Review by Lopa Patel
Redhotcurry Rating: (5 flames) ** BEST BUY **

I love Jinx's 'Culture Shock'. A big bhangra and qawwali fan, Jinx's 'Akhiyan Udeek Diyan' was bound to become a personal favourite, but a Rouge-like 'Show You' is a great reworking of a popular sound and the album features a good masala mix of soul, Asian R&B and bawdy Punjabi lyrics. 'Culture Shock' is like going to your favourite restaurant and ordering your most-loved dish when you're really, really hungry.....you just know you're going to enjoy it!

Jinx, duo Dubz and Jogi, hail from Rochdale, Manchester and have been on the DJ circuit for over 5 years. Their aim - to bring a fresh, new & diverse sound to the Asian music scene. The sound - they describe as British Asian music, fused with urban and experimental made for all ages and for everyone to enjoy. The end product - their debut album Culture Shock.

Culture Shock, released on the independent Asian Flavaz label, has a little something for everyone with bhangra bangers, R&B anthems, Bollywood vibes and Pakistani Indian Pop, whilst at the same time featuring some amazing vocalists including Sohail Salamat and Bila Sahota. The range on the album is a result of their various musical influences which range from Oasis to Mary J Blige and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

The first track to be taken off the album, Akhiyan Udeek Diyan, is jinx’s version of the famous original by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan track and has already been receiving great feedback. Jogi explains, “it’s a song on the album which holds a lot of sentimental value for us, not only was it the first song that produced but is also sung initially by the great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan someone who we admire and respect the utmost. The idea of converting a famous well known qawalli into modern day bhangra appealed to us greatly. We tried giving the song a UK music style by adding urban influenced music along with various Indian sounds.”

The current videos which are being heavily rotated on the Asian channels are Akhiyan and the final track on their album, Rang to which Don D lends his vocals and features a heavy bass line and infectious drum beats, not to mention a melodious musical rift throughout. Rang has one intention, and that is to get you on the dance floor and singing along. Dubz says, “We wanted to make a song that would be played in every club, car, home etc. With the influences of various styles of music we came up with the idea for Rang.”

Other tracks on the album include the contemporary Show You - an R&B number with an Arabic influence, Nachley - a more traditional number with a modern interpretation, Mitrade - simply made to make you want to dance, Shisha Da Lenga (which means Mirrored Dress) - which features bold Punjabi lyrics, Yaad - a more emotional track and Gal Sun - a soulful song of which the lyrics and melody were co-written by Jinx and looks likely to be the next single with a video being shot soon.

Culture Shock is released on Monday 17th April 2006.