Cornershop - Cornershop and the Double-O Groove Of

Review by Bill Kopp

To the listener uninitiated and unfamiliar with Cornershop’s approach, the group’s melding of traditional Punjabi folk and modern breakbeats, baroque pop and plain old pop might seem a bizarre hybrid. The truth is, more often than not the combinations work. The unresolved-preposition-titled 2011 album Cornershop and the Double-O Groove Of features the female vocals of Bubbley Kaur. She sings strictly in a Punjabi dialect while Tjinder Singh and Benedict Ayres craft a kinetic and sympathetic groove undercurrent.

Bubbley’s phrasing is rooted in her native language, yet it fits well into the western pop concoctions that, er, bubble under her. At times – for example, on the 2004 single “Topknot,” collected on this album of mostly new material — the vocal-and-pop combo resembles something one might hear toward the end of a Bollywood film. Even then, there’s a modern vibe that offers a pleasing intertwining of traditional Indian instrumentation (or, more likely, samples thereof) with modern pop instrumentation and a decidedly dance-oriented beat.

Other times — such as on “The Biro Pen,” the Cornershop groove is closer to the sort of thing one might find on a Pizzicato Five album, with its jazzy, almost Steely Dan-like piano chording. The clanging percussion and rubbery bass groove of “Supercomputed” has a dancefloor vibe, but then so do all ten tracks on the disc. The brass of “Once There Was a Wintertime” calls to mind that particularly twee sort of late 60s British lite-psych, but weds it to a stuttering, modern drum pattern.

A one-note sitar lick is the basis of “Double Digit,” but the stop-start percussion and a catchy bass riff hold it together and move it forward. The album is a departure from earlier Cornershop material in that Singh doesn’t take any of the vocals, and there’s nary a word of English to be found in the lyrics. And the Indian influence is central to the songs in a way merely hinted at on earlier releases. Yet there’s enough of a western feel to the arrangements to provide a touchstone for – to mix metaphors – open-minded American ears. The acoustic guitar work on “Don’t Shake It” answers the question “What would it sound like if James Taylor hooked up with a dance band?”

If you’re up for something a bit different, a combination of the familiar and exotic all delivered with fun and style, then Cornershop and the Double-O Groove Of may be just the ticket.

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