A Look Back As The Asian Underground Turns 20

In 1997 Talvin Singh, a British musician of Indian origin finished putting together a 12-track record with the help of his friend Sam Zaman, better known as the performer State of Bengal. Along with a few of their own compositions, the tracks were produced by musicians who were British nationals from families that had emigrated from South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

At the time, Singh was unaware that this unnamed record would help define an entire movement and further consolidate the identity of young British Asians. He could not anticipate that the album would unite the multi-ethnic South Asian diaspora in the United Kingdom, bringing together people of Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh faith, and help create a vehicle for South Asians to be better understood in Britain.

But before all that, Singh had to experience heartbreak.

He went to London Records, whose A&R at the time was influential DJ and tastemaker Pete Tong. Tong heard the music, but did not see merit in releasing it. “He said he didn’t have a place for the record,” Singh says. “If there’s no place for, it’s the underground. So in a way, Pete Tong kind of blessed the record. Even though he rejected it, he blessed it.”

It was after this meeting that Singh decided to name it Anokha: Sounds of the Asian Underground. Amid meetings with more record executives Singh found a likeminded music fan in Chris Blackwell, the co-founder of Island Records. Blackwell released Anokha under PolyGram records on June 17, 1997.

Though significant, Anokha, as the dance-club phenomenon the record spawned would be called, was not the first South Asian cultural moment.

The diaspora was often fractured, and elements of it thrived within certain niche corners. World renowned Qawwalli (a form of Sufi devotional music) musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan had performed in multiple British cities, including at the World Music Arts and Dance festival (WOMAD) in London in 1985.

Bhangra music (a genre of Punjabi pop music) CDs were outselling their English counterparts, but often found themselves outside the pop-music charts because they were not “English pop.” It was club nights such as bombay jungle, and Anokha that gave the diaspora a common roof, without any judgment, or preconceived notions of being “brown.” The Anokha club nights made their way from Sunday evenings at Singh’s college, to Monday nights at the Blue Note Club in East London.

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