In this week's Super Ego I dump out all the 2007 trash and ring in the new with tribute to one of my fave clubz, Surya Dub. Surya hits its first anniversary on Saturday, Jan 26 at Club Six -- be there y'all! -- and in honor of the gloriously woozy-dub, bhangra-bangin', wacky breaks occasion, I asked resident DJ and cofounder Maneesh the Twister a few choice q's.
Maneesh -- ain't he cute?
What would you categorize most of the music you guys play/host as? It seems to be so much more than dubstep/bhangra ...
Well we call this music “Dread Bass Music” because there is not really a genre that fully encompasses what we do. Obviously there is a heavy bass component which is the foundation and a prominent dub influence, but one of the main goals with Surya is to bring seemingly disparate music styles and communities together, hence our vision to bridge the gap between organic styles such as reggae, bhangra, and global beats and more ragga electronic styles such as dubstep, glitch, breakbeat, & drum’n’bass. And as a result this brings together different communities of people from more commercial reggae/dancehall crowds to more underground club culture and Burning Man folks to some of the global beats crowd.
A Bit of Surya Dub
Any comments on the state of San Francisco club music at the moment?
Well I have to say that it has been more refreshing this year than the last few years which def seemed like a slump for underground music of all styles from club culture to indie rock. There def is a nice bubbling energy of creativity again and I think everyone is feeding off of that. I really have enjoyed some of the Surefire Dubstep events, Grime City, and NonStop Bhangra and if I may be biased, dub mission. Some Bay Area artists pushing boundaries and really making a mark in my opinion are Roommate, Kush Arora, Juju, Process Rebel, & Matty G.
Who's all involved in Surya Dub and what do they all do?
Surya Dub is comprised of an outstanding crew of friends and artists. We have two rooms at Club Six and this is usually the breakdown of artists and their roles:
Sub Hz Den (downstairs)
Dubstep, Dread Bass Breaks & D'n'B, Ragga
Resident DJs:
Maneesh the Twister (Surya Dub, Dhamaal, Dub Mission), Kush Arora (live dubwize set, Surya Dub), Ripley (Surya Dub , havoc sound), & Kid Kameleon (Surya Dub, xlr8r)
MC Daddy Frank pon da mic
Visuals by DJ Ohashi + crew
Inna Yard (upstairs)
Resident DJs
Jimmy Love (Non Stop Bhangra, Surya Dub), DJ Amar (Electric Vardo, Surya Dub), Ross Hogg & DJ Neta (Ital Selection Hi-Fi, Surya Dub)
Maneesh's former crew, Dhamaal
Can I get a Surya Dub top 10 records list?
Well do unreleased tracks count? There is so much good stuff on dubplate that I have been fortunate to have access to but I’ll try and keep it as official releases…
Kush Arora – From Brooklyn to SF
Rusko – Babylon Vol 1
Burial – Untrue
State of Bengal – Skip-ij
Deadbeat – Journyman’s Annual
Twilight Sound System - Rasta International
Dhruva & Sharmaji – Sub Swara (unreleased)
Zulu – Riddim Killah
Various Production – The World Is Gone
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
State of Bengal, "Skip-ij"
Burial, "Ghost Hardware" from Untrue
How does it feel to have reached a year?
Well I feel very blessed and fortunate to have had such an amazing year. It was wicked to have won Best Club Night 2007 SF Weekly Music Awards -- not sure how you feel about highlighting a competitor's award here (Ed Note: no duckies, it's all rubber baby) -- in less than a year with so many other nights to choose from, so even being nominated was an accomplishment in itself. Also having won Best DJ 2007 by the Guardian was a nice surprise and honor to be recognized in this extremely talented community of djs/producers. Club Six did have a brief scare of closing in the spring and that was difficult for us but everyone in the community stuck thru it all and also I have to give a lot of props to my crew, who are really great and super top notch. Also another factor which really played to our benefit is that people have been really open and excited for something new that wasn’t being offered in the SF club scene and we happen to bring something cutting edge as well as identifiable to SF partygoers.
MC Daddy Frank
Future plans?
We def want to tour more and take Surya Dub out to other cities. We have tentative plans to be in Chicago, NY, TX, LA, and we played shows in India over the holidays. Also members of the crew are working on original productions, mashups, and remixes. Also we hope to have some higher profile international artists coming thru as well. Overall we just plan to continue uniting all dubwize communities while focusing on bringing something unique not only for the bay area but really representing forward-music culture stateside.
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