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State of Bengal |  |
Every new dance record seems to come with pages of breathless prose
telling us how this DJ or remixer helped define yet another tiny corner
of the underground music scene. State of Bengal is different. In the
first place, there's nothing tiny about this DJ/producer/musician's
influence on the world of modern dance music. In fact, it's hard to
imagine the bubbling artistic ferment of the British/Asian club scene
without Sam Zaman, the man behind State of Bengal. And secondly, he's
transcended whatever the term "underground" means. State of Bengal has
toured the world opening for Björk, remixed tracks for the group
Massive Attack and the late great Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali
Khan, and recorded a duet record with legendary sitarist Ananda Shankar
for Peter Gabriel's Real World Records shortly before Shankar's death.  So
it's a bit of a surprise that Visual Audio is State of Bengal's first
solo record. It was certainly a long time coming. Sam Zaman, born
Saifullah Zaman in Pakistan, grew up in London, but it was a trip to
Bangladesh in 1987 that inspired him to start the fusion of Bengali
folk and Western dance music that became State of Bengal. As a DJ, Sam
first came to prominence in 1996 as part of the Anokha collective in
London's East End. (England's New Music Express called Anokha "a crack
team of Asian DJs and producers led by bleach-haired media darling
Talvin Singh, which invades London's Blue Note with its Eastern-slanted
drum'n'bass every Monday.") The weekly Anokha club gigs introduced
Singh, Sam Zaman, vocalist Amar, and numerous others to a largely
unsuspecting musical public, and led to the Anokha compilation CD - the
original, definitive statement from London's musical underground. State
of Bengal had two tracks on that groundbreaking compilation. Both of
them, "Flight IC 408" and "Chittagong Chill," appear on Visual Audio.
In fact, the new album begins with "Flight IC 408," which wastes no
time demonstrating State of Bengal's exquisite production skills. The
uncanny rhythmic sense, the subtle processing of the everyday sounds of
an airplane flight, the blend of Eastern instrumental sounds with funky
guitar and bass, all show why State of Bengal is such an influential
figure - and why a host of imitators have yet to duplicate his sound. Sam
Zaman is a rare DJ who is also a performing musician; with his live
band he plays bass, and on Visual Audio he performs the live percussion
parts himself. But what sets him apart is his talent as a producer. "I
believe in Nada Brahma - the Sound is God," Zaman says on the track
"Music Is." On Visual Audio, the textures are clean and
finely-detailed. Every sound is in its place, and is given room to be
heard, even at the densest, most rhythmically-complex parts of the mix.
The song "Elephant Ride," for example, sports a jingling percussion
track reminiscent of the Bauls - the roving folk minstrels of Bengal -
with only the simplest of melodic materials. Minimalist wisps of
keyboard, sampled shahnai (the Central Asian oboe), and what sounds
like L.Shankar's electric double-violin ride over a lumbering set of
percussion tracks. Released as a single in the UK, this musical
portrait of an elephant ride has an almost visual impact. Throughout
Visual Audio, State of Bengal's handling of the musical materials is so
assured that it comes as a shock to realize how many different sounds
are in a single piece. On "Chittagong Chill," Sam blends jazzy sax and
Western flutes with a typically sturdy rhythm track made of Eastern and
Western percussion loops. The result is a moody, almost bluesy texture
with spacey production and reverbed vocal samples in the middle of the
song which hint at Jamaican dub. What looks surprising and even a bit
dubious on paper seems almost inevitable as the track unfolds.
Click here for official artist site.
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