Dark-Cinematic-Asiatic-Electronica as a musical environment was created by the sinister mad-hatters of the mid-nineties, forever known as Ecostani which was comprised of Bobby Friction and Infinite Scale. The duo in their time successfully toured Europe, played with the Asian Dub Foundation and remixed for major record labels including the top 5 selling single Bhangra Knights out on Sony recordings.
Today, we share with you “Dancing Chamche” by Ecostani which loosely translated means “Dancing Puppets” much like the leaders of the G8 and G20. This sinister tune is the perfect background music for all those important folks making life altering decisions at the G8 and G20 summit this week.
Angelic vocals with lyrics that will melt your heart is “Rain”" by Rita Morar. The original ambient mix is like scattered showers that suddenly pour into your afternoon. Forcing you to take notice at natures beauty, which in this case is Rita Morar’s voice. Then at exactly 5:03 secs the Rain stops and a beautiful rainbow emerges. Just listen and you’ll understand what I mean by the musical equivalent of a rainbow.
……then I heard Rita Morar’s acapella of ”Tujhe Yaad Na Meri Aayi” and you know that haunting feeling you get when you hear something soo beautiful ? well thats what happened.
“Reborn by Janaka Selekta is spiritually soothing and awakening like the flowering of the mind”
We all enter into this world with one life, a life that never seizes to stop and one that continues to challenge us till our very last breathe. As humans we all long to re-live life’s precious moments, so much that we have even created a mythical tale called the “time machine” to take us back and in a way be reborn.
Unfortunately time travel doesn’t exist but there is still a way to re-live these precious memories. Its through music and with the touch of button we can leap back years and be reborn.
Well I use to DJ and would fuse different elements together. This initial experimenting lead me to be inspired but it was only when I started using music software that I started to really see what I can do with electronic music. I like to think outside the box and I always have, I already have an idea in my head and it’s just ready to come out via the software! I like good beats – that’s essential and sometimes it can take days to get the right break or drum pattern and basslines as well. I’ve studied what producers used in the earlier days of jungle, dnb and hip hop to see how they get a specific sound etc…as they say knowledge is key and I have a good ear for sounds and tones. I try and do a mixture of genres that I feel have an impact with Asian fusion for example Dubstep
I want to stand out from other producers so I try and not stick to one sound, but my music has been described as crazy, out there, bass heavy, and completely mad , and that’s way I like it….HAHAHAHAHH (evil laugh)
What equipment are you currently using ? are you an inside the box producer (computer based) or outside the box ( old school equipment) producer ?
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I use Ableton Live for my style of music and a midi keyboard, I think it’s the best software on this earth! So far anyway. I like to keep it simple and just focus on that nothing flash , just the essentials.
I have a lot of respect for old school equipment especially the old synths they use to use in the 80s and 90s. I also love the old 808 and 909 drums you cant beat them.
In your opinion, what will your genre look like 5 years from now ? Electronic Asian music is sprouting up throughout the diaspora and in India? whats your take ? dream gigs if any ?
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I think the genre will be quite big and not just Asians making this music but non Asians well. I also feel that it will be much more established and at the same time more recognition should be deserved to the people involved in this amazing scene.
As for India, there have been a lot of requests for my tracks over there and the producers out there are making some brilliant music and more club nights are having the Asian underground theme. I feel the Asians in India are more open minded then the UK crowds, as Bhangra dominates the Asian music scene over here in the UK, and thats all they want to hear is Bhangra and nothing more.
Dream gigs will be to go all over the world and promote this type of music, but specific places for me will be: Miami, India, Australia, Japan and the Glastonbury festival in the UK.
Dream Collaborations with instrumentalists, vocalists or fellow electro producers ?
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Liam Howlett from The Prodigy would be a dream! Massive Attack, Goldie, Dr Dre and Breakage.
Whens the expected release date for your album?
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I’m aiming for Autumn it will be entitled ’I AM HERE NOW’ so I will keep you posted on that. Before this I will be releasing a free mixtape entitled ‘Punjabi Funk’ Era’ which should be out late summer …so watch this space peeps! in the mean time heres a sneak peak.
Just as music has helped evolve architecture and usher in political movements, Udyan Sagar a.k.a Nucleya’s soon to be released EP ‘Horn Ok Please’ is set to revolutionize the worlds biggest film industry. This is because ‘Horn Ok Please’ is the perfect marriage between the Asian Underground and the commercial Bollywood arena. Its a pristine production that is current and relevant to 21st century youth culture and dance-floors globally.
So how will this change Bollywood ? Well once you have a Bollywood Electronic soundscape, like ‘Horn Ok Please’, then dancing in canola fields and imitating cheesy MTV pop videos will not work anymore. A true organic on-screen environment for Bollywood Electronica will require directors to take a different approach in cinematography and scripting altogether. Directors will have to journey deep into ‘Horn Ok Please’ and feel the story its telling of youth all across the world wobbling on dance floors from Berlin to Boston to Bombay. This is the story of a generation that doesn’t process foreign languages, rather they move to a universal energy.
‘Horn Ok Please’ is a multi-colored truck that rips through the back-alleys of Bollywood capturing all its classic hits and then accelerates to 128 BPM. Pushing the boundaries of where Bollywood will be heard; which is now worldwide on dance-floors everywhere.
