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Talvin Singh Quietly Releases New Album

© Katherine Wharmby

This week I was lucky. I managed to pilfer a copy of Talvin Singh's new album, Ha! from the Net. Why didn't I buy it? Because it's not yet available in the United States. It was released in the UK on March 5, 2001, and is for sale as an (expensive) import on Amazon.com, among other online stores.

Before I found and downloaded the album, however, I wasn't aware Singh had any new material at all. I did some Internet research, thinking Ha! might be a bootleg recording, and was surprised to see that it was indeed a new album. I'm curious as to why there was such a lack of publicity surrounding the release of Ha! , and why it hasn't yet been put out Stateside. I couldn't find any answers to these questions online.

According to the small amount of information I found on NME.com, Singh recorded Ha! at the Calcutta Cyber Cafe, his studio in London, (and also the name of his first album) and also in Bombay. The album again features Cleveland Watkiss, the English jazz singer who guest-starred on Singh's previous album, 1998's OK.

One, the first track on the album, features some of the coolest beats I've ever heard. You'd never expect the drumming on a Singh song to be bad; he's a world-class tabla player, after all. But he outdoes himself here. One starts mellow, all lazy kick-drum and sitar drone, and revs up and up, passing through one clattering snare roll after another, till it concludes with a crazy, double-time list of thank-yous from Talvin. He even messes up a few names and has to say them again. It's off-the-cuff and perfect.

Mustard Fields is a slow, easy concoction of go-go beats, lush Eastern strings, and nonchalant male vocals. It's a simple, celebratory song, with an earthy positivity that's a new emotional landscape for Singh's usually more ethereal music. It's a nice change.

The Beat Goes On will probably make it onto dance music radio, but for all the wrong reasons. The song's a watered-down version of Singh; the beats are boring, the Eastern sounds are perfunctory, and there are even beepy squelchy house sounds in here. Who are these musicians and what have they done with Talvin? How could he bring himself to write a chorus like "That's the way the beat goes down"? Has Craig David infected him with some weird two-step virus? Still, I would love to hear any Talvin song on American radio; if I have to settle for this one, so be it--at least he'll be getting airplay.

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