Why aren’t more bands like Transglobal Underground? This is not a fatuous question. After all, we live in a joyously multicultural society so one would expect more ethnic influences would have seeped into the mainstream by now. But no, apart from some African guitar riffs adding a veneer of ethnicity to the occasional white college-boy rock group, and some bangra beats spicing up the odd dancefloor hit, the UK and US pop scene seem on the whole to remain hermetically sealed against such exotic musical DNA.
Having said that, within the world music scene itself there are plenty of bands these days producing music with a global bent. Balkan brass, Gipsy melodies, tango rhythms often find themselves unceremoniously fighting for dominance in the same piece of music.
Arguably we have Transglobal Underground to thank for this, as they’ve been doing the multicultural boogie for at least 15 years now. Last year they finally received recognition for this fact when Radio 3 gave them the gong in their Club Global category. Which brings us to an arts centre in hyper-trendy Shoreditch where the band were sounding as good as they ever have.
It’s handy that most of this six-piece band multitask because otherwise they would have been hard pushed to recreate the richly textured worlds they conjure in their studio recordings. For example, gifted sitar player, Sheema, doubles on bass, Tim jumps between guitar and keyboards (and also sings lead vocal on the bluesy “Swampland.”) and the formidable stage presence that is Tuup, beats the living daylights out of a set of congas when he’s not sharing lead vocal duties with relatively new member, Krupa Pattni.
One thing that sets TGU apart from many other bands currently trying to pic ‘n’ mix multi-cultural influences, is the extraordinary rhythmic interplay between drummer, Mantu and dhol player, Gurjit. A dhol is a large hand drum which is worn over the shoulder and pounded mercilessly at each end with sticks. It’s a formidable sound even on its own but when accompanied by a whole kit drum, the rolling, thundering noise that results is compelling. A lesser global fusion band might fall back on samples and drum machines to generate such complex rhythms, but not TGU.
But to return to the two lead vocalists. Tuup comes across as more of a town crier than a rapper, as he delivers such would-be hit singles as the almost B52s-ish “It’s a Sitar” (from their latest album Moonshout.) And he couldn’t be more of a contrast to Krupa whose most impressive song of the evening is “Emotional Yoyo.” She tells us that the song’s title turned out to be an apt description of the traumatic year she’s just lived through in which, for one thing, she lost her sister. Vocally at times Krupa brings to mind past TGU member, Natacha Atlas. Although at other times she sounds more like Kate Bush but with balls.
Once one has given up trying to unravel all the musical influences (ragga, bangra, dub reggae etc) in a song like “Emotional Yoyo” you are simply left with the fact that it’s just a great pop song. Which is the second reason these guys are head and shoulders above much of the competition. It seems to me that sometimes in the excitement of finding out that a bangra beat goes nicely with some rock power chords, many such bands forget that it’s a good song that make a lasting expression.
The bottom line is that TGU are quintessentially a London band, just as the Clash were a London band. Let’s hope audiences soon catch on to the fact that the future of music is with groups like this, rather than with the gaudy pyrotechnics of the X Factor.
