Nothing Anonymous is a Mumbai electro-pop duo that consists of vocalist Ambika Nayak and producer Nirmit Shah. They have been active for a relatively short time but have been making a considerable amount of noise and playing at multiple music festivals and the like. Their single ‘Waste Away’ is a despondent but charming piece of laid back pop that is made immensely enjoyable by its just-released music video, which combines great direction and a simple concept executed really, really well.

‘Waste Away’ rests on Ambika’s relaxed and low-key delivery and Shah’s jittery, atmospheric instrumental. There are blobs of synths and drums that aren’t particularly smooth but have an interesting energy to them. There are a bunch of transitions that keep you on your toes throughout the song’s four and a half minutes; it goes from an off-kilter intro to a warm section with Ambika rapping in the half-conversational tone that everyone from Lauryn Hill to Noname has used, and then there’s a stripped down section with layers of vocal harmonies with synth arpeggios before the track shifts yet again into a high tempo outro with hard stabs of distorted bass. There’s a lot to process and unsuspecting listeners might get bombarded with a load of sounds and changes before they’ve wrapped their head around the previous section, but once you get it, it’s enjoyable. The video massively improves the experience with the very simple idea of once character reflecting, pondering and trying to find hope in darkness at a party where everyone else is in suspended animation. Directed by Richard Wyndham, there is an eerie and generally dark tone to it and there is a lot of satisfaction in seeing how smoothly it flows and has been shot.

Nothing Anonymous isn’t talking about sunshine and rainbows here; ‘Waste Away’ is a vaguely detached song that deals with addiction and other things a lot of people are struggling with. There is something to smile about by the end of the track, but the atmosphere it builds is quite dark. It would be a relatively pointless message if the track didn’t get the aesthetic and vibe right, which it pretty much does.