Sagoo’s Got the Beat, India-Style

“Are you ready to rock the house?” was Bally Sagoo’s unnecessary opening line Friday at Club Yes in Westwood. The capacity crowd, young and overwhelmingly from the Indian subcontinent, was primed to party with Sagoo, the Anglo-Indian deejay who has emerged as the most creative, adventurous mixer-producer from the late ‘80s U.K. bhangra scene.

A largely unknown quantity here whose last two CDs have just been released on Sony, Sagoo has two pop chart hits to his credit in England and a regular veejay gig on Club MTV Asia, and he opened a Michael Jackson concert in Bombay. Friday, he displayed a good command of deejay dynamics during his three-hour mix--dropping layers of sound in and out and varying the tempo enough to sustain the dancers.

Sagoo alternated between pulsating house rhythms and bhangra beats flavored by male qawwali singers and female Indian filmi (movie soundtrack) vocalists, and oboe melodies snaking over the top. The bhangra grooves--powered by explosive dholak (hand-drum) barrages that generated an irresistible rhythmic force--really turned the floor into a hand-waving, chanting frenzy.

The virtually all-Indian components in Sagoo’s mix indicated that there’s now a vibrant, creative pop music being crafted in Indian youth culture. And there was nothing Friday to indicate that Sagoo and others won’t be able to connect with a wider international audience from that musical base.