Badmarsh & Shri

Badmarsh & Shri are an English electronic dance music duo from London. The pair consists of DJ Mohammed Akber Ali, aka Badmarsh, who was born in Yemen, and tabla player Shrikanth Sriram, aka Shri, who is from India.[1] They have released two albums to date.

Badmarsh & Shri
OriginLondon, England
GenresEDM
Years active1998–present
MembersDJ Mohammed Akber Ali
Shrikanth Sriram

History

Prior to the group's formation, Badmarsh (whose name means "rascal" in Hindi)[2] worked at the reggae studio Easy Street, which was hiring PA equipment to a nightclub called Labyrinth. After a visit to Labyrinth, Badmarsh became interested in DJing, and almost immediately went out to buy turntables and records. He later secured a residency position at the club, where he remained for five years. Shri, on the other hand, had spent five years touring with Nitin Sawhney,[2] who later produced his debut solo album, Drum the Bass.

The duo came together through Shabs, head of Outcaste Records, who thought that the pair's individually different sounds would complement each other in a group.

Dancing Drums

Badmarsh & Shri released their debut album, Dancing Drums, in 1998. It incorporated a mix of drum and bass, hip hop, Indian classical music, and jazz.[2]

AllMusic rated the album 4 out of 5 stars, praising Shri's melodic basslines and strong tabla rhythms, and concluded that "Several tracks go on a couple of minutes too long, and techno snobs will find its pleasantness objectionable. Overall, though, this album is a success."[3]

Signs

In 2001, Badmarsh & Shri released their second album, Signs, originally called Tribal through Outcaste Records. A continuation of their "musical migration", the record, co-produced by Mike Spencer, was a blend of dance floor music and a more sensuous, chilled style.

We wanted to make music that moved you on the dance floor as well as at home. Everything had to be emotive, whether it made you angry or made you swoon. But it also had to funk. We wanted it to be about feeling rather than thinking - that was our vision,"

— Badmarsh and Shri

The duo drew their inspiration from their respective backgrounds of dancehall and hip hop, as well as funk, Latin, and African rhythms. They also made use of strings, synthesizers, and flute, along with the vocals of UK Apache.

The title track from Signs was featured in the closing credits of the thriller film Battle in Seattle. It also charted at No. 63 on the UK Singles Chart.[4]

Discography
  • Dancing Drums (1998)
  • Signs (2001)

References
  1. Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture, p. 279, 1134700253, Alison Donnell, 2002; "A second album Tribal, written and recorded with Badmarsh was released early on in 2001 on Outcaste. As with Drum the Bass and Dancing Drums, Shri plays the majority of the instruments, along with Badmarsh. The duo performed material from Tribal at the London Jazz Festival...
  2. Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Nineties Music (First ed.). Virgin Books. p. 32. ISBN 0-7535-0427-8.
  3. "Dancing Drums - Badmarsh & Shri | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  4. "BADMARSH and SHRI". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
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