Features: articles, interviews & more!

2007 was an interesting and exciting year for the Indian Electronica Festival - it was our second year throwing the gig and despite this, was ambitious enough to host installments in 4 cities on 3 continents! more »

Not content with tearing up Midlands dance-floors and messing with Glastonbury-goers' heads, DJ Sonny Ji is on a one-man mission to bring his blissed-out Chicago house, spliced with sizzling Bhangra breaks, to the masses. Just don't expect his mum and dad to be body-popping to the beats.

Former resident-DJ at the award-winning club night Shaanti, Sonny Ji is used to leaving clubbers open-mouthed at his distinctive reinvention of the Asian fusion sound. But the 25-year-old admits that even he was left dumbstruck upon landing the biggest gig of his life in early 2005. more »

In this interview, Qasim Virjee speaks with Vikas Kohli - the man responsible for mastering our debut 2 disc compilation release, 'Indian Electronica /volume 001.' Vikas is the owner-operator of Fatlabs; a production/sound studio just outside of Toronto, Canada.

You own a production and mastering studio but you're a musician as well - can you tell us about your music and how it relates to your studio work? more »

On September 20th we held the first ever Indian Electronica Festival in New York and I'm so happy to say that it was a smashing success!

This was our third installment of the 2007 Festival series and I worked with our Advisory Committee to program the event uniquely compared to the previous summer sessions in Toronto and London – NYC was all about the Djs... well, we also had a couple of live acts but the plan entailed creating a comfortable social atmosphere where people could chill out, shake their rumps, chat or whatever else they felt like... more »

The Indian Electronica Festival was launched in 2006 (aka 'IE06') with two dates; one in Toronto during July and another in London, UK, for the August Bank Holiday weekend. Both were great successes at bringing together on stage a diverse selection of musicians - all of South Asian heritage from disapora communities around the world. Musically, we showcased all types of electronic music fused live with South Asian traditional instrumentation, vocals etc... through performances by live musicians and DJs programmed at both festival installments. more »

On March 2nd, 2007, Janaka Selekta of the recently defunct Dhamaal Soundsystem will host another installment of the hugely successful 'Worldly' party at San Francisco's super-club, 1015 Folsom.

The event will feature a first-ever performance of Asian Dub Foundation co-founder Dr Das alongside Karsh Kale and Ramjac. In addition, expect a top-notch roster of artists including Cheb i Sabbah with Mitch Hyare, DJ Amar, Dragonfly and many more... more »

What is the London Mela?

A free outdoor multi arts festival with stages, tents, workshops and installations combined with satellite events prior to, during and post the event - inspired by the culture and creativity of South Asia, the London Mela re-invents traditional village festivals and fairs - combining artistic interpretation from across the Diaspora, from the offspring off Bhojpuri indentured laborers to the Sikh farmers of California, from spoilt rich kids of the Delhi suburbs to the Indian factory workers of 1960's London - the London Mela embraces all these influences and reinvents Mela with its heart and sole in passionate performance which arouses interests and creates a collective debate... more »

In the past few years there has been a flurry of down-tempo chill-out compilation releases that followed the amazing international success of Paris (read: the original) Buddha Bar owner/dj Claude Challe's self-titled series.

The reasons for this phenomenon are manifold and surely related to the rise of urban yoga-going. I'll save further exploration and explanation of that previous sentence to a future piece (sorry) as the focus of this one is a curious chap who goes by the name of Pathaan... more »

Okay, so your bio reads having been inspired by Talvin Singh's anokha parties, as well as Swaraj - both early gigs for inventive south asian-influenced electronic music in the UK. At the time, going to those parties, what did you see and hear that influenced your decision to get involved with music?  more »

Never mind the North South divide which separates London from the rest of England. Eight years ago, when Hoxton was hardly hip, the edges of its potential were reflected in the wide glasses of art impresario Jay Jopling. But this was a time before White Cube2 settled in, when this East London village was a mostly brown town and still served up a decent cheap night out. C B Patel's ethnic papers Gujarat Samachar and Asian Voice were published out of a dubious looking building in a grim side street. more »