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On Rise (2005) she experimented with electronic music and studio postproduction, and even did some genre-hopping, like adding a flourish of flamenco. It was a technically solid outing, but it wasn’t particularly interesting. Still, I had hope that someone who clearly had one foot in the fundamentals of Indian classical and the other in contemporary electronic sounds—she’d alreadyworked with the Indian duo Midival Punditz—might be able to find an interesting middle ground between the two. But listening to her latest album, Breathing Under Water (Manhattan), a collaboration with percussionist and producer Karsh Kale, it sounds like a successful fusion just isn’t in her. It’s not a horrible piece of work, excepting a skin-crawling piece with saccharine vocals by Sting and a monstrosity called “Little Glass Folk” that borrows from Western classical, but it’s way too easy to ignore. A couple of nonfamous Indian singers outshine the market-driven cameos (like Sting and Shankar’s half-sister Norah Jones; Ravi Shankar makes an appearance as well), and occasionally Anoushka’s electronically-treated sitar emerges from Kale’s programmed rhythms, but on the whole there are just way too many truncated and meaningless solos layered over gurgling beats. It’s like Shankar is fearful of doing anything that wouldn’t add some pleasant ambiance to an upscale lounge. Breathing Under Water makes Rise sound positively bold.
Today’s playlist:
