Ever wondered what it must feel like to have started the Asian underground revolution? To have made 15 Bhangra albums, received gold discs and had your name in the Guinness book of records? Continue reading…

Singer Jay Sean releases his new album, My Own Way, from today. The album is available from most music retailers.

Theatre company Rifco Arts are holding open auditions to find new singing talent. After the success of previous touring shows such as: There’s Something about Simmy, Meri Christmas and The Deranged Marriage, they are embarking on new projects and keen to find an older generation of talent.
Continue reading…

The West Midlands saw a new digital radio station launch this week aimed at the region’s British Asian market. AsianFx, sister-station to the popular London based Panjab Radio, will compete directly with BBC Asian Network for an audience.

The station was officially launched last week and will feature former Club Asian presenter Veena V on breakfast. Managing director Surjit Singh Ghuman said: “Most radio stations are language or music specific, the needs of British born Asians seemed to be ignored, so creating a platform for these cultures to unite seemed the right thing to do.”

AsianFx will broadcast on DAB Digital Radio and online www.asianfx.co.uk
Contact: info@asianfx.co.uk / 020 8848 8877
(pictured: Breakfast and Drivetime presenters at launch event)

A Sussex based composer and an Indian singer have come together to create a vibrant music album with a mixture of sounds from all over the world.

James Asher, an original artist and producer of worldbeat music with a back-catalogue of 20 commercial releases, teamed up with Indian virtuoso singer Mahesh Vinayakram to make Bravado Masala, an album that released on iTunes last month and in India (through Times Music) this week.

They say the album ranges in moods from “rhythmic and danceable to thoughtful, nostalgic and contemplative”. They add: “Mahesh’s musicality and exuberant enthusiasm finds an unusual and satisfying pairing with James’s strongly atmospheric grooves.”

James Asher is also a keyboard-player, drummer and composer. Mahesh Vinayakram comes from a famous Indian musical family. His father Vikku Vinayakram heads a family of master drummers and percussionists. Vikkhu himself is a worldclass percussion maestro, specialising in ghatam, who has played John McLaughlin’s Shakti, and received several grammy nominations.
Contact: starfield@btopenworld.com // Label: Starfield
Music samples and more info on james-asher.co.uk.

London based Asian pop band Trickbaby is releasing its next single, Fighter, on 28th April. Their second album, Chor Bazaar, releases on 12th May through Wrasse Records, part of Universal.

Based around the song-writing partnership of Saira Hussain and Steve Ager, the band came to prominence a few years ago with their debut album Hanging Around.

They have made two videos to coincide with the release. Fighter is made in the form of an animated video, while Nine Parts Of Desire is produced by Ramesh Sippy (director of the Bollywood blockbuster Sholay), directed by his son, Rohan, and stars Abishek Bachchan as Saira’s love interest with Priyanka Chopra as her love rival.

The band recently performed live at the UK Asian Music Awards. at the Royal Festival Hall in London and they will opening for Rachid Taha and friends (a mini Africa Express) at London’s Jazz cafe on April 14th and 15th.
www.trickbabymusic.co.uk / www.youtube.com/trickbabymusic

Singer Karen David will be appearing alongside Sir David Jason, Sean Astin and Tim Curry in The Colour of Magic, a film adapted from the Terry Pratchett novel of the same name.

The red carpet premiere was held last week March 3rd. The film will air on Sky 1 (UK) on Easter weekend, March 23rd and 24th. Karen David plays Liessa Dragonlady.

Her EP, The Live Sessions, will be released on April 14th on all digital download websites and limited editions at selected music stores.
www.karendavid.com

The review is coming soon! Click on each thumbnail for the full image.

The UK Asian Music Awards takes place later this week at the Royal Festival Hall on 6th March. The event will be hosted by actress Preeya Kalidas and Mumbai based B4U presenter ‘VJ Sahil’.

