Salute your soul

Eclecticism gone pleasantly haywire. A mix of dreamy sub-continental pet sounds and lo-fi indie gospel. After an orb-esque intro (from Philip Glass, no less) ‘Mein Nahi Jana’ plays simple chord structures off Bollywood vocals and Mikey Dread (of Clash notoriety) dancehall rapping. The spiritual ‘Dear Lord’ sounds like an out-take but lures you in with clean reverbed guitar, gospel piano and the simple repetition of the vocal. A cover of The Staple Singer’s ‘If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)’ fits snugly into the design and it is only on the eleven minute long ‘Heaven Celebrated On Earth’ that the flow is disturbed by some unnecessarily melodramatic piano runs, which break into a blissful sweep of wordless harmonies and a bird-like guitar tone on extended loan from Mike Oldfield’s ‘Ommadawn’.. Unfortunately ‘Dammers or Czukay’ can’t quite live up to its Dub Krautrock, Specials vs. Can title, but it and ‘Battle At The Gates Of Dub’ are effortless high quality grooves. They’re broken up by ‘Pehli Chaand’, in hypnotic nursery rhyme metre over sitar and tamboura. Subway Sect’s Vic Godard sings impressively on ‘Love Of the Land’ – a kind of Belle And Sebastian do Northern soul with subtle political overtones. There are a series of serenely beautiful instrumentals, the best of which are ‘Little Gifts’ and ‘Salute The Divine Within You’ - all Brian Wilson fairground shuffle, smooth but pin sharp guitar and muted Bacharach trumpet. Diverse in content but organic in feel and tone, it’s an album which will improve with