Adham Shaikh - Fusion

Canadian-based Adham has been one of our favorite ambient producers for a loooong time. Starting with his 1994 album of deep Indian-inflected ambient "Journey To The Sun" (Instinct), we've watched his production and composition skills grow with each release: "Drift" (Instinct, 1996), "Ekko" (Interchill 1998), and "Essence" (Sonicturtle, 2002). But if there's one thing that remains constant, it's Adham's unique ability to blend live elements with the production and detail of studio music. "Fusion" may be his best blend yet: tracks like "Krishna Raga" and "Flying Beyond" mix long, flowing solos on Indian instruments like bansuri and sitar with hypnotic, percussion & bass-driven grooves. "Dubfire" shows a more ambient side, with soft gamelan-like phrases and glistening synths echoing out in a wash of dub delay. There's even a phat breakbeat-dub remix of "Infusion" (from the "Manna Medicine" comp. or Liquid Sound Design), featuring the clean, spacious guitar phrasings of Tim Floyd. All in all, an album that's perfectly pitched between the "jambient" of Jairamji and the tighter, club-haze electronica of Makyo.

"Imagine a more authentic Loop Guru; middle eastern beats and instrumentation set to dancey beats. This is not as aggressive as Muslimgauze, and there is a lot more melody and activity to this music as well. This could be on the edge of new-age to a degree, it is so happy and has such real sounds that the digital crowd wouldn't be able to create this. The production values here are spotless - clean instrumentation and fancy effects/reverb/echo and so on bring this recording from original on-location recordings and into a hip club in downtown New York. From dub to upbeat tabla-esque stuff, there is a lot of energy here. In fact, you can't go wrong with and of the releases on the Dakini label. Some are beatier, others are more 'authentic' but they are all enjoyable."(Don Poe)

Listen here.