Sometimes an album arrives out of the blue, with no pre-trumpeting or foofawraw, that knocks you absolutely flat on your ass: '3 Cities’ is one and is probably going to be in my top 5 albums of the year.
Garry Hughes & Andrew T Mackay are the Bombay Dub Orchestra and the music that comes out from this pairing covers Bhangra, Bolly, Indian Classical sounds and beats with a light touch and an airy feel that is just about perfect. This is claimed as East-West Fusion but it has the heat and intensity of the Eastern music as the main force as well as the electro beats of the Westerners almost as a secondary theme.
This doesn’t sound as though the two have brought any pre-arranged ideas before they started to immerse themselves in the best of Indian music with contributions from Ouds, Darabukas, Bansuri (flute) and Sitar courtesy of master Sunil Das and incredible, atmospheric, vocals from Kartik. The meld with the beats and synthesiser is seamless and you find yourself completely mesmerised by the sheer beauty of the music surrounding you.
The opener, 'Egypt By Air’, has as its roots an old poster that the pair saw in Mumbai and there is a sense of the journey from the sub-continent to Africa as the huge synthesised basslines and strangled sitar give over to the soaring strings. 'Junoon’ has a beautiful flute gently played over a banjo as vocals by Meneka take you onward to a place that could only be Indian – almost Bollywood in style but more intense.
'Monsoon Malabar’ builds over massed vocals with really danceable grooves and beats to die for (from) and then we are into 'Feasting With Panthers’, a sublime mood piece with all sorts of light and shade in an almost European setting.
The closer, 'Amina’, is impossibly lovely and as it builds into a beat laden epic you are transported with the music to a place of wonders and excitement.
0 comments:
Post a Comment