Ami Dang

Earlier this year, when there was still a chill in the air, I saw Baltimore composer and producer Ami Dang perform in Brooklyn as part of a duo called Raw Silk. Knelt on a low stage, Dang played the sitar and sang, while her bandmate accompanied her on an electronic cello. The unspoken dialogue between the two musicians was almost physical, the sounds they commanded meeting and merging in the air like plumes of smoke. I found out afterwards that Dang also has a solo project, for which she places her Indian classical music training into an experimental electronic context. This July 29, Baltimore label Friends Records will release her debut album Uni Sun, which includes the sensual yet urgent "Udeekna."
"I wrote 'Udeekna' when I was trying to figure out how to be more true to myself," Dang told The FADER over email. "I was struggling with understanding what I expect of myself versus what my community expects of me. 'Udeekna' means 'to expect' in Punjabi, my family's mother tongue, and the lyrics in the song explore the variations of this notion — what to expect of yourself and of others, and also, what to expect in the tangible world as you walk down a path. It's sort of like saying, 'What are you waiting for? If this isn't enough, then go out and get what you want. Make something of yourself. Don't let others determine if you succeed or fail; it's up for you to decide.' This is one of the many of the songs on Uni Sun that is about self-determination, which I feel is pretty topical right now. If you don't like the way things are, go out and make change! You can't expect to be OK with whatever comes your way." - The Fader

Ami Dang has been recently recommended on a tweet by one of my favourite artists of the moment, the Canadian new-pop star Grimes, who adviced with a tweet to check this girl out and made a comparison with the LA composer/producer Julia Holter. An association that seems extremely promising though maybe a little ambitious.

Despite comparisons and recommendations, describing Ami Dang’s music is everything but an easy task. The project – originally a solo project featuring vocalist, sitarist, and writer/producer Amrita Kaur Dang – is now a collaboration between percussionist Kate Levitt, producer/DJ Schwarz, and Amrita herself.

Their productions feature a hypnotic mixture loaded with eastern and western elements blended with both innovation and tradition. Born and raised in Baltimore, Amrita started playing the sitar and studying music when she was really young. After a semester spent in New Delhi and a subsequent trip to India during college, she refined her techniques and discovered a whole new sound. Ami Dang’s music is not just an “India meets Baltimora/western world”, it’s finding a truly new way to express identity and tradition with a very strong and undiscovered voice.

Amrita’s music is a collage which starts as experimental and moves into pop. It goes into Bollywood, and into electronic hymns, becoming in the end material that is special because it’s also enjoyable for a western audience that has little (to none) knowledge of what Indian music actually is. Her debut album is entitled ‘Hukam’ (which means “order” or “command” in Sanskrit or Punjabi); it is made with contributions by DJ Schwarz and released on Ehse Records. It features seven gracefully twisted songs that are extremely introspective and strongly spiritualized.

Baltimore’s Amrita (Ami) Kaur Dang’s new project is a truly unique music experience definitely worth keeping an eye on. This girl blew me (and all my prejudgments) away with a sitar and some dance hallucinogen Indian-but-not-Indian pop music.

Stream her video from Where Nothing Grows below and check her incredible work on “her Soundcloud page”. See if you agree. - Dummy

Amrita Kaur Dang is a Baltimore-based singer, producer, and sitarist who fuses electronic beats and conventional pop structures with hints of her Sikh background, for a genre she calls "Bollywave". Working with the producer Schwarz as well as percussionist Kate Levitt (ex-Teeth Mountain, Dan Deacon), she puts forth a fresh East-meets-West aesthetic that would fit well on a bill between Prince Rama and Grimes, who has been toting Dang's work on Tumblr. Check out a new demo for "Sublimate", and find more at Soundcloud. - Pitchfork