Beats, Breaks & Tablas…

My personal journey with the ‘Asian Underground' began around 1990, when I started to receive records from a new label called Nation. At that point in my DJ career, Nation was the only company to send me free material so I was very grateful - records from unheard of artists like LOOP GURU and TRANSGLOBAL UNDERGOUND, as well as stuff by FUN-DA-MENTAL (who I had read about in the music press). Nation was making a big noise for a little label, not just musically but also politically, airing strong views on racism, capitalism and other issues.

I went along to a club run by JOI at the Bass Clef in Hoxton Square, in 1992. It was a packed night, mainly white hippie types with a sprinkling of Bangladeshi teenagers. There was a really friendly atmosphere and the music was excitingly new, with all kinds of Asian and non-Asian references I could relate to. Beats, breaks and tablas, bits of rap, Indian female vocal samples, swirling basslines, very ‘electronic' and danceable. It was similar to what Nation was sending me but a little happier sounding.

Nation had started to hold one-off parties and club nights. There were the Global Sweatbox sessions at the Bass Clef, where I also played nervously a few times. I met Simon Underwood who used to be the 1980's chart-busting band, PIGBAG. He went on to work for Nation and to manage HUSTLERS HC, the UK's first Sikh rap outfit. He'd had a long-tern interest in world music and had been on the WOMAD circuit for years. Before joining Nation in 1993, Simon organised a huge Asian music event in Austria for the Vienna Festival. Bhangra bands like ACHANAK performed, as well as top bhangra DJs, XECUTIVE SOUNDS. TALVIN SINGH also did a set. But, the highlight was the final evening with live performances from FUN-DA-MENTAL, HUSTLERS HC and TRANSGLOBAL UNDERGROUND with NATACHA ATLAS. As I waited in the wings to do my DJ set, the opening chords of Transglobal's ‘TEMPLEHEAD' piped through the speakers and the stage was awash with colour, smoke and inexplicable warmth I hadn't experienced before. I was hooked!

As time went on, I began to hear about tabla player Talvin Singh in the press, and finally met him in 1993 while judging at the ASIAN DJ AWARDS. At the Wag Club in London, hundreds of Asian lads - mainly dressed in hip-hop style clothing: baggy jeans, baseball caps, and plenty of attitude to boot - were gathered for this event. In the corner, I spotted a young man who stood out like a sore thumb - frilled shirt gathered in a ruff at the neck, velvet jacket and a mass of wavy hair falling over his forehead. It was Talvin.

A month later I bumped into my old photography tutor, Aniruddha Das, at a LOOP GURU gig. We met up at his music studio a few weeks later and he played me some tracks that he and a friend had been working on - kind of similar to what I'd been hearing through Nation. He told me he didn't want to sign to a record label. Around his studio were tones of posters of Fun-Da-Mental... I put him in touch with Simon at Nation. He went on to form ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION and, of course, subsequently signed to Nation, Virgin France and (temporarily) London Records.

While discussing the merits of the latest APACHE INDIAN record with HEAVYWEIGHT MEDIA employee Shabs, we got talking about the general state of affairs in the British music industry, and shared a common view that there were very limited opportunities for Asian artists. A year later, Shabs had set up his own PR company called MEDIA VILLAGE, and called to say he wanted to set up a label. Would I join him? In 1994, OUTCASTE RECORDS was born.

The name, a pun on the ‘caste' system, was devised to reflect the predicament of being an outsider. The logo, based on the standard ‘no entry' road signs in the UK, followed the same principle. Our mission was first to provide a new home for British Asian artists whose music reflected their British and Asian roots equally. Secondly, we wanted to send out a new music message to the mainstream audience, which seemed to be largely ignoring the fact that Asians could even be musical at all. We felt that if this new music could be accessible to non-Asians, maybe, just maybe, it would provide a stepping-stone to other, deeper Asian music like bhangra, Bollywood or Indian classical.

My job was to find the talent. Where were these British Asian music people? We put the word out through our press contacts and an extensive database. We also began the monthly Outcaste club night to showcase the music and bring in new artists. Eventually people started to come through. While I was DJing at Bombay Jungle, a young guy called Easy Mo kept badgering me with vinyls he'd created in his Hackney bedroom - he eventually became one half of Badmarsh and Shri.

We looked at the other people who were already ‘around': EARTHRIBE, Joi, Talvin Singh, all of whom we came close to signing. While DJing at a world music conference in Berlin, the manager of a new musician/composer (who I'd heard of but not seen) approached me. Some weeks later, Shabs and I went to his bedroom studio and promptly signed him. And so, NITIN SAWHNEY became our first ‘big' artist.

Meanwhile, Talvin Singh (who'd spent many years as a highly-regarded tabla player, sessioning with the likes of MASSIVE ATTACK and BJORK) decided to set up his own label and club. ANOKHA became the UK's first weekly Asian Underground event, opening at the old Bass Clef stomping ground, which had now been relaunched as the BLUE NOTE by new owners ACID JAZZ RECORDS. From 1996, Monday nights in Hoxton became a world of trendy Asian media types and a mixture of non-Asian crusties and ravers, all getting down to the new Asian fusion sounds. Celebrities, like Bjork, attended regularly.

