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Chords `n' Notes
Gangster
Sa Re Ga Ma, Rs. 145
Like most music tracks from the Mahesh Bhatt camp, this bunch of eight is also a good mix of slow and soft, loud and racy numbers. The ones that stand out are Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai, Lamha Lamha, Mujhe Mat Roko and Ya Ali. KK has done a good job of crooning Tu Hi... by bringing in so breezily the emotions of a man in love. Abhijeet and Sunidhi Chauhan too deserve credit for Lamhe... for being able to make listeners almost experience the clinking of two hearts. Ya Ali by Zubeen can be good company on a bike ride and Mujhe Mat Roko by Kavita Seth has the power to slow down your steps. The biggest dampener of the album though is Bheegi Bheegi by James. The song has an unusual tune but the singer lets down listeners at many places by breaking the tempo.
Mattafix: Signs Of A Struggle
EMI, CD, Rs. 350
Signs of A Struggle is Mattafix's debut attempt at an album after releasing the track "11:30" as a single in January 2005. The single was hailed as one of the best new sounds to hit the British music scene but sadly the album doesn't really comes close to the expectations that it created. Made up of West Indian Marlon Roudette and Preteesh Hirji, a person of Indian origin brought up in London's Harrow Road, their origins are diverse and that results in their music having a mix of hip-hop, trip-hop, dub, soul, reggae, garage and R `n' B, and the odd tabla mixed in by Hirji.The mix of genres is great but the first impression the album makes on a listener is — confusion. Struggle is probably the best word to describe the way the duo has gone about completing the album. All the numbers sound uniformly similar with Hirji throwing in some beats and Roudette liberally using his voice. If you have to take a few numbers out for special mention, you can't go beyond the first three.
Gangster Blues is a nice start to the album, with its deep beats and the unknown female lead voice. It feels like a "chill out" number but the lyrics are quite serious. They warn youth to avoid choosing a life of crime. Big City Life managed to rise up to 15 on the British music charts but it is mainly because it has a new sound. It is a mix of soul and old-school hip-hop and R `n' B. Passer By sticks to same mix of heavy beats and soulful lyrics but is at least better than what is to follow. The rest of the album is just varying permutations of the above mixture.
There is not one number that can be singled out. The duo say they are coming out with a second album soon but they definitely need to work on getting their music a little more "mixed-up", if they want offer something truly new.
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