Year of the Cat

Listening to Peter Cat Recording Co is to be transported into a musical world without a sense of fixed time or place. The group’s funk-inflected guitars and warm reverb of humming basslines might recall a West Coast ‘70s analogue feel, while their sharp trills of strings could take us to the ‘80s disco, crooning vocals to the Vegas strip of the ‘50s and buzzing synth lines into the globalised 21st Century. You might be forgiven for thinking you are listening to a lesser-known, rediscovered band from mid-20th Century America or a young British indie group seeking to emulate the sounds of their predecessors. The reality, however, is more unexpected.

First forming in 2009 and releasing their debut album, Sinema, in 2011, Peter Cat Recording Co are an Indian band. Originally based in Gurgaon and Delhi, the five-piece group have found global fame since the release of their 2019 breakthrough album Bismillah and have completed multiple tours in recent years throughout Europe, Asia and the US. With their latest album, 2024’s BETA, they have expanded their sound to encompass everything from Punjabi pop melodics to guitar distortion, futuristic synth sounds and psychedelic indie folk, yet their music is always instantly recognisable thanks to the husky warmth of frontman Suryakant Sawhney’s vibrato-laden voice. Now marking 15 years as a band, Peter Cat Recording Co have cemented their status as perhaps the first and only Indian guitar band to find international success.

Read the feature in India Contemporary.

[This piece was published on 03/04/26]