Daiaphi Lamare out of Meghalaya makes music under the name ‘Reble’. As her single ‘Muse’ shows, she is a truly original voice in India’s modern hip-hop/R&B scene. This is rarer than one might think; since its sudden and dramatic emergence just a few years ago, this sound has reached overplayed status disconcertingly quickly. Reble isn’t doing anything particularly new here, but it’s executed so well and written so honestly that it demands listening. Repeated listening.

First things first, the production from Stunnah Beatz is immaculate. The thing so many producers in this genre miss out on is the important of simplicity, and that is what the instrumental here is centered on. It’s catchy, it has bop-tendencies but won’t blow out your ears, and it sits very comfortably behind Reble’s vocals; here is a beat that sounds as good in a song as it would on its own, which is not easy to pull off. Secondly, there are the vocals themselves, which switch from singing to laid-back raps and back to melodic content completely seamlessly. Again, there’s nothing groundbreaking going on here; ‘Muse’ is essentially another half-croon-half-bars bit of contemporary hip-hop. But it ticks every box so emphatically that it proves the age-old idea that one can take a simple concept and make it compelling purely by doing it exceedingly well. This is a simple tune that will effortlessly make its way into your frequent listening cycle.

Reble will be releasing an album in the near future, so keep an eye out for that too.