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 Ive had my fair share of those and these are definitely not those.
Anyway, once shes 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, Ive given up Myst and started a new hobby. No, pyaare people, not smoking cigars. Ive started making dreadlocks out of Rajnis 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 Aroras 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 monkeys 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.
