When I Was Born For The 7th Time [Audio CD]

Cornershop: When I Was Born For The 7th Time – CD – Wiiija Records WIJCD 1065 Amazon.co.uk Tjinder Singh’s jewel-box armoury of mellow grooves, left-field samples, harmonium melodies and flute riffs swept all before it in 1997: the sweet, dizzy “Sleep On The Left Side” was the automatic soundtrack for TV features on New Asian Cool; and you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing Fatboy Slim’s Number One, knees-up remix of “Brimful of Asha”. Thankfully, due to its old-school hip-hop sensibilities,When I Was Born doesn’t sound tied and dated to its big year; the album oscillates between mantra and funk (“We’re In Yr Corner”, “Good Shit”) and small, penny-chew songs played on dodgy, cheap keyboards (“Funky Days Are Back Again”, “It’s Good To Be On The Road Back Home Again”.) Alas, Singh loathed his brief time in the spotlight, and retreated to his low-profile side-project Clinton–an eighth rebirth that never quite worked.–Caitlan Moran