MUMBAI: The second single from Sarathy Korwar’s upcoming album, More Arriving – set to release on 26 July Bol features a breath-taking performance from London poet Zia Ahmed. The single, to release on 11 July, cuts to the beating heart of the record, exploring themes of being South Asian in an increasingly divided (Great?) Britain.

It follows the ‘Mumbai’ single, which features the heady talents of MC Mawali from Mumbai’s vibrant hip-hop scene. ‘Bol’ showcases a very different side to Korwar’s incredibly nuanced album, which draws on the voices of the Indian diaspora from various viewpoints, countries and continents.

Spoken word verses blossom into Aditya Prakash’s classical Carnatic refrains in the chorus, with the tension built up and expertly released several times over it’s almost ten-minute run time. The video is based on the shorter radio edit.

“The video asks what it takes to integrate into British society and be considered British,” Sarathy Korwar explains.

He further adds, “Juxtaposed on lyrics that describe the everyday racist stereotyping of South Asians, it’s an ironic look what it means to be brown in the UK today.”

There is dark humor at play in Ahmed’s lyrics, which is reflected in David Higg’s hard-hitting video.

“It’s about wanting to find home,” Ahmed explains. “It’s going through images and ideas of brownness and South Asian identity that have been placed on me and people who look like me, by others in the UK and also by myself. The words are trying to navigate through all of that to find a version of myself that I can call whole/home,” he adds.

Watch here