Bombay Dub Orchestra
Label: Six Degrees
Rated: NONE
WorkNameSort: Bombay Dub Orchestra
So two British producers are in Bombay working on a project that requires them to use local session musicians. While working on this project, the duo becomes enamored with the expertise of the string session they hired and, duly inspired, set to work at crafting a project the Bombay Dub Orchestra that will incorporate this 28-piece string section into their gauzy, downtempo lounge music. The result is a double-disc package that makes one wonder exactly what it was about these musicians that made Garry Hughes and Andrew T. Mackay so hell-bent on using them. Bombay Dub Orchestra neither indulges in the arching melodramatics of Bollywood string sections, nor does it even begin to approach the complexities of Carnatic classical music. It’s just a couple dozen guys playing lush string passages while anonymous (if gorgeous) chill-out textures percolate underneath. If taken solely as another entrant in the downtempo derby, BDO would be excoriated for its lack of vision; maybe these two thought that by tacking “Bombay” to their name and hiring some of that city’s better musicians, they could tap into some Mumbai magic. They didn’t.
This article appears in Feb 15-21, 2006.