Fusion, Confusion, Evolution

"I want my own musical voice, which probably comes from being bi-cultural in this country (England). The music reflects my own battle being Asian from Pakistan and being British at the same time, being able to see both sides and growing up with this conflict; trying to come to terms with things; I came to the conclusion that I wasn't Asian and I wasn't English, I rejected everything, I was a fucking human being. I have changed now though, I think yeah I'm English and I'm Asian and I'm proud of whatever I am."

TJ Rehmi is one of the most talented as well as being one of the most underrated musicians the British Asian Underground scene has spawned. Born in Birmingham in the early sixties he was amongst the first of the Asian second generation. "The school was like a melting pot," says Rehmi, "everybody was thrown together, Chinese, Africans, English, Asians, it was great." he reflects. "I grew up humming Asian film melodies over Rolling Stones tracks hardly aware of any difference." A Ugandan friend at school could play a few Santana tunes on his guitar, which impressed the young Rehmi so much that he borrowed a guitar and never looked back.

	"My parents being Asian hated the fact that I was doing music, for Asians it has negative connotations, being linked to drugs and brothels", he explains, "slowly though they have come to except it."

TJ though had found a friend for life in his guitar and started soaking up the influences around him, first learning to play Hendrix by ear, then The Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa and Santana. In the late seventies, as Jazz-Funk and Reggae led by Bob Marley ruled the day, Rehmi started jamming with local bands and musicians. Then he even played in one of Pato Bantons early bands, 'Crucial Music'. The next stop on his musical journey was a fortunate meeting with respected Jazz man Andy Hamilton, who helped nurturing his talent by introducing the discipline of learning to read music. Hamilton also opened the door on great many new jazz influences including John Coltrain, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Roland Kirk to name but a few. During this period Rehmi also encountered the universe of Indo-Jazz, with works such as Shakti.

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The mid eighties saw the explosion of bangra. "Initially it was very exiting and creative," says Rehmi. In no time he was booked solid touring America and Canada several times with the largest bands of the day, often playing two gigs a nights. Between tours he was busy as a session musician, playing on many albums as well as turning his hand to producing, with a special twist of introducing Reggae bass lines to bangra beats. Becoming disillusioned after spending several years with a genre that seemed to be loosing its integrity as the strangle hold of business men increased, he enrolled at the Conservator in Birmingham, instead of concentrating on his own composition. There he fell in love with the African music of Fela Kuti and Ali Farka Toure as well as being inspired by Latin rhythms and folk music from around the world.

Travelling further down the route of producing and technology after experiencing difficulties with his own Indo-Jazz band he set up a studio at home. "You can do a lot of awful things with technology as well as good, it's like a pen and paper, it depends on what you do with it. It can help you to create new sound textures, there is nothing wrong with that, to make music and turn people on, or you can use it to make bombs and blow them up."

The Fusionist (1997) was TJ Rehmi debut single on Nation records followed by the Skrutinizer E.P. (1998) and the much acclaimed debut album Mind Filter (1998) which immediately became the essential album for Asian underground, where eclectic DJs played his tracks more frequently in clubs than many of the bigger names such as Talvin Singh or Nitin Sawhney. So why haven't we heard more about TJ Rehmi?

It might have to do with his reluctance to play out. "I'm not a DJ." he complains, discarding the fact that his sets have rocked the most discerning club audiences the capital has to offer, at the Blue Note for Swaraj and at The End and 333 for Sitarfunk. But it may all be about to change for the fusionist from Birmingham.

His latest offering and second album Mera Therapy ('mera' meaning 'my' in Punjabi) is as close to perfection as any of the recording that have come out of the new Asian scene. On first listening the album seems to wash over you without touching you in the way that you might expect a Drum'n'Bass album to do. On sub-sequent listening however, the recordings start to seep deeper into your subconscious and begins to carry out the work of its title, little by little repairing you from the inside out. Overall the sounds are more gentle and the construction of the tracks seem far more organic than on the Mind Filter album. Two of the most notable tracks here are 'Levitate' and 'Path with a heart'. The first track gloriously blends sweeping Bollywood strings, Asian vocals and instrumentation, and marries them to a sublime arrangement of cutting edge Drum'n'Bass beats, proving once again that Asian harmonies and melodies coupled to Drum'n'Bass are a match made in heaven. The latter on the other hand is a beautiful acoustic guitar journey with a definite bluesy folk flavour, and in addition to the Celtic sounds on track 7 'Interzaar' (waiting), such influences make TJ even harder to pigeon hole.

Rehmi commends:

	"This album was directly influenced by a phase in my life when I was stressed out after recording the Mind Filter album and other personal problems. I felt the need to relax and repair myself and composing music helped me release a lot of trapped energy, also I wanted to create music that left me feeling up lifted, and it did, during recording I would feel fantastic, I'd be on a natural high and I enjoyed the experience so much that I decided to stay with theme of therapy and to have all the tracks linked in this way."

Asked his views on the new British Asian music scene and TJ is quick to point out that there has been a long history of Asian and western musicians fusing sounds and sights Zaka Hussain , Tirloch Gurtu, Ananda Shankar, and John McLaughlin. "Many of the new kids," he says, "need time to develop to learn more about production, how to build and release tension in a track, to understand dynamics, music is an art form and you can't just expect to be great straight away."

If you listen to Mera Therapy I am sure that you will agree that TJ Rehmi evolution has been well worth waiting for.

Mera Therapy, to be released 20. Sept.99, by Nation Records, London