B21 Stirs Up Potent Beat Blend at ‘Desipalooza’

DJ culture is universal and quick to absorb virtually any brand of music into its endless mix. That would include the sounds and voices from India’s Punjab region, which was at the core of Friday’s “Desipalooza” concert at the Variety Arts Center.

Headlining the show was B21, a British-born act that blends fast Western beats and energy with the popular music of northern India. On Friday, the group’s two vocalists sang in Punjabi against a recorded musical track of thumping, funky beats as pop, hip-hop and techno overlapped in unexpected ways.

An audience dominated by young fans from the local Indian and Pakistani community crowded the small dance floor with hands held high. Among B21’s songs was “Darshan,” a spirited, chart-topping tune at home in the U.K., with overlapping rhythms and lyrics that celebrate prayer.

B21 last performed in Los Angeles two years ago, and the Variety Arts Center show was part of a brief tour of the West Coast (including stops at UCLA and San Francisco) that delivered a mix both rousing and culturally rewarding.

Before and after B21’s hourlong set, New York-based DJ Jay Dabhi mixed industrial-strength beats with evocative south Asian pop sounds and voices. The result was loud and lo-fi, with sampled strings and Punjabi vocals colliding into a spiraling mantra of accelerating rhythm.

Dabhi’s mix was sometimes spare but never monotonous. He stopped the music once during his first set to lead the crowd in a cheer to “make some noise!” Some things need no translation.