Press
“DJ Anjali and the Incredible Kid sets are one of Portland’s great recurring dance parties.”
-Willamette Week 12/16/09
“Portland’s favorite boy/girl DJ pair”
-The Oregonian 6/19/09
“The pair have been keeping Portland dancing for so long in various incarnations, imagining the local music scene without their bhangra and Bollywood rhythms is unthinkable. ”
-The Oregonian 5/26/06
“The DJs responsible for making “bhangra” and “Asian garage” somewhat household words outside Portland’s Desi community”
-The Portland Mercury 1/8/04
************************************************************************************************************************
links are arranged from oldest to newest:
Punjabi Pulse Portland Tribune
Bring your ears & your dancing shoes Portland Tribune
Anjali’s Top Ten for Ultrapdx
Hunting the Wild Bhangra Willamette Week
Bhangra heats up like a Bombay day Portland Tribune
Geography of Dance Willamette Week
All Hail the Mighty Atlas Source Weekly
Employee of The Week The Portland Mercury
Hang the DJ : The Incredible Kid Willamette Week
Hang the DJ : DJ Anjali Willamette Week
On Deck XLR8R (page 37)
Urban Desi: Resisting Sonic Monoculture Oregon Voice (page 20)
Dancing Around Bollywood The Asian Reporter
Foreign exchange A world of music awaits adventurous shoppers at ethnic markets The Oregonian
Tracks Stars Just Out Cover Story
2009 NYE Guide talks to Anjali The Portland Mercury
Bhangra Bash! The Vanguard
DJ Anjali & The Incredible Kid introduce children to Bhangra music The Asian Reporter
Andaz dance party (interview with Anjali) Portland Examiner
*****************************************************************************************************************
In January 2006, Anjali & The Kid were featured on OPB’s Oregon Art Beat Watch it here.
************************************************************************************************************************
OTHER RANDOM WRITE UPS:
ANDAZ: DJ ANJALI, THE INCREDIBLE KID
(Fez Ballroom, 316 SW 11th) Bhangra music made its way from the Punjab region to the rest of the world via Britain’s Indian immigrants about 30 years ago. It was conceived by a culture of people that really—really—like to dance. As such, it’s nearly impossible to hear the combination of a traditional dhol drum beat and that defining repetitive string hook and not get the fuck down. So enticing is the sound, that Andaz, the monthly bhangra/Bollywood party hosted by DJ Anjali and the Incredible Kid, is celebrating its seventh anniversary—placing it way out front as Portland’s longest-running modern dance night. Part of what has boosted bhangra’s popularity worldwide is that it is perfectly suitable for run-of the-mill ass shaking, with no special routines or costumes required. Those who do want to learn some legit moves can show up early for a bhangra dance lesson complete with a live dhol drummer. Portland Mercury AVA HEGEDUS
Nov. 26th, 2009
*****************************************************************************************************************
Just in time for the weekend, it’s my favorite Portland bhangra/Bollywood party! Okay, okay, that sounds like faint praise, considering how many bhangra/Bollywood parties there aren’t in this town, but seriously, it’s a super fun time, a great combination of music, dancing and community, all held down by residents Anjali and the Incredible Kid.
Luciana Lopez, The Oregonian
August 29, 2008
*****************************************************************************************************************
FROM VINDALHO’s newsletter:
“Our friends at Willie Week enjoyed our food but chided us on our selection of background music. So, we rushed right out to Portland DJ legend Anjali. Tops in spinning at local clubs like The Fez, she custom built a 4 CD set for Vindalho of Bollywood, Electronica, and Bhangra adding the sounds of life to our environs. WW — where should we send your bonus CD set?”
April 6th, 2006
***********************************************************************************************************************************
ANDAZ: DJ Anjali and the Incredible Kid @ Fez Ballroom
Four years ago, DJ Anjali & The Incredible Kid introduced South Asian dance music, with its infectious dhol beats and tumbi melodies, to the Portland club scene. From house parties to Holocene, Lola’s Room to Machineworks and the opening night of PICA’s TBA Fest, DJ Anjali (Anju Hursh) and The Incredible Kid (Stephen Strausbaugh) have been spinning to packed dancefloors ever since. It’s no wonder. Their sets mix Bhangra (with its roots in Punjabi folk music) vintage Bollywood, Indipop and Hip Hop into a hyperanimating dance soundtrack that makes movement compulsory. Saturday marks the second anniversary of their popular last Saturday ANDAZ dance parties at the Fez. These parties regularly sell out.
