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Rating: Monstrous talent - he plays guitar, piano, tablas divinely - Nitin Sawhney can be considered an intellectual tout court. Better yet, almost a Renaissance man, meaning that type of humanist artist who aims, as a choice, to destroy specializations and to engage with various artistic disciplines. Actor, screenwriter, writer, journalist, producer, remixer, DJ, musician, composer of soundtracks.
For this ravenous Bengali, nothing has been impossible in recent years as shown by the excellent "Philtre". "Beyond Skin" is his masterpiece dated 1999. What is striking is the flexibility to translate feelings, urges, emotions, and political positions into music with unconventional musical solutions. Additionally, the prodigious ability to bend one's talent to the song form, where two musical worlds converge, the acoustic and the electronic, in perennial contrast with each other. An elegant explosion of fragments of jazz, jungle, dub, flamenco, electronic, Indian classical music, and "London Beats". His sophisticated blend is so much that it seems like a musical summa of 4 Hero, Massive Attack, and Talvin Singh. Only immensely better. Each song is a kaleidoscope of sounds, emotions, spirituality, "real life"; a daily life often bitter and lived with suffering and nostalgia together.
All the songs would deserve mention, they are so beautiful and moving. But two are enough, masterpieces among masterpieces: "Letting Go" and "Homelands". The first is a ballad soaked in soft dub overtones, drenched in feelings, sung sublimely by Tina Grace. A story of departures, farewells, and broken hearts. It begins with a pouring rain that immerses us in an autumnal emotional state. Then a loose London groove is inserted, the acoustic guitar, and the piano in the distance delicately cushion the room where Tina Grace, in front of the rain-drenched window, sings with her heart resting on the windowsill. Tina's voice is so poignant and tinged with melancholy that it becomes irresistibly fatal for all of us, as if it were our beloved leaving. The vocal counterpoints of Jayanta Bose, a classical singer of the Bengal tradition, make the atmosphere evocative with the Indian violin biting here and there. In the finale, rhythmic dub crumbs soften the atmosphere in a most veiled and melancholic climate. Meanwhile, the rain keeps pounding and the street sounds let us know Tina has left. She's gone forever. Chilling. Perfect. "Letting Go" is a whirlwind of unforgettable emotions. And at the end, the dramatic violins of the 4 Hero string section (a precious presence throughout the album) intersect, giving the cue to "Homelands" creating an emotional unicum. On the majestic violins, the lively vocals of Nusrat Fateh’s nephews climb. A sort of ethnic-jazz scat with an impetuous progression, crossed by a flamenco guitar that soars vibrantly in the air. Then the breaks and tablas build up. The voices dissipate into echoes and counter-echoes. The effect is wonderfully bewildering. Then a female voice sets up a chorus. Again, one indulges in echoes and reverberations more elegant than ever. The flamenco guitar continues to invent itself on the fluttering violins, while Nina Miranda (yes, the fatal chanteuse of Smoke City) airs in Portuguese "fragile is the earth/just like the minds of men".
