Mohinder Kaur Bhamra Punjabi Disco

Description

Naya Beat is delighted to announce the release of an astonishing lost holy grail, Mohinder Kaur Bhamras 1982 masterpiecePunjabi Disco. The reissue includes remixes by Peaking Lights, Danger Boys, Psychemagik, Dexter+Franz, Mystic Jungle, and Baalti, as well as a cover by Say She Shes Piya Malik and Turbotito & Ragz.

Unknown and inaccessible to even the deepest of diggers,Punjabi Discois the first-ever British Asian electronic dance album recorded and a true lost relic. A chance find of the original multitrack masters during the Covid lockdown and a tip off from Massimo di Lena of Nu Genea on the records existence led to this reissue. Lovingly mixed down and remastered from the studio recordings, the release includes a newly discovered track.

Released the same year and into equal obscurity asTen Ragas To A Disco Beat, Charanjit Singhs acid house opus, the reissue ofPunjabi Discois set to have similar reverberations in the world of dance music. Produced by Mohinders eldest son and legendary bhangra pioneer Kuljit Bhamra using a recently acquired Roland SH-1000 synthesiser and a CR-8000 CompuRhythm drum machine played by his then 11-year-old brother, the album was recorded at Roxy Music bass player Rick Kentons studio in London. The concept for a Punjabi disco album was subsequently stolen by the very music label that had agreed to distribute the record. Eventually self-released with no label support, Punjabi Disco vanished into complete obscurity.

A pivotal figure in British Asian music, West London-based vocalist and first-generation immigrant Mohinder Kaur Bhamra became the first woman to sing at Punjabi weddings and other community events in the UK. Her son, Kuljit, would accompany her, playing tabla at her events from the age of six. Wedding music was traditionally a tame, segregated affair: men and women seated and separated on opposite sides of the room.Punjabi Disco was born out of a desire to desegregate the dancefloor and inspired by the sounds of disco from the era. A tapestry of electric drum rhythm, warbling bass, and psychedelic siren-like Roland synth melodies provide a vehicle for Mohinders powerful voice. Part disco, part funk, part acid house, and infused with Punjabi folk melodies, the sound of Punjabi Disco is as mesmerising as it is undefinable.

Featuring an incredible gatefold package and exhaustive liner notes by the Guardians Global Music Critic, Ammar Kalia, the x2LP release has been cut to vinyl for the discerning listener and DJ by Grammy-nominated Frank Merritt from The Carvery, London.

This is Naya Beats ninth release in a series of reissues, remixes, and compilations dedicated to uncovering electronic and dance music from the subcontinent and South Asian diaspora. (via Label)

Armed with the SH-1000the first Roland synthesizerand a Compurhythm CR-8000 drum machine, 22-year-old Kuljit Bhamra would spend all day crafting siren-horn loops and bubbling basslines, melding disco and funk experiments with the rhythms and melodies of Punjabi folk. His 11-year-old brother, Ambi, would often sit in on the drum machine. In the evening, theyd play the demos for Mohinder, whod pen Punjabi lyrics to sing over them, delivering songs of love and yearning in a melismatic, full-throated voice. Those sketches would crystallize into Punjabi Disco, the first-ever British Asian electronic dance albuma joyous, loose-limbed romp through Punjabi-tinged disco, funk, psychedelia, and proto-acid house.

The family kitchen is an odd birthplace for a pioneering dance music record, but in the context of the 1980s British Asian experience, its also a fitting one. Outside the home, the only places where music was regularly performed were gurdwaras and templeswhere the songs were strictly devotionalor during community weddings. Those were the arenas where Mohindertrained as a gyani, or Sikh devotional singerhoned her voice after moving to the UK in 1961. But the weddings they played were sedate affairs, men and women seated apart, movement limited to tapping feet. The Bhamras set out to change thatKuljit and his brothers clearing tables to open space on the floor, Mohinder urging the women forward, sometimes refusing to sing unless they were allowed to dance too. This represented one of the first desegregated South Asian dance spaces in Britain, and on Punjabi Disco, the Bhamras created a new sound to fill it, drawing inspiration from the disco mania that followed 1979s Saturday Night Fever.

Recorded over a few days at a local studio owned by Savage Process bassist Rik Kenton, Punjabi Disco was a family project through and throughMohinder on vocals, Kuljit and Ambi handling the synthesizer and drum machine, Kuljits high school friend Trevor Michael Georges on bass, and brother Satpaul designing the neon-sign cover. Everything just clicked, Kuljit says. We thought people would love it. (via Pitchfork)

Label: Naya Beat Records
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Reissued: 2025 / Original: 1982
Genre: Electronic, Funk / Soul, Folk, World
Style: Disco, Acid House, Bhangra, Nu-Disco, Boogie, House

File under: Global Sounds