DJ Rekha
As host of the monthly Bhangra Basement party in the New York City club S.O.B., DJ Rekha has been mixing the music of her Indian heritage with the urban sounds she grew up with. With her forays into Bhangra, she is part of an ever-growing musical movement in the United States, one that has crossed the world with the path of the immigrants who have carried this form, which has found its way into American pop dance music by the likes of Madonna, Missy Elliot and Jay-Z.
Bhangra is originally a form of folk music that comes from the region of Punjab, which is divided by Pakistan and India and, following World War 2, was carried over to England, where a good portion of its modern version is produced. The form has rhythmic elements based in Indian folk percussion instruments — most notably the dhol and the tumbi — and has, in more recent musical history, been embraced by creators of dance music.
Another area of Indian music that has gained attention in the United States is termed Bollywood — more specifically, this is Indian film music. Most Indian films are musicals, regardless of their genre, and these soundtracks have gotten some attention in the United States — often for kitschy reasons, but also for the unusual nature of its structure, often juggling several Western music styles within one composition and then mixing in traditional Indian sounds and orchestral arrangements.
Rekha has released a CD compilation of Bhangra, “Bhangra Basement.”
JM: How’d you get introduced to Bhangra?
DJR: My mom brought me a tape back. Culturally it’s the music of my parents and my community — they’re from India. I was born in London. She brought it over in the early 90s when this music had its first explosion and that was my first deal with it. I started dee-jaying around the same time I developed my interest in Bhangra. I grew up on old school hip hop and I was always interested in music, but I started it at the same time.
