Transglobal Underground discuss world music and new material

Collaborating with musicians from around the globe remains fundamental to Transglobal Underground more than 30-years after their formation.

Emerging in 1991 the collective remain at the vanguard of the fusion of world music with club culture, constantly exploring and pushing boundaries.

Transglobal Underground is a breathtaking gestalt of Western, Asian, Arabic, African and Eastern European music.

Their influential music embraces drum and bass, dub, acid house, bhangra, funk, hip-hop and many more.

Transglobal Underground will headline Aberdeen. Image by Simon Partington

In 2008 Transglobal Underground won the BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music following the release of their seventh official album, Moonshout.

Founding member Hamid Mantu said: “When we started there was no great manifesto of ‘we are going to do this style of music’.

“Instead we are what we are due to the make-up of the musicians in the group.

“We have always collaborated with Indian, African, Caribbean and Arabic musicians.

“Wherever we go in the world we always find someone that would love to collaborate with us – and we collaborate with them.

“It seems like a really natural thing, although we have probably annoyed a few people on the right and racists because of who we are.”

Transglobal Underground are set for a rare appearance in Aberdeen later this month courtesy of Interesting Music Promotions.

Legendary live performances

Granite City based Interesting Music Promotions have been delivering cutting edge live shows for more than two decades.

Previously they have promoted shows by artists including Boredoms, Thee More Shallows, Carla Bozulich and Faust.

Hamid said: “There is just the five band core of us and has it been like that for the last few years.

“Every now and then singer Natasha Atlas comes in and does a one-off gig with us.

“That is normally if a promoter somewhere in the world requests Natasha as well.

“Normally it is me, Tim, Sheema, Tuup and Rav.

“We have not been up to Aberdeen for a long, long time and are looking forward to playing there again.”

Transglobal Underground’s early releases were on Nation records, a label created specifically to fuse western dance with Arabic, Asian and African music.

Recording of album Walls Have Ears

Debut release Temple Head, which includes Polynesian vocals, was embraced by legendary DJ’s including Andy Weatherall and Danny Rampling.

Their most recent album Walls Have Ears was released only two months into the Covid lockdown in 2020.

Transglobal Underground embrace music from across the globe. Image by Simon Partington

The album saw Natasha Atlas return to the studio with the band.

It also includes performances by acclaimed jazz trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, guitarist Adam Blake and harpist Julia Thornton.

Tunisian vocalist Nawel Ben Kraiem also appears on album track Chants Sans Adresse.

Transglobal Underground aim to begin writing new material but Hamid admits the process will take time.

He explained: “Walls Have Ears came out around May 202o0 which was early in the lockdown.

“It’s hard to believe it is now five years since then, when we were all told to stay at home.

“We had a batch of shows scheduled to promote Walls Have Ears but they all went out the window due to the lockdown.

Transglobal Underground released 11th studio album Walls Have Ears in 2020. Image by Simon Partington

“As that album wasn’t promoted for a good two-and-a-half to three years we’ve been playing and performing those songs live.

“There was also a lot of remixes done that kept the whole thing going as a stopgap.

“We are thinking about working on new ideas but it takes a long time.”

Recording a follow-up to Walls Have Ears could be a prolonged process due to the geographical logistics involved with musicians living in different countries.