The Island of Dr. Electrico (Hope Street Recordings, 2014)
I’ll admit right up front that The Bombay Royale’s upcoming The Island of Dr. Electrico, set for release on July 8th on the Hope Street Recordings label, isn’t for everyone. A follow-up to their 2012 recording You Me Bullets Love, the Melbourne-based The Bombay Royale continues the exploration of their “vintage Bollywood-inspired surf, spy, disco and funk” combo for The Island of Dr. Electrico. Addictively kitschy, this CD makes me want to don a scarf, some Jackie O sunglasses and rent a convertible so that I could ride around and battle it out with the rap radio junkies that cruise our neighborhood.
Part 60s surf music, part B spy movie wrapped up in the deliciousness of Bollywood music, The Island of Dr. Electrico serves up enough swank and swagger to fill up an auditorium. The Bombay Royale sound is crafted by singers Parvyn Kaur Singh and Shourov Bhattacharya, saxophonist Andy Williams, trumpeters Declan Jones and Edward Fairlie, trombonist Rosalind Jones, organist, synthesizer player and pianist Matty Vehl, guitarist Tom Martin, drummer Julian Goyma and sitar, table, diruba and mandolin player Josh Bennett. And if that weren’t enough the group’s joined by guest violinists Rachel Kim, Caroline Webster and Willow Stahlut, percussionist Justin Marshall, guitarist Tristan Ludowyk, bassist Bob Knob and backing vocalists Tim Bennett, Arjun Battachara and Keshav Bhattacharya.
The fun of The Island of Dr. Electrico runs the gambit from the flash of a psychedelic opening of opening track “Ankhiyan” with its slick guitar licks and kick ass tabla drumming to the disco flash of “Wild Stallion Mountain” to the surf guitar goodness of tracks “Henna Henna,” “Tere Bina” and “The Bombay Twist.”
This recording is like musically sifting through a wealth of movie soundtracks. Listeners are treated to the additive Bollywood romp of “(Give Me Back My) Bunty Bunty.” There a couple of sly surprises like the harmonica and guitar opening of “Gyara 59” which sounds like it prowled out of a Spaghetti Western and heavy brass and guitar funk of title track “The Island of Dr. Electrico” that could have come from the soundtrack of a Blaxploitation flick if it sported a sitar and Bengali vocals.
While the highbrow types might lift their lips, The Island of Dr. Electrico slinks, sprawls and saunters with a deft sense of entertaining for entertainment’s sake. Slyly clever and lively, The Bombay Royale’s sound lets the listener live extravagantly on a mind’s musical journey.
Buy The Island of Dr. Electrico
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
