For a long time now, in every city, state and country you can find a DJ or maybe even a group of DJ’s that decide to remix a set of popular Bhangra songs in the hopes of making a smash underground remix CD. Well thousands of DJ’s have tried and while some have succeeded to a certain extent, most have fallen flat on their faces. Some of the reasons can be pointed to the lack of talent or experience, or you could say their music is only catered to one group of people. But the real reason DJ’s fail is because of their lack of originality and creativity.

This can not be said for the Houston, Texas based assemblage of Dhol Beat International. The group consisting of lead man DJ impact and Dholi Deep, along with up and comers in Dholi Trikz, Dholi Raja, DJ Dizzy, DJ Indo, G-Masala and Ponch are back again to hit the Bhangra industry with a smashing 48 track mind-blowing CD entitled, “Absolut Bhangra 2.” Obviously this is the follow up to the hit album, “Absolut Bhangra.” One of the factors that set DBI apart from the rest is their refusal to compromise and use the mainstream hip-hop samples that have corrupted the Desi music scene. In my opinion their ability to keep their mixes straight Desi is sole reason for their tremendous success with minimum exposure. And to top it off, they have one of the nation’s top Dhol players in Dholi Deep providing the perfect harmony with his impressive skills.

The basic concept of “Absolut Bhangra 2” is a party CD that you can throw into your collection and turn up the volume without skipping a track. Although most tracks are only about 40 seconds to about 2 minutes long, the continuous Dhol beat and blending of 48 tracks is perfect because of no breaks, pauses or skips. They give you enough feeling of one song, and before you get tired of it, they move onto the next track which keeps all the songs fresh, which make you want to listen to it over and over.

Since the track listing is enormous, I’ll just give you an overview of what they tried to do. Although they did use a few older tracks that were repeats from “Absolut Bhangra 1”, they did do a wonderful job of using a plethora of new tracks. Some of my favorites are as listed:

DJ Sanj + Karan MC – Balle Balle Hogay Mitro


Simon Nandhra and Jassi Sidhu’s versions of Dil Mangdi


Jashandeep – Pauri


Lehmber Hussainpuri – Putt Jattan De Jawan


Sangra Vibes + Meet Malkit – Naal Nachna


Bobby B + Jay Jagpal– Teri Tor Vekh ke


Aman Hayer – Tharti Hildi


Jazzy B – Yaari


Nindy Kaur – Giddha Pao


RDB – Oh Preeti


DJ Sanj + Karan MC – Apna Punjab


RDB – Mitra Dhe Naal


Aman Hayer + Sabar Koti – Dil


Safri Boys – Pao Bhangre


RDB - Lehmber Hussainpuri – Sadi Gali

Finally, the true standard of a hit is when I played this album for some of my Non-Desi friends and they ‘Absolutely’ loved it, even though they had no idea what the lyrics were in any of the songs. Just the sheer sound of the Dhol and incredible mixing is what will catch everyone’s ears. With that said, “Absolut Bhangra 2” gets a PunjabiSongs.com score 9.0 out of 10. If it had not been for some of the repeat tracks they used, they probably would have scored a little higher, but with that said, this has to be the ONE mix CD you should go out and buy for 2006. I hear that Dhol Beat International is working on releasing an album in the near future of all original work featuring the sounds of their vocalists Karamjeet. With their success to date, I have no doubt in my mind that will also with a huge success, and we here at www.Punjabisongs.com wish them all the best of luck and can’t wait to hear what they have in store.

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Dhol Beat International - Absolut Bhangra 2 [Forum Page]

- Reviewed: Neetu Samra ( Thu May 4 20:26:57 2006 )