Home » Music » Electronica » Back To Mine: Talvin Singh

Back To Mine: Talvin Singh

© Katherine Wharmby

I came across Talvin Singh's compilation Back to Mine on the Net. It's album number eight in the Back To Mine series of compilations, released by the independent record label DMC. DMC also started Mixmag, the famous electronica magazine. The Back To Mine compilations feature a well-known DJ playing his favorite tracks, which are often by obscure artists you can't find anywhere else. So far, Nick Warren, Dave Seaman, Danny Tenaglia, Groove Armada, Faithless, Everything but the Girl, Morcheeba, and now Talvin Singh have done compilations in the series.

Listening to Talvin's compilation really does sound like you've gone "back to his", as in his place, watching him excitedly pull out crates of ridiculously obscure LPs. He dusts off some cuts by musicians I've never heard of, and a lot of them are by South Asian artists. We've known Talvin likes to support his fellow Indian musicians since he put out his own compilation, Anokha: Soundz of the Asian Underground, so the Eastern flavor of the album's no surprise.

I was surprised, however, by the tempo of the compilation. I know the Back to Mine series is focused on chill-out music, but I was still listening for the frenetic tabla drumming that I've come to expect not only from Talvin, but also from his favorite South Asian musicians. This album is seriously mellow, and the usual psychedelic bursts of sitar and soprano singers have been replaced by sparse beats, rumbling bass, and deep, murmuring voices like Ali Farka Toure's on the track Mali Dje. Even full-sounding tracks like Dance, by U. Srinivas & Michael Brook, go for complicated texture instead of intricate pace. The song's misnamed; it makes you want to sit down and listen closely to it, instead of inspiring you to get up and move around.

Talvin also likes dub. Cave of Angels, by Dreadzone, lumbers and echoes. There's touches of Indian sonic style in here too, linking it nicely to the tracks by Eastern musicians on the compilation. Dub Tractor's W30 sounds like Air and Stereolab holding King Tubby hostage and making him play a Moog. The strings in the background, and the percussion that comes in at the end of the song, again give the song an Indian tone that makes it blend with the other tracks and give the compilation a signature theme. Sometimes Talvin whips out stuff that wasn't electronica to begin with, but now that it's