Growler & The Sound of Bhangra

The Bhangra beats you need to know!

Rawle Austin presents...

Keeping it Desi.

This article was produced with the help of industry insider Sunni Singh, the Bhangra King! With thanks to Shorifa and Shumi for first opening my ears to these tunes. The urban Asian music scene is the lick! You need to be checking this out! Now hitting the airwaves with full force and stamping a permanent niche around us. This particular genre, called Bhangra, features Desi (old school, traditional) beats.

It's the underground culmination of many years hard graft and toil to forge a stunning, fresh sound that is just wicked.

Admittedly, I am a latecomer to the scene, though a long time connoisseur of fresh American urban RnB and hip-hop.

Noticing the increased sampling of Asian beats in RnB tunes creating infectious rhythms much loved by all, this was the tip of the iceberg in helping to break through to the mainstream.

Missy Elliott’s 'Get your freak on', Truth Hurts’ 'Addictive' and my personal favourite, Eric Sermon and Redman’s 'React' all had Bhangra influences. They were massive boom tunes at the time and helped to kick open the door for greater glory and mainstream awareness of the Bhangra sound. The attraction for me has to be the Punjabi lyrics (the Punjab is a region of India). I particularly like the female vocals sung in traditional fashion as they have a certain edge to them. You don’t need to understand the Punjabi language (which I don’t) to appreciate the piece but most tracks mix English with Punjabi to great effect.

The rapping styles are hard and original, giving an edgy flavour to the whole piece.

This, coupled with traditional Punjabi instruments like the dhol (drum), mixed with crazy urban beats encompassing, hip hop, RnB, drum n bass and garage is a recipe for sweeping success and crossover appeal.

I mean, lets face it, we all love a good tune and I’ve been getting the lowdown of the latest, quality tracks coming out by the one and only Sunni Singh who is very close to the scene.

Listening to fresh Punjabi tunes in a mate’s car (yes that's you Suhal Ahmed!) with the bass up loud had my head bopping in pure respect to some innovative styles.

If you want to hear a quality tune check out the classic Panjabi MC’s 'Mundian To Bach Ke' which roughly means ‘Be careful of the boys!’. It uses a sample of the theme tune to Knightrider and just sounds plain funky! Also, the tune 'Husan', used in a 2003 Peugeot 206 commercial that was done by Bhangra Knights Vs Husan is a very catchy, foot stomping, monster track.

Two BBC radio shows, Radio One and 1xtra started weekly slots, highlighting the latest tunes. Club Asia Online is another hugely popular radio station focusing on Bhangra beats.

Bhangra producers are now making tracks for many established artists, for example Rishi Rich produced a remix of the Craig David tune 'Rise and Fall'.

This is a trend that I feel will increase and evolve.

There are many classic compilation albums like Urban Explosion and albums such as Gubi Sandhu’s 'Dil Karda' which means 'my heart wants' are flowing thick and fast.

I loved J-Skillz hot tune, 'Mankeh' and Shamaila Khan's 'Sonneya'.

The remix of Panjabi Hit Squad's Hai Hai is great as are the tracks of singing sensation Raghav and not forgetting Jay Sean's smash hit 'Eyez on you'.

The Kray Twinz had a hot recent tune called 'What we do' and hot new girl group, Rouge, have a great song called 'Don't be shy'.

The steady rise of Bhangra and credible UK RnB and hip-hop is fantastic news for the British music industry so what are you waiting for?

Dive in!

For more info on these and other current hot tracks go to Desi tunes 4u and check out Club Asia Online

Read why Growler's Loving Bollywood!>

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