Prairie Public Broadcasting

• "Idol's" Phillips had 8 kidney surgeries during show
• Sweden wins song Contest marked by Azeri dissent
• Sweden's Loreen wins Eurovision song contest

go

Bombay Dub Orchestra Two Englishmen and 70 Asian musicians converge in an east-west electronica exotica Bombay Dub Orchestra
3 Cities
(Six Degrees) by John Diliberto From the opening track of "Egypt by Air," Bombay Dub Orchestra signals their return like the warming rains of the summer monsoons. Instruments and voices echo distantly and ambiguously before Garry Hughes drops in a fuzzed synthesizer bass line that barks against a middle eastern oud, followed by a swell of Bollywood strings and a throbbing groove topped by dumbeks. Bombay Dub Orchestra sound ancient and modern, ironically kitschy and cosmic all at once.

East-west fusions have been going on since at least the early 1960s when Ravi Shankar sat down with musicians like jazz saxophonist Bud Shank and classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin. That cross-legged crossover hasn't stopped and one of the latest iterations comes from the Bombay Dub Orchestra: Garry Hughes, Andrew T. MacKay and about 70 or so musicians from India, the Middle East and England.

There's lots of acts sampling world music, but Bombay Dub Orchestra's compositions are played by live musicians. Bansuri flutes, sitars, and santoors float through a landscape of lush Bollywood string orchestras arranged by Andrew T. Mackay. These acoustic instruments are set in an electronic landscape mostly provided by Garry Hughes from his collection of vintage synthesizers. Hughes creates the soundpool where east and west, ancient and modern converge. On a track like "Spiral," the bowed stringed instrument called the dilruba is taken out for a solo by Saroja, then Hughes creates a similar sound on synthesizer, only going backwards. That's the charm of Bombay Dub Orchestra, where east doesn't just meet west, but exists in a region of liminal hues and transitional effects.

Indian vocals lace the album together, from the complex counterpoint created on "Monsoon Malabar" to "Fallen," where Mumbai-based singer Hamsika Iyer bends her voice into a song of yearning.

But it's the instrumental side of Bombay Dub Orchestra that keeps drawing you back. Trading on their movie orchestra arrangements, epic tracks like "Feasting with Panthers" have a cinematic expanse like one of those 1950s exotic road movies transferred to the 21st century. "Map of Dusk," on the other hand, evokes 60s space age bachelor pad music with its slinky, sliding guitar riff and suspended lounge piano.

3 Cities is named for the London, Mumbai and Chennai where it was recorded, but Bombay Dub Orchestra take you much further.