Biography
State of Bengal emerged from Britain’s Asian underground as a collective led by Sam Zaman. The movement first took shape at London’s Anoka club, where Zaman’s outfit helped shape ethno-techno by weaving Asian sounds into classic dance rhythms.
Born in India, Zaman lived successively in Bangladesh, Turkey, and Jordan before settling in London’s East End. The racism he encountered growing up found expression through music; by fifteen he was already spinning records at locally organized gatherings. Those early community sets at anti-racist events gave rise to the group’s initial sound, whose first vocalists were MC Mustaq, later of Fun-Da-Mental, and Zaman’s brother MC Deedar, who went on to found Asian Dub Foundation.
Time spent at Anoka led to remix work for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Massive Attack. The same year Zaman supported Bjork on her worldwide tour and produced tracks for Ananda Shanker shortly before the latter’s death. State of Bengal issued its debut full-length album, Visual Audio, in 2000. Four years later the project released Tani Tani, its first recording for Peter Gabriel’s Real World label.
Born in India, Zaman lived successively in Bangladesh, Turkey, and Jordan before settling in London’s East End. The racism he encountered growing up found expression through music; by fifteen he was already spinning records at locally organized gatherings. Those early community sets at anti-racist events gave rise to the group’s initial sound, whose first vocalists were MC Mustaq, later of Fun-Da-Mental, and Zaman’s brother MC Deedar, who went on to found Asian Dub Foundation.
Time spent at Anoka led to remix work for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Massive Attack. The same year Zaman supported Bjork on her worldwide tour and produced tracks for Ananda Shanker shortly before the latter’s death. State of Bengal issued its debut full-length album, Visual Audio, in 2000. Four years later the project released Tani Tani, its first recording for Peter Gabriel’s Real World label.
Albums
Singles
