Kufiyaspotting: Sam Zaman of State of Bengal (RIP)

 
Bad news yesterday (May 20, 2015), the death of Sam Zaman, age 50, who recorded as State of Bengal. State of Bengal were one of the key players in the so-called Asian Underground movement that emerged in Britain in the mid-to-late nineties. Read more about him here.

I particularly like these State of Bengal tracks: "Chittagong Chill"

and 

Sam was also involved in Khaled's version of "El Harba Wine" recorded with Amar. (Not, in my opinion, one of Khaled's most successful outings.)

This is way better, the State of Bengal remix of Massive Attack's "Inertia Creeps."

Kufiyas in Hard Kaur's "Desi Dance"

Hard Kaur is the UK's first Asian female rap artist, according to the BBC.

"Desi Dance," recorded with Detroit's D12 (Eminem's group), is the first single from her second, forthcoming album (which was announced awhile back but is yet to appear). I am unable to claim that this is a great song. But the vid is interesting, because:

It appears that a "desi dance" requires lots of kufiyas.

There is this, Hard Kaur's quite fabulous head wrap. I'd love to see Amy Winehouse done up in one of these.

And then there are the dancers accompanying Hard Kaur on the "desi dance." Not only do they look like Palestinian guerillas, but the kufiyas are wrapped around their head so as to expose only their eyes. In Palestine they are known as "mulaththamin," "masked men," who confront the Israeli occupiers with their faces wrapped in kufiyas, so as to evade identification by Israeli security. (Wearing the kufiya in this manner is now illegal in France.)

And note that here Hard Kaur not only has a black and white kufiya dangling from her neck, but also a red and white kufiya tucked into her belt, or her front pocket. Desis can't have too many kufiyas...

Here Hard Kaur appears with Bizarre of D12. Is B's shower cap an ironic commentary on Hard Kaur's head wrap?

And to balance the kufiya, a turban. Raja style.

Now watch the vid yourself:

BrAsian post-punk band Alien Culture

Thanks to Nabeel Zuberi, I was led to this post about the post-punk British Asian band Alien Culture. The post is informative, it's very important history, especially if you are interested in the emergence into visibility of BrAsians in Brit pop culture and anti-racist politics. You can also download the only two songs that the band ever recorded, "Asian Youth" and "Culture Crossover." John Peel played them on his show, but the band never "made" it.

I had thought the only visible Asian music in Britain at the time was Monsoon. I am now disabused.

“People rather fear being swamped by an alien culture” – Margaret Thatcher 1979

"Dis-Orienting Rhythms" available for download

I learned about this book over ten years ago from Tony Mitchell, and have found it invaluable. I urge anyone interested in BrAsian politics and culture, fans of Fun'Da'Mental, Asian Dub Foundation, Talvin Singh, and the like, to read this book. Apparently it is no longer in print, alas! But you can now download it via darkmatter, the blog of Sanjay Sharma, one of the editors. Do it now! Read! Study! Internalize all the ideas! Go here.
Dis-Orienting Rhythms: the politics of the new Asian dance music (1996, Zed books), edited by Sanjay Sharma, John Hutnyk and Ash Sharma.

“This book writes back the presence of South Asian youth into a rapidly expanding and exuberant music scene; and celebrates this as a dynamic expression of the experience of diaspora with an urgent political consciousness. One of the first attempts to situate such production within the study of race and identity, it uncovers the crucial role that South Asian dance musics - from Hip-hop, Qawwali and Bhangra through Soul, Indie and Jungle - have played in a new urban cultural politics …”