Dek Bass
In rural villages, 100 miles north of Kolkata, India, moonlighting DJs set up DIY sound systems and disturb the local peace at ear-piercing decibels. After spending 500 hours building sound systems, they battle for volume at the risk of police seizure. They call it Dek Bass.
During the pandemic, a New York DJ friend, Alien D, introduced me to Dek Bass. I was intrigued by the fact that there was virtually nothing written about it, so I decided to dive deeper into this underground music scene. I noticed that many of the music producers had their WhatsApp numbers listed on their YouTube accounts. Driven by curiosity, I downloaded a Bengali translator and spent countless late nights attempting to connect with Dek Bass music producers, hoping to learn more about their music.
To further my research, I hired two Bengali interpreters. However, it wasn’t until I began collaborating with producer Seerjita Meetra, a Mumbai-based Bengali speaker, that I truly began to understand the West Bengal music scene. Initially, we were met with suspicion; the music producers were wary due to past run-ins with the police over the deafening sound systems they used. Eventually, they gave us an ultimatum: either meet them in person or risk having all communication cut off. We chose the former and what you see is a cut of this trip.
The video was premiered on Nowness