date 5th of May
format digital, vinyl (tbc)
Following the release of the POSITION mixtape at the beginning of the year (listen HERE & see video HERE), here is PANGAR’s first album POSITION. The duo looks at the world from Reunion Island and from imaginary otherworlds, uncharted islands burning through creole sounds and polyrhythms.
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PANGAR are Kwalud and Betnwaar, DJs, producers and sweaty revelry organizers based in Reunion Island, also known as the Sauvage Sound System. Their 1st EP on Infiné was released in 2020. The duo has been performing for years in the Indian Ocean area (India, Mauritius, Mayotte, Madagascar) and Africa (Uganda, Burkina Faso, South Africa) and collaborates with local maloya artists
such as LINDIGO or ANN O’ARO. As PANGAR, their 1st live was presented at NUITS SONORES (Lyon, France) in May 2022.
”PANGAR“ is derived from the Réunion Island Creole „Prends Garde“, meaning ”watch out!“ or ”attention!” — and that’s not a question, it’s an imperative. The music of Kwalud and Betnwaar is not just a melting pot but rather an explosive cocktail of ideas, influences, rhythms and sounds. There is an almost extreme energy bubbling at the core of their music as they whip and snap in an ongoing dance of tension and release.
Over 15 years after relocating to La Réunion and taking in as well as becoming part of the islands fascinating mix of cultures, the pair produce a percussive blend of electronic music with a creole super engine fuelled by a unique spin on Reunion Island’s musical heritage, bass music and a furious determination to make it dance all over the planisphere. In a constant clash of influences, they travel imaginary otherworlds, burning through urban sounds from both hemispheres.
In the very DNA of Créole cultures, everything is inextricably linked: like electric shocks traveling through a brain, new connections and combinations are made every millisecond. Drawing influence from Maloya, Soca, Dancehall, Indian Percussion, contemporary UK Club Music (the list could go on forever) as well as societal and cultural themes both on La Réunion as well as the world, the two musicians create something truly unique and captivating. Rythms collide, mutate and interweave in the shadows of a mysterious, uncharted island, and we never know wether they’re kissing of fighting.
PANGAR’s experimental, polyrythmic bass music simultaneously heralds and refuses the end of our world. Their urgent, auditive poetry is echoed live by Fegré’s striking visual artwork. Watch out!
« Never settling clouds of dust, rudeness and vulgarity are the halo of heated snafu-cities. Weed pushes through the cracks of abandonned parking areas, and a crumbling cliff’s shadow rules over the high road. There’s rumours beating the streets, the bounding pulse running through your system, the shakings of the earth. It all crawls under your skin ; the worn out, scattered shreds of history stitched back together like a beggar’s carpet. »