Today we introduce, Amarik Singh, a.k.a “Psychedelic Singh”, hailing from Bradford, England. Amarik started creating music during the Electronic Punk Era whilst playing in various bands. It’s only in the last few years that Amarik has got back into creating music and experimenting with Bhangra and Electronic Music. With his main influences coming from the Psychedelic Era. Producer Amarik Singh creates his sound by playing his own instruments including the Guitar, Drum, Keyboards and the Bass. At the moment he is working on his solo project ‘Quantum Soup’ and ‘Quantum Masala’. Here are some examples from his unique genre called ‘Psychedelic Bhangra’
North America’s decade-old, internationally renowned arts festival of the South Asian diaspora will present the freshest Cultural-Art-Collision on June 18th to 20th2010 at the venerable Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.
Grass-roots in nature, modern in form and collaborative in context, ArtWallah’s music, dance, performance, stand-up comedy, literature, poetry, and visual art dig deeply into ethnic roots to find its fusion in a uniquely American expressionism.
Co-presented by The South Asian Artists Collective and Highways, the tenth anniversary festival celebrates the theme of “Afterlife” with a presentation of original artist collaborations and multi-disciplinary performance – and an engaging children’s program for families. Tickets are now available online at www.highwaysperformance.org or via the Highways box office at 310-315-1459.
I remember the first time hearing ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis and it was absolutely magical.
“Today is gonna be the day that they’re gonna throw it back to you
By now you shoulda, somehow, realized what you gotta do
I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now”
Those acoustic strings and Noel Gallagher’s voice still send me down memory lane.
But can such a masterpiece be reworked with Dhol & Drum N Bass, and still be a summer anthem ?
YES! it has just happened and if DJ VIX and Chan 1 were wanting to go viral this could be it.
Put your lighters in the air and Press Play
The Kominas will be making their European debut alongside the likes of Elvis Costello and Broken Bells at London’s prestigious Meltdown Festival, curated this year by Richard Thompson. They will then go on to tour the U.K. and Europe before returning to England for Latitude Festival to perform in support of their documentary film “Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam” (www.taqwacore.com)
In the past few years, The Kominas have helped birth and nurture a now vibrant North American Muslim Punk Rock scene and brought Punk to Pakistan in 2008. They returned to the U.S. last year for a breakout performance at the annual SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas and have since been performing across the U.S. and Canada, catapulting them to the forefront of mainstream media (Associated Press, CNN, L.A. Times)
Not just a Muslim punk rock band, The Kominas have shown in the past year alone that their controversial lyrics and taqwacore beginnings are just an extension of what they stand for.
Today we journey into the soundtrack of a modern day bank robbery. From producer Vapor Mache this is a tabla infused electronic journey into the criminal world.
Breakbeat’s Son is a phenomenal talent from London and here is our little teaser before we do a full coverage on him later this month. So go ahead press play and get your revenge on that dance floor !
Western Canadian Desi Hip Hop. This is DJ HMD and he’s been in the scene for years now. I remember picking up his mixtapes at local desi grocery stores in the early 2000′s and loved the hip hop code-switching between Punjabi and English. HMD has evolved quite a bit since his early underground mixtapes and this is defiantly your summer ’10 cruising tune.
This is such a brilliant example of Asiatic vocals sampled into an endless electronic space adventure.
3 out of this world remixes free for download and 1 purchase link for the original version of Indian Girl.
A SCENE FROM A LOCAL HOSPITAL (Doctor & Nurse Resuscitating A Patient)
DOCTOR: breath, breath ! Damn it we need you to breath !
NURSE: the E.R. is filling up with patients by the minute, all claming shortness of breathe once they heard the news that the Audio Dakoo’s will be no more
DOCTOR: its a fucking curse I tell you! who else will make “Murderous Asian Underground” music like the Audio Dakoo’s
Patient dramatically responds to the Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. PATIENT: Why the fuck are they no longer gonna make music?
DOCTOR: The music will still live on dear, it will come to you in other forms. Its just the name Audio Dakoo’s is now dead. We need you to have patience while the Dakoo’s evolve into something greater.
NURSE: Audio Dakoo’s was such a killer name
PATIENT: I don’t think I am gonna make it doc
DOCTOR: Any last requests ?
PATIENT: Amitabh’s Organic Overdrive.
AMITABH’S ORGANIC OVERDRIVE BY THE AUDIO DAKOO’S
GT ROAD(TABLAHEAD REFIX) BY THE AUDIO DAKOO’S
SNAKE CHARMER BY PANJABI MC( ONE EYED SERPENT REMIX BY AUDIO DAKOOS)
If you thought this years release of David Starfires ‘Bollyhood Bass’ was explosive, wait till you get a listen to his new Bollyhood Bass Remix EP. It features an all-star cast of remixers from Sub-Swara, An-Ten-Nae, Mochipet, Ill Gates to Jef Stott.
This EP is a must have and to tease your ear drums we have a free remix of Cobra by Sub Swara, a thunderous percussion heavy remix of the original snake charmer anthem.
With close to 6 months of blogging under our belts we have amassed a pretty impressive online music collection. Also with the revamp of our website we have added a handy little pink music player on the bottom left-hand side of the page, can you see it ? perfect this is what your going to use for tonights Office Party ! !
