Back in the early 90s I caught the bhangra bug, digging hard on groups like Apna Sangeet, Safri Boys, and Bally Sagoo remixes. Spurred by raggamuffin crossover star Apache Indian, it seemed like it was going to blow up big, but that was before the Asian Underground--Talvin Singh, Asian Dub Foundation, Black Star Liner--knocked bhangra out of the way. In retrospect most of the AU stuff sounds lame--electronica spiced up with weak tabla samples. Seems like the unofficial return of bhangra's ascendancy came with "Get Your Freak On," where Timbaland introduced Indian percussion to hip-hop. It wasn't long before other R&B singers and MCs wanted the treatment, and bhangra producers like Rishi Rich were there to answer the call. The Desi Underground thrives in England thanks to a huge Indo-Pak population, and with great DJs like Bobby Friction & Nihal spinning weekly on the BBC, the stuff seems like it's exploding. Late last year V2 in the UK issued an excellent 2-cd compilation of current Desi sounds--mixing Indian stars with remixed hip-hop MCs and producers like Timbaland, Mos Def & Diverse.
It knocked me out, re-sparked my interest in bhangra, and led me to hit Devon Ave. yesterday where I found six varied bhangra discs for ten bucks a pop: Tigerstyle, Raghav, Bombay Rockers, Jay Sean, Juggy D, and Rishi Rich--the latter three also form the Rishi Rich collective. The production is much more bumping that vintage bhangra, and it freely embraces new flavors in hip-hop and R&B. By no means is it all good, and the assimilationist tendency can be downright toxic, but for the moment I'm feeling pretty giddy about this stuff.
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