S.I.Inc. seems to be a sort of multi-musician and multi-genre project led by Shankar Iyer (you get what the name of the project means now, we’re going to assume) where each release that comes out will explore different genres, execute different styles and involve different musicians. It’s a wide-ranging approach that makes increasing amounts of sense in a world where many independent musicians feel stuck in whatever genre the general public have chosen to label them under. Lots of creative minds (take Jack Stratton, Cory Wong, Jon Batiste, St.Vincent and hundreds more) have thus gone the path of playing different things with different people.

If the debut single of this project ‘Bugs’ is anything to go by, the music that comes out of it is going to be of the highest quality. This song is silky smooth, really catchy, solidly produced and overall just the most effortless listening experience of the year so far, maybe?

If ever the phrase ‘just so’ held any tangible meaning, everything about this tune would be it. The production (courtesy Daidipya Sheth) is warm and bell-clear. The writing sacrifices showmanship for parts that fit into each other like pieces of a jigsaw. Stabs of backing vocals fill in points where there aren’t lead melodies, clean guitars walk in and out of the room, and there’s always the solid rhythm section to keep things moving. There’s also just the right amount of sauce in every element to subtly remind you that these are good musicians who can noodle until your ears bleed, but they’re choosing not to because they want you to have fun. And to top it all off, there’s vocals from Tshering Bhutia; relaxed, comfortable and vibe-y.

It’s unassuming songs like ‘Bugs’ that often get completely ruined by a lack of patience; S.I.Inc. understand the value of writing good fundamentals and then just letting a song stay in a space until its conclusion. It’s not rocket science, but it is really good songwriting, so put this one into your rotation if you like chilled-out, clean sounds.