Music review of Rock And Dhol

Album Name : Rock And Dhol

Artist : Bombay Rockers

Label : Universal Music

Genre : Electronic, pop and dance

Our rating: 3

The Bombay Rockers are an Indo-Danish collaboration consisting of Navtej Rehal, Thomas Sardof and Janus Barnewitz.  Fusing hip-hop with bhangra sounded fresh and exciting back in 2003 -2004 when the likes of Jay Sean and Shamur rode the pop charts of the sub-continent. It’s the usual Hindi/English lyrical hybrid that caught on with Gen-Y and in 2011, Bombay Rockers are still keen to exploit this style.

Rock and Dhol starts with a short intro piece that sets the mood for the first single ‘Lets Dance’. It’s quite an interesting 1 ½ minute electronic soundscape fronted by a child’s voice while the grown ups add the background menace. But ‘Lets Dance’ is where the album really starts. It’s a club song with a thick beat and a catchy tune. Yes, the hook sounds a bit like David Bowie’s 1984 hit of the same name but that’s not the issue. The song is adequate enough to pass but ultimately it’s just another “the club is jumping can you feel the vibe” type of song. And Taio Cruz already owns that!

Rock and Dhol has a great pop feel. The whole album is slickly produced and the arrangements are all top class. ‘Aaja’ is a great example of this. Well placed synth grooves, electronic swooshes and even a bit of a sitar sample all go to make formula song. And that’s exactly how the album stumbles from one song to another. It’s all too scientific, predictable and safe. The guys never step outside their comfort zone even for a moment, and its just too soon to take more songs with ‘Chuck De’, ‘Nachle’ etc etc.

Like many other songs here, the title song too uses a heavily processed guitar riff to add some teeth to the mix. Still ‘Rock and Dhol’ manages to inject some amount of fury ending with a short stab of lead guitar. There is no change in the tempo of the album whatsoever. It’s just the same thing over and over again. Put some English words here, put some Punjabi clichés there, pass it through auto tune, amp it with the beats and the job is done. A little more creativity and experimenting would have been welcome but lets face it, they call themselves Bombay Rockers which is hardly pushing the envelope.

I fully recommend Rock and Dhol to soundtrack a Saturday evening drive with friends. You can even play it to show off your big fat woofer in the dicky. But if you are expecting anything more than a booty shake, you will have to make a different call.