mp3: BIKRAM SINGH feat GUNJAN kawan (drum’n’bass remix)
india loves its drum and bass, that’s for sure – from karsh kale, to nascha’s drum and breaks series, to old school uk-asian practitioners like asian dub foundation, the indian d’n’b fusion is a tradition that now stretches back well over a decade. this track, a d’n’b remix from bikram singh, typifies much of what makes the blend so successful – bhangra’s original vocal style, which shifts effortlessly between across pitch and range, seems perfectly suited to the skittering, chaotic twostep of d’n’b.
the source track, ‘kawan’ – produced by scotland’s tigerstyle and featuring vocals from gunjan – is already a huge hit across europe and in 2005 was voted ‘track of the year’ by bbc’s asian network. it serves as the perfect intro to singh’s most recent release ‘american jugni’ – traditional punjabi folk lyrics, seemlessly merged with contemporary bhangra, dancehall and hip hop flavours. although singh was born in the punjab and raised in new york, the title still has a hint of irony about it – given that tigerstyle’s scottish bhangra production provides the main template for the album. also on board is another prominent bhangra producer, ravi bal.
this latest set is a culmination of four years hard graft for singh, following the 2002 underground desi hit ‘aa gayee’ and the 2004 mix-tape ‘exclusives’. ‘aa gayee’ was created with the expert assistance of nyc producer, navdeep. the little i’ve heard of navdeep has been consistently excellent – check his recent remix of algerian cheb i sabbah on ‘la ghriba – la kahena remixed’ for further proof of his effortless production style.
bikramsingh.com
myspace.com/bikrams
viprecords.co.uk