Bombastic as Ever, Brooklyn-based Red Baraat Unveils New Album, ‘Sound The People,’ at Sweetwater – June 25

When Sunny Jain sat down in late 2016 to begin penning Sound the People, the fifth album for his band Red Baraat, it came at a moment when he and his bandmates could be excused for thinking that much of what the multicultural, Brooklyn-based sextet represents was under assault.

“This record is a call to action against the various inequalities and injustices that we’re seeing,” Jain says. “We desperately need citizen engagement in response to those injustices.”

So how does a raucous, marching band-style outfit that mixes South Asian bhangra with elements of hip-hop, jazz, funk and punk do that?

It all started with the title track, “the central force of the record” that combines “traditional Indian music and insurrectionary hip-hop, centering around a politically-charged rap by Heems, one half of Swet Shop Boys (with Riz MC) and formerly of the Brooklyn hip-hop group Das Racist.

“It’s hard to escape saying something about the time we’re living in,” Jain says of the track, which was constructed from disparate ideas about the South Asian diaspora, migration and the current political climate. Jain co-produced the album with Little Shalimar, known for his work with hip-hop group Run the Jewels. Listen to the track below:

Red Baraat brings the new album – and a sound bombastic enough to earn the “best party band in years” tag from National Public Radio – to the Sweetwater Music Hall on June 25. WNYC has called Red Baraat one of the “most dependable good-time bands, with their irrepressible mix of bhangra – the dance music of the Punjab region, New Orleans horns, and New York attitude.”

While band’s sonic tapestry centers around its six person collective that includes drummer Chris Eddleton on drums, guitarist Jonathan Goldberger, saxophonist Jonathon Haffner, trumpeter Sonny Singh and sousaphone player John Altieri, Jain is its sonic fulcrum.

It all starts with the dhol, the double-headed Indian drum that Jain wears strapped around his chest, a mobile drum that he pounds with a pair of bamboo drum sticks, laying down the rhythm much as he remembered seeing in an uncle’s wedding procession, or “baraat.”

Appropriately, Red Baraat concerts often begin with a procession to the stage, providing a jolt of adrenaline to a crowded dancefloor from within.

“I just wanted a band of drums and horns that was mobile, that could jump down and get in the mix with an audience and jam,” Jain told WBUR in Boston. “And I wanted to play more upbeat music. I wanted to play music that people could dance and party to.”

Mission accomplished.

The 411: Red Baraat performs at the Sweetwater Music Hall on Monday, June 25 at 8pm. MORE INFO & TIX. Check out the band’s performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert:

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