Latest releases reviewed

NITIN SAWHNEY
Philtre V2
***

Seven albums in and Nitin Sawhney continues to gallop from international pillar to post with rare abandon. His last few releases - Prophesy in 2001, Human in 2003 - have seen Sawhney step away from conventional electronic beats, yet Philtre owes much of its rich, luxurious lustre to Sawhney's spells as a DJ at London club Fabric. But his dancefloor remains an eclectic one, flashing between Spanish flamenco and Bollywood film sets and further afield. Dead Man, for instance, is New Orleans by way of Bombay, creaky southern blues cheek-by-jowl with rarefied Indian classical frills. He tries his hand at r'n'b (Flipside), but it's the intricate likes of Journey and Noches en Vela (featuring Ojos de Brujo vocalist Marina Abad) that really smoulder. While it lacks the bold political statements of his other work, Philtre sets out Sawhney's stall as an atmospheric scene-setter. www.nitinsawhney.com

Jim Carroll

HALFSET
Dramanalog Elusive
***

Mellow drama is the watchword by which Halfset's Stephen Shannon, Jeff Martin (responsible for the lovely Spoons album from 2004) and Biggley operate. If most electronica gets its kicks by way of squeaks, squawks and squelches, the Irish trio's thrills are far more pastoral and finely tuned. There's certainly a knowing playfulness to some of the tracks (Come On Citron, for instance, with its toe-tapping, twanging banjo), but Halfset are at their best when they push cerebral buttons and create such beguiling tracts as Riversong and Tigare. Halfset run to an expansive musical remit, which ensures they keep finding common contours and compatible bedfellows, even when chancing their arm by crowbarring bluegrass textures into standard folktronica forms. Most impressive of all is how Dramanalog's brittle, tender melodies effortlessly drive the album without ever running out of steam or losing direction. www.halfset.com

Jim Carroll