Names: Filip Nikolic aka Turbotito, Raghav Mani aka Ragz
Nationalities: Danish-Serbian (Filip), Swiss-Indian (Raghav)
Occupations: Multi-instrumentalist, producer, DJ (Filip), DJ, “somewhat obsessive record collector” (Raghav)
Recent release: Turbotito & Ragz's remix of Asha Puthli's "One Night Affair" is out now via Naya Beat. It is part of the beautiful remix package Disco Mystic - Select Remixes Volume 1, which also includes contributions by Maurice Fulton, Kraak & Smaak, Psychemagik, Yuksek, and Jitwam. Pre-order it here.

About their approach to reworking this piece, the duo comment: “We approach these songs respectfully and sensitively!! We try and stay close to the spirit and aesthetic of the original track, adding some extra oomph where it’s needed as well as extra production for the track to work on the modern dance floor. There is a lot more going on in our productions then most people realize but that’s also the idea. That holds true both of how we approach our remixes as well as who we choose to work with when commissioning remixes.”

[Read our Asha Puthli interview]
[Read our Yuksek interview]
[Read our Oscar de Jong of Kraak & Smaak interview]
[Read our Jitwam interview]

If you enjoyed this interview with and Turbotito and Ragz would like to stay up to date with their music, visit the official Naya Beat Instagram account.  



South Asia is a world onto itself. It can seem daunting to even start a journey into its music. Where did yours begin?

We both live in LA! Our journey probably started with spending years and years digging for South Asian records.

While a lot of people around the world are aware of ‘filmi music’ and the amazing 80s disco sounds of legendary composers like RD Burman, Ilaiyaraaja, Bappi Lahiri and Kalyanji-Anandji, we realized that there were solo artists and bands that released incredible music that was completely unknown. These artists were putting stuff out that had a dreamy and balearic aesthetic and elements of cosmic disco, boogie and electro that were way ahead of the time in South Asia.



This movement wasn’t just happening in the subcontinent but in South Asian communities around the world that had their own unique history and culture. Be it Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, the U.S., the UK or the Netherlands, South Asian artists from these places were incorporating synths, drum machines and other elements of modern dance and electronic production along with their traditional forms.

The idea for our label and our very first release, Naya Beat Volume 1 (now over 2 years old!) was to uncover and curate this amazing electronic and groove-based music that was being made by South Asian musicians in the 70s, 80s and 90s from the world over. We’re now on our fifth release and very much focused on the same mission!



Were you interested in the classical music tradition of India and Pakistan as well? If so, which artists, release, and perhaps also performances stood out?

More than we can express. There is literally an endless amount of exceptional Indian classical music to choose from so this is a particularly hard question to answer! Here are a couple of things that randomly came to mind.

The Rain, Ghazal (ECM Records, 2003). Mind blowing album with two greats – Kayhan Kalhor on the kamancheh (an Iranian spike fiddle) and Shujaat Khan on sitar and vocals. Two musical traditions Persian and North Indian. The entire album is amazing, but the last track “Eternity” is really special.



Eternity, Hariprasad Chaurasia (His Master's Voice, 1985). The master of the bansuri (Indian flute). Hindustani classical music but add synths (played by Charanjit Singh no less) and a drum machine along with traditional instruments and you have one of the most beautiful and unusual Indian classical albums ever made. Indian classical music in a proto ambient setting.



Instrumental Sitar, Rais Khan (His Master's Voice, 1969). The best sitar player in history? He must have been in his late 20s or early 30s when this was recorded. Listen to him shred on Raga Tilak Kamod. Unreal.

Duets From India, Vilayat Khan & Bismillah Khan (His Master's Voice, 1967). One of our go-to recordings. A Jugulbandi (a duet in Hindustani classical music) between two masters – Vilayat Khan on sitar and Bismillah Khan on the shehnai. This link is to the opening track on the album and it’s something else.



Tell me about the role that music plays for South Asian disaspora artists, please.

Music probably plays the same role for them as it does for everyone else really. Music is as deeply rooted in South Asian diasporic cultures as it is in the subcontinent.

That said, diaspora artists are often bridging two or more cultures and you see that in their music. More often than not their music is a reflection of their lives as immigrants and having to make sense of the old and the new. Bhangra in the UK has been influenced by everything from disco, house, dub, ragga, jungle and more.

A lot of Indo-Caribbean musical traditions like chutney and soca fused African and Indian musical cultures as a result of colonialism and slavery. That further evolved in the 80s with a 2nd wave of Indo-Caribbean migration to cities like New York, Toronto and Amsterdam where those traditions met disco and boogie and evolved even further. Their music encapsulates the breath of their diasporic experiences and multi-generational history.

[Read our interview with Kahani about Giving the South Asian Diaspora a Voice]

Just like electronic music today, disco seems to be one of the most universal languages. Still, it came particularly naturally to South Asian artists. Why do you think that is?

