Beyond Skin

Eesh.

Chill desi-infused trip-hop r&b. I dig it.

This is a very interesting album, but it is just a "good" listen. Nitin Sawhney is also a very interesting artist. He seems to kind of operate as a composer in a contemporary classical tradition, but with a distinctly electronic slant. He also makes a lot of music about his cultural identity, colonialism, and here, nuclear weapons. Beyond Skin is in kind of a trip hop/down tempo/drum n bass space. And it wears these genres well. Beyond Skin doesn't take the genre core anywhere completely unexplored (as far as I know), but the consistent usage of Indian music across this album does give it a distinct, and unique flavor. And, every once in a while, a song is built around a truly *fascinating* sample. For example, choosing to build The Conference around *that* vocal sample is an unbelievably brave move. Additionally, the compositions here skew towards the minimalist end of their genres. It makes these songs feel very intentionally constructed and nocturnal. I also want to award points for ambition. This is a concept album about nuclear weapons, told backwards, in a genre that is very minimally focused on lyrics. This is another very brave move. Nitin Sawhney doesn't cheat a whole bunch either. A few samples of speeches get you into the right place, but a lot of the concept here is told through mood, and pure composition. In short, the mechanisms going on here are extremely interesting. However, as a listening experience, I think it's the sort of thing that I appreciate most as just something I can put on in the background of another activity. Which isn't to say this is boring, I do think the songs here are good, but they don't end up really enrapturing me the way some other stuff in this genre space does. Overall, this is a well-executed, interesting concept, and a pretty decent listening experience.

Interesting sounds, global atmosphere, and engaged lyrics that made me go back for a second listen.

Good album. Pleasant trip hop sounds with Indian fulourishes for your late 90’s dinner party.

Need more grist in my mill.

Es ist ein klanglich vielseitiges Album mit politischem Anspruch, verliert sich aber oft in seiner Konzeptlastigkeit. Trotz interessanter Ansätze fehlt es an emotionaler Tiefe und musikalischer Klarheit. Ambitioniert, aber nicht ganz überzeugend.

How on earth did this make it in to the 1001 list!

This is the most confusing album I've ever heard. It doesn't seem to have a specific genre. Some of the songs are pretty good and some are pretty bad. I think I have to give it a 3/5 because I just can't tell if it's good or not.

I really disliked this album. Way to many songs I wanted to just skip.

A worthy listen, but a 1 timer. Seems very of its era. 2.5/5

Chill and pretty good. Very enjoyable vibe and very calming. I liked it.

Conocí este artista por un recopilatoria de Café del Mar o algo de eso. Y aunque no encaja con mis gustos más generales si es algo que disfruto en dosis recomendadas. Me guardo: Broken skin, Homelands, Pilgrim, Nadia y The conference.

I doubt I would have ever listened to this album if it wasn’t for this site, and I’m glad I did. At its best it gives portishead / Massive attack vibes, but there’s two or three too many elements/genres trying to be mixed in here for it to fully work.

The only redeeming feature of this album is the artwork which clearly depicts my face when someone adds spoken word excerpts about nuclear war to hotel elevator muzak.

interesting listen, though not my cup of tea

I’m at a 5.

When we got this, I went straight to Wikipedia to look at the genres, and I saw it said “downtempo, drum & bass”, and I immediately assumed we would be getting another 58 minute electronica piece driven mostly by video game-esque beats. I would like for someone to edit the damn Wikipedia article for this album, because it gives a *tremendously* wrong impression. This is a deeply enrichening 58 minutes that covers a wide variety of genres, using electronica as a sort of cover-all base to aid in the production, but this goes everywhere from pop to jazz to R&B to DnB, with a lo-fi lean and a lot of worldly Indian influence. The instrumentals are what aid the overarching theme of the album, which is ultimately how much humanity has been impacted & predisposed to self-defense instead of community ever since the dropping of the first atomic bomb, starting in present time for 1999, and going backwards to Oppenheimer’s realizations, quoted in a way that feels a bit chilling by the very end.

