Track Listing

1. Broken Skin
2. Letting Go
3. Homelands
4. Pilgrim
5. Tides
6. Nadia
7. Immigrant
8. Serpents
9. Anthem Without Nation
10. Nostalgia
11. Conference
12. Beyond Skin

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7023 in Music
• Released on: 2001-06-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live

Amazon.co.uk Review
A compulsive and unclassifiable mixture of Indian classical music, flamenco, killer acoustic drum & bass, hip-hop, jazz and soul, Beyond Skin is one of those albums that vibes in its own excellent orbit. A profoundly humanist album, Beyond Skin should further enhance Nitin Sawhney's reputation as one of Britain's most exciting and imaginative musicians. It may be based on concepts, a challenge to ideas of identity and nationality, but it's also a fluid, meditative atomic jam with Instrumental, Marque Gilmore, Jayanta Bose, Steve Sheehan and the nephews of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan amongst others. Sawhney creates some incredibly moving pieces at a slow, elegiac tempo--"Homelands" is a deep bliss-out tune where the astonishing playing of the string quartet, Instrumental combines in ethereal beauty with chanting tablas and the call and response vocals of Bose. On "Broken Skin" and "Immigrant", Sawhney scales new heights: political songs with exhilarating melodies and sing-along soul hooks. Yes--this is edge music full of rare invention, where atmosphere and austerity coalesce. A music vividly constructed around textures and rhythms, glimpses--echoes completely in tune with the tenor of our times. Beyond Skin is a fantastic album, an album so beautiful that it plays every emotion like a SP1200. This is a brit-pop album in the mould of ADF, Drum FM, Massive Attack and Primal Scream. --Maxine Kabuubi

Customer Reviews

One of the few CDs that i'll play time and time again
I think the sign of truly great music is when it captures you immediately. I was killing time in a music store not really looking to buy when Beyond Skin began to play. The first track really impressed me and made me ask the shop assistant who was playing ? When he replied Nitin Sawhney i wasn't sure i was ready to part with my money because i'd never heard of him before. Luckily enough i hung around long enough for the second track, letting go, to begin. Words can't describe how awesomely chilled this track is. No matter how stressed you are simply put this track on and suddenly you're far away lost in the dreamy vocals and the sublime layers. The rest of the album displays many other musical styles including a distinctly drum-and-bass track, Nadia. The consistency is almost as impressive as the quality. Each song has its own magic and when im playing the CD obly one track ever gets skipped. This is certainly one of the most played CDs i have and even though it's been a year since i bought it it finds itself in my player most days. Open your mind.......discover Nitin's magic

The Perfect Album
I discovered Nitin after his nomination for he mercury music prize, and without discrediting any of the other albums, I can say 'Beyond Skin' should have won. I am a huge fan of Kathryn Williams and Badly Drawn Boy, but they cannot beat the most perfect sounding album ever. Every single sound on the album is exquisite, and you discover more every time you listen to it. It would compliment any music collection to have a copy of 'beyond skin.' Nitin is truly a master and a visionary who has a better understanding of music than most people could ever hope to achieve.

Song recomendations would be 'Letting Go' and 'Homelands'

ITS ONE OF MY TOP 2 ALBUMS....EVER!!!!
I've several of his albums and I've also seen him play live and I can honestly say that Nitin Sawhney (and his musical entourage) are some of the most talented individuals I've been priviliged to hear play. They intertwine an eclectic mix of Vedic chanting, classical guitar, fantastic percussion and drums, rapping, blues and gentle pop motifs to produce music of inspirational quality. Each track is differently weighted with respect to the musical influences but is always accompanied by something unexpected and delightful. This album is the pinacle of all of Nitin Sawhney's work. As an extra consideration this is a concept album speaking out against the stupidity of conflict (especially nuclear war), which surreptitiously pervades most of the tracks. And quite right, why shouldn't an artist appeal to his audience's moral conscience as well as spoiling our musical palettes with his genius? This is a must buy. MUST BUY!