Best Indian Indie EPs: 17 Essential Short Records

Seventeen essential Indian indie EPs, from Small Victories and Side A to Unfinish, Dualism, Raat Raazi and Nature Tapes, Vol. 1. Released records only,.

In Indian independent music, the EP often matters more than the album. It's cheaper to make, faster to release, and for many artists it's the first real statement, made before any label or playlist has noticed them. This list collects EPs that either launched a career or caught an artist at a turning point. If you want full-length records, start with our best Indian indie albums of 2025. This page is only about short records.

Every title, date and track count below comes from the public Apple Music India catalogue, checked on 28 October 2026. We count a release as an EP when Apple labels it one. We don't cite stream counts.

The list

1. Tejas: Small Victories (November 2014). Five songs of bright, guitar-driven Mumbai pop, and the start of Tejas Menon's catalogue. He thought it mattered enough to put out an eight-track Small Victories (10th Anniversary Edition) in November 2024. See the Tejas artist page.

2. Ankur Tewari: Side A (October 2016). Six songs of plainly sung Hindi songwriting. It's half of a pair: see the next entry. Read Ankur Tewari songs.

3. Ankur Tewari & The Ghalat Family: Side B (February 2017). Another six songs, this time credited to Tewari and his band. Play Side A and Side B back to back and they work as one album, made by a group that sounds like friends in a room.

4. Dualist Inquiry: Dualism (June 2011). Four tracks, and the start of Sahej Bakshi's guitar-led electronic project, two years before the album Doppelganger.

5. Dualist Inquiry: Natural Disasters (September 2014). Another four-track EP, released after Doppelganger (2013), with a tighter sound. Bakshi returned to the format with the four-track Life Forms in 2019.

6. Sandunes: Unfinish (December 2015). Four tracks from the Mumbai producer Sanaya Ardeshir, released less than a year before her album Downstream (September 2016).

7. Sandunes: NOLA Daydream (February 2018). Four tracks, and one of the most distinctive short records in Indian electronic music. Her five-track 11:11 followed in 2019 and the four-track Nowhere to Stand in 2021, so Sandunes is the artist on this list who has made the EP her main format.

8. Kamakshi Khanna: Much Mellow (December 2014). Four songs, and the start of one of the most consistent songwriting catalogues in Hindi-English indie.

9. Komorebi: Birds and Bees (May 2022). Four tracks (two songs plus remixes, one of them by OAFF; the title track features Curtin Blue) from Komorebi, the recording name of producer Tarana Marwah. Her albums are Soliloquy (2017) and The Fall (2023); the EP is the quickest way in.

10. When Chai Met Toast: Believe (September 2018). Four tracks. Apple lists it as an EP, not an album. It came after the band's 2017 single "Joy of Little Things" and before their first album, When We Feel Young (2021). See the When Chai Met Toast artist page.

11. When Chai Met Toast: Nature Tapes, Vol. 1 (May 2024). Five tracks, and the band's most adventurous short record.

12. Easy Wanderlings: The Akkare Tapes (Live from Akkarai) (August 2021). A four-track live EP from the Pune band, and proof that they are at their best on stage. See Easy Wanderlings songs.

13. Easy Wanderlings: Caught in a Parade (October 2022). Five studio tracks with a fuller sound, five years after their album As Written in the Stars (2017).

14. Dhruv Visvanath: Demons (March 2022). Four tracks from the percussive acoustic guitarist, a year after his album The Book of I. The six-track Dancing In The Dark followed in November 2023.

15. Taba Chake: I Want To Talk (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (November 2024). Five tracks, led by "Dil Ghabraye", released between his albums Bombay Dreams (2019) and Khud Ko Miloon (2025). It's a soundtrack, but it plays like a Taba Chake EP. His earlier four-track Bond with Nature is the other short record in his catalogue. See the Taba Chake artist page.

16. Tejas: Museum (April 2024). Four tracks, a decade after Small Victories. Play them back to back to hear how far the songwriting has travelled.

17. Prateek Kuhad: Raat Raazi (August 2013). Five tracks, released two years before the album In Tokens & Charms. Kuhad has kept using the format: Apple also lists the four-track Shehron Ke Raaz (2021) and the five-track Mulaqat (2023). See Prateek Kuhad songs.

Why EPs matter more in India

Cost. Four songs fit a small recording budget. See recording studio rates.
Release rhythm. A steady run of EPs and singles keeps an artist in front of listeners between bigger projects.
Testing a direction. Several artists above used EPs to try a sound before committing to an album: Nature Tapes and NOLA Daydream are clear examples.
A first statement. Small Victories, Dualism, Much Mellow and Raat Raazi were all first or early records.

If you're planning your own, our how to release an EP in India guide covers the practical side.

How we picked

The artist had to be independent or indie-rooted, the release had to be labelled an EP on Apple Music India (one soundtrack EP is included and flagged as such), and it had to be out already. No pre-saves, no announced projects.

FAQ

What is an EP? An extended play: usually three to six tracks, shorter than an album.

Which Indian indie EP should I start with? Small Victories by Tejas or Side A by Ankur Tewari.

Is When Chai Met Toast's Believe an album or an EP? Apple Music lists it as a four-track EP (2018). The band's first album is When We Feel Young (2021).

Which Indian indie artist has released the most EPs? Of the artists on this list, Sandunes and Dualist Inquiry have leaned on the format most.