Watch A Homegrown DJ Bring The Sound Of London Underground To West Bengal's Dek Bass Soundsystem
In many Indian towns and villages, sound arrives before the spectacle. Before you see the Ganpati visarjan or the marriage procession, you hear the high-pitched treble of Bollywood hits, the blast of folk remixes, and the chest-rattling bass from massive speakers precariously stacked on open-air trucks. These local sound systems are the focal points of community gathering, drawing people together through shared auditory experience.
It was into this environment that Pablo, a DJ/producer from Kolkata, now based in the UK, planted a singular experiment. On a trip back home, he travelled deep into rural Bengal with a singular mission: to blend London’s bass-heavy underground sound with the grassroots sonic culture of his home state.
As deep, rolling sub-bass lines and syncopated rhythms filled the air, the village lit up. There was no cultural lag. No moment of confusion. Just a seamless communion of rhythm. This rave was a dialogue between geographies, between sonic traditions, between imagined communities.
At the centre of this musical intersection lies Dek Bass — a rural subculture characterized by large, often hand-built speaker setups used primarily in competitive audio events known as 'box competitions' or 'soundclashes'. This includes a strategic use of cassette decks, (hence 'dek') to play distorted, aggressive, and bass-heavy tracks featuring film dialogues, heavy basslines, percussive rhythms, and sound effects such as sirens. These events serve as both entertainment and social performance, bringing together local communities to witness the contestation of sonic dominance.
The systems themselves are feats of grassroots engineering. Often built from repurposed wood, scavenged parts, and intricate amplifier setups, they can rival club systems in sheer output. The people behind these rigs — usually working-class men with a passion and a deep understanding of accoustics, are producers, sound engineers, and curators rolled into one. Some moonlight as DJs. Others build for the joy of the craft. It is music as public infrastructure, music as local power.
Cross-cultural collabs like Pablo’s performance, bring attention to the broader significance of Dek Bass as an indigenous sound culture. It foregrounds the fact that experimental audio practices are not limited to urban, metropolitan, or technologically advanced settings. Rather, innovation in music and sound is frequently driven by necessity, community engagement, and alternative value systems.
In an era when global electronic music is increasingly commodified and standardized, Pablo’s engagement with Dek Bass opens up a space for rethinking how we define underground music. It also compels us to reconsider how marginalized or peripheral practices, like those of the West Bengal countryside, might inform or even challenge dominant narratives of musical modernity. The documentation of this event contributes not only to the visibility of Dek Bass but also to broader discussions on sonic agency, cultural hybridity, and the democratization of sound.
Follow Pablo here and listen to his set at the top of the page.
