Engine-Earz & DJ Luxy - Kaliyuga

Massssive track!

Cheb I Sabbah "La Ghriba: La Kahena remixed" (2006)

DJ Cheb I Sabbah makes world-wide music. He's one of the artists that doesn't have boundaries. That is something I value and in my opinion, DJ Cheb I Sabbah is an extraordinary musician whose album "La Ghriba: La Kahena remixed" I'm going to give an overview.

The first track called Toura Toura is remixed by DJ Sandeep Kumar. Unfortunately the first track is not one of my favourites. Maybe the beat is not calling me for a dance or it's the vocals that do not blend with the other instruments. In my opinion the remix by The Chakadoons is better.
Second track Sadats which consists of a nice rap rhythms and original Sadats track. Interesting composing, not bad at all. New and refreshing! This is the kind of fusion I have not heard before.

Third track called Alkher Illa Doffor is one deep sh*t. This is true hardcore remix with techno beats and great Indian rhythms! This is the track to play at the party or in a car with a very good sound system. Deep, deep remix! One of my firm favourites from this album!

There are many reasons why I like this remix cd. One of them is the track called Esh 'Dani, Alash Mshit. This is the thing to listen! One of the best club fusion I've heard! I really like this simple trance base and this interesting vocal. Together they make extremely good track, awfully compelling track. I guess this is the most listened track from the albums of Cheb I Sabbah. I suggest you to listen to it!

The other strong part of this album is the beats. You can find so many different beats that are really interesting. Just as the other interpretation of Sadats (The Sufi Sonic remix). The beats is the best part of this track.

The last track Im Ninalou is like a pearl on the album. Instead of heavy beats, I found a woman singing in a very tender way and trip-hop sounds that always make my head spin around. Combined with an orchestra with stringed instruments it's altogether a very, very nice track! I guess when Gaurav Raina from Midival Punditz is remixing it, the reslut cannot be bad!

Overall, Cheb I Sabbah has got a lot to offer and this album is one of the party albums that I'm happy to own. Maybe not the most beautiful cover, but at least it's not thoroughly made of plastic.

Listen to the clips here

Top ten

I've listened the kind of Asian music for some time now. I started using Last.fm program about two years ago and now I can tell you who I have listened most since then. These are the musicians that I found first, well at least first 10 of them. Anyways, it would be nice to hear who's your most listened artists!

Bobik's most listened artists in the past 2 years:

Nitin Sawhney
Karsh Kale
Talvin Singh
Banco de Gaia
Badmarsh & Shri
Bally Sagoo
Midival Punditz
Asian Dub Foundation
Navdeep
Bombay Dub Orchestra

Most listened tracks:

Nitin Sawhney "Homelands"
Badmarsh & Shri "Signs"
Nitin Sawhney "Beyond Skin"
Karsh Kale "Beautiful"
Bonobo "Terrapin"
Jay Dabhi "Mumbay After Dark"
Bally Sagoo "Salaam Dub"
Midival Punditz "Bhangra Fever"
Badmarsh & Shri "Get Up"
Karsh Kale "New Born Star"

Talvin Singh "Back To Mine" (2001)

Talvin Singh's Back To Mine mix-album is almost a perfect chill-out album. If we leave out Swati Natekar's Kabhi Unke Milan Ke Asha Ne and Trilok Gurtu's Om, it's 100% full of goodies!

For Example Craig Armstrong is an excellent composer and his Weather Storm is a great chill opening track. Or Michael Brook's Dance, which starts slowly-slowly and then collects some power under it and finally it one of the funkies tracks I've listened.
Dreadzone's Cave of Angels is another briliant track. Pure chill-out, I enjoy especially the variety of instruments used in it, they blend well together.
Vibrasphere's Monsoon suits well into the mix-album with it's gloomy sounds! Also Photek's Lost Blue Heaven is something to play again and again. it's just so good album that it's hard to find something negative. Most of the tracks are so well picked!
Mix-album's last track is Nusrat fateh Ali Khan's Musst Musst (Massive Attack remix). This track is like a caramel candy. Outside tasty caramel and inside juicy jam. Massive Attack has done a great job remixing this old track by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. I think, this is one of the best tracks on this compilation. Most of the prevoius electronic chill-out music is awesome, but there's so much power in Nusrat's voice and with the music, it's one of my favourite picks from this album!

