APAture 2002 : Artists

Featured Artists   |   Participating Artists

Dhamaal : Music

The Dhamaal Crew - APAture 2002 Featured Music Artists

Dhamaal celebrated 3 years of ear and eye warping events in May 2002. Initially rooted in the South Asian alternative music scene, Dhamaal has exploded into one the most innovative and creative events on the San Francisco calendar. Its fusion of the past and present is evident with live classical Indian music performances (tabla, sarod, sitar and Pakistani folk singing) on one floor and live internationally flavored dancefloor beats on another (DJ, live tabla, skratchin', synthesized dumbek, and vocals). Dhamaal's growth has brought with it internationally renowned acts such as State of Bengal (UK), Swaraj (UK), MIDIval Punditz (New Delhi), DJ Rekha, DJ Zakhm, DJ Suraiki (Mutiny NYC), Dum Dum Project (NYC) and local favorite Cheb I Sabbah. With a compliment of twelve members, Dhamaal is constantly evolving through the ideas and creativity of its members. Currently Dhamaal is focusing on enhancing the visual stimulus aspect of the event (with multiple LCD projections feed by live video sequencing) as well as showcasing new forms of world music, both electronic and acoustic.

A fundamental precept of Dhamaal is the notion of community -- regular attendees and crewmembers refer to themselves as Dhamaalist. This nomenclature is taken from the word, Junglist, that was borne out of the community atmosphere of the early days of Jungle music in the UK. To this end, Dhamaal is involved in projects that both showcase Asian culture and contribute to the general positive atmosphere of the Bay Area.

Dhamaal has organized a number of benefits with one hundred percent of the proceeds donated to humanitarian causes around the world. Within the Bay Area Dhamaal has donated event money to the KPFA radio show Flashpoints, presented international South Asian Artists on KPFA radio show Apex Express, and played live on the KPFA radio show Pacific Edge.

About the Dhamaal Crew

Janaka Atugoda (Janaka Selecta) has been heavily influenced by the early years, 1990 -1996, of Rave culture in the UK. Witnessing the development of what was then called Acid House to Drum and Bass. Upon moving to the US he has taken these influences into promoting, DJing and mostly recently playing in a live electronic band. His selection of music incorporates hard heavy drum patterns with South Asian instrumentation in the form of preproduced music (vinyl, CDs) and live instrumentation such as tabla, dubek, scratch DJing, and drum machines/samplers. He plays regular events in Southern California, fanning out music to audiences that enjoy Breaks, Drum n' Bass and Asian Massive Breakbeat. He is currently concentrating on HYPERCUBE; a band that blurs the lines between DJ and band music. With a compliment of turntables, drum machines, live drums, samplers and video sequencing HYPERCUBE improvises dancefloor music and visual artistry in real-time. You can hear Janaka play at Dhamaal every third Friday of the month at club SIX, Nickies BBQ when Cheb I Sabbah is touring, as Hypercube at Club Galia and various other one off events with SF and SOCAL.

Michael Cheng (MercuryBonez) has been studying and performing music for the last sixteen years. He initially began studying European classical music through the violin and performed in various solo concerts and orchestras for eight years. In addition, he studied classical piano concurrently with the violin for six years. For the next eight years to date, he has been studying and performing the art of DJing and turntablism. He was indoctrinated into the art of turntablism by the infamous DJ DoBoy of the Fifth Platoon five years ago and has been scratching ever since. MercuryBonez has played at various clubs in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Ithaca.

Parag Chordia studies sarod with Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta, a brilliant, pioneering sarod player who played a pivotal role in the birth of modern sarod playing. Earlier he trained with Michael Robbins who studied with two legends, Pandit Radhika Mohan Maitre (the teacher of Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta) and Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh. Since 1998, Parag has been the host of "Gharana Music," a three hour program devoted to Indian art music heard weekly on Stanford Radio Station KZSU FM 90.1. In 2001 he founded bol records, a new label at the vanguard of Indian art music. Bol records has recorded a cross-section of the most important emerging artists in Indian art Music including Anindo Chaterjee (solo tabla), Nayan Ghosh (sitar), the Gundecha Brothers (dhrupad), Tanmoy Bose (solo tabla) and Prattyush Banerjee (sarod). Currently a PhD candidate at Stanford University's CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics), Parag's research focuses on building intelligent listening agents for music understanding.

Dhruva Ganesan has been a practicing and performing percussionist since age 13. Having performed and studied drum set, dumbek, mridhangam, tabla, and various latin percussion, Dhruva's musical interests are diverse and extend to all regions of the globe. He began performing on drum set in high school with a Cleveland area band called Elysium, and he continued to perform on drum set in various ensembles (The Element, Creative Arts Orchestra, and others) as a student at the University of Michigan. In the summer of 1997, Dhruva studied and performed at the World Percussion Festival at the Berklee College of music in Boston. Focusing on Afro-Cuban percussion, Dhruva studied with legendary percussionist, Walfredo Reyes, Sr. and performed at Berklee with fellow students and master instructors in the program. Dhruva has also studied tabla at the Ali akbar Khan College of Music. He currently plays live percussion with members of Dhamaal and is a core member of Hypercube, an offshoot of Dhamaal, which integrates turntables, visuals, drum machines, samplers, and live drums.

Maneesh Kenia (Maneesh the Twister) has been involved in music and DJing for over 10 years. He first started in college radio and on-air DJing for a commercial alternative rock station in his home state, Texas. After moving to San Francisco he began doing a radio show on KUSF and then got involved in the club DJing circuit. Also he and his partner, Drewid, started an indie space rock/electronic night called Spacecake. In addition to the indie side, Maneesh has quite varied tastes being heavily influenced by dub and is a resident of a weekly dub night, Dub Mission, and Stir-Fri-day, an eclectic weekly happy-hour event every Friday evening at 111 Minna.

Ferhan Najeeb Qureshi has been a student of tabla and traditional Pakistani/Indian music for the last 7 years. He began studying with Shri Surrinder Mann, and now continues his studies as a disciple of Ustad Tari Khan, concentrating on the Punjab gharana (school or style) of classical tabla. His focus is primarily on classical/traditional music, but he has become involved with various other projects recently. He has had the opportunity to accompany numerous distinguished artists and perform throughout the bay area. He graduated from UCSC and currently works as a molecular bioligist when not playing tabla. Ferhan is working towards the promotion of classical/traditional Pakistani music in the Bay Area.

Adheesh Sathaye gets his classical training from Pt. Suresh Samant in Pune, India. But while in the mix, it is about reconditioning 'fusion'--no longer about East meeting West, it is about BEING East and West. Coming from a Kentucky/Chicago indie rock background, in the late 90s, Adheesh put out records on the bay area Zum Audio label, with Kublai Khan and Jakarta, both based in Oakland, CA. His tabla is featured on a track on the Out in Worship _Sterilized_ LP (Perishable Records). Currently, he is working on an independent electronic project melding South Asian folk rhythms with electro, a world music experiment with Chicago-based drummer Dough Scharin (HiM, Codeine, Rex) as well as a straight-up, all-about-guitar songwriting project with longtime Oaklander Paul K. (Cars Get Crushed, Salem Lights).

Dhamaal also includes Musa Ahmed (Rhino FX), Kyle Burrows (Insomnia), Jean Se Dorais (PictureMan), Shabi Farooq, and Gustavo Sandi (El Diablo).

Links

Yahoo! Groups: dhamaalsf