State of Bengal

It has been more than a decade since the music scene (rather than genre) named “Asian underground” (by ethnicists) got it’s international breakthrough at the club Anokha in east London. State of Bengal was then, together with Talvin Singh, Fun^da^mental, Nitin Sawnhey, Ges-e, Osmani Soundz, the pioneer. Today he is not an administrator of the scene, but rather one of its best renewers; he is constantly pushing the boundaries forward. Underground hits like Flight IC408 and Chittagong - that still have the power to make the dance floor explode - just show the way to his most present sound.

It is somewhat misleading to talk about State of Bengal as one person. Saifullah “Sam” Zaman is the man behind the music. But during the Clandestino festival he is appearing with the Canadian singer Rosina “Lal” Kazi, the London based poet MC Nexmanz, the percussionist Renu Hossain (that we remember from the cooperation with Micropixie during Clandestino #4/2006), the guitar player Matt Mars and Mathis Richet, one of very few that have succeeded in translating State of Bengal beats to the drums. The live band State of Bengal started taking shape in 1987 when Sam returned from a trip from his native country Bangladesh, there he came in contact with traditional dancers and musician, eventually he put together a sound system with artists that later formed Asian Dub Foundation and Fun^da^mental. All of this lead to a couple of tours and albums in collaboration with artist like Ananda Shankar, Björk, Bapan das Baul, MC Deedar, Ranjit Barot, Tourique Qureshi, Rani Nair.

It is with great pride I introduce my friends. State of Bengal live & direct in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Dj Mleccha