Awards will be given on the night for: Best Album, Best Act, Best Female Act, Best Underground Act, Best Video, Best International Act, Best Newcomer, Best Producer, Best Club DJ, Best Urban Act, Best Radio Show and Best Website. Special awards on the night include Commitment to the Scene and Outstanding Achievement.

Organisers say the winners will be determined by public voting that took place through their website. Continue reading…

Freelance journalist Rahul Verma has a four page feature on acid house and the rise of dance music in India, in the March issue of Mixmag the UK’s longest running dance music magazine. More of Rahul’s ramblings on music, the arts and culture can be found at rebel without a pause.

London based DJ and multi-instrumentalist Bisha could soon be rocking your world, musically. The musician, born to Bengali parents and recently turned 24, has just released her debut album: Nights at the Circus.

There is much undergound hype surrounding this young lady, much of it unsurprising given her debut single: Never Seen Your Face, is brilliant. See the video below. Though, we prefer the bass-laden live performance viewable here. Another good performance of the same track is here.

According to the biography on her website, she was born in Earls Court to a musical family; her mother is still an EMI signed artist. She has studied Sitar at The Ravi Shankar School for Music and has a passion for English & East European folk, progressive pop & electronica. Her inspirations: Ananda Shankar, Wendy Carlos, Vashti Bunyan and Bjork.

She will also feature on Desi DNA tonight on BBC2 at 11:20pm.
[Hat tip: the New York based gossip site Daily Cherez]

Check out:
Her website / Her myspace page

The Dhol Foundation returns with a third album next month, featuring an array of vocalists, instruments and sounds. The album, titled Drums & Roses, has been written by the group’s founder Johnny Kalsi.

He says: “This album has been a release of lots of manifested emotions and feelings I have cooped up. A real weight off my shoulders and a well deserved trophy at the end of it all.” After starting out with the bhangra band Alaap, Kalsi moved on to join and tour with World Music bands from across the globe. In 1989 he launched the Dhol Foundation academy, which has since grown to around 400 students in locations across Britain.

Drums & Roses releases on 17 March 2008 via TDF Records.
Media contact: Pedro Carvalho at FNIK PR: pedro@ethnicnow.com.
www.dholfoundation.com / myspace.com/thedholfoundation

National digital radio station BBC Asian Network launches its biggest marketing campaign to date from next week across television, radio and online. Dubbed: The New Sound of Asian Britain, it launches on Monday 4th February and profiles the Network’s passion for the best in Asian music and culture.

The TV trail, to be shown on BBC TV, creates a new musical soundtrack from many shorter musical scenes layered and looped together. It mixes modern influences like drummers and DJs with more traditional Asian sounds and instruments including Bollywood singing.

The campaign consists of: 1 x 30sec TV brand trail; 2 x 10 second TV appointment to listen trails; online game where you can ‘Mix your own desi track’; onliner banner campaign; and radio trails. It will feature award winning Bobby Friction, Hip Hop turntablist, DJ Kayper, rapper Mumzy and Bhangra singer H Dhami.

Virtuoso table player Kuljit Bhamra has been appointed the artistic director at spnm – a membership organisation founded in 1943 to promote and launch new music. In particular it aims to find the best of the next generation of composers and has launched the careers of many of the UK’s leading composers.

Bhamra, who has recorded over two thousand songs to date, is a self-taught composer, producer and tabla player. He worked on the film scores of
Bhaji on the Beach, Bend it like Beckham, Alexander the Great, The Guru, A Little Princess, Wings of a Dove, The Four Feathers, Brick Lane and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In 2002, he joined forces with Andrew Lloyd Webber for the West End musical Bombay Dreams and he spent the next two years appearing as an on-stage percussionist.

