Electric Taal Band

Daniel McLay is an inventive Canadian musician, composer and producer. He gained notoriety for cult chiptune project The J. Arthur Keenes Band before focusing on making short-run vinyl releases of local artists with his Local Dish label. When the pandemic struck, he switched back to solo work. After buying ‘every Punjabi record in the store’ from Toronto’s Bollywood Music Centre, he learned to play the tumbi, a one-stringed instrument used in Punjabi music, and acquired a Radel Talometer, an electronic tabla, and an electronic tambura – used by musicians to practice. He then created his own ‘minimal electronic style’ influenced by Punjabi folk. The result is a clever, quirky and varied set. On ‘Three Taals’ he uses a repeated percussion line to anchor a subtle wash of effects, while elsewhere he relies on a dominant bass line. He’s at his best when he mixes strong melodies with a sense of fun, as on ‘Billy Bombay’ and the slinky, finger-clicking ‘Bhamra’.