aesthetic and his energy. This project is often described as electro, but here we are more in an almost Afrobeat aesthetic. The rhythm is jerky, the touch of the drummer is grooveesque, which leads us into a spontaneous swaying of our hips. The sax and congas add dynamics and afro sounds. In an interview, Kiran says that “  This song is about joyfully calling for the manifestation of life, love, people, food. I make music with the intention of inspiring change, joy, growth. “ 

We continue with Crystals & Congas , where we discover Kiran’s stunning flow. The title is an electro percussive mantra with always the feeling that afrobeat is not far away. The drummer has a divine touch and the sax perfectly punctuates the song.

Heart Wide Open and clearly an afrobeat title. As much, in the other titles we feel the inspiration but here she lets explode this current which runs through her. And this is where we understand all his creativity. When we listen to the previous Eps, we are on electro pieces, even Trap, much slower in tempo and with big thumping bass. Some might think it’s a turnaround but Kiran explores all the groove she has in her. And we love this ability to be able to reinvent ourselves, to transcend ourselves while keeping a common thread in our approach.

Past Life is the last piece that we are introducing to you and which perfectly illustrates all the richness of his musical universe. A more electro/trap piece, here we find the inspirations of her previous Ep. In this piece Madame Gandhi invites us to follow her “Come with me”, to make a clean sweep of the past and above all to feel free “I’m Free Now » which she repeats like a mantra that shows us the way to follow.

Our “Fast Music Jaunary” begins divinely well with Mrs Gandhi. She is an incredibly generous and joyful artist, activist, musician who will dynamize your melancholy of the moment. Her Ep Vibrations is a hymn to life, a manifesto for freedom. Her universe tinged with electro with Afrobeat sounds mixed with her delicious flow will make you dance naturally. Let yourself be carried away by its universal vibration. To follow her, here are her links: Spotify / Insta