He also acted as Indian Music Consultant and wrote music for the musical adaptation of The Far Pavilions, and in 2005 re-worked the Bee Gee’s popular seventies hit Staying Alive, which became the first instrumental to top the Sunrise Radio people’s chart. spnm will celebrate the announcement with a party and live performance by Kuljit Bhamra on Thursday February 21st from 6pm at the trendy lounge bar Piya Piya, London.
[Media contact: Mary Rahman for after-party.]
Continue reading…

The desi band Swami has moved away from its traditional sound to something more globalised for its upcoming album - Equalize.

They say: “Previous Swami albums were more of an exploration into the British-Asian club experience of London and Birmingham… However, in the futuristic globalized music era, as leading pioneers of British urban music, Swami are making bolder and bigger statements by seeking out much wider inspiration.”

“The brand new album ‘Equalize’ ventures way beyond the local London studios with a new found excitement of globe hopping melodies, crossing rhythms and languages unlike any predecessor.”

Their latest single - Hey hey - was recently number 2 1 on the BBC Asian Network chart.
www.swamimusic.com

The Boston Globe newspaper features a story on AIM magazine’s very own Komal Trivedi, who helped launch this magazine all those years ago. Komal presents an early Thursday morning show on Boston College’s WZBC radio station.

Trivedi also enjoys showcasing the work of her contemporaries, including Talvin Singh and Nitin Sawhney, who pioneered Asian Underground. The British Asian artists helped create the genre by spicing up classical South Asian beats with modern dance music, heavy on electronics.

Asian Underground burst into the British mainstream in the 1990s, but Trivedi says that when she moved to the Boston area three years ago, this type of music was difficult to find, especially on the radio.

Trivedi was eager to fill the void, so a colleague at WGBH, where Trivedi is an executive assistant, suggested that she approach the Boston College station, where the colleague worked as a DJ in his spare time. The colleague showed Trivedi the ropes at WZBC, and just over a year ago “Bricklane Beats” was born.

Read the whole feature.

Two music videos with a difference have received nominations for a prestigious Royal Television Society Award. Here’s the twist; both ‘Change The Way’ and ‘One Life To Live’ were made by inmates at Swinfen Hall, a youth offenders institute in Lichfield, Staffordshire, as part of the ground-breaking Sonic [db] project.

Wolverhampton based filmmakers, Rainmaker-VF, worked alongside musician Keith Dilworth and facilitator Sharon Jones of Handsworth based ‘Sister Tree’ to help the troubled young men make their music videos. The Rainmaker filmmaking team were comprised of Davinder Claire, Alex Crowton and Balwant Dass.

The Royal Television Society Awards take place on October 27th 2007.

Singer, songwriter and composer Shahin Badar, whose vocals featured on dance band Prodigy’s controversial single “Smack my bitch up” was presented the prestigious Glory of India award by the India International Friendship Society (IIFS). The event was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

She spent her youth growing up in Colchester, Kuwait and India learning to sing in several languages. Signed to Times Music in India, Shahin’s current album is due for full release in UK and will be titled ‘Laila’.

Music and a real-life story are being used to improve the levels of awareness of hepatitis C among the South Asian community.

The ‘My Story’ CD has been created by the Department of Health’s FaCe It hepatitis C awareness campaign and features music from some of the world’s hottest Asian artists, including Kamaal Khan, Hadiqa Kiani and Adnan Sami. The tracks surround a frank interview by top TV health presenter Yasmin Qureshi with Shabana Begum, a Pakistani woman who recounts her experience with hepatitis C, a virus which affects the liver. The CD also features advice from healthcare professionals about transmission routes and available treatment.

Although hepatitis C can affect anyone from any background, there is emerging evidence that the prevalence within the South Asian community in this country may be higher than in the general population.

Pakistan’s top pop artists have gathered together for the first time to record Yeh Hum Naheen, which has become a smash hit across the country. The song denounces terrorism throughout the world and says that true Muslims do not support terrorism.