From a storytelling standpoint, it’s hard to point out any perceived “flaws” here; this takes a more intimate approach at times, so mileage will simply vary on being able to pick up the themes & political overtones of this album, and I do think there is a bit of correlation to picking up on them & being able to enjoy this album to its fullest extent. It does hit you over the head pretty hard with it though, so if you somehow manage to ignore it, that’s on you, I think.

From a musical standpoint, there are definitely some flaws in my brain, but they’re not overly bad, save for one. “Pilgrim” is fine, if entirely undercooked due to the way it was recorded; never ever record vocals first & then beat second, unless you’re Kendrick Lamar working with Pharrell Williams. It needed a rerecording & a lot more work. I think “Nadia” is a little too long; cutting it down to an essential 3 minutes would make that track pace itself way better. “Serpents” is… wholly unnecessary to the album. It’s the biggest glaring flaw here, and while it’s not an overly *horrible* track, I do think it’s a bad one, and it could have easily been cut. If you already weren’t enjoying the first 7 tracks of this album, it might be the breaking point to just give up on this album entirely. I’m very glad the first 7 tracks clicked as nicely as they did for me, because it really seems like it could be that bothersome.

“Anthem Without Nation” is an interesting case study in lyricism making or breaking an atmospheric song at times; Genius doesn’t have the lyrics, but Spotify does, and they’re very easy to translate if you Google them. Looking through the translation, it’s a very slow boiling anger relating to how indigenous peoples tend to get thrown away and ignored in favor of colonized history; it’s an anthem for those people who feel like they have no nation even though they’re the true natives of the land. Without a translation though, all of this is lost, and the track could easily feel like another 6-minute slog after “Serpents” took a swing at the vibe. I think it’s an admirable track, but musically it’s just far too slowly paced, and the building percussion creates a bigger sense of repetition. I would’ve done it with more traditional instrumentation, but perhaps the synthetic instrumentation is a metaphor for the “overtaking” of nations. I do like it from a storytelling perspective, but musically, it could just as easily have been cut, with “Immigrant” flowing into “Nostalgia” as a better 1-2 punch.

Oh, and uh, I guess “Nostalgia” is just a little repetitive. That’s my only thing on that one. The rest of the album flows great.

All of that aside, those are just things I would tweak about the album to give it stronger pacing for my tastes; at its core, this is still a very strong album, and a lot deeper & richer than I thought it would be at first glance. Hell, just look at that album cover. That album cover does not inspire confidence whatsoever. I’m very glad this is on the list, and even with a track like “Serpents” acting as a make or break battering ram for some people, I think the rest of this album is more than strong enough to earn a 5. It’s an album where you can draw a clear line between an active listener and someone treating this 1001 Albums project as just colorful noise to listen to. I really, really enjoyed it, and I’m very glad it’s on the list. Hence, the 5.

Beyond Skin blends traditional jazz with Indian musical influences—a combination that, while ambitious, didn’t quite land for me. From the start, I had a feeling this wouldn’t be my kind of album.

The opening track showed some promise, but overall, the album felt like a slow decline. The fusion of styles just didn’t resonate with me, and I found it hard to connect with the mood and pacing.

Favourite Track: Broken Skin stood out as a solid moment with interesting textures and rhythm.
Least Favourite Track: Homelands didn’t work for me at all—it felt disjointed and overly dramatic.
Album Artwork: The cover is a bit jarring—Nitin looks like he’s in pain, and it’s not the most inviting visual.

Hadn't heard of Nitin Sawhney before, so wasn't sure what to expect from this album, turned out quite pleasant and chill, (I mean apart from the undertones of nuclear dread).

What an interesting album, it's like an Indian R&B album. But also with sound samples of Oppenheimer's "I am become death" quote. Some of it was amazing, but some of it was like a Disney soundtrack. I don't even know what to say about it.

Really like the theming and the sounds on this one, not super cohesive but very atmospheric and quite emotional in places.