First things first, Business Class Refugees is an album compiled by music producer Patrick Sebag (Kartick) and sound designer Yotam Agam (Gotam). The album contains ten tracks. The album has been produced by EarthSync India. [Follow EarthSync on Twitter]
Business Class Refugees is a compilation of world music which Kartick and Gotam have mixed with electonica funk with heavy influences from India. The album features distinguished artists from around Asia and the Middle East such as Mahesh Vinayakram, Erez Lev Ari, Navin Iyer, Yoav Bunzel, Anuradha Viswanathan, Murad A
li and Mishko M’Ba.
The album is nice mix of soothing numbers which highlights the theme of the album that is travelling. The music does comprise of myriad sounds collected from all over the globe and well performed by the artists as mentioned above. [Buy the music here.]
The first track ‘Bonjour’ is a nice soothing mix of clarinet, flute and male and female vocals. The track is a bit fast but it still leaves a calming effect on the listener. Well placed female and male vocals provide a texture to the music.
The track ‘Tamil Bossa’ starts with a brilliant flute solo and is followed by awesome Carnatic vocals. The flute makes the track very soothing. The Carnatic vocals take you to a time very far in the past. The track is nicely paced and invites the listener to close their eyes and lose themselves to the music.
Business Class Refugees’ next track ‘Boye Boye’ starts with the voice over of a flight stewardess making announcements and sets the tone of the album. The music involves a variety of sounds which range from the harmonium, sitar, to sarod. The amalgamation of music and the vocals transfers the listener to a land somewhere in Middle East Asia and the sitar and tabla brings him back to India. The song is racy and foot tapping.
‘Shiva Shiva’ starts with the tone of sarangi and quawalli like claps in the background. The song overall has a classical feel to it with a trance like effect. The vocals again provide the texture to it and the tabla will make you tap your feet.
The track ‘Rututu’ also starts with an announcement by a flight stewardess and then takes on a pace which you can identify with the running of a train, again very much in theme of the album. The saxophones are the soul of this track and are guaranteed to make you get up from your seat and groove. The song has a feel of retro funk due to the saxophones and cello in the background.
Other tracks in the album are ‘Heer’, ‘Door Open Door’, ‘Vellai Thaamarai’, ‘Supreme Chaos’ and ‘Hear Comes The Funk’. All the tracks are quite soothing to listen to. [Listen to the tracks here]
Kartick & Gotam - Business Class Refugees is a must if you are a world music and fusion music fan. For music lover like me who can listen to all types of music it was a treat listening to the album. The music is fresh unlike other electronika funk albums the music grows as you listen to it again and again. The concept of travelling and composing music makes the whole album a very unique experience. Recommended!
Uber cool. Great music, awesome album. And a super awesome review
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