While working on his eighth album, London Under Sound, awardwinning DJ, producer, songwriter and orchestral composer Nitin Sawhney has compiled this first in a series by new label District 6. Reminiscent of the Groove Armada-era of ambient mixing and the phenomenally successful Back To Mine series, In The Mind Of… attempts to get inside the creative and influential juices of the artist in question.
Obviously, a love of great music drives Nitin Sawhney, a flamenco guitarist, pianist, sitarist, jazz ensemblist and techno genius whose output is beyond measure. Of all the tracks here, Massive Attack’s Teardrop still puts a shiver down the spine. Sawhney has segued everything together so that Liz Fraser’s wonderful vocal slides effortlessly into Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s wail.
Artists such as D’Angelo, Ojos De Brujo and Nuyorican Soul are to be expected from such a broad fusion artist. Since he’s fond of flamenco, Paco De Lucia’s Almoraima Buleria, though very welcome, is no surprise either. Two genuine shocks are Bernard Herrmann’s scraping Psycho theme and Dylan’s closing Blowin’ in The Wind, while he covers all bases by including a fine exclusive Zero-Id mix of his own Songbird. Just to see Sawhney as an Asian fusion artist is to do him a disservice.
