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