Beyond Skin

Over the past three decades Nitin Sawhney has been everywhere in British music, working with artists like Norah Jones and Jools Holland, composing for film and TV and releasing more than a dozen of his own albums. 1999’s Beyond Skin was one of his most successful, and remains relevant today both musically and theme-wise: sublimely produced, it moves between classical, hip-hop, jazz, drum & bass and South Asian music, touching upon themes of identity, spirituality, nationalism, and conflict. Nuclear weapons loom large, both in opener “Broken Skin” that deals with India-Pakistan nuclear tensions, and album closer “Beyond Skin,” which uses samples of physicist Robert Oppenheimer reading from the Bhagavad Gita. All the different elements on Beyond Skin feel incredibly well balanced, like the Qawwali music and Latin guitar on “Homelands,” or the lush vocals and drum & bass rhythms on “Nadia.” An unsung classic.