Mohinder Kaur Bhamra

Naya Beat is delighted to announce the release of an astonishing lost “holy grail”, Mohinder Kaur Bhamra’s 1982 masterpiece ‘Punjabi Disco’. The reissue includes remixes by Peaking Lights, Danger Boys, Psychemagik, Dexter+Franz, Mystic Jungle, and Baalti, as well as a cover by Say She She’s Piya Malik and Turbotito & Ragz.

Unknown and inaccessible to even the deepest of diggers, ‘Punjabi Disco’ is the first-ever British Asian electronic dance album recorded and a true lost relic. A chance find of the original multitrack masters during the Covid lockdown and a tip off from Massimo di Lena of Nu Genea on the record’s existence led to this reissue. Lovingly mixed down and remastered from the studio recordings, the release includes a newly discovered track.

Released the same year and into equal obscurity as ‘Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat’, Charanjit Singh’s acid house opus, the reissue of ‘Punjabi Disco’ is set to have similar reverberations in the world of dance music. Produced by Mohinder’s eldest son and legendary bhangra pioneer Kuljit Bhamra using a recently acquired Roland SH-1000 synthesiser and a CR-8000 CompuRhythm drum machine played by his then 11-year-old brother, the album was recorded at Roxy Music bass player Rick Kenton’s studio in London. The concept for a Punjabi disco album was subsequently stolen by the very music label that had agreed to distribute the record. Eventually self-released with no label support, ‘Punjabi Disco’ vanished into complete obscurity.

A pivotal figure in British Asian music, West London-based vocalist and first-generation immigrant Mohinder Kaur Bhamra became the first woman to sing at Punjabi weddings and other community events in the UK. Her son, Kuljit, would accompany her, playing tabla at her events from the age of six. Wedding music was traditionally a tame, segregated affair: men and women seated and separated on opposite sides of the room. ‘Punjabi Disco’ was born out of a desire to desegregate the dancefloor and inspired by the sounds of disco from the era. A tapestry of electric drum rhythm, warbling bass, and psychedelic siren-like Roland synth melodies provide a vehicle for Mohinder’s powerful voice. Part disco, part funk, part acid house, and infused with Punjabi folk melodies, the sound of ‘Punjabi Disco’ is as mesmerising as it is undefinable.