KEY POINTS:
Talvin Singh blends East and West, and now he's heading South.
The British-born DJ and prolific collaborator is making his fourth trip to New Zealand this week for shows in Wellington and Auckland.
"Not genre-driven" is how Singh describes his work, although drum'n'bass fans would claim him as one of their own.
He's reluctant to categorise the music he makes, and points out that numerous influences play a part in his sound. His tendency to pick the elements he likes from different styles and blend them together has won him thousands of fans, and a handful of critics.
But the son of Indian parents, who came of age in London in the 1980s, says it was simply meant to be.
"I think I always had a kind of split personality as a kid," he says. "I loved classical music, and then there was a side where I was just listening to normal electronic music, and then the two sides started combining."
Singh brought one of the first sampling machines back from a trip to Japan, and started mixing tracks from his CD collection.
"I would sample little bits and find a way where I could just organically fit all this stuff in, in my own landscape which was full of love, but yet trying to show some contradictions."
If his sound ideas seem a bit abstract, Singh's musical credentials are anything but. He began playing traditional Indian drums, tabla, when he was five, and did a year of classical training in India when he was 15. These solid sub-continental roots fused with his steady diet of electronica, jazz and early hip-hop. He gained fame in the 90s after founding a weekly club night in east London which merged south Asian DJs and punk bands with his own percussion sets. This led to a record company signing, and remixing work for Madonna, Bjork and others.
It wasn't until 1998 that Singh released his own album, OK - resonant, textured drum'n'bass, shaped with tabla, Indian flute and choir which earned him the prestigious Mercury Prize.
Although Delhi is full of "really experimental electronic and acoustic people who are doing incredible music", he thinks India still suffers from a strong streak of traditionalism, which can stifle new ideas.
"I've felt the frustration of musicians being very elitist in India and not wanting to move things forward, when Indian music has always had a progressive nature."
Yet Singh remains strongly connected to his ancestral home. He has a house near Delhi, and a mobile studio which allows him to work both there and when he's touring. He also owns a house in London, but spends little time in England now and says the increasing sense of collective anxiety over cultural difference plays a part in his reluctance to be there.
"The problems [in Britain] have got worse and are getting worse, and I think the people themselves are going to be the ones that can help, not the Government, because they don't really have a clue."
Who: Talvin Singh, DJ set
Where and when: Sandwiches, Wellington, Friday; Studio, Auckland, Saturday, tickets $22 from Ticketek
- NZPA
