64.00 PLN

CD:

Nr kat.: IDIS6388
Label  : DIWPLHALANAX

AllMusic Review by Don Snowden [-] OK, kids, let's cut to the chase. There's no disco here. There's no bhangra, either, not the kind of beats that started in the U.K. '80s and now fill dancefloors via Timbaland/Missy Elliott and Panjabi MC, anyway. This is just over half an hour of music, recorded to DAT in 1989, by street brass bands that play weddings in Jaipur, India, and a snippet of a street kid fiddle player dubbed Temple Boy playing the title track. There are actually two versions of the tune (a popular filmi hit then, so the title isn't totally opportunistic) and two versions of "Aj Aj" (one with a lame vocal, the other instrumental) by the Prakash Band. That same crew also bring you a brass band take on "Tequila" (if you need one in your life), while the Babu Band serve up "I'm a Disco Dancer," which actually ain't that bad. But nothing here is really that good, either, just ensemble horns raggedly echoing or answering a barely audible vocalist, accordion, or screechy lead reed with drums pounding out a modified parade rhythm that falls short of inducing beat surrender. "Stop Passenger" by the Choutou Band may be the best -- the drums pump up the energy and the horns stay out of the accordion's way. Gotta wonder why executive producer John Zorn put this out on a full-price label because the music doesn't even have any of the weird wildness (or wild weirdness?) you know appeals to him. If you're serious about checking into whacked-out brass bands from other cultures, the Dutch label Pan has the Frozen Brass series on non-Western brass bands with at least one 74-minute volume dedicated to Asia. It's more formal ethnomusicology but, with more varied music and very comprehensive liner notes, it offers a far better value for the money than Disco Bhangra.