Susheela Raman

[method77]

Winner of the BBC World Music Award as the Best Newcomer.

Excellent, exotic voice that reminds you of the middle eastern style but comes from India. I just listened on this EXCELLENT dub style track called Maya which you all must definately hear.

Here is some info on this great female vocalist...

Raman was born in Hendon in 1973, seven years after her parents came to London from southern India. The family then emigrated to Australia when Susheela was four.

'I formed a funky band and we played covers and gigged all over Sydney but by the time I was in my twenties I realised that the music I wanted to make wasn't really suited to the Australian musical climate.'

In 1995, she returned to India to study music under the tutelage of a renowned Hindustani singer, intent on blending the influences of east and west. She then returned to England in 1997. Soon she was singing in the Anglo-Asian dance outfit Joi.

Yet Raman never felt part of the much hyped Asian underground movement.

'I admire Talvin and Nitin but my music is more shaped by growing up in Australia, going to the beach, the vibrations off the ocean... the spatial dimensions are different and that means my music is different.'

Read more...

Also here...