My favorite movie moment of 2007: “Dhoom Taana” from Om Shanti Om

All I have to do is think about this number and I start laughing. All of Farah Khan’s nod-and-wink goodness is wrapped up in this masterfully coreographed number, most perfectly at the 3:15 mark.

Knowing about Bollywood certainly increases the enjoyment level of this film, but at the same time, it also functions as a sort of crash course.

Hard Kaur: Supawoman CD review (Orlando Weekly)

As a member of rising U.K. desi hip-hop crew the Sona Family, MC Hard Kaur made major waves with her turn on “Glassy,” a club-banging bhangra anthem devoted to the pleasures of getting paralytically fucked up. While nothing on Supawoman rises to the heights of that transcendent track, the album nonetheless shows a strong and quirky artist prepared to push diaspora hip-hop out of its comfort zone. When HK weighs in with club-friendly cuts like “Sexy Boy” and the dancehall-flavored title track, the results are blisteringly effective; they display far more allegiance to hip-hop than to any notion of what South Asian music should sound like, all while employing dhol-heavy beats and occasional Hindi rhymes that mark her as a resolutely desi performer. Any shortcomings on the album are more than made up for on the album’s undeniable highlight, “Bombay Deewana.” Over an appropriately crazy, Bollywood-flavored backing track, Hard Kaur deftly rhymes about the city’s gangsta party scene; it’s tight and fun, rooted in home culture but streaked with a contemporary, urban-global reality – sort of like Hard Kaur herself.

First appeared in the Dec. 20, 2007 issue of Orlando Weekly.

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Cocoa Tea: Biological Warfare CD review (Broward-Palm Beach New Times)

After more than 30 years as a reggae musician, Cocoa Tea should be either a cutting-edge groundbreaker or a torchbearer for easy-does-it standards. As Biological Warfare disappointingly makes clear, he’s neither. The dancehall vibe he’s worked with for most of his career has seen him occasionally flirting with progressive electronic sounds that threaten to push the genre forward. Similarly, his lyrics have had moments of daring, even controversial inspiration. Here, however, the listener is confronted with a nearly 50-year-old reggae artist somnolently delivering well-worn themes atop even more well-worn rhythms. Plasticky beats that, unbelievably, were played by live musicians, plinky keyboard lines, and by-the-book arrangements do little to light a fire under Biological Warfare. The lyrics tread through the garden of Babylon, Africa, and Hailie Selassie as if Cocoa thinks he’s the first to yelp “sons of Jah” in a song. Tucked into the end of the album, though, is “Rise Up,” a slinky groove punctuated by weirdo electronic touches and accompanied by a well-crafted, nearly poetic set of lyrics. In that one moment, the disappointment of what was, to that point, an innocuous-enough reggae record, is made that much clearer. If Cocoa Tea is capable of delivering songs of this caliber, why doesn’t the rest of the album rise up to that level? It’s a question the aging musician may want to ask of himself before heading to the studio next time. Reggae has seldom been a genre praised for its variety or inventiveness, and Biological Warfare sadly makes those stereotypes seem true.

First appeared in the Dec. 20, 2007 issue of Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

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Ifwhen: We Will Gently Destroy You CD review (Orlando Weekly)

All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors was a well-regarded but horribly monikered group that unabashedly reveled in their shoegazing influences. The swooning miasma of sound they created during their half-decade run garnered them something of a following among diehard dreampop fans. Ex-ANL&LF member Merc applies the sonic philosophies of his former group to his current project, Ifwhen. By stripping away the poppier elements and indulging in a more purely psychedelic experience, he’s emerged with a record that’s far more challenging and engaging than anything he did before. With mixing assistance from Oktopus (of hip-hop duo Dälek), Merc’s singular vision of swirling, assaultive womb-rock has come to fruition. Hooks are present, but often muddled into the noisy, atmospheric stew just like the glistening guitars, throbbing bass and synthetic programming touches. Most of the songs here are fragmentary, expanded by repetition into bombastic near-epics; they often don’t have much to say, but what they do say is said beautifully.

First appeared in the Dec. 20, 2007 issue of Orlando Weekly.

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