Dhol Dhamaka
DholDhamaka builds on the usual line-up of the BBB by adding Bhangra dancers and a bigger Dhol section.
Repertoire includes versions of Bollywood and Bhangra classics and recent hits, arranged for brass and drums, plus drum features to prepared backing tracks. It does for Indian pop music what Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band have done for American pop and jazz.
Indian roots meet funky dance beats and jazz solos, in a fusion unique to London - on a favourite Punjabi song, Gurh Nalon Ishk Mitha (Love is Sweeter than Sugar), the dhols play chaal, the essential Bhangra beat and the horns play a Bally Sagoo-style acoustic remix.
The band is joined by free style Bhangra champions Four By Four Dancers with a hip take on the Bhangra dance tradition.
Dhol Dhamaka is one example of the creative ferment surrounding musics of the Indian diaspora in the UK today. It represents the repatriation of a tradition of brass playing originally exported to the subcontinent from Britain, now transformed by Indian rhythms, vocal and instrumental styles. This is combined with British Bhangra and sounds from the Asian underground, themselves fusions of Indian roots and western influences.
