Rafiq Bhatia - Breaking English (Anti- Records 2018)

Breaking English, Bhatia’s audacious instrumental first album for ANTI- Records sets out to challenge existing musical vocabulary with a language of its own. 

“‘Hoods Up’ was the first track I started on Breaking English, and one of the last ones I finished,” explained Bhatia. “Years in the making, with multiple discarded versions littering the path to completion, the piece is the result of me trying to push myself beyond my limits. That required wading into uncharted territory, but it also meant accepting myself for who I am. I think the music carries some of the struggle of its creation with it.” 

“I started sculpting ‘Hoods Up’ in the wake of Trayvon Martin's senseless killing and the subsequent smear campaign against him: the systematic dehumanization of a young black teenager walking home in a hoodie. As I worked away at the song, escalating current events began to add layers of meaning to it. The white hoods from our country's past kept coming out of the woodwork, reminding us of the horrifying influence they continue to exert in the present.” 

Bhatia is the first-generation American son of Muslim immigrant parents who trace their ancestry to India by way of East Africa. Early influences such as Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, and Madlib—as well as mentors and collaborators including Vijay Iyer and Billy Hart—prompted him to see music as a way to actively shape and represent his own identity, not limited by anyone else’s prescribed perspective. 

Bhatia is also eager to bring the hybridity of his ideas to the live stage; He will be performing tracks from Breaking English with Ian Chang of Son Lux on drums and Jackson Hill on bass.

1. Olduvai I - Minarets 01:27

2. Hoods Up 04:33

3. Olduvai II - We Are Humans, With Blood In Our Veins 01:16

4. Before Our Eyes 03:50

5. The Overview Effect 03:47

6. Breaking English 05:54

7. Perihelion I - I Tried To Scream 03:25

8. Perihelion II - Into The Sun 03:41

9. A Love That's True 03:44