release date: Dec.? 1993
format: cd (1995 reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,18]
producer: John Wills; Tjinder Singh
label: Merge Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 3. "Readers Wives" - 5. "Inside Rani (Long Version)" - 4. "Change" - 6. "Born Disco, Died Heavy Metal" - 8. "Where D'u Get Your Information" - *11. "England's Dreaming"
*Bonus track on '95 US-issue
Studio album debut by Cornershop originally released on Wiiija Records. Cornershop consists of songwriter Tjinder Singh on vocals and bass, his brother Avtar and Ben Ayres (aka Benedict Ayres), both on guitar and vocals, Saffs (aka Anthony Saffery) on sitar, Wallis Healey on guitar, and with David Chambers on drums. All music is credited the band, although, Tjinder and Ben are at the centre of the band with Tjinder as primary songwriter as the natural leader. The album was released exclusively in the UK in '93.
The style is rather hard to narrow in - alt. rock, indie rock, and raga rock are definitely embracing it but those terms may not suffice. Several tracks are definitely punk rock, noise rock, or grunge rock-styled, whereas others share traits from post-punk, gothic rock, dream pop and alt. dance as a new kind of fusion rock embracing elements from funk, soul and South Asian folk. This huge melting pot of styles is not entirely mediocre as it contains much originality, although, it may be a difficult first listen.
The '95 US-edition released on Merge also contains an additional 5-tracks taken from the ep Lock Stock & Double-Barrel included as bonus tracks at the end.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
