GRIT wins Modern Scottish Classic Award
The Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) has today announced Martyn Bennett’s final studio a...
Thu, 03 October 24
One and One is One
Released 11 April 1999
- Fingers
- Everybody Say Yeah
- Asian Vibes
- Massive
- Oh My People
- ESY-SHJ
- March On
- Mission
- Heartbeat
- India
- Joi Bani
Liner notes
Signing in 1997 to Real World, the only label Joi felt happy to be involved with long term, Joi released their critically acclaimed debut album One And One Is One. An aspirational melting pot of melodic harmonies, tabla rhythms, electro beats, chants, and vocal snatches, the album was hailed across the board by critics from Q (“inventive and hard-hitting”) to Time Out (“a smooth, accomplished collection”). Limited edition remixes of ‘Fingers’ by Lion Rock and ‘Asian Vibes’ by Way Out West, and the use of their music in the TV programme Sex And The City, also helped to spread their appeal further.
First Equation – Friendship 1 + 1 = 3
Here, one plus one in friendship equals three. The one plus one is in the third, that being the world.
Second Equation – Love 1 + 1 = 1
Here, one plus one in love equals one. The one plus one are the total world.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE’S METAPHYSICAL MATHEMATICS FROM ‘RABINDRANATH TAGORE: A BIOGRAPHY’ BY KRISHNA KRIPALANI (VISVA-BHARATI, CALCUTTA, 1980)
Joi have always sought to illuminate, to push boundaries, to pique interest in other cultures while boldly bringing such cultures together. Their album titles are a case in point; just as One and One is One is a quote from the Indian Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and their second album, We Are Three references the work of the great Sufi poet Rumi.
‘Set yourself free with the spirit of Joi’ read the T-shirts of clubbers who, hands in the air, were among the first to dance wildly to Farook and his late elder brother Haroon’s banging bhangra fusion in clubs not too far from where Farook still works today. “We would play a James Brown groove and very slowly mix in a traditional Bengali thing and then turn it up until the crowd moved to the traditional tune alone.” Farook sighs, smiles. “They probably saw it as mad, off-the-wall Paki music, but it was very natural to us. We wanted to give our people a sense of musical identity.” A feeling, if you like, that they were not alone.
The sons of a professional flautist who ran a traditional Asian music shop in Brick Lane, the Shamsher brothers matched their love of Bengali, Bollywood and qawwali music with their passion for hip hop, soul, funk, reggae and other urban stylings. They moved from being a sound system with tabla players improvising over beats to performing as a live band with wide-ranging instrumentalists and guest vocalists. When it suited them, they went back to being a sound system again. Along the way, they changed perceptions.
Further Listening
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Released 18 June 2015
Joi Sound System is a 22 track double album compiled from Joi's three gloriously inventive albums: 1999's One and One is One, 2000's We Are Three and 2007's Without Zero, plus three bonus tracks. Three sublime albums. A dazzling assemblage of tracks. Choosing a Best Of was never doing to be easy. And yet... -
Released 30 August 1993
Primal Moroccan trance traditions collide with psychedelic New York rock and London dance grooves. What results is part of the on-going story of Gnawa music, which spread from West Africa, the Sudan, and the Southern Sahara through centuries of migration until it reached Morocco.
Further reading
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