Nils Petter Molvaer's Song of Sand

Karsh Kale "Broken English" (2006)

Broken English is the third album from Karsh Kale to be reviewed by Asian Melodies. It's quite obvious that KK is one of our favourite artists and I'm happy to tell you that this is again a very good album!

Broken English is yet again music that connects West and East. Global electronic music. Karsh Kale's music is perfect fusion. Sometimes listening to other artists, I feel that West and East is connected violently in their music. They don't blend together. Karsh Kale doesn't have that problem.
For example second track on this album, Dancing At Sunset. There's modern beats with nice guitar tunes mixed with percussion and tabla drums. Vocals in English and Indian? only makes it more perfect. Even better example is Beautiful (unfortunately there's only mix version available), which is one of the greatest tracks in Asian-British scene! It's just so tender and sweet that I don't understand why I haven't heard it so far from the radio. Compared to Punjabi MC's tracks, its also definitely worth playing in Western music radio channels. Beautiful is beautiful because it's vocals, bansuri sounds and modern beats. I have to point out that Midival Punditz's team is also behind this track. Seems that they prove again that they can make great tracks!

Otherwise, most of the album is full of dreaming sounds, yet so powerful ones. I would call it a dreaming techno sound. Pretty contradictional sounds, but awfully great ones!
A track called Drive is the one where's no powerful techno sounds. This is the one actually to listen before going to sleep. No vocals, just sitar and electronic sounds.
Opposite to Drive is Hole In the Sky, which is excellent track with deep tabla drum sessions (KK is the best with drums). There's so much action in it that it seems like I'm listening to a soundtrack from an action movie.

Listen to clips of all tracks from this album in Amazon.com
This is an album that you should definitely listen to!

(Due to broken disc I cannot review last third of this album. Thanks to HMV ;) Having listened to it before, I can tell you that the rest of the album is as good as the first part of it. If you have chance take a closer look!

Midival Punditz "Midival Punditz" (2002)

A few weeks ago I felt that there isn't too many old Asian albums to buy. I thouht I've got most of the important ones. Of course, I was wrong. I knew that on this Midival Punditz album, one excellent track Bhangra Fever was there, but didn't know that there are many other good tracks!
Midival Punditz debut album is a real kicker. There's so much to enjoy. It starts with a great chill out track Air. Reminds me of these cheap meditating albums that you can find from esoterica shops. But, there's more sounds in it, breakbeat sound makes it an interesting track to listen. Also vocal sample suits into it very, very well. Love it!

Bhangra Fever is the kind of track that you will remeber forever. It's amazing what they have done with bhangra music and breakbeat. It's hard to describe it with words, but it blends awfully well together and it's definitely my next favourite track from MP after Ali (with Kailash Kher).
I started thinking what is that differentiates Midival Punditz from other breakbeat artists. The answer is that MP makes kind of a mysterious sounds. In other words, I would call it minimal breakbeat. And again, I have to say, it's excellent. Best example to it is Mercury. If something in my opinion is minimal breakbeat, then this is the one.

I have told you that my weak point in Asian music is the vocals. Especially female vocals that are so tender that can break so, so quickly. Smriti Minocha is one of the songbirds of India, performing this time on track called Night. Her voice is very beautiful and it suits well with this lazy beat music.

God Of Love is also another masterpiece in my opinion. So simple, yet so dancable. Sometimes I hear a track and think that it's a good one, but there's something missing in it. God Of Love is the track that I think to have everything. No need to change it. Very, very nice breakbeat music for the feet!

Dark Age finishes the album and does it very well. Lazy beat mixed with yet another great Indian vocal plus nice instrumentals. Together makes it my second favourite track on this album.

After many listenings I still think this is oe of the best Indian electronic music albums so far. I'm totally in love with it!

Nitin Sawhney "London Undersound" (2008)

Sensational moment :)
I'm writing a review on a release day.

Nitin Sawhney's new album is more like a collection of thoughts after London terrorist attacks in 2005. This certainly is a very delicate subject and we all have our memories and thoughts about it.

There are some who have written an overview about the album, but almost doesn't mention the music. I don't concentrate so much on words than on musical side. Words have always been important to me, but the music is the device to bring the words to me. Sometimes the music does not do that. Or, just think of a person who doesn't understand English... He or She will always understand the melody and that's why it's the first and the most imporant thing in music.

