Yes, I have been absent for much too long and there is no way to excuse my sloth.
But I have largely kept up with my listening of new music in 2011 and Cornershop’s Double-O Groove has been one of just a couple of CD’s that has captured my fancy for more than just a few spins this year. Cornershop, that lovely vehicle of Tjinder Singh, was unfairly assigned one-hit wonder status after 1997’s “Brimful of Asha.”
Certainly Tjinder is not prolific. It took Cornershop another five years to release Handcream for a Generation and then in 2009 came Judy sucks a Lemon for Breakfast. Both albums merited more attention than they received. But scarcely two years since Judy we have an album recorded entirely in Punjabi with the charming Indian vocalist Bubbley Kaur.
Nearly every track is gold but for your sampling pleasure I attach what may be the most infectious hook of 2011 in “The 911 Curry.” If the groove does not immediately catch you, give it a scant 30 seconds for the impossibly catchy horn sample. For whatever reason were you not then already in love, Cornershop layers a winsome blooping organ after about two minutes. If that doesn’t do it, you are dead inside.
“The 911 Curry” by Cornershop
“Brimful of Asha” by Cornershop