Mixing Hiphop

Not content with DJing his way around the world, writing for symphony orchestras or composing film soundtracks, the workaholic Sawhney returns with another wildly varied selection of global pop songs. In the past he has sometimes sounded too clever for his own good, as with the barrage of archive fragments on his last album, Human, but this is his most assured, relaxed and successful work yet. The starting point may be cool, contemporary pop ballads like Spark, but he soon veers off into a musical travelogue, mixing strings, flute or sitar in with his keyboards and programmed beats. There's a bit of everything in here, from songs like Dead Man, with its seamless switching between an all-American blues-like riff and an Asian theme, through to a dash of gospel and funk, a poem in Hindi read by his mother, or the more urgent, passionate flamenco-influenced songs featuring Ojos de Brujo, with Nitin joining in on guitar as well.