Dancing Drums

Badmarsh & Shri are an electronic/trip hop duo from London, UK comprising Yemen-born DJ Mohammed Akber Ali, aka Badmarsh, and Mumbai-born tabla player Shrikanth Sriram.

Prior to their formation, Badmarsh (whose name means 'rascal' in Hindi) worked at the reggae studio Easy Street; which was hiring PA equipment to a nightclub called Labyrinth. After a visit to Labyrinth, he became interested in DJing, and almost immediately went out to buy DJ turntables and records; he later secured a residency position at the club, where he remained for five years. Shri, on the other hand, had spent five years touring with Nitin Sawhney, who later produced his debut solo album Drum the Bass. The album was well received in Europe.

The duo came together through Shabs, head of Outcaste Records, who thought that the pair's individually different sounds would complement each other in a group. The duo released their debut album Dancing Drums in 1998, which contained a culmination of drum and bass, hip hop, Indian classical music and jazz.

Dancing Drums was the band's first album. The name comes from a 1975 track of Ananda Shankar.

Allmusic rated the album 4 out of 5 stars, praising Shri's melodic basslines and strong tabla rhythms, and concluded that "Several tracks go on a couple of minutes too long, and techno snobs will find its pleasantness objectionable. Overall, though, this album is a success."

In 2001, Badmarsh & Shri released their second album, Signs, originally called Tribal (co-produced by Mike Spencer) through Outcaste Records. A continuation of their musical migration, the album was considered panoramic dance music by the record's publishers, switching between dancefloor music, and a more sensuous, chilled style.

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