Bishi - 'Nights At The Circus' (Gryphon) Released 12/11/07

DJ and multi-instrumentalist Bishnu Priya’s (aka DJ Siren aka Bishi) debut album is a must listen to for anyone with a penchant for the sitar, or for that matter, finding new ways to label musical genres. With a multitude of influences and dimensions to her first long player, the big question is what category does ‘Nights At The Circus’ fit into? Indian, World, Pop, Folk, Street Poetry…it’s all there and more than enough to confuse and scare the shit out of your average Saturday morning HMV shelf stacker. Born into a Bengali musical family; Bishi began singing at the age of two and swiftly followed in her parents footsteps by pursuing a career in music.

Although the sitar has been around for thousands of years and has been used by the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, it’s never managed to penetrate and become a mainstay of British popular music, and probably for good reason. Bishi’s debut might resonate with the sitar’s sympathetic strings (an instrument she studied at The Ravi Shankar School For Music) but it’s not exclusive to the album; and using Jaw Harp and Harmonium alongside some more ‘conventional’ instruments, she mixes classic East and West traditions with a smattering of folk, pop and electronica. An undeniably interesting combination but one that is not only in parts obstructive and fragmented, but also allows your mind to wander too far away from which ever track you may be listening to at the time.

A good indicator for what’s to come can be found in the opening and title track ‘Nights At The Circus’. Eloquently sung, distinctly descriptive and poetically flowing it might be, but something doesn’t quite ring true. Lyrically it’s as if Bishi is trying too hard and un-necessarily overcomplicating an uncomplicated point, which is almost lost amongst its vivid imagery and that unfortunately becomes more unhelpful than enlightening. The same can also be said of ‘Grandmother’s Floor’, ‘Never Seen Your Face’ and ‘Nightbus’ to name but a few. This is a shame on several levels; firstly that Bishi is obviously talented in her chosen field, and secondly that Bishi has gathered such an eclectic yet complimentary collage of sounds to grace her album, you begin to wonder if it is in fact you who is missing the point.

There are some brief moments of clarity such as ‘I Am You’ and ‘After The Party’, but these are few and far between and you’ll have to look hard through the joss stick induced haze in order to find them.