TRANSGLOBAL UNDERGROUND – THE CON CLUB, LEWES 6.1.24
Before Transglobal Underground there was new wave post punk outfit Furniture, famed for ‘Brilliant Mind’. The band was formed in 1979 in the Ealing area of London by Tim Whelan, Hamilton Lee and Jim Irvin. The trio remained in the band until they folded in 1991. While with Furniture, Whelan and Lee had demonstrated an interest in world music by bringing in more culturally-diverse instrumentation to what was originally a fairly conventional rock band line up.
Transglobal Underground was first formed when Whelan and Lee teamed up with a third musician, Nick Page. All three took on pseudonyms for the project, which they have determinedly maintained (albeit with variations) up until the present day. Whelan became vocalist, keyboardist, guitarist, “Alex Kasiek”; percussionist, drummer, keyboardist, programmer Lee became “Hamid Mantu”; and Page became bassist and sampler “Count Dubulah”. The group’s core is also composed of vocalist Natacha Atlas who has recorded with Jah Wobble, Apache Indian, and her own band, Atlas Project.
Transglobal Underground grew out of a mutual love for dance, avant-garde, Arabic, and world music and draws on each member’s listening tastes and cultural backgrounds. Many albums followed 1993’s ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ with ‘International Times’ in 1994, ‘Interplanetary Meltdown’ in 1995, and ‘Psychic Karaoke’ (1996). ‘Rejoice, Rejoice’ followed two years later and ‘Yes Boss Food Corner’ appeared in spring 2001. Since then another seven albums have dropped ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ (2004), ‘Moonshout’ (2007), ‘A Gathering Of Strangers’ (2010), ‘The Stone Turntable’ (2011), ‘Kabatronics’ (2013), ‘Walls Have Ears’ (2020) and ‘A Gathering Of Strangers 2021’ (2021).
Tonight, Transglobal Underground are performing a sold out concert at The Con Club in Lewes and the stage is awash with musical equipment. Stage right (our left) there is a double-sided barrel drum known as a Dhol drum which is worn over the shoulder and is played using two wooden sticks. The stick used to play the bass side of the instrument is known as the Dagga which is the thicker of the two and is bent in an arc shape and the other stick is known as the Teeli and is much thinner and flexible and used to play the higher note end of the instrument. Next to the Dhol there is a pair of hand drums called Tabla which are somewhat similar in shape to the bongos. These will both be played by Rav Neiyyar who is also a member of the Bollywood Brass Band. He is a very proficient musician and has been playing Tabla since the age of six.
Behind these drums there is a Roland A-800Pro Midi keyboard controller along with a melodica, a laptop plus a sampler unit as far as I can tell. These are under the control of core band member, the rather dapper Tim Whelan aka Alex Kasiek, who also supplies backing vocals when required. Centre stage and behind Tim is other core band member Hamid Mantu aka Hamilton Lee on drums. Out front centre stage is storyteller (lead vocalist) Guyanan born Godfrey Duncan, who goes by the name of T.U.U.P, which stands for ‘The Unorthodox Unprecedented Preacher’. When required, he also plays two tall, narrow, single-headed drums known as Conga, which are also known as Tumbadora. A red tambourine is added to the vibe during certain numbers. Finally, to our right (stage left) there is a plucked stringed instrument called a Sitar as well as a traditional bass guitar. These are in the care of barefooted Sheema Mukherjee who also offers up backing vocals and the occasional lead vocals. These instruments originate from right across the world including India and Cuba and sums up the crux of everything that is Transglobal Underground, namely the fusion of Arabic, Asian, African and Western dance music.
It was time to start dancing at 9:30pm and the full capacity crowd bopped merrily along and threw shapes for the next 90 minutes until the set conclusion at 11pm curfew. We were to be given 17 compositions within that time frame, kicking off with ‘Vanilka’ which can be found on 200’s ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ album and sounded not a million miles from Jah Wobble’s ‘Visions Of You’. Four of the band were on stage for this whilst TUUP relaxed backstage with his eyes shut in an almost trancelike state. Although it is rather cold outside The Con Club, inside it was already hot from all of the dancing bodies. The temperature increased throughout the set as the quintet next waded through ‘Nile Delta Disco’, which is found on the 1999 ‘Backpacking On The Graves Of Our Ancestors (1991 – 1998)’ compilation album, having originally come out as ‘Delta Disco’ on the previous year’s ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ long player. It was a joy to watch Hamid and Rav drumming in unison and reminded me of Adam & The Ants ‘Kings Of The Wild Frontier’ meets Cozy Powell’s ‘Dance With The Devil’. The wonderful cultural clash continued with ‘The Khaleegi Stomp’ from 2004’s ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ album. Sheema was certainly showing her versatility by alternating from sitar to bass guitar throughout these numbers and for a majority of the set. Rav too was switching from Dhol to Tabla and back again.
