Will they rock the UAE?

You can hardly imagine an act more suited to the UAE's multicultural vibe than the Bombay Rockers. Based in Denmark, they are made up of Thomas Sardorf and Navtej Singh Rehal and their records mix Western and Indian musical styles. The band describes its sound as a blend of R&B with pop, hip hop and Bhangra music.

Linguistic mix

While Thomas sings in English, Navtej performs vocals in Punjabi, so there is a linguistic mix to add to the varied musical influences.

It is perhaps no surprise then that the Bombay Rockers were chosen as a support act to Westlife when the Irish boyband played in Dubai back in 2005.

Back then, Bombay Rockers were promoting their debut album, Introducing, which was a big hit in India and has gone on to sell more than 400,000 copies around the world.

Now, the UAE is one of just two territories (the other one is India) where their second long player, Crash and Burn, has so far been released.

The record will not be out in Scandinavia until August.

So what's their new record like?

Well there's the same musical and cultural mix that the first record showed, with Thomas and Navtej's vocals working well together. And there are some excellent melodies as well, with the more rocky, poppy tracks tending to be better than the heavily rap influenced material.

Out of Control mixes some great singing from Navtej with western-style disco beats, while the catchy Beautiful was deservedly a hit. Sajna Ve has some excellent female vocals courtesy of Anita Hanspal. Another very strong track is Kushi.

There are a couple of mis-steps, notably Bounce Back, a foul-mouthed rap song. And the American accent that Thomas sometimes uses could be ditched as well — it just sounds so fake.

These low points aside, this is another good album that will probably give the Bombay Rockers more success in plenty of countries — including the UAE.

The writer is the travelling bard of Gulf News