Dhangsha

The work of Dhangsha, alias of Asian Dub Foundation founding member Aniruddha Das, is more of a sonic statement, compelling enough to reach number 11th on The Wire’s Releases of the Year. Its name, which means ‘destruction’ in Bengali, stands for the textual inscription of a content that conjures up and vindicates the now anachronistic idea of art as war, today received as an empty grimace. Certainly, his work has been particularly impacted by the witnessing of the live-streamed genocide happening in Gaza, Palestine for over a year, perpetrated by the forces of israeli fascism and basically applauded, funded and supported by western governments and their respective media.

The title of this podcast, We Are Grieving But We Are Not Despondent, adds to the set of paratextual elements that complete its idiomatic features, largely present here, a sort of DIY interface between experimental noise and bass culture that traces connections between different events of Black Modernity, from black techno (a tautology that responds rather to white plunder tactics) to black noise to a mutant dub that inverts the importance of reverb to focus on compression. The effect of this last trait is as characteristic as it is paradoxical: percussion and spatialisation generate a weightless sensation that center the listener’s attention on the mid and high frequencies, abrasively accumulating uneasy hooks, alarms and feedbacks that weaponize the overhearing sounds in the western spectacle. Is it not perhaps a radical transfiguration of the liberating, spiritual hymnlike cadence of reggae/dub?

This is a specially recorded live session of his current material. Though each of his themes are defined by certain samples and sequences, the arrangements are always created through live improvisation and recorded straight to stereo, no multi-tracking. The recordings are processed afterwards with edits, fades, equalisation and mastering.

Public performance is what drives the development of the Dhangsha’s sound and compositions. He is aware of what’s going on in the world and doesn’t attempt to censor his feelings thereof.

Cover by Maria Isabel Acosta.