The north
London rapper’s playful blend of hip-hop and house is part of a new wave of
British Asian talent
Surya Sen was a key figure in India’s independence movement in the 1930s who led uprisings against British rule. Fast-forward a century and his namesake – a north London-based musician who prefers to remain anonymous – feels like a radical presence in
UK music: a British-Bengali producer/rapper whose bumping and pristinely constructed club
music finds the sweet spot between hip-hop and house, spanning purring, deep Detroit flavours, frisky French touch, slick garage and sampledelic boom-bap.
Last year’s CU Later set out his stall – the playful pop sensibility of California’s Channel Tres, but with Sen’s low-pitched, distinctly London vocals – and got him signed to Skint Records, which has been re-establishing itself as a hub of dynamic dance talent since its 90s big beat days. Then came recent single Jessica, a hip-house come-on that sounds like Masters at Work cruising around Enfield on a Saturday night, while Sen brings the confidence of a grime MC as he raps about “peng” girls and Hennessy. Next up is two-punch single release Here We Go Again/So I Just, ahead of his debut mixtape pencilled for March 2022 – lemon-fresh house tracks with Chemical Brothers samples and sultry vocals that belong on primetime Radio 1.
Surya Sen’s double A-side single Here We Go Again/ So I Just is out on 4 November on Skint