An exploration of West Bengal soundsystem culture in 10 tracks, curated by Baalti

India-raised, New York-based duo Baalti are back with a brand new EP this month on Steel City Dance Discs, ‘Mela‘ – a four-track, club-focused release influenced by the frenetic soundsystem culture of West Bengal. To celebrate, they’ve put together a playlist of tracks exploring that sound, from the roots of soundclash culture to “full on Dek Bass”. Check it out below.

Dek Bass is an umbrella term for a huge range of music played out on massive soundsystems in India, mostly for celebration and often for competitive soundclashes or “box competitions”. ‘Dek’ refers to these competition songs usually being played on cassette tapes and decks – AKA Dek – and the decks themselves are an integral and respected part of the system.

West Bengal’s Dek Bass scene has been mutating and growing and evolving in really exciting ways, all thanks to the bossmen and operators and communities pushing the limits of audio and amplification tech for the past few decades. With the huge social media adoption in India in the last decade, these box competition videos are everywhere and spreading so fast.

On the surface, it’s obvious to see why it’s spreading so fast – it’s because the videos look mental and massive and unlike anything people in the West have ever seen. But really, it’s because it challenges the notion of what dance music is, and what environments it can be enjoyed in, and what raving is and what ravers look like. Also, purely sonically, the music is so good – it’s raw and direct and heavy. It’s made to just push the speakers to their limit and really explore the boundaries of how we perceive sound in the body and mind.

When listening to this music, we were massively inspired by the next-level sound design and sheer power of the bass, the unapologetically hectic drum patterns, blaring sirens and occasionally interspersed film dialogue taunts. It felt more raw and physical and fresh than anything else going on around us, and we instantly started to see how we could connect it to the dancefloor sounds we’re surrounded by now.

Here’s some of the tracks that really stood out to us as we went down the Dek Bass rabbit hole, pulling from corners of YouTube, free MP3 download websites, field recordings from friends, and WhatsApp Dek Bass producer groups.

It’s not a definitive guide at all, just a glimpse through our lens into a scene that keeps growing and resonating far beyond its roots.