Cornershop: Handcream for a Generation

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * * )

Cornershop is finally open for business again. The genre-defying English duo of Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres delivered the wonderfully absurd hit Brimful of Asha and a fine album Born for the Seventh Time back in 1997/98 but then seemingly slipped back into wilful obscurity and dance-oriented side projects.

But now they've returned with an album that feels like one big happy accident - an infectiously scatter-brained jumble that delivers some bent takes on funk, dance, reggae, hip-hop with a smattering of the sort of warped, Anglo-Asian-flavoured pop-rock that made Asha such a stand-out (even when it was turned into a hit by the Norman Cook remix).

Of the latter, the early Staging the Plaguing of the Raised Platform echoes the earlier hit, while Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III, which features former Oasis bassman Paul McGuigan, is all glam chords and Primal Scream swagger. Noel Gallagher also contributes guitar to the 14-minute sitar-heavy wig-out Spectral Mornings that dominates the latter half of the album even if the fast-forward button becomes a temptation at the 10-minute mark.

In between they neatly cram bass-popping sunny funk (Heavy Soup), a valiant attempt to out-daft Daft Punk (Music Plus 1, People Power, The London Radar), askew hip-hop (Wogs Will Walk) and amusingly rambling reggae (Motion the 11).

No, it's not very sensible stuff. But it's a feelgood cracker.

Label: Remote Control/Shock