- - Fusing Naked Beats
Digital Asia - -

Fronted by 24-year-old DJ Asif, Fusing Naked Beats is a relatively new project out of the UK, and Digital Asia is its latest disc. The cool opening track, “Medina,” features sinuous female vocals atop some slightly crunchy mid-tempo breaks and bass, punctuated by a whispering voice. A hypnotic track, it sets the tone for an album made up largely of rhythm-heavy songs with sparse vocals, such as the title track “Digital Asia,” a Bollywood-inspired concoction of filmi strings and winds spiced with a sliver of a sample cut from Lata Mangeshkar (“Mere Haathon Mein Nau Nau Chooriyan Hain”). Along the same pattern, but on a much more Middle Eastern tip, we have the creatively-titled “Silk Assassin.” Sonic references to the Middle East are scattered all through the disc; they show up again on “Love of a Prophet,” which unmistakably samples the beginning melody of the Arabic dance hit “Youm Wara Youm.”

The texture of the tracks is simple overall, which generally works in their favour, as they never sound overproduced or crammed with useless elements. It winds up reminding me of an updated version of some of the best and most obscure of the late-90s British Asian breakbeat albums, chill like TJ Rehmi but urgent like Juttla (without being as much of a mixed bag as the latter was on Angels, Aliens and Assassins). In general, I like that about Digital Asia. On the other hand, my sense is that FNB’s sound is oceans away from the sound that Karsh Kale and MIDIval PunditZ have brought to the fore since the millennium began, which is nice, as much as I love both of the aforementioned artists. It doesn’t sound like it’s been crafted for mass consumption, but it pleases in its quiet, persistent way. Most tracks sound misty, arcane, and, if not dark then at least dimly-lit, and the album does a good job of maintaining this mood over a number of different pieces. Above a discordant set of funky samples and malfunctioning-machine-blips, the rapper commandeering “Velvet Skies” says, “this must be some sort of dream that you can’t escape / it only leaves your mind once you are awake.” (He also manages to plug the group’s label, JustPlay Records.)

A slightly different track is “Euphoria,” which puts a sunny, dubby rhythm beneath the grey cloud of some well-performed whispers, soulful male vocals, and catches of Bollywood lyrics. And to their credit, FNB does not let their sense of humour get lost in all the moodiness, incorporating an incongruous low-volume vocal sample into “Sahara Dance,” in which an American-accented gentleman insists, “I am going to say this only once: I would like a boiled egg, and I want it running.” While naming favourites on a CD is always a more or less arbitrary practice, I can’t resist plugging the infectious “Quantum Knowledge.” Beginning with a simple seven-note melody that’s looped across the lot, the track quickly brings in a handful of off-centre breakbeats like a small pile of hard twigs over which FNB bring two sets of vocals to a slow burn, one singing smooth as honey, the other rapping prickly as burrs.

Digital Asia doesn’t do the Talvin Singh thing where the beats are as varying as a jazz melody; instead, it tends to loop the rhythm a great deal. In light of this, the worst that could be said about Digital Asia is that it might sound repetitive and boring if you’re not the kind of person who listens to a lot of small-label DJ-produced music, but if you do, you will probably like this offering. Unfortunately, as with many of these British marvels, it might take Canadians quite a bit of CD-bin hunting before they can get their paws on a copy of this album, so let me volunteer this bit of helpful info: you can get it at FNB’s site, also the home of JustPlay Records.

Reviewed by Mohamad Khan