3 Cities

The second outing from the Bombay Dub Orchestra pretty much picks up from where they left off last time, although there's perhaps less emphasis on the dub aspect and more on the lovely chill-out melodies heavily ornamented by strings from Mumbai, Chennai, and London. Although it starts off with swooshing Cairo-style strings on "Egypt by Air," the main focus, as before, is on India. At lot of the time they're content to keep things quiet and lush, with the orchestra ornamenting the small, pretty melodies, but at times they do kick off, as on "Monsoon Malabar" or the epic "Amina," which shifts through moods, emerging from swooping grandeur and heavy drums to the quiet of a voice and hammered dulcimer at the end. It's all very carefully arranged and quite gorgeous, like a giant confection, but there's also substance at the heart of it. The melodies might seem gentle, but there's real craft to them in the way they build and develop. It's a lovely record — and for once, the word lovely is truly apt — wrapping gorgeous sheets of sound around the listener, which makes it perfect for late-night listening.