Song Of The Day #176 // Cornershop: 'United Provinces of India'

How’s your Punjabi? If it’s decent, maybe you can help us out here; if not, lack of linguistic facility won’t spoil anyone’s enjoyment of ‘United Provinces of India’, where Bubbley Kaur trills prettily over Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres’ circular funk. It’s not the first time Kaur and Cornershop have hooked up – you might remember 2004’s leisurely ‘Topknot’, which flirted with the Top 50 before politely declining, and the Caveman remix which spliced it with a contribution from M.I.A. – but this time, they’re making a full go of it.

The best part of five years ago saw rumours that Cornershop and Kaur were putting a whole album together, but not a peep surfaced. Instead, there was last year’s Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast which plugged familiar grooves, setting no world alight but warmly received all the same. Now at last there’s a promise of more, as Cornershop & The Double ‘O’ Groove Of gets ready to drop next March, a bells-and-whistles collaboration between Cornershop and Kaur with ‘United Provinces of India’ the first fruits.

And the signs are good. Kaur – at last, Cornershop’s very own Asha Bhosle – warbles over a funky guitar jangle, a lick that spins over and over, occasionally elbowed off course by a backwards scratch. It’s hypnotic in the best sense and contrives to thrill even while it remains utterly unbothered about reaching any kind of destination. Maybe that’s a task for The Double ‘O’ Groove. In the meantime, ‘United Provinces of India’ whets the appetite nicely.

Stream the track in full below and/or sign-up to the Cornershop mailing list to receive it as a tasty mp3, direct to your inbox.