ELECTRONIC
BY STEPHEN WORTHY
Richard Sen
★★★★
India Man
DO YOURSELF. CD/DL/LP Rave veteran and tastemaker stirs an alt-disco melting pot.
When Richard Sen writes his life story, it will surely enthral. A trip to New York in 1985 saw him inspired by its counterculture – especially graffiti, which he fell headfirst into back in London. At 18, he became the first person in Britain jailed for writing graffiti, before becoming a pioneering rave scene figure following his release. And, as a designer, highlights include the cover of Sabres Of Paradise’s classic Smokebelch. Sen’s debut album, India Man, explores his Indian heritage and showcases his eclectic zeal, blending skeletal house, breakbeat, electro and disco into a thick, flavoursome broth. Distinct hints of contemporaries –and pals – DJ Harvey and the late Andrew Weatherall prevail. Like a Sen DJ set, it’s a succession of peaks and troughs that pass from Moksha’s stomping cosmic disco on to Proto-Davidian, where Indian motifs are tethered to a supremely languid Funky Drummer break, before topping out at the paranoiac Balearic house of Hills Of Kashmir. Another memorable chapter, surely, for a future autobiography.