The punters boogied away with a care in the world as TGU offloaded a trio of cuts from 2020’s ‘Walls Have Ears’ album, these being the triple drum antics (Hamid, TUUP and Rav) of ‘Mind The Gap’, the skankin’ and decent keys work on ‘City Of Peril’ and the slower ‘Bloodshot Eyes’. I noted that Rav put some talcum powder on his fingers at this stage, which I thought was a good call having no doubt built up a sweat by tapping them away on his drums. Talking of sweat’s, I noticed that despite many layers of smart clothing, Tim did not let a single bead of sweat appear on his brow, which was also impressive. I’m in a t-shirt and yet still rather hot! Tim then dedicated the next slab (‘Radio Unfree Europe’ from 2004’s ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ album) to all of the band’s friends in Kiev. This was followed by set highlight ‘Ruma Jhuma’ which is found on 2020’s ‘Walls Have Ears’ album. For this Sheema took the lead vocals on this quieter trance-like reflective number. It was the nearest the band came to performing my favourite TGU tune, namely ‘I, Voyager’ from their debut album ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ from back in 1993. A tune that features the wonderful Egyptian-Belgian singer Natacha Atlas who can sing in several different languages.
‘Ali Mullah’ on 1998’s ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ album was up next and this set the crowd into a hand clapping frenzy. The big hitter of ‘Temple Head’ from both their first two albums was given to us next and TUUP said “remix”, so I guess it was a remix version of the tune. The African funky vibes of ‘Slowfinger’ from 1993’s ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ album were up next and after this we had 2011’s skankin’ epic ‘We Come To Tear Your Wall Down’ from ‘The Stone Turntable’ album. The swinging skipping beat of ‘Polo Neck’ (from 2020 ‘Walls Have Ears’ album) was performed for up next with its retro 60s French or Italian film “baa baa baa baa” beat. The other set highlight and heavy dub Dreadzone-esque ‘Lookee Here’ (on 1994’s ‘International Times’ album) was their next selection. I very much enjoyed Sheema’s bass guitar playing on this number as she merrily plucked away at her rumbly top E string. (Remember kids it’s EADG “Eat A Dead Grasshopper”). For this track I noted that Rav was carefully caressing his smaller Tabla drum with a hammer throughout this number in order to bring out a different, almost electronic sound. The body moving vibes of ‘Dancehall Operator’ from 2007’s ‘Moonshout’ was the closing track of the main set and finally witnessed Tim putting the Melodica to good use.
TGU vacated the stage and hid behind the curtain to the rear of the stage whilst we all heartily bellowed for more. They were clearly having a discussion as to which tunes to finish off with. According to the setlist on the floor it was to be ‘Way Down The River’ and then either ‘Thingdrum’ or ‘Navarone’. As far as I could tell they settled with the ska filled ditty of ‘Elena’ from 2007’s ‘Moonshout’ album, followed by 1998’s ‘Son Of Thingdrum’ on the ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ album. I strongly suspect that everyone present would, given the opportunity, like to big up to local promoters Easy Skankin’ and The Con Club for bringing TGU to Lewes for putting on this evening’s entertainment.
Transglobal Underground:
Hamid Mantu (aka Hamilton Lee) – drums
Tim Whelan – keyboards, melodica, programming, samples, backing vocals
Sheema Mukherjee – sitar, bass, vocals
TUUP (The Unorthodox Unprecedented Preacher aka Godfrey Duncan) – vocals and percussion
Rav Neiyyar – tabla, dhol drum
Transglobal Underground setlist:
‘Vanilka’ (from 2004 ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ album)
‘Nile Delta Disco’ (from 1998 ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ & ‘Backpacking On The Graves Of Our Ancestors (1991 – 1998)’ albums)
‘The Khaleegi Stomp’ (from 2004 ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ album)
‘Mind The Gap’ (from 2020 ‘Walls Have Ears’ album)
‘City Of Peril’ (from 2020 ‘Walls Have Ears’ album)
‘Bloodshot Eyes’ (from 2020 ‘Walls Have Ears’ album)
‘Radio Unfree Europe’ (from 2004 ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ album)
‘Ruma Jhuma’ (from 2020 ‘Walls Have Ears’ album)
‘Ali Mullah’ (from 1998 ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ album)
‘Temple Head’ (from 1993 ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ & 1994 ‘International Times’ albums)
‘Slowfinger’ (from 1993 ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ album)
‘We Come To Tear Your Wall Down’ (from 2011 ‘The Stone Turntable’ album)
‘Polo Neck’ (from 2020 ‘Walls Have Ears’ album)
‘Lookee Here’ (from 1994 ‘International Times’ album)
‘Dancehall Operator’ (from 2007 ‘Moonshout’ album)
(encore)
‘Elena’ (from 2007 ‘Moonshout’ album)
‘Son Of Thingdrum’ (from 1998 ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ album)
Great review. I enjoyed reading the detailed article highlighting the gig and the groups history. Reading this article makes me want to go see this band or download their music.
Thank you for this informative, inspiring article.