How Amarrass Records Took Folk Music to Global Acclaim

The label’s latest release, ‘Dubfounded,’ brings together electronic music producer Ravana and folk poet Jumme Khan

- Anurag Tagat

ASK ANKUR MALHOTRA and Ashutosh Sharma from Madison/New Delhi-based Amarrass Records how they manage work between two countries and their first reaction is to manage a laugh. “It’s been vaguely defined,” Sharma says, while Malhotra adds, “It’s been kind of crazy.”

Amarrass – a global music label which also manages folk, rock and electronic artists – completes 10 years in 2019. “We’re constantly back at the drawing board, with technology changing and so on,” Sharma says. It’s the age of streaming and downloads, but the duo has managed to bring in their own vinyl cutting machine and set up shop in Gurugram, where each LP is cut in real-time, based on the number of songs on each side.

The label is arguably one of the only one in India to make their own vinyl records, out of their own shop, cutting out any middlemen who they would have to place orders from and then battle enormous shipping charges to bring down. Malhotra says, “India is a very nascent market when it comes to vinyl but case in point is Dumbfounded, we shipped orders to South Africa, Maldives, Denmark, Spain, and the U.S., so it’s going places.” He’s talking about their latest release, a collaboration between “militant dub” music producer Ravana and Alwar, Rajasthan folk poet Jumme Khan.