Just the right mix of tribute and original masala to be worthy of many repeated listens. The closing number Phone Baje Na, is a moody stunner. The Perfect Plan, sung in English, has more in common with a mid-sixties Hollywood thriller than anything that came out of India but fits right into the vatavaram (atmosphere) of the album.
The rapid fire back flirty chorus ( hum tum, tum, mein, hum, tum) is a perfect slice of vintage Bombay. The title track is a clear high point which manages not only to get the sound right but also the feel. They are able to capture that wide screen bombast that opens and closes the great flicks of the 60s and 70s-fast moving, gay and as sharp as the point on Shammi Kapoor’s tie. The brew that flows from their magical connection is spectacularly on-the-mark.
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The band, made up of the above mentioned vocalists, who sing in Hindi as well as Bengali and English, draws on a full complement of brass instruments, including trumpets, trombones and saxes as well as a mand and a half of various stringed instruments and percussive drums. Its called You Me Bullets Love which leaves no doubt that they are about having fun. Their only album today is under the big spotlight tonight. The real question is not, how did such a band come together, but where have you been all my life? But as is the case with Hindi cinema music, at its best, it is always noteworthy and exciting, and so is Bombay Royale. In a very multi-cultural country it seems almost unremarkable that such a unit-the world’s first Bollywood Tribute Big Band-should emerge. They’ve created quite a fun lively stir in the clubs around the country and recently played Glastonbury as well as other dates in the UK.
The Bombay Royale is a Melbourne-based but very globe-trotting band fronted by two Indian diaspora-wale Parvyn Kaur Singh and Shourov Bhattacharya who along with their numerous band mates are directed by the ‘ Skipper’ Andy Williamson, on saxophone.