The track, featuring the vocal talents of Pakistan’s biggest artists such as Haroon, Ali Haider, Ali Zafar, Strings, Shufqat Amanat Ali and Hadiqa Kiani and will be released on FNIK Music in the UK via iTunes and mainstream outlets on July 16th 2007. The song has been written by Ali Moeen, one of Pakistan’s leading lyricist, while the music has been arranged by Shuja Haider, who is one of Pakistan’s most well known music composers.

The song was the brainchild of writer Waseem Mahmood: “The idea behind “Yeh Hum Naheen” came about because my children were fed up with the way in which some misguided people were high-jacking Islam and putting forward a message of radicalization and terrorism which was at odds with what the majority of Muslims believe. My children told me that I had to do something to stop this perception and thus the “Yeh Hum Naheen” concept was born!”

Media contact: FNIK PR on 07831 556 951 / fnik@btconnect.com

DJ San-j-Sanj is working on a new project, with backing from a major international record company, to compile an album for the 60th independance day of India and Pakistan in August

“I need songs for the album which reflect peace, none of the lyrics should look back to 60 years ago or any mention of India or Pakistan or any country. The album is about world peace, you can sing about war, knife/gun culture etc and in any language,” he told AIM magazine.

There is no cash advance budget but there will be a contract for royalties on sales. An ad campaign and video is also planned. Interested musicians can get in touch by email: bollyparty@hotmail.com

On June 16th BBC Asian Network will launch a flagship Bollywood show called Love Bollywood. Passionate and irreverent in style, the four-hour show every Saturday will focus on the latest Bollywood releases and star interviews. Another four-hour show on Sunday will provide industry hits - classic and new - that shape the world’s biggest film industry.

Sheetal Parmar, the show’s producer says of the new show, “Love Bollywood is an in depth look at Bollywood films, the stars and the industry, but for the first time, it’ll be predominantly about the audience and their experience of it. Many British Asians have been brought up with Bollywood and it’s a part of their cultural make up whether they like it or not! It’s ambitious and bold, and very exciting to be able to produce something like this.”

Bollywood aficionados Raj& Pablo will be presenting on Saturday, whilst Asian Network and Zee TV’s Murtz will present on Sunday with Rajini Vaidynathan, from Radio 1.

Rajini says: “People might think it’s a bit odd me doing this with a background from News, but anyone who knows me will know I’m mad about Bollywood, just like most British Asians who’ve been brought up on a diet of Bollywood films. I’m really happy to be involved with something so different, and to be able to indulge in a guilty pleasure!”

The British Film Institute is collaborating with Nitin Sawhney and the London Symphony Orchestra to present a live accompaniment to a very rare silent film film called A Throw of Dice in Trafalgar Square on Thursday 30th August.

The film has been restored by the BFI. It is a splendid epic of love and loss where a woman’s fate relies on A Throw of Dice.

Directed by Franz Osten, a German, it was filmed in India and is a very rare example of an early film made in India. It is also hugely entertaining and Nitin Sawhney’s score (soon to be released on CD) makes for a very special experience.

Lord of the Rings, the first major stage adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic trilogy, will premiere in London at Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Tuesday 19 June. The production has been billed by critics as a mesmerising and spectacular theatrical event, featuring an ensemble of over 70 actors, singers and musicians.

It will feature music by Bollywood composer, A.R. Rahman, along with performances from Finland’s most contemporary folk music group, Värttinä.

The world famous musician Anoushka Shankar will play in London next week, with three select performances around the country. Following on from the success of her album ‘Rise’ on EMI / Angel last year, Anoushka continues to give the sitar new expression in a modern context connecting new audiences to this experience with her unmistakable charisma and talent.

Her new music forms the basis of ‘The Anoushka Shankar Project’, in which she continues to develop her own individual voice, drawing on her classical Indian musical roots to create novel forms and expression.
2 June - Wychwood Festival
3 June - Liverpool
4 June - QEH London
Media contact: Pedro at Fnik PR on 07831 556 9951 or fnik@btconnect.com