Rolling DESI and SOUTH ASIAN music thread 2024 - Bhangra, Bollywood, Chutney Soca, Baila etc...

Let's go!

I'm not really any sort of expert, but as a DJ who plays a lot of new music from round the world I've found it's stuff from South Asia that's getting the most surprising responses on the dancefloor.
Any time dancers are starting to lose interest I can drop Bijili or The Punjabban Song and we're back in business.

So I've been keeping an eye on the various scenes - there's loads out there to discover, from Bollywood soundtracks to West Indian soca collabs and British-Punjabi UK grime crossover artists.

It's inevitably an extremely wide church with so much going on, but I feel we don't give South Asian diaspora enough love on ILM and obvs I'd love to know more.

So here are a few faves from the last couple of years:

A trio of Bollywood bangers:

The Punjabban Song - from 'JugJugg Jeeyo' - Varun Kiara Anil Neetu, Tanishk Gippy Zahrah Romy Abrar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6ri-MFdNLY

Bijili - from 'Govinda Naam Mera' - Ranbir, Vicky, Kiara | Sachin-Jigar,Mika,Neha K.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhKqa0qJoLM

Jhoome Jo Pathaan - from 'Pathaan' - Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika | Vishal & Sheykhar, Arijit Singh, Sukriti, Kumaar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxWlaYCA8MU

Spotify Playlist

This one gets by on sounding like a Bollywood take on whateveer that style of EDM + country craze was a few years ago, but somehow sounding great and having a FANTASTIC video

JALSA 2.0 - from 'Mission Raniganj' - Akshay K & Parineeti C, Satinder Sartaaj

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EdgAic4nao

Away from explicitly Bollywood soundtrack songs, I'm enjoying a lot of Diljit Dosanjh's 'Case' from the album Ghost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Ij0idc_dk

Karan Aujla - Softly

A funky disco-rap flavoured Punjabi pop track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWMxCE2HTag

Bit of a crossover with the Soca thread, this one, fusing Hindi language, Trini Chutney Soca and Afrobeats flavours into something really quite unique. Great production from ILM fave Ravi B here

Nisha B x Nailah Blackman - Tip Tip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHe0IIux6fY

Oh, and here's a playlist for the thread: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3DOLag7U061grRrW13MkGC?si=7de37150ea1748cb

That's a bit to chew on for now. Please listen and post your own. Got lots more for another day

Thanks for doing this thread.

Not sure if this guy fits on this thread, but I am a bit curious about an upcoming Washington DC area gig by

Sun Feb. 25- Ali Sethi @ Barns of Wolf Trap (Pakistani singer/author who graduated from Harvard . Music merges traditional & contemporary South Asian styles)

As I say, we're a very wide church here on the Rolling DESI and SOUTH ASIAN music 2024 - Bhangra, Bollywood, Chutney Soca, Baila etc... thread. So yes very relevant

Gonna check out some Ali Sethi now. Sounds very good so far

52 GAJ KA DAMAN by RENUKA PANWAR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt-rVn2BJs

Parmish Verma Ft. Paradox - Check It Out

Gritty, hip-hop flavoured tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiZL2j5mIPw

Sidhu Moose Wala ft. DJ Jit & Divine - Watch out

Can't believe it's taken this long to post something by the late Sidhu Moose Wala, who was shot dead in 2022.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqRlSFgqUek

Let's zip back to 2012 with this Canadian Punjabi party anthem

Jazzy B ft. Yo Yo Honey Singh - This Party Getting Hot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYk7XgrZ_p8

Back to the present day with another trap-hop based track, here is Guru Randhawa - 'You Talking To Me?'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-30eu39wRM

Great thread, dog latin. I love stuff like Jalsa. It's sorta just a pop melody we've heard a million times, but the instrumentation makes it all fresh again. To my western ears, at least.

Yeah I keep going back to Jalsa. It's so corny to my ears in that it's so obviously cribbing from higgly commercial mayo-smoking Western dance-pop while being in and of itself highly delightful

*highly

I'll just say 'highly' again, why not

Anyway, here's a classic from the late 80s.

If the world were a fairer place, Birmingham-based artist and label founder Bally Sagoo would be a household name in the UK.

Sadly the world is not a fairer place, and most people outside of the Indian diaspora haven't heard of him, despite having sold hundreds of thousands of records, touring with Michael Jackson and writing music for films like Bend It Like Beckham.

It's been posited that if the UK charts had been more representative of real record sales throughout the country, as opposed to being based on a sampling from selected outlets, we'd have a very different view of what's popular.

Consider the absolutely huge amount of units shifted of crossover dance hits like Mundian To Bach Ke worldwide (one of the biggest selling singles of all time) - this was not a fluke, it just managed to get through the cracks

Anyway, this is a certi banger. Drop this in your set next to Buffalo Stance and watch the place pop off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJs2CJ2agPM

Sri Lanka special!

