Transglobal Underground
đ˘ Venue opens - 7:30pm : đ Event finishes - 11:00pm
đŞ Standing show
Long known for their scorching live shows, Transglobal Underground are back in full form after emerging into a new post-Covid, post-Brexit world and have been blowing audiences away around the UK.
Transglobal Underground came into being during the electronic dance scene of the early 90s. Pioneers in the mixing of club culture with world music, their first single âTemple Headâ went Top 30 and their debut album, âDream of 100 Nationsâ top 20. They became best known for their live shows which made them festival favourites and have seen them touring worldwide ever since. Along the way they picked up a BBC World Music award for their seventh album âMoonshoutâ been a DJ collective, a techno soundsystem, a Middle Eastern hit production team, a backing group for an Albanian brass fanfare, a seminar, a medicine show and several things that no one involved would admit to if they could even remember themâŚ
The current lineup is based around original members Hamid Mantu and Tim Whelan and features the UKs best known sitarist Sheema Mukherjee (also of Cornershop, Imagined Village, TUUP, a major figure on the UK storytelling scene, and Rav Neiyyar (Bollywood Band). All appeared on the collectiveâs most recent release âWalls Have Ears,â along with other regular members of the TGU family, notably original vocalist Natacha Atlas, who still performs with the band on occasion.
Line Up
TRANS-GLOBAL UNDERGROUND BACK IN ACTION IN 2017....after spending much of 2016 in the studio preparing new recordings, which will be being released over the year, Transglobal Underground, with shows being confirmed from May onwards.
There are few acts in the UK with as strong an influence, as complex a legacy, and as mysteriously legendary; even trying to describe what Transglobal Underground is and what it was has defeated the most eloquent of journalists, and those involved in TGU itself have made no effort to help, refusing to define themselves on the grounds that it wasnât their job to do so while rejecting any signs anyone attempted to hang on them.
So what is Transglobal Underground? Well, over 25 years itâs been a DJ/musical collective, a working band famous for itâs scorching live shows, a techno soundsystem, a folk festival rabble rouser, a pop group, a club night, a Middle Eastern hit production team, an improvised study group for Indian classical music, an Albanian brass band, a duo..or was it an octet?...a seminar, a medicine show and several things no one involved would admit to if they could even remember them.
The music? Starting out in the 90s as a heady blend of dub, funk and bhangra with a strong Madchester vibe, TGU have taken in a huge mixture of influences and style from around the world, a world they have always seen from the viewpoint of their London base. By the time the word multiculturalism was being bandied about as a buzz word TGU had long moved on , sticking to only two rules; itâs got to be funky and if you hear the warning sound of a barrier ahead, smash it down with bass.
The albums? From the top 40 debut âDream of 100 Nationsâ to the double independent music awards winning âKabatronicsâ in 2015, TGU have built up an huge legacy of music which different audiences have chit upon and loved in different eras, leading to a bizarre reputation for being at once a best selling band/production team and at the same time an entity thriving in the depths of the underground that they helped define.
That selfsame legacy of 25 years of adventures in groove defines TGUs current live set, a joyful and unpredictable journey into the bottomless vaults of the Transglobal catalogue. Still a big festival favourite across Europe, no one at the start would have predicted that after all these years Transglobal Underground would still have the energy to continue a touring schedule that would finish most groups off. Transglobal Underground developed a life of its own, goes where it will for itâs own reasons. Everyone else simply follows.
