 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook Like most CDs from Peter Gabriel's Realworld label, this one seems like a really cool exploration of world music on the surface, but feels more and more shallow with each listen. The lesson I've learned is, you can't get your world music from white Westerners. They may be more enlightened about the grandeur of the non-Western world's music, but all they really bring to it is a flair for attractive packaging. Don't even get me started on David Byrne, that guy needs to just fricking ROCK OUT already. "Hey, get him away from that Brazilian rhythm section!" I shout from the production booth. "Give him a Les Paul or something!" Which is not to say it's bad music, by any means. For this release, DJ's from the "Asian Underground" (mainly, Asian Londoners) have remixed five cuts from the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan/Michael Brook collaborations Night Song and four from Khan's Mustt Mustt. The remixes are by and large done reverently, none bringing too much of an edge to the music. This is the sort of album that someone who listens to no drum'n'bass or techno music might find to be exciting and cutting edge, but genre aficionados will find to be pretty straightlaced. Or maybe not, because I found it to be pretty straightlaced and I don't really listen to any electronic music at all. It might be the case, in fact, that this is the most innovative music ever made, but it's just not to my taste. Or perhaps it's my profound hatred of any culture but my own, coupled with my crippling fear of turntables. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's voice is definitely one of the greatest and most distinctive you'll ever hear, and it is well-suited to the trancey trip-hop production employed by the remixers, although it is predominently used as an effect rather than a focal point. Only a couple of the tracks (State of Bengal's remix of "Shadow" and Nitin Sawhney's remix of "Tracery") preserve the original vocal as a "lead vocal" (although the latter adds a spoken-word narration over the top). The best cuts are Black Star Liner's "My Comfort Remains" remix and Talvin Singh's "My Heart, My Life" remix, not surprising given that these were the two most accessible tracks on the Night Song album. The DJs, for the most part, do not seem overly inventive, not that I am an expert, but none of the tracks seemed particularly challenging (or engaging). Very good music for 3am on Friday night, as the Ectsasy begins to wear off and "Law & Order" is over, but in the end this is very much a 90s album that won't make a whole lot of sense in a few years, when flying cars are our main mode of transport and meals consist of tiny metal canisters implanted directly in the heart.
Review by Don Dorko |