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When 'Doves' soar: Hindia shares emotional journey on surprise mixtape
Hindia's surprise mixtape Doves, '25 on Blank Canvas, which dropped digitally on Feb. 24, is a symbolic experiment that runs the spectrum of emotions, from grief and loss to empathetic reflection.
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Surprise release: Baskara Putra, stage name Hindia, appears in a promotional photo for his mixtape ‘Doves, '25 on Blank Canvas’, released on Feb. 24, 2025. (Courtesy of Meidiana Tahir/-)
Sometimes, a record can make an unprecedented splash without so much as fanfare.
This is what is happening with Doves, '25 on Blank Canvas, a mixtape that, in less than 48 hours since its digital release and without any prerelease campaign, managed to amass more than a million plays on Spotify alone.
And upon listening closely to what Baskara Putra has to say in this mixtape, he might have indeed managed to both capture and reflect the agony simmering in many Indonesians nowadays. After all, the past few months have not exactly been our country's finest hour.
"I forget the psychological term for it, but Doves, in its entirety, is like an empathy test," said Hindia, the alternative pop moniker of Baskara Putra, during a conversation with The Jakarta Post on Feb. 28, five days after the surprise release of his mixtape.
'Spontaneous reaction'
In the West, “mixtape” typically refers to a body of musical works in which an artist aims to experiment with their sound, not necessarily focus on delivering a commercially viable output. This is also how the AMI Award-winner pretty much defines Doves and the creative spirit behind it.
"This [Doves] is a spontaneous reaction to so many things that have happened in Indonesia, as well as personal turmoil and the kinds of music that my team and I listened to in the past few months," explained Hindia, whose previous studio album Lagipula Hidup Akan Berakhir (Life will end anyway) was released back in July 2023.
