After a long day spent playing Pauly Shore to my Stephan Baldwin in the bunker Biodome, my roommate Rajni likes to unwind by smoking her funny-smelling monkey cigars. The cigars usually arrive once a month in an unmarked brown box from I dunno where. Initially I thought Cuba but IÂ’ve had my fair share of those and these are definitely not those.
Anyway, once sheÂ’s good and stoned ready we break out the Myst and get to work. Rajni likes to control the mouse while I scribble furiously in our Myst journals and thumb walkthroughs for hints. This is a terrible arrangement. I swear, those cigars turn Rajni into a space-monkey. Not spaced out like her celebrity crush Baker (heee!) but spacey as in staring at every little leaf and rock for minutes on end. While all I want to do is solve the puzzles. In this life sometime.
Last night we fought about this arrangement. Well, I fought; she was just like, “Got any bananas, pathetic human?” So, I’ve given up Myst and started a new hobby. No, pyaare people, not smoking cigars. I’ve started making dreadlocks out of Rajni’s fur while she zones. She looks a hot mess now but whatever, you doob you lose. Read that, Rajni? The soundtrack I use to keep our dopey dwarf in check while I tease and tangle is Kush Arora’s wicked new album, ‘Bhang Ragga: Dancehall, Bhangra, in Future Dub’.
Last month my one and only XLR8R mag had the following to say about this boy from the Bay:
Oakland, CA-raised Kush Aurora embraces his New Delhi heritage without denying his high school music obsession: death metal. Like Kid 606 or The Bug, Aurora-also an avowed digital-dub and industrial music fan-doesn’t limit his production to a polite Desi dance sound. Instead, he links up with Jamaican emcees N4SA and Mr. Frank, and percussionists Jagtar Singh and Sukhadia, and adds his own barrage of war zone beats. “Cold World” blends Crip-walking tablas with moody synths, while “Sad Corruption” (with Amit Kumar Das on santoor) is potent South Asian dubstep. With an aural anarchist behind the mixing board, Bhang Ragga does for Punjabi beats what Adrian Sherwood did for dub. [Link]
Dub and ragga are not new to the desi scene but my experience with these colliding fields is limited to Bally Sagoo, those wicked Massive Attack + Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan remixes, some Stereo Nation stuff and of course, Apache Indian. According to Wikipedia:
Bhangragga is a slang term for the style of music incorporating elements of Bhangra and dancehall reggae (or Ragga, short for the word Raggamuffin). The sound is very percussion-heavy – a distinct holdover from Bhangra – with a propulsive beat clearly designed for dancing. The Dancehall influence can be felt through the use of pre-programmed music, similar to Dancehall “riddims”. Lyrically, the style features a combination of Sub-Continental-accented (usually Indian) vocals delivered in the clipped style associated with Dancehall – and sometimes including the Patois of the latter style. This style is almost exclusively a British phenomenon, as the two cultures involved in its genesis mix reasonably freely there. [Link]
Arora has produced two albums to date, which somewhat stray from the above definition in that they are not “clearly designed for dancing”. The tone is heavier on experimental dub sounds using bhangra percussion. Echos and reverbs galore. And just about perfect for hanging around dreading a damn monkeyÂ’s fur…Or whatever it is that you crazy kids are doing to have fun these days. You can listen to many of the tracks from both albums on his site. Personally, I like the complete instrumental version of Bhang Ragga best (which took me a lot of sweat and illegal activity to find) but that’s just me.
I am dead curious to hear what he sounds like live but no Northern dates set as yet. Catch him at Club Azul in San Fran on July 22nd or at Club Boca on August 17th (w/ Kid Kameleon) then come tell us how it was.
All you partners in grime out there: Do you know any bhangraggamuffins in your hood? I’d sure like to get some more tunage of this type. Got me a lot more dreadlocks to twist and all.
from the looks of it, rajni does a good job bleaching her teeth.
i agree…the bhang ragga album is the better of the two.
have you heard of T.O.K.? not really bhangragga…but decent dancehall. download “galang gal.” very catchy. incorporates diwali riddim. hey! diwali is brown…so does that count?
Jeez – that is pure mash up music.
But listen to it, some heavy tunes there. He should get in touch with the radio stations in the UK they will love this.
Spacey it may be, but it’s Arora, not Aurora.
