Magic Touch

Amazon.co.uk Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Qawaali folk songs are transposed to the Midlands on this re-release of a six-track album produced by Birmingham's Bally Sagoo, himself a huge star in India. Without an iota of spirituality to his populist dance music, Bally sensibly brings Nusrat's devotional music down to his level. On the opening track, "Kinna Sohna", he produces a bizarre fusion of boogaloo and breakbeat to back a vocal that takes on scat-like qualities. The music accompanying "Ali Da Malang" swims with simple synth melodies and slo-mo beats while on "Jhoole Jhoole Lal", Sagoo more successfully, steals an off-kilter lullaby from a horror movie soundtrack and sets the tablas to automatic fire. "Mera Pia Ghar Ayaa" sounds tragically like Khan's doing a PA in a late 80s rave. Overall, despite Nusrat's long-standing desire to fuse East with West, this is an extremely odd coupling, like New Order attempting to remix Bob Dylan and frankly it doesn't work. -- Chris Campion Product description Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party - Magic Touch