Gaudi, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Dub Qawwali

There is always something a bit macabre in creating a collaboration with a musician who has been dead for a decade. This kind of thing is nothing new, of course. The dead are sampled daily--from Nina Simone to Elvis Presley and, most recently, Billie Holiday. But this kind of reconstructive homage reeks of easy opportunism. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was the Ravi Shankar, Jimi Hendrix, and John Coltrane of Qawwali singing, the sacred and ancient vocal style popularized in Pakistan and brought to the world by Nusrat in the 1990s. Nusrat himself wasn't averse to cross-cultural collaboration, having cut three albums with producer Michael Brook--two of them expansive, impressionistic world-fusion works. But Nusrat was sensitive to how his music was employed, even chastising Brook on their first album, Mustt Musstt, when Brook resequenced the singer's vocal tracks for musical, but not necessarily literal, effect. They worked out their differences on the masterful Night Song. But Nusrat had no input on these tracks, which he reportedly cut between 1968 and 1974, very early in his career. Dub-electronica artist Gaudi takes the Pakistani's vocals and adds his own reggae and dub backing tracks to them. While Nusrat could send you into a trance state with his upwardly spiraling, almost heavy-metal grooves, Gaudi takes a lighter approach, turning the Qawwali hymns into reggae toasting that subverts much of the original intent. From the lyrical pop drift of "Kahin Mot Se Bhi Na Jao" to the vaguely hypnotic "Dil Da Rog Muka Ja Mahi," with its sampled sequence from Kraftwerk's "The Model," Gaudi chooses the attractive surface over the deeper journey that Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan conjured almost every time he sang. --John Diliberto Amazon.com

top shelf

if you like great dub beats and ali khan, it doesnt get any better... i never get sick of this album. intricate and simple great at the forefront or the background. ive heard ali khan raw of course but also mixed by many different artists. gaudi's version is my favorite. ali khan is given the respect he deserves and gaudi defines dub at its best, in my opinion of course. enjoy! October 24, 2008

Interesting rather than brilliant

Gaudi's reggae-inspired interpretation of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's music is a homage to the artist, as well as a bold foray in infusing qawwali music with a reggae sensibility. On the one hand, one has to admire Gaudi's audacity and respect his dedication - he said in an NPR "Fresh Air" interview that it took him about two years to get it right, and that he steeped himself in Nusrat's music to gain a deep knowledge of it.

On the other hand, the actual results, while well-put-together and presenting some interesting juxtapositions of Punjabi music and Reggae, fail ultimately to excite and inspire.

The best aspect of the album is the sense of continuity within each song. Most of the time, you think that the songs were actually recorded for this album, which is quite an achievement, considering that Gaudi's and Nusrat's contributions are in reality separated by almost three decades. Neither is it far-fetched that Nusrat, were it not for his untimely death in the late 1990s, might easily have contemplated lending his name and his time to such an collaboration. His earlier collaborations with Western artists, notably Michael Brooks, are well-known and loved. Another strength is that Gaudi has incorporated a number of different types of song-segments, which draw on different parts of the traditional Qawwali corpus - the alaap, the main verse, the chorus, and the exposition of the raga itself. This gives the album some variety.

There are two main reasons why I would not give this album more than 3 stars. The first is the fragmentary nature of the songs - the songs each give us glimpses of a raga or a particular arrangement but the repetitiveness within each song is ultimately frustrating as Gaudi fails to draw him out on each musical theme and exploring its full potentialities before going on to the next one. Gaudi's own contributions seem competent but not necessarily creatively brilliant - he was clearly constrained by his need to remain faithful to the master.

The second problem is more profound - unlike Nusrat's own East-West efforts, this one lacks, at least for me, the spark that takes it to the next level - that transcends both genres that are being combined to produce something unique. One gets the impression of a happy mixture rather than a true solution, a skillful graft rather than the creation of an entirely new animal.

The young English-Punjabi artists like Nitin Sawhney and Bally Sagoo who have created more modern blends of Punjabi and Bollywood music with Hip-hop actually succeed better when it comes to organic creation - while their artistry is hardly as sublime as Nusrat's, their work overall is more organic.

For die-hard Nusrat fans, this CD is of course a must-have. Despite its flaws, it is pleasant to listen to and makes for good living-room conversation. January 18, 2008

Gaudi - Nusrat

Great CD - really awesome to listen to. Nicely done job of reggae quawwali action. October 5, 2007

Fast Shipping!

Product arrived in great speed and was in excellent packaging! The CD itself ROCKS! September 10, 2007

Simply Put....Love it!

I don't want to over-explain this CD. To me...this is just simply beautiful, funky world music! This CD is just plain great music! I heard Gaudi on NPR talking about it and the interview with him intrigued me. I was not disappointed! What a great purchase! August 20, 2007

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