 Brown Sugar’s new “Rhythm Room” album has an eye-catching and crisply professional appearance, down to the insert text and photo. Production and recording quality are good, with clean vocals, decent tuning, and excellent togetherness. Yet, the album is not over-produced, in that the human quality of the sound is preserved. The voices blend wonderfully, and there is a smooth, silky texture to the backgrounds that I found soothing to the ear. And from listening to the group sound and the soloists on all the tracks, it is clear that there is much talent here.
Disappointingly, however, the CD was otherwise rather underwhelming. From the insert: “…Brown Sugar has continued to push the envelope of musical creativity, exploring an unprecedented breadth of South Asian and Western Music. In Rhythm Room, we present an especially unique blend of lush Indian melodies and Western a cappella sounds.”
I would argue on the points of creativity and breadth of musical choice, and this is simply a comment, not a critique. I didn’t hear anything here which redefined my idea of what could be done a cappella. And the musical selection was limited wholly to Hindi film songs, a very popular, but musically narrow, representation of Indian music. The same is true of the Western music selections, which were entirely pop, R&B, alternative, etc.
If Brown Sugar was looking to share their music with a wider audience, the insert should definitely have included a translation of the lyrics. Even many Indian-Americans, who may speak Hindi, still need the subtitles in Hindi films to fully understand meanings.
The CD lists 18 names, which would explain the fullness of their sound. But I would have expected that with that many members, Brown Sugar could have put together more than basic, formulaic arrangements. Each song uses the same basic block chords, with some minor syncopation, with essentially the VP and men providing a droning foundation while the women sing soaring counter-melodic motives. Most songs were repetitive, with the same back-up and melodic sections repeated over and over. Dynamically, it was very limited – the volumes ranged from mezzo-forte to forte, with occasional dips to mezzo-piano, giving the album little momentum overall. I found it a bit mind-numbing.
Most of the CD had a feeling of energy withheld – as if someone had told the group that all the excitement, musicality, and originality had to fit in a container of Indian takeout. The soloists were focused simply on delivering the melodies, and not enough on letting go, and adding their individualities and spontaneous excitement to the music. As a result, I didn’t get any sense of group personality from “Rhythm Room”. Exceptions were ”Sajna Ve Sajna/Twisted” and ”Secret/Made in India”, and the second half of ”Main Yahan Hoon/Blvd of Dreams”, in which the energy and arrangements were fun and carried me along.
Overall, I wasn’t too moved by the groove of “Rhythm Room”. If you’re seriously into Indian a cappella, however, it could be something to throw on as background music to add some spice to an evening soiree.
To order: http://groups.northwestern.edu/brownsugar
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