Before
the release of this album, Kasanova as an artist in the whole
sense was much of an unknown quantity to the average listener
and was mainly known for his considerable contribution with
the extremely successful "Danger" album. His album,
as with other debut albums, gives an opportunity to signal his
arrival by developing and showcasing his own unique style and
therefore stamp his authority onto the music scene. He was well
promoted and was expected to release this album in March on
the Untouchables label but in the end he has released it on
the label 'Insight Entertainment' which is new one for me. I'm
not sure for the reasoning behind this sudden change; I'll leave
you to come to your own conclusions, but I guess it's good for
the bhangra scene that we have another quality new label.
Normally
I never find Intro's anything to comment much on, but this one
is different, you can actually find sense in it. It is clips
from the recent BBC Asian network show that was presented by
Metz and Trix. It's funny and proves, if indeed there was any
doubt, of the universal appeal of Metz, Trix and to a lesser
extent Kasanova.
The next
track is Ludhiana. I'll kick off with the bit you wanna know
most - It's a PHAT track! Right, now that's over and done with,
I'll explain for all you wannabe producers out there why: The
appeal of this track fundamentally boils down to its simplicity
and consistency at a subconscious level. Not until you analyse
the structure in minute detail do realise that the track is
separated into the sung and MC'ing portions by the different
background music used for each throughout the track. The unifying
factor being the pulsating bass effect, the quick drum sequence,
which signals the switching between the two. The MC'ing portions
use an effect, which gradually increases in tempo leading you
almost naturally to the chorus, whereas the sung portion has
a very simple backing. The vocals are crisp and clear and the
MC'ing works well because of its specific structural role within
the track. However the final portion of MC'ing, which ends the
track seems very unnecessary and breaks the musical unity, giving
the track an abrupt end.
Onto
track 3, namely Cham Cham. This track is obviously a blend of
many ethnic styles. The music maintains a smooth feel to it
despite it being made up of many instruments. This technique
is by no means unique but a very difficult skill to pull off
successfully, the tendency being to get a mass blend of many
sounds which unaccompanied may sound ok but with the vocals
you end up either drowning them out or not matching the tempo
of them. The 'snake charming' music is off putting at first
but on listening to it a few times you realise it blends in
well with the overall feel and the tone of the singer.
I'm gonna
quit with my blueprints for musical moneymaking cos I'm sure
someone gets paid a lot of money to advise producers on stuff
like that, and after all they will just say, what do I know?
Anyway, back to track 4, Aaja. Another well put together track
in terms of musical composition. The unusual thing about this
track is that is has a dual chorus, but it works very well,
and seems to be a good way to integrate the MC'ing into the
song, which is fantastically sung and has strong lyrics, both
facts are emphasised by the slight echo effect used.
Next
is Jump up. Don't know quite what to make of this one, but from
my limited experience with this type of music I think it needs
a stronger bass and a more defined treble element, possibly
by adding another in. As it is it just seems to lack that little
bit something.
Number
6 is called Tere Naal. It has a boliyan feel to it, the music
is very uninspiring, the lyrics don't do much either, something
which isn't helped by the synthesising of the voice. Sticks
out like a sore thumb in context of the album and doesn't go
with the other styles being put across.
The aptly
named garage breaks 'Ayia Napa' mix does have elements of mainstream
here, such as the first minute of music, which could have been
taken from any Ibiza chill out Cd available on the market. The
rest, to be honest is a big mismatch between the music and lyrics.
Not much here to get excited about maybe the instrumental to
this will be used for another song somewhere down the line.
I'm told
this 'Goa' mix of Neend has done very well in India and rightly
so. The music classy, modern and oozes individuality. This really
exploits the talent of Kasanova fully, it is almost a shame
there are no words, but then again not a lot of songs could
co-exist in the locality of such music. It almost goes without
saying that Dj's everywhere are already up and running mixing
this one with any track they can.
Dare
I say the last track Vada, has a very Bally Sagoo feel to it.
It is very melodious in a love song sort of way. It portrays
and carries a lot of emotion and would grace any love song.
But it doesn't do much for the majority of people buying albums.
The album
finishes with the outra, which is a carbon copy of the intro
with more radio clips. I just love the call from Samaya, who
tells Trix to get over their for her sister otherwise she's
gonna collapse. It's just the way she say's it, that makes me
laugh and the trio's reaction is cool. When you hear this you'll
know what I mean.
As a
debut album it more than fulfils its purpose, indicating in
no uncertain terms the depth, variety and versatility of his
talent. Maybe in trying to achieve this too much it has detracted
from giving people what they want and instead satisfying critics,
with this in mind it will probably be more interesting to see
what he does next now that he has cleared this obstacle. The
talent is undoubted and we will definitely something more to
the bhangra scene. The fact that all the music is his own composition
should be noted by other artists and is something, which could
end up in his scope being ultimately more than just Bhangra.
Taking everything into consideration, I would give the album
a 7 out of 10, as it has something for everyone. Like I said,
maybe on his next offering he should not experiment as much
and stick to the basics and produce music what people like,
but then it will be said that it's nothing different to the
usual stuff, so he needs to get a balance between the two if
that's possible.
Review
by: Usman |
