BOT 034: "RAGA" is the first release of the year for the label, featuring label head Saqib and multidisiplinary Mumbai-based artist, Naayaab, AKA Radhika Upadhyay making her return to the label. Raga is a remake of Charanjit Singh's Raag Bhairav, as can be heard on his 1983 album, "Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat", an album of electronic music compositions where Singh, a Bollywood session musician and composer took the ragas of eastern classical music and played them to electronic beats with the Roland TB-303 and TR 808 which he had just recently acquired. The original album was a commercial failure but revived in 2002 and re-released on the label Bombay connection.
A few years ago, Saqib heard the original album and was both fascinated and inspired. Remaking Raag Bhairav became a bucket-list project in his life. While working on it, he shared the work-in-progress with Naayaab who was holding on to a similar bucket-list musical aspiration. With their bucket-list goals combined, RAGA was born.