Anokha – Soundz of the Asian Underground is a compilation album.
Background
This 1997 album arose from the Anokha music club night, formed by its host Talvin Singh and Sweety Kapoor, with music producer/DJ State of Bengal a.k.a. Zam Zaman.[2]
Anokha held weekly sessions at the legendary Blue Note venue at Hoxton Square in London's East End.[3] The album was marketed by Mango Records, a division of Island Records. Those music sessions and this compilation helped to promote the rise of the Asian Underground movement.[4][5]
The compilation was signed via Anokha's imprint label Omni Records to Island Records and led to major label deals for Talvin Singh, State of Bengal and Amar.[6]
Reviewing for The Village Voice in December 1997, Robert Christgau appraised the album negatively: [14]"With zip to do with bhangra, and no commitment to drum 'n' bass, here's a travelogue designed to remind us that tabla players (presenter Talvin Singh, for instance!) have been hand-producing something like breakbeats for years. Not exactly like breakbeats, though. Anyway, who buys records solely for breakbeats? (Wait, I don't want to know.)"[13]AllMusic's John Bush was more enthusiastic, deeming it "a startlingly natural-sounding fusion of Indian music and instruments with drum'n'bass, breakbeats and electronics, unlike other worldbeat-influenced electronic recordings which feature an abundance of styles but rarely approach true fusion." Bush highlighted Singh and State of Bengal's songs, as well as "K-Ascendant" by Kingsuk Biswas.[7]
^Ford, Richard T. (2009). Racial Culture: A Critique. Princeton University Press. p. 160. ISBN978-1400826308. In the 1990s London's 'electronica' style met traditional Indian musical styles in, for example, Talvin Singh's aptly titled Soundz of the Asian Underground (the spelling of 'soundz' itself a nod to African-American hip-hop slang).