Lisa Radon for Strongweek November 2004
*************************************************************************************************************************
DJ ANJALI & THE INCREDIBLE KID
(Nocturnal) DJ Anjali and The Incredible Kid, the DJs responsible for making “bhangra” and “Asian garage” somewhat household words outside Portland’s Desi community, will soon embark on a two-month-long tour of India (hopefully purchasing lots of records for our listening pleasure upon their return). Before they go, there are only a couple more chances to hear their well researched and highly danceable South Asian sounds–a mix of traditional Punjabi vocals and percussion with stellar modern techno/hiphop/garridge etc. JS
Portland Mercury January 2004
*****************************************************************************************************************
THE INCREDIBLE KID & DJ ANJALI
(Blackbird) Now a Tuesday night staple at the Blackbird, DJ Anjali hopes to vitalize Portland’s landscape of Bhangra music lovers. Bhangra is beautiful, rhythmic dance music that had its beginnings in the Northwestern corner of India and quickly became the preferred music of Britain’s Asian population. Apparently, its popularity in America is strong enough for established scenes in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other large US cities, but it is something the Portland metro area hasn’t seen much of until now. In addition, the Incredible Kid will spin his regularly bumpin’, eclectic sets of everything from My Bloody Valentine and the Swirlies to Kool Keith, Grandmaster Flash, and the ever-lovable Miami Booty Bass, to which it is possible to execute a popular dance move called the “Florida Booty Bomb.” JS
Portland Mercury November 2001
*****************************************************************************************************************
BEAT THE DHOL DRUMS
DJ Anjali’s arms reach for the ceiling, hands happily twisting, a dance floor maneuver that “Anju” (to her friends) calls the “screw in the light bulb.” Anju’s taking a break from her own time behind Fez’s upstairs turntables, arms, body and bare feet bouncing and contorting to the double-time Bolly-hop beats of fellow spinner The Incredible Kid (Stephen Strausbaugh).
After forming their sonic partnership four years ago and introducing Bhangra and Bollywood into Portland’s house party circuit, Anju and The Kid fired-up Andaz at Fez, playing what Anju calls “the cream of the crop” of Indian crunk and hip-hop. For two years, the pair’s Punjabi- and Hindi-laced, dohl-driven public gig has been grooving-room-only, a feat for a town of nightcrawlers whose fickle feet make theme-nights in clubland turn over at a high rate. (Let two years in clubland equal a decade in daylight time.)
“In the first year we definitely had a corps of people,” Anju says, “but now it’s new people all the time, and it’s really not a ’scene’ at all — people come here to dance!”
The draw?
“It’s the music,” Anju says. “You don’t have to understand the words, the beats of the dohl, the drum, are so powerful, you can’t help but dance.”
This is not the slow sitar-strummed sounds of India’s sonic history. Andaz fills Fez with a variety of noise to move to from the country’s recent past and present, and the aural flow is erratic, surprising and fun — though time-shifts often freeze newbie-groovers midstep. A few simple drum and bass-like dohl-claps can double in a millibeat, and a lingering Hindi or Punjabi vocal speeds into a driving chant (often male, a nice change from typically female-sung house/trance).
“I knew the music was amazing and would bring people out,” The Kid says. “The city had nothing like it, and people were tiring of house. Maybe the closest played around was Jungle, which is one of the more recent sounds, but even that dates to the ’90s.”
According to Anju, The Kid’s flavor is “more adventuresome,” favoring Canadian, U.S. and British remixed versions of songs from world-popular Bollywood films, mixes created by what The Kid himself calls “bedroom producers.”
Per The Kid, Anju “will stick more with the Bhangra producers, and basic Bollywood tracks. I don’t mind playing Indian pop, but she’ll often play more Punjabi and Hindu tracks.”
In a nifty twist for future Portland club-lore, the pair is being flown to New York City to play at legendary SoHo club S.O.B.’s Bhangra Basement, this eve of New Year’s Eve, four years and a night from when they first dropped their dohl-driven sound here.
“This is amazing,” The Kid says. “This is like the highest honor you can get for DJ’ing this type of music.”
Andaz is at 10 p.m. the last Saturday of each month beginning in the Fez Ballroom, 316 S.W. 11th Ave.; 503-221-7262. 21 and over.
– Lee Williams Special to The Oregonian December 24, 2004
**************************************************************************************************************
NEW YEAR’S EVE
THE INCREDIBLE KID AND THE HOUSE PARTY DJ POSSE STARRING DJ ANJALI, DJ PEREGRINE, AND MORE
(Medicine Hat) YES! This just in: The Incredible Kid, known to host some of the most elaborately kickin’ house parties in North Portland, gets his own New Year’s night! A man whose record collection rivals that of only one or two select Everyday Music employees, he’ll bust out a spizzity-spin of breakbeats, then throw on some obscure Latin record (his specialty), and maybe a couple Seana Carmody-era Swirlies tunes to get the blood pumpin’. The majority of New Year’s options were looking pretty pathetic ’til now, but now you’ve got reason to brave the streets, SO HELP ME JESUS! The Incredible Kid and his entourage of sexy-ass DJs are just the mambo-licious booty tickler you need to make 2001 a rump-shakin’ success. JS
Portland Mercury December 2000
**************************************************************************************************************