Pandit Dinesh, the godfather of the British Asian Musical Movement, brings you an amazing new sample collection featuring hundreds of his performances.

Together with Stephen Luscome & Asha Bhosle he is one third of the West India Company. His other credits include Osibisa, Monsoon, Caron Wheeler, Annie Lennox, Blancmange, Boy George, Trevor Horn, George Fenton, Jah Wobble, Riyuchi Sakamoto and many more! Playing a style of percussion which combines Indian, African, Latin & Pop, Dinesh's instrumental 'batterie de cuisine' includes tabla, congas, madal, duggi, chenda, timbales, dhol, dholak and duff to name but a few.

This CD features hundreds of specially recorded loops. Solo and emsemble percussion, instrument licks, atmospheres and vocals! A unique resource created by a unique talent.

This ReFill features all the REX and WAV files in the collection, a few NN19 programs and a demo song so, whilst it adds a few elements for Reason users, is not a full-featured ReFill. When you hear the contents you'll realise that it's not the type of material that is really suitable to add additional data to in any meaningful way.

NB: A few files (longer performances) require additional licensing before commercial use. This only applies to a small fraction of the CD.

Review: - Pukka Masala - Pandit Dinesh - REASON REFILL - 4 stars - Sound On Sound Review 2003

Pukka Masala contains 411 REX2 files, presenting a fairly broad selection of musical flavours from the Indian subcontinent. As you'd expect, the tabla are well represented, as are other percussion instruments such as the congas, jumbay and madal, to name but a few. Samples range from short rolls and fills to one-, two- and four-bar riffs and grooves, with a few pick-ups and big finishes thrown in for good measure. Tempos range from 75 to 130 bpm and above. There are ensemble percussion performances too, and a few samples (I'm thinking in particular of 'N Indian Festival' and 'Wedding Band' here) of what sounds like quite a party. Melodic instruments get a fairly brief look-in, with the sitar and sarod featuring most heavily, and there's even a few vocal samples of what can only be described as an Indian fusion of scat and rap.

The standard is high throughout and there are, with the odd exception, no problems with the way the samples have been sliced. The performances themselves are excellent ‹ lively and interesting with plenty of authentic human 'feel'. However, I do think this collection is let down a little by its organisation, or rather, the lack of it. The REX files are simply collected in a single folder and some of the file names are rather oblique, especially to someone who doesn't know his duff from his dholak. Some form of subdivision, whether by tempo, instrumentation or style, would have been welcome. But this is a small blemish on an otherwise pleasing release - think of it as a Bollywood beauty who's forgotten to put on her make-up. David Greeves