More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/- Bringing India's rural sound system parties to the club, the duo's latest project is a love letter to speaker-rattling bass.
- For most people in India, exposure to thunderous sub-bass begins early on. At religious celebrations, big weddings and political rallies around the country, mobile sound systems decked out with flower garlands, lights and paintings of local deities are a common sight. In major cities, these intricate structures serve a largely functional role, blaring speeches, chants and announcements at full tilt while carefully navigating congested streets. But in rural areas, particularly the state of West Bengal, their immense power is magnified through sound system clashes. Locally known as box competitions, these gatherings typically include two or more colossal, multi-coloured rigs positioned across from one another, creating a hulking mountain of noise that entrances revellers sandwiched in the middle.
This rich tradition forms the basis of Mela, the latest EP from Indian dance music duo Baalti, AKA Jaiveer Singh and Mihir Chauhan. The record presents their personalised take on sound system music, held within the stunning frame of Indian percussion and hybridised techno-garage. Since debuting as producers in 2021, New York-based Singh and Chauhan have explored a breadth of South Asian music. Their first EP infused Bengali disco and Hindustani classical from the '70s and '80s into cruising lo-fi house. Better Together, from 2023, swaddled nostalgic Bangladeshi and Pakistani classics in deep house synths and wobbly breakbeats. Until now, their clubbiest tracks (like the hazy electro of "Spilling") were ideal for sunset-into-night transitions, with gauzy melodies and fuzzy samples laid over skipping basslines. On Mela, Singh and Chauhan fully submit to the fog of the peak-time dance floor.
Infusing the spirit of India's centuries-old festival tradition into familiar club tropes, Singh and Chauhan bring together all their favourite touchpoints on this EP. It arrives at an opportune moment. Recent developments–a new documentary on West Bengal's battles and fresh funding opportunities–indicate that the world is finally starting to pay attention to India's complex sound system culture. Hyperdub affiliate DJ Hank, based in Chicago, just put out an EP that he described as "Bengali bass meets footwork."
Mela is built around samples of dek bass—an umbrella term for box competition tunes that include bassy edits of Bollywood dance belters and experimental cuts that sequence kick drums, sirens and long bass designed to test the speaker's power. Singh and Chauhan are devout students of the style, scouring local blogs for loops and recordings. Dek bass can be comical–belly laughs and video game noises often emerge from nowhere, puncturing passages of shrill synths.
Mela leans into this over-the-top display of humour. On "Bodylock," what sounds like a shrieky vocoder sample careens around a barrage of dramatic drums, like a gaggle of young children let loose at a candy store. "Raja" features stuttering, indecipherable vocals that are cartoonishly high-pitched, channeling an anime villain's exaggerated personality. Although an enticing introduction to dek bass subculture, the EP is certainly not a comprehensive guide–listeners would be wise to do their own digging given the genre's wide range and myriad nuances.
Mela is a sensory experience. Samples of crowd noises from box competitions, such as the background voices on "Loose Leaf," nearly teleport listeners to the dusty fields where battles take place. But as immersive as the record is, that's not its full intention. Really, Baalti seek to bring India's rural raves to international dance floors, mixing dek bass and traditional Indian percussion (like dhol tasha from the state of Maharashtra) with classic UK club fare. It's a complementary trio–the wiggly synths, distorted bass frequencies and sped-up vocal snippets of dek bass add character to UK-inspired sounds like unruly breakbeats and weighty dubstep. On "Overbit" and "Raja," Indian drums blanket warped bass whomps. The EP translates dek bass's strange and wonderful rhythms into rave-tailored arrangements without resorting to dilution.
Unapologetically energetic, Mela mirrors the unfiltered hedonism of its namesake. A Hindi word for festival, a "mela" of any kind is a banging party, whether that be a birthday get-together or a street parade. Baalti recreate a mela's communal atmosphere, capturing the lawless energy of box competitions, where booming volume levels and tight crowds don't deter dancers who submit to formidable bass weight. As Baalti swap out breezy, lo-fi house rollers of their earlier discography for no-nonsense bangers, the duo prove that diligent archival research doesn't have to come at the expense of a non-stop adrenaline rush.
Tracklist01. Bodylock
02. Overbit
03. Raja
04. Loose Leaf