{"id":98,"date":"2007-03-04T23:07:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-05T04:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?p=98"},"modified":"2015-01-07T14:13:54","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T18:13:54","slug":"reggaeton-bangara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?p=98","title":{"rendered":"Reggae(ton) Bangara"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Went for an afternoon trip up to Devon Ave’s “Desi corridor<\/a>” yesterday accompanied by an anthropologist who studies the circulation of pirated media in India (mainly Bollywood\/Filmi), and who was, as you can imagine, a perfect companion for a brief tour of the strip’s numerous “record” shops (which sold CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, and even plain ol’ cassettes<\/a> — but no records, far as I could see). None of these seemed to be on the level of, say, London’s Raj Deep’s as described by Blackdown<\/a>, but they definitely had plenty to satisfy my current curiosity. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

For DVDs, I was looking for a couple of classics — the sort of films most people have seen more than any other, namely, Mother India<\/a> and Sholay<\/a>, which I found quite easily. For music, I was seeking some compilations of well-received (and hence, well-replayed) filmi soundtracks, so I picked up a decent representation of tried-and-true tunes from the 50s (Awaara<\/a> and Shree 420<\/a>), early 80s (Apne Paraye<\/a>, Pyaas<\/a>, and Jyoti<\/a>), late 80s (Maine Pyar Kiya<\/a>), and mid-late 90s (Hum Aapke Hain Koun<\/a> and Hum Saath Saath Hain<\/a>). [I’ve heard more 70s stuff than anything at this point, based on the predilections of compilers<\/a> and remixers<\/a>, so I wasn’t really checkin for that.] I’ve already heard some real gems on the discs I picked up, but those’ll have to wait for another post —<\/p>\n

because the one disc that blew me away and which I absolutely must discuss right now<\/em> is Bally Sagoo’s 1992 album Wham Bam 2<\/em>, a disc I picked up on a whim, wanting to hear what London bhangra sounded like pre-Asian Underground, pre-Panjabi Hit squad, and knowing that Bally Sagoo was the big man back then. I wasn’t surprised to hear ravey synths and housey basslines, or M.A.R.R.S.-style sampledelia, or dusty breakbeats alongside clean-as-a-whistle Soul II Soul beats, and I certainly wasn’t surprised to hear Bollywood-esque strings, bhangra vocals, and raggamuffin rap over a digital dancehall skank. That’s the London soundscape for ya. But I was<\/em> surprised to hear very little of the distinctive dhol drumming<\/a> or tumbi<\/a> playing that have since come to define the modern bhangra sound. Even more suprising, however, was the realization that the bhangra being made in London 1992 sounds remarkably similar, in a number of ways, to the “underground”\/reggae(ton) that was being made in San Juan at the same time. <\/p>\n

Even if the production quality differs substantially between the two and the distance between Punjabi\/English and Spanish is so much that even with the Jamaican rhythmic delivery they sound very different to you, the parallels should be striking nonetheless. Go listen to Playero 37<\/em> over here<\/a>, if you’re not familiar with the sound. Then take, for example, the stick-n-move groove of “Lut Ke Lae Gayee (Get Mental in The House Mix)” — an epic track, constantly shifting in musical texture and style, giving the rotating vocalists different rhythms to ride — not at all unlike those ol’ marat\u00c3\u00b3n<\/em> session mixtapes from the PR underground.
\n[audio:Sagoo_92_05.mp3]<\/p>\n

Note, in particular, the point right around 1:35 when the bhangra vocalist enters along with what is quite clearly a replayed version of the well-worn bassline from the Drum Song<\/em><\/a> riddim, which, just to absolutely cement the connection to classic PR melaza<\/a>, is soon followed by a loop of the Bam Bam<\/em> riddim, which — by my admittedly rough estimate — comes a close second to the Dem Bow<\/em> as the<\/em> foundational (i.e., most frequently sampled) riddim for reggaeton. (And don’t miss the call\/response with a sped-up Tenor Saw about a minute later, thus bringing in the Stalag<\/em><\/a> for good measure. &don’t get me started on naming all the hip-hop references, or picking out Mission Impossible <\/em>melodies, etc.)<\/p>\n

The use of the Bam Bam<\/em> in this context, however, might remind some that “Murder She Wrote” (which so powerfully projected one version of the Bam Bam<\/em> across every reggae soundscape in the world) was originally released on an LP called Reggae Bangara<\/a><\/em>, so, yeah, this stuff just goes round and round and round, innit.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Both because this post deals with the sound of London and<\/em> opens up into issues of musical mimesis<\/a>, of versioning the foreign-but-familiar (and hence, second natch<\/a>, the self), allow me to mention that at the end of this coming week, I’m actually going to be<\/em> in London discussing this.very.subject at a Caribbean music seminar<\/a> at Royal Holloway College, if focused more on reggae and hip-hop than bhangra or reggaeton. <\/p>\n

I hope to share a little more about what I’ll be discussing before I go, but allow me to add now that in addition to participating in the seminar, and making it to London for the first time in a decade, I’m quite looking forward to linking up with some of my (now longtime) UK-based musical blogofellows. Moreover, I’m quite delighted to learn that I’ll be in town on the same weekend that two legendary local institutions — one old, one new — are gonna be in full session. Apparently, Friday night in Brixton is University of Dub, which Pete Murdertone<\/a> describes as “probably one of the biggest raves in London in any scene,” and which this week will feature none other than Aba-Shanti<\/a> vs. Jah Tubbys<\/a> “with their full systems.” (Lordamercy.) And if that weren’t good timing enough, wouldn’t you know that Saturday happens to be the 2nd bday bash for DMZ<\/a>? Nuff said. <\/p>\n

Ok, not quite nuff: having heard the praises (and about the presence<\/em>) of both, i&i cyaan wait to finally hear\/feel such on their hometurf, inna London, through a proper sound and all o that. Soon fwd!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Went for an afternoon trip up to Devon Ave’s “Desi corridor” yesterday accompanied by an anthropologist who studies the circulation of pirated media in India (mainly Bollywood\/Filmi), and who was, as you can imagine, a perfect companion for a brief tour of the strip’s numerous “record” shops (which sold CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, and even plain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,7,18,9],"tags":[400,31,422,123,191,404,149,408,405,14],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic","category-uncategorized","category-hip-hop","category-reggae","category-reggaeton","tag-academic","tag-bhangra","tag-caribbean","tag-chicago","tag-ethno","tag-hip-hop","tag-london","tag-reggae","tag-reggaeton","tag-soundscape"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8746,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions\/8746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}