Comments on: Contemporary music with elements of Indian styles?

Question: Contemporary music with elements of Indian styles?

c:\awesome — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:01:26 -0800

I'm looking for artists, albums, or single songs that mix in elements of Indian/Hindi music and other various contemporary styles. Some songs that I enjoy like this are M.I.A.'s "Jimmy" and Pepe Delux's "Numa."

What else would I like?

By: SBMike

SBMike — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:04:35 -0800

Cornershop

By: essexjan

essexjan — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:09:04 -0800

Sheila Chandra/Monsoon - "Ever So Lonely"

By: subtle-t

subtle-t — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:10:14 -0800

Talvin Singh.

By: andrewraff

andrewraff — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:11:33 -0800

Kula Shaker (their first album, "K" was much, much better than their second. I haven't listened to their new album after getting back together recently).

We Tigers (Saw them on Saturday. They have sitar.)

By: essexjan

essexjan — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:12:09 -0800

Here's the version of "Ever So Lonely" that was a chart hit in the UK.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:12:33 -0800

Perhaps too obvious, but Panjabi MC.

By: Inspector.Gadget

Inspector.Gadget — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:35:21 -0800

Rudra

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:39:11 -0800

Apache Indian

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:43:05 -0800

Similar to the very great Talvin Singh - Karsh Kale and State of Bengal - all very awesome trance/drum & bass artists. Enjoy!

By: fiercekitten

fiercekitten — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:49:59 -0800

What you're looking for is frequently called bhangra, but I've also heard it called Asian Underground. Karsh Kale, Cheb i Sabbah (who's Algerian but has 3 albums with a similar sound to what you're looking for), DJ Rekha, Bally Sagoo, MIDIval Punditz and remixes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The best will be live, of course, but I think Bar Bhangra is my favorite. I like to blast it when the neighbors are playing gangsta rap.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:59:50 -0800

Punjabi By Nature. Asian Dub Foundation.

The Beatles. Donovan.

By: strangeleftydoublethink

strangeleftydoublethink — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:01:14 -0800

Bill Laswell's City of Light and Hear No Evil.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:27:05 -0800

Madlib gracefully joined his style of hip-hop production and Indian music on Beat Konducta vol. 3 & 4.

By: matildaben

matildaben — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:41:17 -0800

Bombay the Hard Way: Guns, Cars, and Sitars, and its sequel, Bombay 2: Electric Vindaloo

By: churl

churl — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:49:52 -0800

DJs / Producers Dan the Automator and DJ Shadow built the excellent albums Bombay The Hard Way: Guns, Cars And Sitars and Bombay 2: Electric Vindaloo from Bollywood movie soundtracks. "Third World Lover," featuring Kid Koala on turntables, is an outstanding track if you want a sample.

By: churl

churl — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:50:21 -0800

And that's what I get for not previewing.

By: kenzi23

kenzi23 — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:52:27 -0800

Also check out Cheb i Sabbah.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:56:00 -0800

Dave Pike's Mathar?

By: conrad53

conrad53 — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:17:48 -0800

Tabla Beat Science has released two wonderful albums and a DVD. It is very much a meeting of east and west: Zakir Hussein, the extraordinary tabla player & Ustad Sultan Khan singing and playing sarangi & Karsh Kale on drums & Bill Laswell on bass & Gigi (from Ethiopia) singing & dj disk on turntables. If you are ever so lucky to see them live, there may be wonderful guest musicians, e.g. Pharoah Sanders on saxophone or Sussan Deyhim singing too.

By: wigglin

wigglin — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:31:51 -0800

Check out Madlib's Beat Konducta in India . Great stuff.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:43:58 -0800

Lots of Suns of Arqua

By: zergot

zergot — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:09:36 -0800

Midival Punditz have been creating some great music in this genre. Two released albums are Midival Times and the self titled Midival Punditz. They have also done a great soundtrack for Let's Enjoy. They have often played with Cheb I Sabbah and Karsh Kale. Bhangra is just one of the styles sampled in these. A lot of Drum 'n' Bass is mixed with traditional and popular indian music.

"Numa" actually has more middle eastern influences, although the sample in "Jimmy" is from a very popular 80s hindi disco song, also called "Jimmy, Jimmy" ! If you are looking for more like "Jimmy", you would do well to listen to modern remixes of old hindi songs, done by people like DJ Suketu and DJ Aqeel (search on youTube). Popular hindi music in the 60s, 70s and 80s had lots of influences (in some cases, direct copies !) from the disco genre, making them very susceptible to excellent remixes.

Enjoy ..

By: furnace.heart

furnace.heart — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:36:20 -0800

There is a DJ Spooky album/track that is named Bollywood, which is freaking phenomenal. It's not released as a proper album, and I received my copy as a demo at an event he spoke at...it's certainly worth looking for, but if you can't find it, feel free to let me know.

By: furnace.heart

furnace.heart — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:44:48 -0800

ah! i almost forgot DJ Anjali! SO GOOD.

By: plant

plant — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:36:18 -0800

Many of the artists listed above are on the Six Degrees label (discogs). They release compilations and samplers pretty regularly, and they're mostly not too obnoxiously world music-y.

By: Benjamin Nushmutt

Benjamin Nushmutt — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:46:57 -0800

If you like the dancehall elements in M.I.A.'s music, give Kush Arora a listen. I recommend the songs on "From Brooklyn to SF" that feature Juakali, and the album "Bhang Ragga".

The drum kit + Middle Eastern hand percussion in the Pepe Delux song reminds me of Barra Barra by Rachid Taha.

By: micayetoca

micayetoca — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:08:20 -0800

The Harvey Girls used sitar on Resh Day Lo (link goes to Resh Day Lo in Metafilter Music)

By: EL-O-ESS

EL-O-ESS — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:07:48 -0800

Seconding Cornershop / Clinton. And if you like "Jimmy," may I recommend MIA's remix of Cornershop's Topknot?

By: SBMike

SBMike — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:05:37 -0800

The college radio station here, KCSB, has a great show of Indian Music Saturday afternoons called "The India Show" (looks like 12:30-2:30 on the schedule, pacific time). They play lots of different styles, and you can get the station streaming from the first link.