THE BOMBAY ROYALE: You Me Bullets Love (2012) Video

Inspired by the soundtracks of Indian cinema of the sixties and seventies, Melbourne-based nutters The Bombay Royale are on a mission to propagate Bollywood spy funk across the globe – hence presumably the band name’s spin on Casino Royale – or a debut album title (You Me Bullets Love) that calls to mind The Spy Who Loved Me. Choosing names for the project and its output was always going to be fertile arena and god only knows what fell by the wayside in either case (‘Thunderbolly’? From ‘Asha With Love’?) before the final selection was made. Luckily the music is equally rich including lashings of the aforementioned funk (complete, of course, with sitars and tablas) but also splashes of psych-rock, disco and forays into spaghetti western territory.

The tracks comprise both covers and originals ‘in the style of’ – though it’ll take someone with a more encyclopaedic knowledge of funky Bollywood hits than me to know which group tracks like Monkey Fight Snake and Bobbywood fall into. It all comes together best on the appropriately named The Perfect Plan a tripped-out, dancefloor-ready wah-wah driven gem graced with the vocals of Parvyn Kaur Singh a.k.a. ‘The Mysterious Lady’ – here singing in English though elsewhere she and Shourov ‘The Tiger’ Bhattacharya also supply Hindi and Bengali vocals. Imagine a Bollywood version of Big Pimp Jones’ Jimmy Ruckus And The Five Fingers Of Death and you’re ballpark. Catch the retro vid to the title track below and soundcloud players below that…
(Out 7 May on HopeStreet Recordings)

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