Drum'n'bass was all the rage in London, particularly after jungle went ‘overground' into the UK Top 40 with GENERAL LEVY's 1994 release, ‘Incredible'. Hence, drum'n'bass was the most likely Western style to be fused into a lot of the early Asian Underground music, and provided a great danceable backdrop to paint over with Indian drums and sarangi extracts. Talvin's brilliant compilation SOUNDZ OF THE ASIAN UNDERGROUND - released in 1997 on his own Omni label, licensed to Island - showcased contributions from other artists who'd been fusing East and West sounds for a very long time. It featured people like OSMANI SOUNDS, EQUAL I and early pioneer Sam Zaman (aka STATE OF BENGAL).v Sam ran his first raves back in 1987, through his work as a youth-worker in the Brick Lane area of East London, and was playing a mish-mash of early hardcore breaks alongside Bengali folk and Indian classical records. In 1990, he organized a big event at the Woodseer Youth Project in Brick Lane. Down the road, the Shamsher brothers, Farook and Haroon, were busying themselves learning music from their father and developing the JOI BANGLA YOUTH MOVEMENT. Talvin and Earthtribe were not far off in other parts of the east London area, which seemed to be the hotbed for many Asian Underground pioneers. No one seems to know exactly why. Theories are, that as a sizeable number of Asians in east London were not Punjabi, the bhangra explosion was not as relevant to them, whereas other forms of Asian music were.

Of course the exchange of music between different cultures was nothing new and, in Asian music terms, there had already been numerous collaborations and projects: GEORGE HARRISON and RAVI SHANKAR; JOHN MCLAUGHLIN and ZAKIR HUSSAIN (SHAKTI); JOHN MAYER's Indo-Jazz Fusions; TRILOK GURTU and GENETIC DRUGS in Germany; BILL LASWELL in the USA; ANANDA SHANKAR in India; SHEILA CHANDRA and MONSOON had their British chart hit ‘Ever So Lonely' in 1982; NAJMA AKTAR's ghazal/jazz fusion album Quareeb was released in 1987. The list is endless, but what is clear is that by the early 1990s there were a large number of pockets of Asian fusion activity in operation. By 1996, these pockets had grown into an Asian Underground industry with a thriving, vibrant scene.

The music was generally created in bedrooms - Ataris, samplers, drum-machines and, occasionally, live instruments. But, with the advent of midi technology, one didn't have to be a musician (in the strictest sense) to create music. Western dance music like trip-hop, techno and, of course, drum'n'bass were synthesized with tabla loops, flute samples and so on. The Asian content was largely drawn from classical Indian music. Much of the product created was instrumental and even more accessible for non-Asians, as they didn't have to contend with the language barrier or shrill Bollywood vocals that they weren't acclimatized to. In contrast, most British bhangra was band and song-led, frivolous, sung in Punjabi and created in professional studios. Asian Underground artists who did have a lyrical content within their music tended to focus on consciousness-raising. Politics were paramount, often focusing on anti-racism, anti-war and the second-generation Asian experience in Britain. The music and messages were serious.

Over the remaining 1990s, the scene just grew. SECOND GENERATION magazine started up as a dedicated documenter for Asian Underground music. More clubs opened - for example SWARAJ, which was created by Acid Jazz Records' employee Ajay Srivastava, in 1997. Major labels started to sign Asian artists. In fact, WARNERS signed seven acts in the space of just one year. Nation were now running one-off events at much larger venues than their early days at the Bass Clef, and had now progressed to places like SUBTERANIA and the LONDON ASTORIA. Joi signed to REAL WORLD RECORDS, and State Of Bengal went to ONE LITTLE INDIAN. More artists and influential DJs emerged: TJ REHMI, NELSON DILATION, BLACK STAR LINER, THE ASIAN EQUATION (now named SISTER INDIA), PATHAAN, SHIVANOVA, JUTTLA, CHARGED and others. The scene began to spread to the USA, as diasporic Asians there embraced and emulated the new British Asian sounds - KARSH KALE and DJ CHEB I SABBAH being the key artists to have emerged Stateside so far.

Europe, especially, couldn't get enough of the new Asian sounds, and many of us toured abroad extensively. London was regarded as a very cool place, being seen as birthing major new music genres like jungle, drum'n'bass and Asian Underground. Talvin Singh won the prestigious MERCURY MUSIC Prize in 1999 for his Island album, OK. Nitin Sawhney began to work with the likes of STING and PAUL MCCARTNEY, and signed to the V2 label. Eventually, the Midlands finally caught the Asian Underground bug through the opening of Birmingham club-night SHAANTI... and it was now totally uncool to use the term ‘Asian Underground' anymore...

A vast amount of progress had been made, but it was difficult work. Radio support was almost non-existent and there was no national or mainstream Asian music programme in place. In 2000, Warners dropped all their Asian acts, and the scene itself started to feel very different. It felt as though it had lost its soul. Undoubtedly, this happens with many genres of music where the initial stages pf a new music movement are fuelled by passion, common goals and working together. Back in the day, at the Bass Clef or Club Outcatse, all the scene players would be there, either performing or just hanging out with like-minded people. The goodwill and camaraderie was inspiring.

Time has moved on and, at last, the UK has national Asian radio in the form of the recently launched BBC Asian Network. The Asian Underground feels quieter than before but will never disappear, as there will always be producers and musicians who want to work with East/West fusion. Given the current wave of enthusiasm for bhangra and Bollywood, has our original dream at Outcaste about providing stepping-stones finally come true? This album provides an overview of the Asian Underground scene as it was, is and a possible glimpse of the future.

- DJ Ritu