Oh snap! Props to Neha for profiling Kush: he’s not only a good friend of mine but a great producer to boot. (Not the mention that, without his tutelage, I wouldn’t be the Drrrty Poonjabi I am today.) His music is exciting in its originality and impeccable in its execution. All hyperbole aside, I didn’t always feel this way: I initially found his bhang-ragga songs to be an abrasive and chaotic mix of two seemingly disparate genres: only after comparing his output with the facile attempts by other more hip hop-oriented bhangra producers did I realize the novelty and originality of his heterodox bhangra. This is bhangra for those more comfortable listening to artists like Front 242, Muslimgauze or Venetian Snares than Britney Spears and Missy Elliot. (If any of those listeners even exist on this blog, that is. :]) Those who find such a musical mishmash unpalatable should check his more traditional songs like “Koi Ne Bole,” a mournful ghazal-influenced track that could give a cadaver goose bumps. Either way, he deserves your support: don’t be a cheap-ass desi (unless that’s your username) and buy a CD if you like what you hear.
Neha, drop me an email if you’re interested in some more twisted bhang-ragga tunage, I’ll hook you up with something both Drrrty and Poonjabi.
After reading that post, I think I need to go make some brownies 😉
There are four full tunes at Kush’s Myspace. I don’t know too much Punjabi dub, but try Temple of Sound for dub+qawwali.
Meerkat – Diwali riddim totally counts! Galang gal is a wicked tune, in fact, every Diwali riddim track is a good time for all. If you like the riddim check out the Diwali installment of Greensleeves Rhythm Album Series. Only whack part about the album is that it does NOT include Sean Paul’s Get Busy. Hello? The best diwali tune evah!
Drrrty Poonjabi:
There’s at least two 🙂 The boy does deserve our support, mixing genres and doing it with such originality deserves more than just high fives. It’s different from a lot of the general mashy shwag out there because it’s dark, very heady.
Harpreet – good advice!
Manish – Arora’s playing with the author of that piece in Aug, perhaps he will explain the difference to the space cadet 🙂
Amardeep – I’m coming over for dessert then. Thanks for the tune suggestion!
Yep, they’re on the list. We exist.
And here I always thought this song referred to hereditary nobility …
Does ‘Asian Dub Foundation’ count?
Neha, Anna: I should have worded my parenthetical aside more carefully: I wasn’t referring to any of the SM bloggers but to your readers. (Of whom, for some inscrutable reason, have been become steadily more obnoxious in their puerile right-wing blather. Refer to Abhi’s post on the Sikh massacre in Kashmir for further proof.) I’ve been reading SM and Currylingus’ blog for for at least a year and a half and know that if you’d go out of your way to profile someone as obscure and original as my boy Kush that you guys belong to a rarefied subset of desis. The two of you are, dare I say, freakin’ awesome. If I went to high school with desi folks anything like you, I wouldn’t be the reclusive Indophobe I’ve been forced to become today. (At the hookah lounge where I have my residency, I’m constantly being interrupted by Desi-American Princesses requesting I turn off the Anjali and play something “hyphie”. Yuck.)
PS Anna: until I stumbled onto your typepad blog many moons ago, I never, repeat never, thought I’d ever come across a desi ladke with a taste in music as impressive as yours. Sigh – if only you were Poonjabi. @=)
(Okay, removing nose from between cheeks.)
Dj Drrrty Poonjabi
Thanks for pointing Kush out, Neha. I’m going to try to check out one of the SF shows!
You should also check out the Bollywood riddim compilation. It’s not an original production, just a rework of the track Addictive by Truth Hurts (produced by DJ Quik and Dr. Dre, uncredited samples and all). In the context of this post and the mashup genre, however, it’s noteworthy. Out of the available samples on that page, Lock Up by Capleton is the one to listen to. Other tracks worth tracking down are War by Mr. Vegas, More Marijuana by Frisco Kid (extremely post-relevant) and Red Red by Beenie Man.
i only JUST saw this post neha, and that goodness i did as the show hasn’t passed yet. i’ll definitely be checking him out in SF. thanks for the heads up…again. your 1st…gnarles…going to the show next week. 🙂
glass houses
I will not rest until I abdicate him as reigning king of the supa dupa hyphy hyphy. @=)
brimful and terence
Let me know (by email) if you decide to come to his SF show, I’ll make sure to introduce you and any other willing Mutineers to the legendary Kush Arora.
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