Without Zero

by Stewart Mason Joi's third album for Peter Gabriel's Real World imprint continues surviving mastermind Farook Shamsher's fusion of South Asian elements with British dance music, but it also broadens the specs a bit as well. Introducing bits of Eastern European music (the hook of "Cha Cha Cha" is rather shamelessly sampled from Balkan Beat Box's "Cha Cha"), American blues (opener "Praying for You" features a bottleneck slide guitar part amidst the sitars and tablas) and hints of West African beats, Without Zero is more of a polyglot release than the Monsoon-like Anglo-Indian dance pop of Joi's early albums. However, it never seems like one of those weedy faux-world music albums you hear in the background of trying-to-be-hip coffeehouses: Shamsher, alongside guest beatmakers Spring Heel Jack and talented, multi-lingual lead singer Apeksha Dandekar, is too talented and inventive a producer for that. Without Zero will be greatly appreciated by Joi's longtime fan base, but there's nothing here that will change the mind of anyone thus far resistant to Shamsher's cross-cultural charms.