We don’t necessarily think India was any different than Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil or so many other countries that experienced that late 70s / early 80s disco craze. Disco was popular everywhere.

Is it any surprise? Is there a more expressive form of electronic music? It’s timeless! The form and its instruments (synths, drum machines) were new, inventive and fresh at the time and there was probably a natural inclination from artists from around the world to incorporate elements of this in their music.

Perhaps what set South Asian artists apart (and India in particular) is that the style become the rage in soundtracks for many popular movies and that essentially helped bring the disco sound to the masses.

One of the greatest finds of your first compilation for me was Musarrat's “Hosh Nahin Hai Ji Mujhe” - a to me entirely unknown cover version of the Jon & Vangelis piece. Do you know more about how it came to be and how disco tracks in general found their way into the consciousness of South Asian artists?

As bit of background for those that may not be aware, Musarrat Nazir is a popular Canadian-Pakistani singer and actor from Lahore, Pakistan. Nazir started acting in her teens and featured in several Urdu and Punjabi films. She retired from acting in the mid-60s to settle in Toronto with her husband where they raised their three children. She later released a string of Hindi disco crossover albums in the early 1980s in collaboration with Mahendra Kapoor, Sharon Prabhakar, Peter Moss and Deepak Khazanchi.

The story behind “Hosh Nahin Hai Ji Mujhe” is pretty amazing. It’s taken from a rock and reggae covers album, Kar Lo Pyar (Rock & Reggae) which she recorded in 1983. Her kids shortlisted music for her to record. Basically stuff that most teens would be into growing up in Toronto in the early 80s. One of those tracks was “State Of Independence” by Jon & Vangelis!



The album was recorded in Toronto and produced and arranged by Rich Dodson of The Stampeders. The lyrics were written with Musarrat’s husband (with one contribution from famed Pakistani poet Ahmed Faraz). The entire album is amazing and such a brilliant reflection of diasporic culture, the synthesis of cultures, different generations and musical styles.

Truly amazing stuff and released into total obscurity at the time.

How do you feel are Indian traditions and contemporary elements combining in this music? What sets the Indian disco music apart from its American or European counterparts?

“Indian disco” and early electronic Indian dance music is rooted in film music. As opposed to New York and the States at large where disco was deeply rooted in counter-culture, in India it became the sound of the masses. That’s probably the most important distinction.

You could argue about who brought disco to India first but you can’t really argue with the fact that Biddu and Nazia Hassan lit the match with Qurbani and Disco Deewane. After that it was just everywhere.



The fact that the vast majority of disco in the subcontinent is rooted in original soundtrack recordings (OSTs) be they Bollywood or other regional cinema plays a huge role in setting it apart. That need to be dramatic, playful and orchestral for the screen plays a huge part in the sounds of South Asian disco. That’s why you have all those incredible and unexpected twists and turns, movements and changes within each track.

The tracks were also purposely mixed to emphasize (often redlining!) the vocals. Any DJ who has tried to mix a Bollywood disco track on OG vinyl will know what we are talking about! Most mass market speakers in India at the time were small and tinny and so mixing engineers were instructed to emphasize the vocals over all else. These kind of random little things (and there are a few more) have all influenced the sound of disco in India.

In terms of curation, what are you looking for in Naya Beat releases?

Music that is exceptionally good that breaks conventions and boundaries. Music that is pioneering but for whatever reason never got a fair chance.

For reissues we’re also deeply committed to unearthing and telling the story of the artist and the music they made.

Asha Puthli is a particular favourite of yours and will be a focal point for the next round of Naya Beat releases. Tell me about your love for her music, please.

Where to begin?! Musical pioneer, Studio 54 icon, feminist, actor, environmentalist, muse to Andy Warhol, friends with everyone from Keith Haring to Mikhail Gorbachev. There is too much to be said about Asha’s incredible and underappreciated legacy to try and condense it here (though check out some excellent podcast interviews with her and keep an eye out for news of a docu feature in the works).



Asha is unapologetically Asha and of all the endless things there are to admire about her that’s perhaps what inspires us the most. She has embraced Western culture at its cutting edge and created and performed with the best (at a time when all the West knew of India was a potpourri of incense, Ravi Shankar and the Maharishi). She did all that while being unashamedly true to her heritage and identify.

We cannot think of another artist who so effectively bridged the East and West.

“Space Talk” is a fascinating release, a song more American than its American blueprints, written and sung by a true cosmopolitan, performed by an international band in Berlin, Germany. Do you have some more insights into its history?

Yeah it’s pretty incredible. The album The Devil Is Loose (that “Space Talk” is on) was recorded by an international band in Berlin (at the legendary Hansa Studios). Dieter Zimmermann (who produced the album) was a huge fan of Asha’s and suggested they work together and release the album on CBS Schallplatten in Germany.

