Shri’s new album ‘Seven Steps’ comes to us straight from the gut, sitting on a fat bed of bass grooves, which were not as present in his earlier releases. Sounding like a fresh take on his own sound, with a lot more attitude; less polite but still with a strong Indian accent to it. The LP takes funked up versions of Bombay street beats, where big bass lines loop slowly under traditional Indian instrumentals along with drum beats, which skit in, out and around bass and melodies across the eleven tracks.
‘Barbwire Butterfly’ - a big indo-drumbeat and laid back rant from MC JC001 - features gentle synth and flute melodies enticingly wrapping themselves around the chorus, while respected MOBO winner, Fola Phillips features on several tracks, adding a magnificence rarely heard in this day and age, helping to bring the emotion and feeling out of the track and into your mind.
Discovered by Simon Dove, who stumbled across Shri’s debut, ‘Inspirational Satisfaction’, in the Indo-Jazz section of a Bombay record store and was immediately taken with it, Shri’s UK profile has since gradually grown over the years. Having picked up bass after falling in love with western artists such as Led Zeppelin and Eberhard Weber, the German jazz bass icon, he came to England with Dove to play with Talvin Singh, who was later to go on to win the Mercury Music Prize, amongst various other collaborators, which helped him build a reputation for himself on these shores.
He soon became a key member of Asian underground label Outcaste and a regular fixture in rising star Nitin Sawhney’s band in the mid-late nineties, before dropping his UK debut, ‘Drum The Bass’ in 1997. Capturing elements of drum & bass and electronica with his sound, he also injected it with "entrancing ragas and cyclonic jazz improvisations."
Soon after the release of this record he formed a relationship with DJ and producer Badmarsh, with whom he explored the convolution of drawing together programmed beats and electronic soundscapes with live aspects on records such as ‘Signs’. After this Shri returned to focussing on his solo career, building his song writing craft as well as exploring and expanding his more recent skills as a producer. New album ‘Seven Steps’ marks a significant stage in his career as both a songwriter and producer whose talent, along with the depth of his ideas, have always made him a popular figure within the UK music scene.
The first single to be taken from the album is ‘Just For A Minute’, releases September 22 a floating four minutes of atmospheric strings and horns undulating around the emotive vocals of Mobo Award winner Fola Phillips. Long term collaborator DJ Badmarsh takes on remix duties, turning in a laidback take on dubstep, while Shri himself provides a darker, percussion heavy re-rub to complete the trio of edits.