Just to clarify, the new single from Pune guitarist-songwriter c.wagh, ‘Black Cat Blues’, doesn’t actually sound old; there’s no crackle or vintage tones to speak of. It’s recorded fairly cleanly and for all his old-school affectations, he doesn’t sound particularly out of some little-known blues record in the store’s bargain bin (its lack of relevance is the genre’s problem, not ours). So what’s actually interesting about this slow and low acoustic, classic-inspired tune? It’s how it carries itself. In case that’s too nebulous, ‘Black Cat Blues’ sounds more like a jam or demo than a meticulously mixed and arranged song. In this case (rarer than most), it works out in its favour.

The track has a bunch of funny sonic decisions c.wagh leans into (the more woke among us might call that ‘personality’). The main elements here are an acoustic guitar (drenched in reverb and loud), his vocals (with the same effects) and a harmonica that does the soloing. These elements are all very clear and very much in your face. You can also hear some other things; sometimes you can hear his foot tapping, sometimes there are drums (but only barely) that are miles back in the mix and sound like they were recorded with a phone. It’s all rather odd, but what it does do is provide ‘Black Cat Blues’ with the one thing that makes it fun; a messy and unfinished vibe. This really does sounds like the kind of thing you’d find trawling across the internet and would keep just for yourself because you can tell it’s low profile and has a DIY aspect to it. Even the guitars aren’t played with a lot of precision, but even that works in the song’s favour. And by the time you listen to his vocals and harmonica ‘runs’, you hit upon the song’s very personal sense of intimacy.