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Dj Manga
DJ Manga will perform at The Big Chill festival 2008 A-Z line up | Ticket infoDJ Manga - Biography
Ground breaking DJ. Record label honcho (Shaanti Play Records) and Club visionary (Shaanti)! This is the man who took the desi dance concept from a small venue in Birmingham to the nation's superclubs and then onto the international stage.
Manga first made his dent in the desi dance beat groove in ’99, when he launched the award winning club night Shaanti at the Medicine Bar in Birmingham. Having grown from strength to strength in the last six years since it first surfaced. Initial reactions were that it would be defected, as fusion music was relatively new in the Midlands however, with the depth of the underground music policy combined with the fierce line-ups have secured Shaanti a well deserved place as one of the most famous fusion nights in the world. Shaanti created a niche and helped forge a new style in Asian dance music into an UK institution where live performers, producers and turntable terrorists created a blueprint for the future for electronica, eastern and desi dance in club venues across the UK that included Fabric, Cargo, 333 Club, The Bomb in Nottingham to name a few.
Previous headliners have been Nitin Sawhney, Talvin Singh, Transglobal Underground, Midival Punditz (India), Pressure Drop, Future World Funk, Visionary Underground, Martin Morales, Outernationalist, Bhangra Knights, Dr Zeus, RDB, Tigerstyle, DJ Swami (Desi Rock), Joi (Real World Records), Cornershop, UK Apache to name but a few. Not content with just mastering one sound he then went on to set-up Funkshaan, a bootie shaking desi-beats club night at Digress and most recently Sutraaeton is the only event in the area to bear witness to an multicultural mash-up, thrown across three arenas at Chi. Blowing up big style, with a mighty crowd jumpin’ from the beginning to end to the sounds of hip-hop, electro, Jamaican dancehall, raggaeton, Brazilian, funk, grime, Bhangra and desi bootlegs selectors.
While in 03, the scene saw the release of Urban Underground, a 3 box compilation featuring club anthems from both the desi and urban music club scene complied by Manga and released by Ministry of Sound. As two dance leaders from both sides of the spectrum united as one saw the creation of one of the hottest albums of the year. This year also sees the release of ‘Fused Rocking Beats Vol 1’ the first in a series of independent albums to come out from his record label ‘Shaanti Play Records.’
In addition to his broadcasting skills Manga is also a sought after writer and is a regular contributor to a number of magazines that include; Whats on UK, Notion Magazine, Klub Knowledge. He also takes time out from his busy schedule to work together with local arts communities to help young people develop an interest or a career within the music industry in a series of workshops and master-classes across the UK.
DJ Manga will perform at The Big Chill festival 2008 A-Z line up | Ticket info
Written: 13th Mar, 08
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