I thought this really had to be truly preposterous: a CD of 11 tracks, less than an hour long, claiming to be the "Greatest Songs Ever" from India. The playlist starts in the UK with a jamming bhangra cut from Saqi called "Sir Duke Da," and follows up with Pakistani great Nusrat doing his thing with remix by Partners in Rhyme (uncredited, but well-known from the "Bend it like Beckham" soundtrack), followed by the achingly beautiful "Ek Ladki Ko Dekha" by R.D. Burman sung by Kumar Sanu from the Hindi film "1942 Love Story." By track five, when we arrive at the first of two songs from Lata Mangeshkar, I no longer think it's such a pretentious claim. Not quite at the level of CAFE BOMBAY this CD is nevertheless a worthwhile and listenable set of contemporary Indian pop with a couple of Bhangra gems. Lata Mangeshkar's shrill tones may be hard for some listeners to take for extended periods, so her two appearances on here are interspersed with instrumentals. Table Beat Science is hardly Indian. I like Zakir Hussain's playing, while Karsh Kale does little for me, but it works in the flow and leads into a mellow groove from Lucky Ali. The dance flows on with Mantra Mix by Makyo, unfamiliar to me, but reminiscent of the early work of Cheb i Sabbah. Then the mood stops dead as we get another shot of Lata from an early soundtrack: shrill and low-fi, but not bad if you are into her work. It's not credited but a web search shows the source as the 1967 film "Jewel Thief," and more likely another Lata compilation called "The Greatest Film Songs." This is followed by Trilok Gurtu, sounding at first like Mahavishnu Orchestra (remember them?). The album goes out quietly with a moody Santoor peice by Shivkumar Sharma accompanied by Hariprasad Chaurasia on flute. There are recipes instead of liner notes: maybe that's what you need while listening to this album, though it does suggest ambient cafe listening rather than something for serious Indian music fans.
--Alastair Johnston