Asian underground

   Since the 1980s, Asian musicians in Britain have been experimenting with rap, dub technology, jungle breakbeats, traditional Indian music and rock. In the mid- to late 1990s, Anglo-Asian artists with sitars, guitars and decks, such as Cornershop, Asian Dub Foundation, Fun-da-mental, Talvin Singh and Niwtin Sawhney, broke into the pop mainstream. Talvin Singh’s Anokha played club nights at The Blue Note in London which attracted media stars, and Cornershop’s 1997 album When I Was Born for the Seventh Time became a critical and commercial success (and included the number one single ‘Brimful of Asha’). Though the bands vary in their political engagement, Asian Dub Foundation released their single ‘Free Satpal Ram’ in 1998 as a protest against the imprisonment of a Birmingham Asian who defended himself against racist attacks.

   See also: bhangra

   Further reading

    Sharma, S., Hutnyk, J. and Sharma, A. (eds) (1996) Dis-Orienting Rhythms: The Politics of the New Asian Dance Music, London: Zed Books.

   PETER CHILDS