Days Of Fire is full of words, but a bit emty of melody. I mean, let's just forget about London for once, then it's just an average track to me.
It's a different thing with October Daze, which is quite nice soft vocal track which reminds me of Finnish band Husky Rescue track Diamonds In the Sky. October Daze has got much more power in it, more juicy, but the kind of pop is still not what I'm looking for.
Bring It Home is again better than October Daze. Colourful jazzy rhythms with sweet vocal makes it a great track. There's the kind of speedy rhythms that Nitin is great at and this is the first track that I really like much.
Paul McCartney is a great musician. He's got a great voice that gives you hope. When listening to a track called My Soul with McCartney I feel like everything is possible. Strange, isn't it? Overall, a fair track indeed.
Distant Dreams, like Bring It Home is a great jazz track.
Shadowland is the track that I like most on this album. "There's a satisfying congruence between the sound-worlds of Sawhney and Ojos de Brujo in Shadowland" (Andy Gill) Love it. Sawhney's electronic work really blends well together with de Brujo's instruments.
Ek Taan is also beautiful. Piano + a very tender asian vocal makes it another favourite. Something to listen to again. I Guess there's the key hidden - lovely track doesn't have to be too complicated, with too many instruments etc.
Transmission with city sounds is interesting, but nothing special. I feel Nitin's handwriting from previous albums and this doesn't sound new to me. Lacking electric guitar maybe, more massiveattackalike sounds maybe?
Last Train To Midnight is flirting a bit with dubstep? Quite interesting track. The kind of track that the more you listen to it, the more you like it. Lot's of different sounds, a diverse track with nice female vocal. Again, I would expect more power in it. More anger, more frustration because of what happened.
Last track with Anoushka Shankar Charu Keshi Rain is the most India-influenced track on this album. Anoushka Shankar is goreous with her sitar play and the orchestra adds a depth to the track. Nice one!

Overall, it's not a bad album but not my favourite also. Compared to Beyond Skin, which concentrated on nuclear bomb problem in the same way as this one on London attacks, it's a weaker album. Maybe it is because I expected more anger on this one and hoped that there will be many new sounds and rhythms.

In a way this album with soft and sweet sounds is the right one, because it shows that there's not much left when the world is controlled by suicidal bombers and we should take a minute and think about it. But it's the music that has to come first.

Listen to samples here

Trickbaby "Chor Bazaar" (2008)

Listen to the samples here

The sound of Chor Bazaar offers real substance which never fails to get the adrenaline flowing. The delicious mishmash of eclectic beats and soft, down-tempo vocals make it a solid, polished album expanding on the sound that Trickbaby crafted in their debut. An enjoyable album.

Trickbaby's first album was a real hit in UK in 2004. Now, four years later I can say that this one has to be at least as good as the previous one! I've been listening to it about two months and I'm enjoying it much! The reason is...

diverse sounds. There's many different musical instruments used and they blend well together.
The album starts with a track called Fighter. It's got great jumping beats, when listening to it you want to stand up and start dancing. Saira Hussein's voice is maybe a little bit soft when singing about being a fighter, but it doesn't ruin the whole pic.
My favourite track on this album is Baja. Starts with drums and mild vocal from Hussein. It's the kind of down-tempo track that suits for dancing and also for easy listening at home. Percussion do suit very well here with harmonica and and Husseins voice. I recommend you to listen to it (link above).
Light Up My Life is also chill track to listen. Hussein's voice makes it a softer track than it originally is. Seems to me that the vocal stills uits well with other instruments and makes the tracks more soft and tender. The same is with Babu. Otherwise an average track, but female vocal makes it a lot better.
Chor Bazaar is quite funny track. Russian male vocal + acordian + violin + bhangra = russian bhangra? Anyways, this is something you cannot expect and first it sounds too weird. Later I got used to it and now it seems just a track with lots of power in it.
Nine Parts is like All Saints has come back together. At least at some point it sounds very Western, too much pop music sound maybe?
Neelaa is totally opposite to all other tracks on this album. Pure club track. Something that makes my feet want to dance. I loved the first version of Neelaa and 08' is also awesome! Very nice beats and guitar tunes in it!

All together Trickbaby's second album is worth listening and themore I listen to it, the more I like it. A very diverse album indeed!