Asha was in limbo as her contract with CBS London was terminated because she was pregnant (which they deemed to be a medical issue and a breach of contract). As shocking as that is if it had never happened The Devil Is Loose and “Space Talk” would probably have never been recorded.

The music of “Space Music” was written by bassist David King, a Brit who moved to Berlin. Asha wrote the lyrics. It’s about searching for love in outer space and inspired by an out of body experience she had many years earlier (her words!) Ironic that Asha who was never given a solo artist recording contract in America (despite living in New York) and would go on to record her albums in Europe would then later impact New York disco, American hip-hop and so much more.

Some of the pieces and artists you've re-released on Naya Beat are incredible. Why do you think they ultimately did not achieve a wider breakthrough?

We’ve found that there is a consistent story here. A lot of these artists were making sense of their highly developed and deeply rooted South Asian musical traditions along with Western pop and dance music and culture, a lot of which was fresh and new at the time with new revolutionary electronic instruments. These artists were pushing boundaries, both from a South Asian perspective but also in the West (how many Western record labels would know what to do with Hindi New Wave in the early 80s?) They were essentially caught in a tragic middle ground – too South Asian for the West and too Western for South Asia.

You hear this story both with diaspora artists but also artists from the subcontinent. While a lot of their music would get released, it was released almost performatively by the labels who didn’t know what to do with it. There was no marketing, no real effort to distribute. Rupa’s Disco Jazz, Charanjit Singh’s Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat, Pinky Ann Rihal’s Tere Liye, Pandit Dinesh’s Jhoomo Re Jhoomo (and the list goes on and on). All of those records fit in that category. And they’re all now serious grail!



Is this music in any way still relevant for Indian listeners from your experience? Are you finding that Naya Beat is mainly drawing in a Western audience or listeners from Asia as well?

As a label we’d love to draw in more Indian listeners. Right now we’re reaching a niche but incredibly dedicated, passionate and knowledgeable group of listeners from the subcontinent who are digging and learning more about their musical heritage.

In the West there is already such a deeply rooted culture of collecting, record digging, reissues and remixes. That’s slowly starting to emerge in the subcontinent. We’ve also found an amazing home with the diaspora, especially in the UK with the resurgent Asian underground scene.

How would you describe the current South Asian music scene and some of the most interesting artists to you personally?

The second wave Asian underground scene in the UK is inspirational. It’s been amazing to see the Daytimers crew and communities like Dialled In flourish like they have. Beyond that we’re just incredibly happy to see so many South Asian and diaspora artists finally have a place on the global stage.

It really feels like we are at a turning point. In many ways there is a through line between the ground-breaking work Asha Puthli did 50 years ago and the success these artists are having now. Asha broke ground and we’re now really all benefitting from that.

We are all children of Asha! There are so many current artists we love we’re a little remiss to list them in case we miss any but here goes – Jitwam (watch out for his remix of Asha’s “I’m Gonna Dance” on our upcoming Disco Mystic release), Baalti, Hamza, Aroop Roy, Bishi, Surusinghe, Nabihah Iqbal. There are many more!



There is a fine line between cultural exchange and appropriation. What are your thoughts on the limits of copying, using cultural signs and symbols and the cultural/social/gender specificity of art?

You aren’t asking easy questions are you! Sure, there is a fine line between cultural exchange and appropriation. We’d rather live with that line getting crossed now and again versus censoring genuine cultural exchange and cross-pollination in the name of appropriation.

Music would not be the amazing thing we all love without cultural exchange. It’s foundational to everything we have today. It’s foundational to the music we put out as Naya Beat!

There is a disturbing and dangerous trend of people blindly labelling genuine and honest exchange as appropriation without giving artists the benefit of the doubt or bothering to know more about their music. Appropriation does exist and is an issue. Most people in their gut probably know when something is out of place or disingenuous.

But there is also a grey zone that is a lot more complicated. To understand that you have to be thoughtful, do your research and be willing to have a dialogue.

What's up next for the label?

This has been a busy year for us! We kicked things off with Asha’s Space Talk EP with remixes by Dimitri From Paris. We also released our first Bollywood compilation, Awaaz Series 1. We’re especially proud of that one, from the curation to the packaging on the vinyl release which is pretty insane. Our love letter to the genre.

In terms of what’s next this year, our full-length remix album with Asha Puthli releases on September 22nd. We’re incredibly excited about it. Dimitri set such a high bar with his “Space Talk” remixes and this LP continues with that intention and level of quality. Maurice Fulton, Yuksek, Kraak & Smaak, Psychemagik, Jitwam and us contributing remixes! Our last release for the year is an absolutely banging Mr. Scruff bhangra remix EP (which will also feature a Turbotito & Ragz bhangra acid house original).

Next year you’ll hopefully see Volume 2 in our Naya Beat comp series, more Asha releases and other exciting things that we’re not ready to share just yet!