Very nice cover (above). Asian dub foundation is out with their new album "Tank" listen to their wacky song 'flyover'.My favourite is from their previous album, the song's called "Ta dheem" late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has lend his vocal with ADF doing their routine eletronicl wizardry. 

The Asian Underground

Before Swami Vivekananda made historic speech at the World's Parliament of religion in Chicago in Sept 1893 he cut out a deal with the orgnizers .He would introduce the West to the glories of Hinduism while someone else would introduce the virtues of Asian Underground to India one day.Well here I am brothers and sisters arise,awake!While reggae,rock ,classical,hindustani have their legions of listeners,the asian underground has never got its due respect in this age of bhangra, bhajan, qawalli. Perhaps it has something to do with swastika or maybe words mixed with hindi and english but most of the people I ve met haven't heard much from this genre.

The greatest exponents are Talvin singh, Nitin Sawhney, Karsh Kale and the recent popular Asian Dub Foundation. Recently I bought this amazing album called Human by nitin sawnhney and I can bet on the fact that this has got sounds that are out of this world .Tabla hindustani classical R&B it has got songs havin elements of all of these. Other beautifully composed songs are on his previous album Prophesy but its a bit more international its got a world music feel to it .The instrumental "breathing light" is pure sonic creme brule and the best creation by this artist.I won't talk of Talvin Singh because he is already too famous ,too accomplished that I blabber my critque but there is this new album State of Bengal the artist Sam Zaman has mixed out sitar tunes from the maestro Shankar Anand and he say's "The Asian Underground looked like a movement, which it doesn't now," noted Zaman. "Everyone is still doing their own thing, which is sometimes better. The roots were sown quite a long time ago, and they've developed." The movement got its start in London's Anokha club nights, organized by tablatronics guru Talvin Singh, and was documented on the 1997 album, Anokha: Soundz of the Asian Underground, where State of Bengal was represented by "Flight IC408" and "Chittagong Chill," two tracks that reappear on Visual Audio.

Another artist another album ,this one is by KK acronym for Karsh Kale (this is different than our desi crooner). Well Karsh is a finely-tuned engine of tabla-terror that gets inside your head and kicks your head. I call him the reincarnated Talvin Singh for more you can check out his album Realize and the new one Liberation. In addition to his solo projects, Kale has played along side, remixed and collaborated with Paul Oakenfold, DJ Spooky, Paula Cole, Herbie Hancock, Bill Laswell, Talvin Singh, Ustad Sultan Khan, Zakir Hussain and many many others. He's also leant his talents to four bands in NYC as main precussionist: Bell Cafe Band, Omzone, 32 Tribes and now Realize Live.

Now I am running out of time,the other mofussil of the Asian Underground one must look for are Badmaarsh Shri, Midival Punditz,Trick Baby and the ustad Trilok Gurtu.

Top 100 vh1 album covers Dont want this stratocaster? Give it to me then.

Religion and my life

I lead a surprisingly dull existence .My idea of an exciting evening is to make up my mind wether to buy Parle-G when shopkeeper says that he’s run short of Tiger.So when people would be going for rounds in temple ,doing langar or doing qawalli,bhajan and kirtan I would keep myself busy finding new ways to kill time. Actually religion has never had any lure for me but I recognize the right of others to worship in their search for truth and meaning ,solace and peace .Maybe when I am older I will join the flock .May be then i will come to believe that life is more than an accidental combination of disparate chemical compounds catalysed by volcanism and impact cratering on a planet coicidentally just the right distance away from a star That humans aren't just the current state of a thread of life trigerred by an autocatalytic systems that appeared on the earth 3.5billion years ago capable of passing information from one generation to next through DNA a chemical thread which rose from the primordial ocean and built all the lineage of organisns whose descendants populate the biosphere today. Maybe it will be easier to be happy then and accept gief with humility not anger .
It is easier to come to terms with defeat and misery by associating it to ill luck or inauspicious interplanetary configuration.It is like this, if worship had brought us happiness then India would've been a wonderfull place to live in . I feel that if atheist are unhappy then so be it, after all there is no big deal in being happy .I suggest that "The amount of tragedy you told in your heart is directly proportional to your creativity ."-- (write this down you won't get this in college physics) the perfect example is Vincent Van Goh ,imagine what he would' ve painted if his heart was at peace . I confess of not reading most of his work but just imagine Kafka being a happily married bearuecrate.Happiness is evanescent but unhappiness is essential apart from bringing out the best from individuals it is a part of evolution. India has produced great revolutionaries,engineers and entreprenuers not because we are backed by a deep rooted culture or inherited family values but because of the struggle for subsistence. I guess nobody gets this yesterday I saw my batchmate scribbling swastika on his answersheet maybe thats because physics and metaphysics go hand in hand in our country.