Ammar Kalia

Between the ages of 16 and 21, the big night out wasn’t just a hobby, it was a calling. Getting together with friends, getting drunk, being blasted by music, meeting new friends in the smoking area, getting more drunk, somehow making it home eight hours later – these were things I excelled at, the precious moments where I could try to lose myself and avoid the anxiety that inevitably came with daybreak. The escapism wasn’t just selfish fun. It felt like a necessary avoidance

“We’re always trying to make the most interesting thing we can,” Doug McCombs says. “We figure if it’s interesting to us, it will probably be interesting to someone else. That’s the only thing we think about when we write and play as a group.” Since co-founding the instrumental quintet Tortoise in Chicago in 1990, McCombs and his band have attracted a slew of descriptors – “interesting” among them – for their genre-hopping, amorphous sound. Variously labelled “pioneers of pos

By turns frenetically fast and hulkingly heavy, yet somehow nimble and tender, tabla player Zakir Hussain ’s percussive sound was one of a kind. Over the course of his five-decade career, Hussain was renowned globally for his capacity to blend Indian classical tradition with jazz, electronica, folk and psychedelia.  Bestowed with the honorific of Ustad, meaning a master of his craft, Hussain collaborated with artists across genres, from West Coast psychedelic pioneers the Gra

“Le Trio Joubran is no longer a project about myself or my two brothers,” Adnan Joubran says. “It has become about the people of Palestine. It belongs to us all now.” Since the release of their debut album, Randana, in 2005, Palestinian brothers Le Trio Joubran have received international acclaim as the world’s first professional three-person oud ensemble, selling out New York’s Carnegie Hall and bringing their virtuosic interpretations of Arabic classical music to the United

On an overcast Wednesday in May, a room full of people at South London venue Ormside Projects break into a sweaty moshpit, moved by thunderous bass frequencies and bursts of screams emanating from the stage. A heavy, thrashing sound fills the air: guts shake with low-end vibrations and wailing distortion rattles teeth. Speakers clip and briefly cut out, while the mixing desk groans under the weight of its redline limit. It's so loud you can barely hear your own thoughts. The

In 1925, 50,000 members of the Persian Bakhtiari tribe set out on a vital journey. Over the course of several weeks, they travelled...

“When we started the label 10 years ago, we felt like we might run out of material,” says Jannis Stürtz, the man behind the popular...

‘P unjabi Disco is the holy grail of British Asian music,” DJ and label boss Raghav Mani says. “It’s a miracle this record exists. For...

I t’s a muggy midweek afternoon when a trail of people draped in black and white keffiyeh scarves, Palestine flags and Free Palestine...

O n the eve of his 30th birthday, Bobby Bolton found himself living in a mouldy caravan on a derelict farm in Hertfordshire. His...

On a scorching Saturday in May, close to 100 people are packed into a cosy room in Brighton community venue The Rose Hill . Sitting...

“Women are second-class citizens in Iran and in prison they are oppressed even more,” Maziar Bahari says.  The Iranian journalist and...

Before I knew who I was, I knew I was an immigrant. As long as I can remember, before I had a solid sense of self, passions, even...

Among the bustling market stalls in 1980s Shepherd’s Bush in west London, there was a small group of teenage boys breakdancing and...

I used to think I was great at therapy. From 17 to 23, I saw a total of four therapists for anywhere between two weeks and three months....

Few online radio stations command the airwaves with as much curiosity and free-wheeling passion as Radio Alhara . Since March 2020, a...

In 1980s Mogadishu a golden era of musical experimentation was under way. Following the proclamation of an independent Somalia in 1960, a...

‘C an you own a rhythm?” asks British-Egyptian historian Dr Hannah Elsisi. She points out that pop charts around the world are infused...

Listen to my NTS guest show celebrating the release of A Person Is A Prayer here . [The show was broadcast live on 28/09/24]

In the 1980s, Uzbekistan was a unique cultural meeting place. During the second world war, the Central Asian country became home for many...