Innovation Award

Innovation Award Talvin Singh

Awards In the late 1990s, the ‘Asian underground’ was the hottest sound in UK popular music. Combining bhangra, drum ‘n’ bass, Bollywood and hip hop, the distinctive mix of Western and Indian beats influenced musicians from Britney Spears to MIA, Jay-Z and Missy Elliott, to say nothing of raising the visibility of British-Indian artists such as Bally Sagoo, Panjabi MC and Nitin Sawhney (winner of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017). At the heart of this cross-cultural explosion was the percussionist, composer and producer Talvin Singh.

Born and brought up in Leytonstone, East London, Singh began playing tabla aged four. Although he studied for a year in India, it was in Western pop that he first made his name. In 1991 he began touring with Siouxsie and the Banshees, playing on their Kiss Them for Me single. In 1993 he also contributed tabla to Björk’s Venus as a Boy, and recorded Bollywood string orchestras for the Icelandic singer’s Debut album.

What were first exotic touches found greater creative focus in 1995, when Singh founded the club night Anokha (‘unique’) at Hoxton’s Blue Note with the promoter Sweety Kapoor and DJ State of Bengal. It was here that Singh honed his characteristic combination of Western electronica and traditional rhythms. While Indian classics played in the ambient room upstairs, Singh would play drum ‘n’ bass, jazz and jungle downstairs. Speaking in 2001, he rejected the idea that his goal was a fusion of styles: rather, it was ‘just about growing up in London’.

After early releases as Calcutta Cyber Café, Singh followed the acclaimed Anokhainspired compilation CD Soundz of the Asian Underground with two solo albums under his own name: OK (1998) and Ha (2001), the former winning him the 1999 Mercury Music Prize. Since then, he has continued to pursue his unique perspective as both percussionist and producer with a diverse list of collaborators, including Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Niladri Kumar and Ryuichi Sakamoto, as well as David Sylvian, Madonna and Richard Ashcroft.

Innovation Award