Cafe Bombay

"simply the best Indian sampler to come along yet..." Okay, make yourself a cup of chai and get ready to start your musical day. This CAFE BOMBAY CD has really got under my skin and I have played it a lot in the last two months. The sequence and selection was done by a Scotsman formerly associated with Triple Earth Records, Iain Scott, and he has done a superb job, making this CD a joy to play over and over. It starts quietly and contemplatively and then gradually builds to a crescendo in the middle and then falls away again, like a busy day in Bombay (I imagine).

CAFE BOMBAY is simply the best Indian sampler to come along yet. It's set up as a day in the life of a dreamer who works in a café in Bombay. He hears various things from traditional flute and sitar to the film music of A.R. Rahman to grinding dance tracks, and the whole thing has a pleasant day-dream quality to it.
The collection only has a couple of familiar tracks and basically charts new territory, unlike the scads of second-rate Bhangra compilations which all start to sound the same after a while. The packaging is very handsome and makes me keen to check out the other discs in the Cafe series. Though the cover says it contains "track by track commentary," these notes are like prose poems, discussing the comings-and-goings in the imaginary cafe. The selections might send you off looking for the original albums they came from, but then again sometimes the best track is all you need, and in this regard this is a collection of first rate tunes culled from a wide variety of sources.
"Yaro Yarodi," sung by three singers and written by Rahman, is very familiar, it may just be I am starting to recognise Rahman riffs, or I could have seen the film and forgotten the title since I don't speak Hindi. One good film tune begets another so we hear Lata Mangeshkar next: she's the old doll with the incredibly high voice that you either love or hate. There's a great rhythm that sustains this piece but it is followed by the Mother of all Grooves, Sukhwinder Singh's "Ghar Aaja", six minutes of head-banging bliss. Turn it up till the bass makes your crockery fall off the shelf! The song was from his 2000 album NASHI HAI NASHI HI. Tablas on reverb, tons of echo on the wailing vocals. I don't think it wasin a film, but the movie in your head is often enough.
Reviewer: Alastair Johnston ~ muzikifan.com

Track List

1.SHIVKUMAR SHARMA, BRIJBUSHAN KABRA & HARIPRASAD CHAURASIA - RAG PAHADI
2.SHANKAR MAHADEVAN - MAINE EK KHWAB
3.MAHALAKSHMI, VAISHALI & RICHA SHARMA - YARO YARODI
4.LATA MANGESHKAR (with Roop Kumar Rathod & Chorus) - NA MAIN DHARMI NA HI ADHARMI
5.SUKHWINDER SINGH - GHAR AAJA
6.PANKAJ UDHAS - ZINDAGI SE ULAJH KE
7.S.P.BALASUBRAHMANYAM & SADHANA SARGAM - SWASAME
8.SUKHWINDARA SINGH - DHOLNA

320 kbps mp3 l 105 mbs l Front and Rear scans

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