Album Review

Mukul – Stray

• 9th Sep 2007

India’s Mukul comes onto the scene with his intriguing debut album ‘Stray’. From the interesting opener ‘A Brief History Of Time’ right through a vast array of playful sound and vocal work. Names like Kraftwerk and Massive Attack have been mentioned, but one that ultimately springs to mind is Tricky. From his low rasp, to the stop start attitude of his music, nothing seems to want to flow here. His work seems primarily concerned with taking songs apart and reassembling them in a way that sounds almost disjointed.

There is of course an ethnic undertone, but it is not one that leads the music, it simmers under the surface of the trip beats and imposing vocals. At 13 tracks it does start to wear a bit thin and on occasion threats to turn into rap, but overall this is a smouldering effort. And one that certainly holds its own amongst his peers.