As rap music becomes a numbing homogeneity in today’s pop scene, a local ex-rapper has taken to expand his musical horizon and ‘salvage’ his love for hip hop by exploring the more inventive electronica chill/dance, nu-beat format. R-H started recording as a rapper in 1994. His moniker then was Raj, an abbreviation of his real name Rajesh Hardwani. His decidedly homespun rap sound was captured on the indie-debut Ethnic Jam. Since then, he has stayed true to that album’s title, if not the style, to forge a fresher blend of ethnic Asian chill/dance rhythms rooted in hip hop. This R-H ‘jam’ is now the accomplished album that is Black Asia Vol.1.      “Beats. I love percussion and I have this affinity to black Afro-American music” is how the 34 year-old, self-taught (midi-) musician nails the premise of his sound that some might describe as big beat electronica-dance. “I usually start with a beat, typically a hip hop beat, and I take it from there.” His long list of musical influences include Earth Wind & Fire, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, LL Cool J, Mozart, Bach, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and A.R.Rahman.      On Black Asia Vol.1, one hears a wide range of ethnic Asian instruments, including erhu, pipa, santur, sitar, tabla, hiradaiko, koto, kloong yaw and kluy phiang oo.  To R-H, fusing ‘Asianism’ with the dance sounds of the West is a challenge that fascinates and motivates him.      Wholly self-financed, Black Asia Vol.1 is released on R-H’s own label Black Asia Recordings. He had tried signing with an American indie label to market an earlier single Crack (now included on the album) but found it unfruitful. One ‘external’ help he gainfully sought was getting Ron Boustead to master the album. The latter is responsible for mastering Lenny Kravitz’s American Woman and Sixpence None The Richer’s There She Goes.      The guitar-driven big beat thumper Crack did catch the attention of the West, winning an honorable mention in the International Songwriting Competition (ISC) 2004, a contest based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Better yet, in the results that surfaced a fortnight back, another R-H track Sushi won the second prize in the competition’s Dance/Electronica category, clinching for the artist US$1,000-worth of merchandising and services. The competition boasts of some famous judges including Macy Gray, Aaron Lewis of Staind, the Crystal Method and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos. Over 11,000 entries were received from 77 countries in that competition.      The track Sushi showcases the Japanese bamboo flute shakuhachi and some shomyo chanting over groovy hip hop lounge-beats.      R-H’s endeavour to push his tracks to the overseas market has also paid off handsomely in the UK. When Trickbaby’s Steve Ager, whom R-H has been sending his demos to, compiled tracks for the Virgin UK compilation Asian Beat Bazaar, he included the R-H’s song Tim Sum Vindaloo (it is currently on regular rotation on our island’s nu-chill station Lush 99.5 FM). With its classical Chinese soundbites atop tabla-hinged breaks, the song is a standout alongside tracks by Jay Sean, Raghav, Panjabi MC and Beenie Man on the 2004-compilation.      BBC Asia Network’s deejay Adil Ray considers Tim Sum Vindaloo one of the most innovative tracks of the year and describes the song thus: “Think Bruce Lee mashed up with Amitabh Bachchan”. The track has also been selected for the magazine Global Rhythm’s July 2005 CD-sampler, that has a circulation of 65,000.      Already preparing for his next album Black Asia Vol.2, R-H is also doing remix-work for Trickbaby and another US-artiste he would rather not disclose just yet, while the Chicago dance act Datasphere has chosen to remix the booming track Battle off Black Asia Vol.1. The busy musician is also planning for some of his mixed-tapes to be featured on UK and Dutch radio.      On what, to him, is the Singapore sound… .      “We don’t have one. We have a whole bunch of them. But if there’s one, it’s the karanguni (rag-&-bone man) air-horn, ” he says. It is this air-horn sound that kicks off Black Asia Vol.1 as an intro and reprises as a lead in the song Salvation Man. In that sense, Black Asia Vol.1 could be construed as a musical statement that hip hop saves and Asia dares to get ‘black’ in the hands of one salvation-man. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Black Asia Vol. 1 is available from R-H’s website www.rh.hk.  Tune in to The Lush Mix on May 7, Saturday 9 pm, on Lush 99.5 FM for an hour of R-H’s mixed selections.