In world music, playing a traditional acoustic instrument doesn't necessarily mean that you have a traditional approach. If your oud (a traditional Arabic lute) is surrounded by electric bass, synthesizers, and samplers, chances are that you're providing modern Arabic pop and not traditional Arabic music. And when a bagpipe solo comes after an amplified electric guitar solo, you're probably hearing contemporary Scottish/Celtic rock instead of the sort of traditional Scottish/Celtic music that has been around for centuries.
Anup's
Embrace is an album of Indian sitar music, but it certainly isn't sitar music in the strict Indian classical sense; no one will mistake this 2003 release for a
Ravi Shankar session. Rather,
Anup puts a contemporary spin on instrumental sitar music, combining Indian classical elements with funk, rock, electronica, and club/dance music.
Shankar and other Indian traditionalists are an influence, but so are non-Indian musicians and producers. You will never hear synthesizers on a true Indian classical album, but they're all over
Embrace -- and you will never hear "Jingle Bells" in an Indian classical setting, but
Anup does, in fact, offer an unlikely arrangement of that American Christmas standard (although original compositions dominate the CD). To be sure, "Jingle Bells" is a surprising choice for an Indian recording -- even a modern, Western-minded one like
Embrace. But "Jingle Bells" lends itself surprisingly well to an instrumental sitar makeover. By 2003 standards,
Embrace isn't innovative or groundbreaking -- in the neo-Indian realm, there have been plenty of other people who used the sitar for funk, rock, electronica, and club/dance purposes. Nonetheless,
Anup is good at what he does, and this enjoyable outing is worth acquiring if you appreciate a non-purist approach to the sitar. ~ Alex Henderson