Tushar Mathur is a Bangalore-based musician who is proudly part of the new-age soul and chill hip-hop canon that’s slowly building in the country’s overwrought and overpopulated singer-songwriter scene. The genre owes a lot of its current popularity to its laid-back and lazy feel; his new single ‘Stepping About’ is entirely faithful to that sentiment.

Tushar wears his influences (that include Tom Misch, Loyle Carner, FKJ and the like) very much on his sleeve; the song has the soft and droopy delivery that those artists commonly use. There isn’t a single abrasive second here. The song’s sonic palate also echoes these sounds with its slow drum groove, squeaky guitar licks and sweet bassline. That’s really all one needs and it’s mostly what he focuses on, which shows some amount of maturity in his songwriting. ‘Stepping About is not packed with nine hundred different motifs and layers that would take away from the experience. It also helps that the track uses variety sparingly. There’s a little rap verse (now becoming the de facto musical transition in the genre, it looks like) towards the end of the track and an even littler guitar solo that precedes. It’s all kept very low-key and restrained, which is to its credit.

The song deals with the rather serious issue of the young generation working and over-thinking itself to death and how the act of relaxation and healing should be a higher priority in these times, but ‘Stepping About’ is more about the overall experience more than anything else. The grooves and sonic palate of the track are all about calming down and taking it easy, and that’s a message we would be better off heeding.