Now that there’s some concurrence that the abs are better than the butt, let me present one of the most noteworthy indipop debuts this year - singer Raman Mahadevan’s Ramanasia. You’re pardoned if you’ve not seen it in the music retail store near you - its released online-only in SoundBuzz - something Raman was forced to do since most of the major labels didn’t find his material good enough, according to his own admission!

Also, he is not related to the more popular Mahadevan out there - Shankar! I saw his name in the credits of Taare Zameen Par’s ‘Kholo kholo’, did a quick Google to see if he’s related to Shankar and ended up in his Myspace page. Heard the samples of Ramanasia and was reminded of Shankar’s debut (Breathless) in Aasmaan se and assorted, decent Leslie Lewis compositions in a few other tracks and went straight to SoundBuzz, paid some 89 bucks (rupaiyya not dollars!) and bought-downloaded the entire album…aaah it feels good to ‘pay for and buy’ an album online - no Bangalore’s notorious traffic jams, no parking mess, no waiting, no annoying store clerks from Landmark/ Planet M etc…!

The album is much better than most of the stuff churned out in the name of indipop these days - been hooked on to the tracks in my car for about 3-4 days now. Oh yes, SoundBuzz retails DRM locked WMA - a scum that needs to be thrown out of this planet. Thankfully my review’s footnotes has an easy way to do that.

Wrote to Raman asking him for the detailed credit notes - he’s responded promptly too. All tracks have Amit Trivedi’s (last associated with Abhijeet Sawant in Junoon) production - which explains the top notch arrangement. This online-only-without-compromising-on-production-quality thingy is a great new beginning in Indian non-film music scene since it gives a fantastic platform for aspiring musicians to go out and do their own thing without worrying about Sony/BMG/YRF considering their material worth-enough for a commercial release. If only we find a better way to promote such artists online…here’s wishing that other regular and more wordy (!) music reviewers take note of this album.

My 200 words on Ramanasia! It’s also got links to buy the album and to Raman’s blog, for feedback and comments.