Blending traditional South Indian music with genres like funk and jazz, Autorickshaw's fusion is decidedly unique, but is it good? I vote yes, if only because of the diversity of the songs, whose melodies, in whatever language, locate themselves solidly in one tradition or the other. Which is to say that vocalist Suba Sankaran, whose voice is lithe and expressive, allows for no fence-sitting here. Also interesting, clever and metaphorical is the appropriation of the tabla for use with Western musical genres (and vice versa with electric bass). Essential song: Heavy Traffic, a digitally composed, 64-track pile-up.
Dave Jaffer, The Hour