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Since their formation in 2020, the Daytimers collective have been trying to establish a new imagining of British south-Asian music. Taking their name from the daytime parties held by second-generation immigrants in the late 80s and 90s, Daytimers have spent the past five years throwing raucous parties of their own, with residents such as Yung Singh, Rohan Rakhit and Mahnoor mixing everything from jungle and Bollywood vocals with dubstep, grime instrumentals and Punjabi folk for a new generation born and raised in the UK.
Following in the footsteps of their Asian underground forebears such as Nitin Sawhney and Talvin Singh, who mixed the sounds of 90s Britain with the south-Asian music they grew up listening to, Daytimers’ latest compilation has 13 south-Asian producers remixing Bollywood hits from the Sony India catalogue with an eye on today’s dancefloor culture.
There is ample bass-weight across the record’s 10 tracks, with British producer Zeeshan’s take on the score of 2022 Tamil film Vikram transforming the original’s keening vocal melody into a chipmunk snippet skittering over an ominous, growling bassline and siren-like synths. Daytimers co-founder Provhat, meanwhile, layers a thunderous jungle breakbeat over the wedding classic Suraj Hua Maddham – sure to turn receptions into raves – and Rea’s take on Anirudh Ravichander’s Dippam Dappam flips the cinema standard into a rumbling Afro-house groove.
While certain edits work less well – with Baalti’s take on AR Rahman’s Tere Bina merely speeding up the original over two-step drum programming and Zenjah and Mrii’s version of Where’s the Party Tonight struggling to wrangle the kitsch, Vengaboys-style vocal of the 2006 Bollywood original into a UK garage groove – the majority of the album produces remarkable rearrangements. Reframing this nostalgic cinema music for the modern dancefloor, Alterations proves there is still plenty of space for future generations of diaspora artists to celebrate and find inspiration in their heritage.
Also out this month
Ugandan rapper MC Yallah’s second album with Berlin producer Debmaster, Gaudencia (Hakuna Kulala), is typically abrasive and full of irrepressible energy. Employing a languorous flow over Debmaster’s growling beats, Yallah spits venomously on Muchaka while showcasing scatter-gun dexterity on highlight Kekasera. Iraqi vocalist Hamid al-Saadi’s first record of traditional maqam music in over 25 years, Maqam Al-Iraq (Maqam Records), is a delight. Soaring over intricate santour lines, Saadi’s sprawling, 20-minute compositions expand on a centuries-old tradition through his indefatigable voice. Syrian producer Khaled Kurbeh releases the ambient electronic album Likulli Fadāin Eqāéh (Research Records). Whispers of guitar strumming and washes of melody create an imaginative and sometimes ominous palette – a sense of beauty bordering on dread.
