State Of Bengal is one of the Key Dj / Producers to have emerged from the Cutting Edge British Asian Music scene that emerged in the late 90’s that gave birth to the ‘Asian Underground’ movement. His reputation as one of the most innovative and pioneering artists is still held today as he continues to pushes the boundaries with his varied projects and albums.

State of Bengal was set up in 1987 after Sam aka Bengal returned to London from a visit to the village of Noakhali in Bangladesh where he met and interacted with traditional musicians and dancers. Inspired and drawing from his experiences Sam set up a sound system, which included rappers, Dj’s, dancers and musicians. The team mixed Bengali and Western street style dance to create a style that reflected the diverse facets and synergy between the 2 cultures in the UK at that time. The sound system developed its repertoire and found its identity as state Of Bengal. Two of the Rappers / Mc’s to emerge from the sound system were Mc Deedar who went onto Asian Foundation and Mc Mstaq who became the lead rapper for Fun^Da^Mental.

During this period Sam also worked intensely with Asian youth groups in London’s East
End, setting up music training workshops, where he helped to develop the skills of rappers, singers, and Dj’s many of whom went onto become some of the ‘core ‘ Dj’s of the Asian Underground Scene.
Concepts for State Of Bengal continued to develop, creating a definitive style of music that drew from a multitude of influences in his role as Dj and producer that brought him a strong fan base.

His reputation as an innovative and exciting producer / Dj was projected further at the cutting edge Anokha club nites where he was one of the Key Dj’s.
His music and unique Dj style of weaving an eclectic mix , from Indian Classical, breakbeat, Hip-Hop, tabla driven beats, melodic vocals to smashed up beats and funk was instrumental in the success and aesthetic of the highly acclaimed club nite.
His eruptive tracks Flight IC408 and Chittagong Chill, featured on Talvin Singh’s Anokha compilation became the anthems of the scene, the industry and media hailed the tracks as groundbreaking and they still have the power to explode the dance floor today. SOB’s respected reputation ensured him to be courted by several major labels, culminating in a deal with Indie Label, One Little Indian in Sep 97.

It was at Anokha; Bjork discovered and fell in love with SOB’s music and unique Djing style, She was so inspired that she asked him to open for her world tour and remix the track ‘Hunter’ for her Homogenic album (end of 97) and a musical friendship was struck. Their mutual respect as artist developed that led to Bjork pursuing Sam to sign up to her label One Little Indian.

Upon his departure from Anokha SOB was highly sought after by numerous cutting-edge club nites around the Uk, he finally took up residency at the infamous Off Center club nites hosted by respected veteran Dj, music critic and radio host Patrick Forge.
1997-2001 proved to be hectic years, which saw Sam produce his debut album Visual Audio, taking time out the studio to play at several international festivals, tour with Apache Indian in Kenya as well as Sob’s own Live interactive Dj tour. During the production of Visual Audio, countless remixes came in by various artists.

Following his Debut album, Sam fulfilled a long time dream in 1998; a collaboration album with the late Ananda Shankar entitled Walking On, followed by a highly successful Uk tour. SOB had been a fan and collector of Ananda shankar whom he helped to bring back into focus in the Uk by holding tribute nights whilst at Anokha. It was during the making of Walking on that Massive attack asked SOB to remix a track after hearing him at Real World Studio’s.

India attack! In September 98, Mumbai was sent rocking when Anokha Promoter Sweety Kapoor transported State Of Bengal in what proved to be explosive groundbreaking events that opened the doors and introduced the ‘British Asian’ music scene into India. The events were followed up a few moths after with a series of collaboration events between SOB and Mumbai musicians Ranjit Barot and percussionist Tourfique Qureshi. The response from the crowds, industry, media, musicians and celebrities aside was off the marker. It helped to create a platform and inspire younger generation, several drum n bass club nites were set up after these 1st gigs by Mumbai’s own inspiring Dj’s.
The next few years saw State Of Bengal come in and out of India, including a British Council sponsored tour of Bengal, were State of Bengal live band played to crowds of 5000- 8000 in Calcutta, Dhaka and Chittagong. All the events in India have accompanied by workshops for aspiring Dj’s / producers and have been inspirational and instrumental in setting up the platform and creating a market for the ‘British Asian’ sound. This was taken to another level in a series of 3 big campaign gigs organized by Sweety Kapoor in 2001, which saw Mumbai covered in huge Billboards with the slogan Asian underground, A step into the future.

State Of Bengal continued to be in high demand and played non-stop at various clubs and festivals around the globe whilst also developing his Live band. State Of Bengal Live did a 30-day tour of China in 2002 while Sam worked on several collaboration projects including Dance collaborations and composing music for commissioned
productions of dance and theater for youth organizations.

Having worked on and off over the years with Paban das Baul thru Sam’s Love for Baul music, this musical relationship came together in the Album Tana Tani (Push & Pull) released 2004 on Real World Records. Tana Tani has been a labor of love and has been nominated Best Global album by Song lines magazine 04 and XLR8R mag voted it no.2 in their Global Breakbeat chats 04.

Sam’s Passion and dedication to encourage and train up talented musicians and vocalists continues through his workshops, where possible they are often incorporated into his music as way of supporting them and given them an opportunity to enter the music industry.

State Of Bengal’s reputation for pushing the boundaries and ‘stepping out’ to produce eclectic ‘out of the box’ albums as well as his archives of dance tracks has gained him further and continuing respect as one of the innovators and Pioneer’s of the British Asian music scene.

At present state of Bengal is working on 2 concept idea’s including SKIP-IJ, a dance music concept…..watch out for this one its gonna be hopping IN and OUT of the box!
 

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