Transglobal Underground feat. Natacha Atlas

Transglobal Underground are returning to Bucharest with a full live show on May 18th, being joined on stage for the first time in Romania by the extraordinary Natacha Atlas.

The tickets are now on presale @ Eventbook.ro: early bird: first 50 tickets – 85 RON / next 100 tickets 100 RON / regular prince: 120 RON

It’s the early 1990s. Drum and bass are two separate things. Club music and live music exist in two separate universes. Bhangra is omnipresent and unknown at one and the same time. Reggae and dub are half-forgotten sub genres. If you want to find any Arabic music in London there’s a guy with a stall at Shepherds Bush Market and that’s about it. Every music genre is parcelled up, labelled up, and kept in it’s own yard as far as possible from any other.

This compilation celebrates a rebellion against the musical divisions of those days, tells the story of how it happened and what happened next.

It all started with a bunch of disgruntled musicians, singers, DJ, writers and sampler geeks hanging round the cramped offices of West London label Nation Records. Primitive computers were stretched to their full possibilities, beaten up analogue synths kept working by screwdrivers and willpower, mashed up cassettes and turntables serviced a concoction of club grooves, dub, bhangra, rock, digital hardcore and oriental melody stirred at random, relying on inspiration and a massive belief in the need to create something new. 

Transglobal Underground came out of this, an ever shifting line-up that at first created confusion and astonishment and then a lot of attention and success…firstly due to the club scene’s move into ambient and trance areas, and secondly the focal point of Natacha Atlas as chief vocalist.

Natacha Atlas had spent years struggling to be understood and accepted, scraping a living dancing in cabarets in Brussels and the midlands and guesting with the few artists who understood what she was trying to do. But now she was in her element. Bellydancing round club stages while deftly skipping over piles of MIDI cables in high heels and singing flawlessly in Arabic at the same time, she caused a massive stir. No one had seen or heard anything like her on UK stages before.

The impact of those shows led to a solo deal and a touring schedule during which first Transglobal Underground, and later Natacha herself, were stretched beyond even their considerable levels of stamina. As her electronica/oriental mix went platinum across Europe, TGU moved into the background on the production of her music while continuing their own path.

But the team continued to collaborate on film projects, oriental dance shows and regular live reunions with either Natacha guesting with TGU or vice versa…and, to this day they still do, keeping alive a shared vision that crosses every musical boundary they come across but still retains a sound and a vibe totally individual, even over 20 years onwards. 

There are few acts in the UK with as strong an influence or as complex a legacy as the mysteriously legendary Transglobal Underground. Trying to describe what it is and what it was has defeated the most eloquent of journalists and those involved in TGU itself have made no effort to help, refusing to define themselves on the grounds that it wasn’t their job to do so whilst also rejecting any signs anyone attempted to hang on them.

So what is Transglobal Underground? Well, over 25 years it’s been DJ/musical collective, one of the founders of global fusion, a working band famous for it’s scorching live shows, a techno soundsystem, a folk festival rabble rouser, a pop group, a club night, a Middle Eastern hit production team, an improvised study group for Indian classical music, an Albanian brass band, a duo..or was it an octet?…a seminar, a medicine show and several things no one involved would admit to if they could even remember them.

It all started with a bunch of disgruntled musicians, singers, DJ, writers and sampler geeks hanging round the cramped offices of West London label Nation Records. Primitive computers were stretched to their full possibilities, beaten up analogue synths kept working by screwdrivers and willpower, mashed up cassettes and turntables serviced a heady concoction of club grooves, dub, bhangra, rock, digital hardcore and oriental melody, relying on inspiration and a massive belief in the need to create something new.

But the main line that goes through the history of Transglobal Underground was defined at the beginning and continues onward. Onstage it’s a joyful and unpredictable journey into the bottomless vaults of the Transglobal catalogue, whether featuring members of the original lineup, or more recent and diverse additions to the TGU family. Over the years Transglobal Underground has developed a life of its own and goes where it will for its own reasons. Everyone else simply follows.

Natacha Atlas is an internationally-acclaimed artist with one of the world’s most distinctive voices. Long known for synthesising western and middle eastern vocal traditions with mind-blowing dexterity, Natacha’s latest work sees her push vocal and musical boundaries even further by effortlessly weaving jazz traditions into her already unique blend.

It is thus unsurprising that Natacha’s output is as rich as it is diverse. In the past, she has worked with Peter Gabriel, Nitin Sawhney, Nigel Kennedy, Indigo Girls, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Ibrahim Maalouf, to name but a few, while, most recently, Natacha has been collaborating with the likes of Omar Sosa and Paolo Fresu, whilst co-composing (with frequent collaborator Samy Bishai) the score for Herve Koubi’s 2019 contemporary dance creation “Odyssey”.

Over the years, Natacha’s exceptional talent has been repeatedly recognised by her peers and fans alike in the form of a host of music awards (incl. a French ‘Victoire’) along with numerous invitations to be the star vocalist at major events (such as the Millennium concert at the pyramids in Egypt in 2000 with Jean-Michel Jarre) and to appear on the scores and soundtracks of numerous Hollywood blockbusters, incl. Sex & the City 2, The Hulk, Kingdom of Heaven, Brick Lane and Sahara.