As their name suggests, Cornershop (slang for Indian-owned grocery stores in Britain), features a musical hybrid of the band's East meets West influences. Their sophomore stab, WOMAN'S GOTTA HAVE IT, is one of the most original and innovative albums of 1995. The band started in 1992 as a hardcore group called General Havoc, when brothers Tjinder and Avtar Singh and their best friend Ben Ayers were still in college.
Their music ranges from Velvet Underground-styled garage/guitar-based rock sung in English ("Hong Kong Book Of Kung Fu," and "Call All Destroyer"), to traditional Indian music that's chanted in Hindi and backed by sitar, dohiki and tablas ("6 A.M. Jullander Shere," and "My Dancing Days Are Done"). Often, the orchestration is updated with synthesizer, dance beats and samples giving the music it's own unique identity. Their best songs, however, combine the two disparate influences: "Camp Orange" samples tribal chanting over trip-hop beats, while the poppier "Wog" combines Ovation-like guitar strumming, tribal chanting and lyrics sung in both English and Hindi. On "Wog," Tjinder sums up the underlying premise of this original sounding album: "This western Oriental's going full circle."
