REVIEW : Transglobal Underground, International Times (Epic)

- Martin Bate

Transglobal Underground is an English multi-cultural musicians collective who produce a cool clash of sounds operating in the region of dance. Their theme is that of one world, with unity across all religions and nations and they go about this by using elements from every culture they can lay their hands on. They are the more peaceful dance counterpoint to associates Fun-da-mental's agitated hip-hop culture clash.

The base sound is various dance beats embellished with tablas, congas and lots of other percussive instruments that I couldn't even begin to spell. Added to this is Natacha Atlas's heart-breakingly beautiful eastern vocals - I have no idea *what* she's singing about but that doesn't stop me getting completely lost in her voice - and dashes of sweeping Indian strings.

To these base ingredients they add various flavours - "Lookee Here" incorporates a ragga/cockney tinged rap from Senser's Heitham Al-Sayed; "Jatayu" blends piano-house, subterranean bass, tribal chants and a discarded acid-house guitar lick into a groove kaleidoscope; "Monter Au Ciel" is all desolate chimes and wind instruments with another chillingly beautiful vocal from Natacha, this time in French; and "Tromba Marina" is up there with anything by Orbital you care to mention, upbeat syncopated snare topped with an evil drone and several instruments which don't sound like instruments any more.

I won't profess to know where in the world *half* of this stuff comes from but it's a breath of fresh air to ears tuned for so long to western sounds. However don't be frightened that you're not going to be able to get a grip on this, Transglobal Underground's strength is in that they reconciliate what is happening now in UK dance with the music of their various country-people so your feet are on firm ground even when your head is spinning slightly.

Occasionally, things get a little ordinary. In particular some of the rapped/spoken contributions from percusionist Neil Sparkes and the mysterious T.U.U.P. fall a little flat next to the other-worldliness of Natacha's vocal contributions. Compared with their debut, Dream of 100 Nations this is a far more consistent album, never hitting the lows of the first album (most of the second side was pretty uninteresting) but unfortunately not quite hitting the highs (most of the first side was completely incredible). For me, there isn't the surprise of the first time I heard their sound even if the tunes here dig in further, but for any of you who are reading this and thinking "It'll never work", buy International Times and spend the days after trying to stop smiling.