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Martin Guttridge-Hewitt
25 April 2023, 11:42

Balraj Singh Samrai & Farah Ahmad Khan’s climate justice-themed single, ‘Planet People Power’, gets GoldTooth remix with Rootz: Listen

The track explores the impact of climate change on diaspora communities

Balraj Samrai and Farah Ahmad Khan Planet People Power
Pranav Saji Krishnan

Balraj Singh Samrai and Farah Ahmad Khan's 'Planet People Power' has been given a new remix by British-Tamil producer GoldTooth. Listen below. 

The original 11-minute track was commissioned by the Manchester Museum and Season for Change, and explores the pan-African, Caribbean, Indigenous and South Asian diaspora's relationship to climate change and justice. The new interpretation cuts this down to under four minutes, with verses from Mancunian-Malawian MC Rootz, and a video by Wing-Yan, a prominent director also based in the city. 

Continuing with the North West England-talent pool, Samrai is the DJ, producer, promoter, and co-founder of the influential former label and party Swing Ting. He and Khan have collaborated a number of times in the past, including works for Manchester International Festival and Opera North, while Khan's solo endeavours involve poetry, lyricism, storytelling and performance.

Interviews with a number of experts in this field are interspersed with the music itself. These include climate activist and researcher Pooja Kishinani, curator of indigenous perspectives Alexandra P. Alberda, and Manchester-based writer, performance artist and producer Keisha Thompson. Gavsborg, of Jamaican crew Equiknoxx, also provides prose on the role green spaces play in marginalised communities, alongside Asian Dub Foundation's Pandit G.

“During the making of the ‘Planet-People-Power’ film it was important to capture the feeling of deep pain and place it outside of space and time in our visuals. We focused on the theme of claustrophobia and utilised uncomfortably tight shots throughout the filmmaking process," said Yan of the clip.  

"The idea of choking was important, it bore right down from initial thoughts in pre-production all the way through to final delivery," they continued. "In terms of aesthetic, as diaspora ourselves we were trying to imagine a future beyond a destructive past and present that is out of our control, and at the same time create a space led by voices that understand well what is needed to live a full and happy life.”