Temple of Sound: First Edition

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * * )

The duo who helm Temple of Sound - due here for next month's Womad in Taranaki - have fine pedigrees: both Neil Sparkes (a well-known UK producer) and Count Dubulah (bass, guitar) were members of Transglobal Underground, which blended big beats and world music into a sonic stew that moshed up dancefloors, discerning homes and the European festival circuit. TU were exotic (the Egyptian vocals of Natacha Atlas), lively (their club anthem Templehead), and should have enjoyed a string of international hit singles.

They didn't, and Sparkes and Dubulah left the line-up in '96. Two years later they formed TOS, which takes a marginally narrower world view but still pumps in the big beats at the bottom and has exotic surfaces.

Those who lost track of Atlas will be delighted she's featured here on Dojo Kun with the Stranglers' Jean Jacques Burnel (whispering in French like some creepy Leonard Cohen) and the Prague Radio Orchestra which provides the Middle Eastern strings.

Other guests include Massive Attack's bassist Winston Blisset (on Dub Colossus, featuring reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson), Senegalese singer Dou Dou N'Diaye Rose, who soars across the musically minimal, percussion-guided Real World, and ney (Egyptian flute) player Kudsi Erguner.

Prepare to get a conga line going for the techno-percussion of Mulatta and Superfly just past the midpoint.

Opening with a snatch of Latin big band before slewing into a loping, bass-heavy dancefloor shaker with horns, and closing with the atmospheric, cinematic and slightly nerve-jangling Quiemada, this one touches plenty of multicultural bases along the way, has a dancebeat for a heart, and, like TU, an approach which denies the frontiers of style.

A colourful postcard, and an enticement to catch them live in the 'Naki.

Label: Wagram/Border