An album that was the apex of the Asian Underground. Innovative and courageous. A universal testimony or rather, a cry of a "second" generation. And of those to come.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Letting Go (04:49)
Now I often talk of my heart
How can I turn to the dark
And the swaying silence
I see, there’s nothing I can hold on to
You can’t breathe if I hold you tight
You can’t breathe if I hold you tight
Don’t be afraid of letting go
Don’t be afraid of letting go
Not of anything out of anyone
All alone here with my demons
Am I ready to move on
To a person or place
Alone away from here
And I miss you
And I lose you
And I found you
I choose to follow my heart
Don’t be afraid of letting go
Don’t be afraid of letting go
Not of anything out of anyone
Out of anything out of anyone
Don’t be afraid of letting go X6
03 Homelands (06:00)
Indians Part :
Vocal percussion
Calo language (gipsies language) Part :
Ya no malmite nadi
Second Indian part :
Sa da pa ma pa da
Ga ma pa ma pa da
Ga pa ma sa ni ni
( indian musical notes )
Portuguese Part :
Tudo o que quiser
(Everything you want)
Tem que entender
(You got to understand)
Nas palmas da mão
(In the palms of the hand)
Se tiver porquê
(If there is a reason)
Frágil nessa terra
(Fragile in this land)
Fácil derrubou
(Easy it fell)
Quando jogou fora
(When you through it away)
Tudo acabou
(Everything ended)
05 Tides (05:06)
France has carried out the first of a planned series of underground nuclear tests
At Modoroah Isle in the South Pacific
The French defence ministry said the magnitude of the explosion
Was aproximately the same as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima
07 Immigrant (06:21)
Also heavily advertised in local newspapers and daily’s
That they are encouraging for people to come down and work
And then we went to the embassy and they showed us
Kew Garden pictures and pictures of the various parts of England
That it is all that beautiful and everything is just right
And that’s why we just applied for the voucher.
You burn my flame within your hands
You know when my destiny falls
This time has insecurity
I feel, makes me restless inside
Will you take me there
To a distant place I’ve never been before
I could leave this world
I could follow you like oceans to the shore
You could take me there
Make the rivers of my mind flow to my dreams
You hold your secrets from my eyes
You see where the furthest rain falls
The day breaks over in the streams
You know where my rivers will flow
Will you take me there
To a distant place I’ve never been before
I could leave this world
I could follow you like oceans to the shore
You could take me there
Make the rivers of my mind flow to my dreams
And I dream of places far from here
And I call your name to the wind
And I wish the night would take me to another world
Where no one knows a face or has a name
Will you take me there
To a distant place I’ve never been before
I could leave this world
I could follow you like oceans to the shore
You could take me there
Make the rivers of my mind flow to my dreams
Make the rivers flow
Will you take me there
Will you take me there
Oh yeah
Take me there
Take me there
Take me there, yeah
Take me there, yeah yeah
Take me there
Will you take
Will you take
Me there
Take me there
Take me there
Take me there, yeah
Take me there, yeah yeah
Take me there
Take me there
Take me there, yeah
Take me there, yeah yeah
Make the rivers flow X7
10 Nostalgia (03:41)
....
One day perhaps we will come back to this country and bring our children to show them you know
And what we had to sacrifice to be in that country you know.
But I think in the initial state that we had a lot of struggle
But with god’s grace and his kindness we are okay now and our children are okay as well
Dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams
I can feel your dreams, dreams
I can see you
I can touch your memories
But I can’t hear you
I can feel your dreams, dreams
I can see you
I can touch your memories
But I can’t hear you
Words that fall like ???
Worlds that echo in your eyes
I can’t taste
I can’t feel
I can’t reach across a thousand years
I can almost touch the soil beneath your whisper
I can almost feel the hopes you left behind
I can almost touch the soil beneath your whisper
I can almost feel the hopes you left behind
Words that fall like tears from trees
Worlds that echo in your eyes
I can’t taste
I can’t feel
Thousand years
I can’t hear you
I can’t see you
I can’t taste
I can’t feel
Thousand years
I can’t taste
I can’t feel
Thousand years
I can’t taste
I can’t feel
I can’t reach across a thousand years
I can’t taste
I can’t feel
I can’t reach across a thousand years
I can’t taste
I can’t feel
Thousand years
12 Beyond Skin (03:48)
On july 29th at 5: 29 am
The gadget turned the pre-dawned sky as bright as the sun
As the first atomic mushroom cloud rose above the horizon
We knew the world would not be the same...
A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent
I remembered the lines from the hindu scripture, the bhagavad gita
Vishnu was trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty
And to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says
"Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
I suppose we all thought that, one way or another
A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent
I remembered the lines from the hindu scripture, the bhagavad gita
"Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
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