WORLD CIRCUIT/BMG 8th May 2026
A second offering from this world-spanning collective; this time from Johnny Greenwood’s British studio instead of the scenic hilltop Mehrangarh Fort in Jodphur. It’s no less of an eclectic blend, featuring Rajasthani musicians, an Israeli composer who lives in Rajasthan, and Radiohead’s guitarist. India seems to be a theme in music at the moment, with Gorillaz gleefully plundering sounds to combine with gleanings from half the globe. Here leans more to the chanting repetitions of Qawwali music – cyclic drum patterns and forceful male chanting, interspersed with other flavours. Blending in other ideas makes for a refreshing change; brass instruments add ‘Love’-esque Mexicali punctuation, drumming tends to the funky and Greenwood’s guitar shapeshifts to add further invention. Other keyboards, solo vocal extemporisation, or tape effects ensure this does not draw too heavily from any one tradition.
It’s a head-nodding, foot-tapping, rhythmic pleasure – an album of smiles and surprises.
It’s far from the first time that Jonny has stretched his playing into new settings and different cultures, with a relatively recent trip into world music with a set of Middle Eastern love songs. Here he’s an attraction in name and definitely a catalyst but he doesn’t carry the spotlight, which belongs to the drums, voices, stringed instruments, Indian pipes and brass. Rather than the ensemble blending of the Rajasthan sound, a traditional studio has given the twenty-one musicians distinct voices that add to the complexity of the sonic palette.
Shye brought sketches of songs and worked to shape them with the other musicians. “With Shye’s songs,” says Jonny, “you feel dangerously like you can ruin them quite easily by imposing western chords on them, like you’re forcing a square into a circle. But at the same time, a lot of the songs just seem to come to life as soon as there was some of that. . . I’ve always wanted to turn this band into a funk group.” Incongruous facets, like the synth-pop keyboard of ‘Saqi’, aren’t sweeteners, they’re an element the band needed. Being in Urdu, this is music to hear and feel with the body rather than the brain; the beats and choral chants bringing the mind to a place where repetition becomes freedom. Free your ass and your mind will follow.
I’m a fan of Qawwali and at no point did this feel like cultural appropriation or dumbing down for a Western audience. It feels like a communal composition that simply takes from where it likes to make something that belongs in many places at once.
Ross McGibbon