Starting with a sweet bit of pure pop from DJ Mass - Pem Kekula (පෙම් කැකුළ) Ft. Apzi & Romaine Willis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdiD-kRIyBw

Dan Sepada - Wasthi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQmucsk4K8k

oops, you'll need to click on the link for that one

This one's got a bit of a dancehall / reggaeton vibe

Pasan Liyanage ft. Bachi Susan & Rude Bwoy - Visekari

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-5dBLyuYE8

Really like this one. Especially as it's defined by being closer to the Sri Lankan style of music known as 'Baila' characterised by this distinct galloping 3/4 or triplet rhythm (I'm not musically clever enough to know how to describe it, sort of "clippety, cloppety, clippety, cloppety")

Dinesh Gamage ft. Kaizer Kaiz - Veralu Mal (වෙරළු මල්)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75kylK_mY18

That's yer lot for now. Here's the Spotify playlist for those who are interested in listening along: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3DOLag7U061grRrW13MkGC?si=c8bbbf50194047f8

BTW I can't stop listening to Jalsa 2.0. Road-tested it last night at my pub DJ gig and it sounded so fun, especially coming soon after Padam Padam

Dan Sepada - Wasthi

hilarious banger, "sexy banana"

Oh man... regretfully I didn't watch the video properly before posting. What in the Carry On Lifeguarding is going on there 😳

Great thread! I can't add something new to it, but this one is one of my alltime favorite Bollywood bangers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH7tUF6Mw60

The greatest thing about it might be, that it's in the last Chantal Akerman film as well, it plays in a hotel room while she is showering. That took me out of the film for a moment.

Ahhh this is great!

Here's Hommie Dilliwala with Yo Yo Honey Singh on production

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AogRl9QGoG0

posted these on global music 2024 thread but should add here for those who don't look at that:

Busy listening to Pakistani vocalist Ali Sethi who did an album where he improvised ghazals over the electronic sounds of Nicolas Jaar. His more pop effort, a collaborative single with fellow Pakistani singer Shae Gill “Pasoori,” a Punjabi word that translates roughly to “difficult mess, went viral on Youtube in 2022 with hundreds of millions of viewers

― curmudgeon, Sunday, February 18, 2024 5:32 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

The Ali Sethi 2023 album with Nicolas Jaar music is called Intiha

I saw the second of two sold out gigs in the Washington DC area by Pakistani singer Ali Sethi. A good show , albeit short at just a little over an hour. He sang and talked in multiple languages ( Urdu, Punjabi, English). He’s got a beautiful voice that goes up and down scales. I like the stretched out & sometimes mournful ghazals better than the poppy raga-ton. He referenced “an og 1700s ghazal,” Jeff Buckley covering Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, & he sang bits of Leonard Cohen “Hallelujah “ & Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita.” He referenced Pakistan & India’s love/ hate relationship and his own gay identity in talking about his gone viral 2022 duet “Pasoori” plus some ghazal poetry history and singing technique.

While Pitchfork has had an article about "Pasoori" going youtube viral and a review of his album with Nicolas Jaar, and the New Yorker had an article on "Pasoori", I must confess that I only leaned of him when I heard the District of Raga organization was booking him in the DC area at the Barns of Wolf Trap. I trust their curator and looked him up and listened. Was impressed by both his music and that he had penned a novel after graduating Harvard, but then deciding to focus on singing and took training in Pakistan from two acclaimed there teachers. Also, then found a few ILX posts here about him on the Jaar thread. I stumped 3 folks this weekend who have wide ranging music tastes and who have been to the Big Ears fest, with Ali Sethi's name. Sethi played Coachella last year but not Big Ears. He is a bit more more pop than old school legendary qwalli singers like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who have gotten crossover attention.

That sounds great curmudgeon. I'll need to check it out

Here's a fun little chutney soca tune

Vedesh Sookoo - Dhal Belly Indian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkY2lUrJKqk

Jubin Nautiyal, Playback singer from India, is appearing tonight @ MGM Theatre at National Harbor near Washington DC

I've consulted some of the cool Punjabi kids in my tutor group and they gave me a list of things to check out. This is the one they were most keen to share:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UppcA4gNMoc

White, Brown and Black by Avvy Sra. Banger.

Different from everything else in this thread, but I interviewed modular synth composer Arushi Jain today. She lives in NYC but told me "I carry an Indian passport." She's got a new album, Delight, coming out soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE85IZyWdHA

Diljit Dosanjh ft. Badshah - Naina (from Crew)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u6lLWGjFLY

Prem & Hardeep - Galln Kardi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2rQQ7Mefcs

These last two are VERY poppy and very catchy

One from Canadian singer Raghav ft. DIVINE - Chingari, with a hip-hop feel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulL2d-a-ln0

Wow this thread is really bringing it!

loving "White, Brown and Black" and "You Are Irresistible"

Me too. Great tunes both

Love the Raghav track!

This is great but too short: 9:45 by Prabh Singh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzSn6AKLkMI

certified jam!

If I ever DJed, this would be in my set, for sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGneAab3e88

Yes to Jai Jai Shivshankar

Nice!

Aditya Gadhvi + Achint - Khalasi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7wSjy9Lv-o
Absolutely enormous viral Gujurati banger from last year. Can't see this leaving my setlists for a while

Sliime x Gagan Kooner - Punjabi Queen
UK Punjabi rap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcmk8j_oBtY

Jaubi - Chandrakauns
Pakistani jazz troupe exploring fusion and Northern Indian classical music who had an album out this year
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsvBJ914reg

it was my aim at the beginning of the year to get some more South Asian pop into EOY. Unfortunately almost everything I've posted ITT came out in prior years. Anything noteworthy in 2024?

I am sure there is , but between my day job , family stuff and trying to keep up with other genres I can’t offer anything here .

It’s easy to find English language websites with end of the year US and UK rock , rap, pop, but it seems harder to me to find ones about genres like this despite the fact that there’s a huge demographic that listens