Bikram Singh is an important component of bhangra music in the western hemisphere. He's one of the top desi singers in North America and having recently signed to VIP Records; this album carried plenty of anticipation, especially after the heat carried by his mixtape 'Exclusives'.

On 'American Jugni' we see collaborations with old friends Tigerstyle who have produced the majority of music here and Toronto hip-hop crew 22K, who seem to have a few fingers in a few pies at the moment.

In old skool Indian style, the CD kicks off with title track 'American Jugni'. Bikram wrote the lyrics himself and the track is produced to the high levels, which we expect from Tigerstyle. Raj and Pops have put together a straight up bhangra rhythm, but Bikram's performance is ok, but I don't think it's a killer vocal. I'm not slamming the track, I think it's good but the music is better than the singing, which you don't normally expect on the title track of a singer's album.

However, that must've been the warm up because the New Yorker redeems himself entirely on track two, a beautiful mellow duet with Gunjan. 'Kawan', or 'crow' may not seem like the most romantic name for this kind of track but lyrically it does enchant. Gunjan flows in and out of the track with ease, and the power of Bikram's voice comes to the fore, especially in the chorus. The low strings are warm and round up the track, with Pops' percussion a steady platform for everything to work through.

Ravi Bal take s over production responsibilities for track three, called 'Akh Nagni'. It's on a light reggae type vibe, with strung bass and high notes on harmonium, but a distinctly up tempo desi beat. The recording of Bikram's voice is spot on, you can hear a little breathing space in the booth and this carries through on a tune, which is quite difficult to sing. This is the first of only three tracks on the album where Bikram hasn't written lyrics himself.

Fans of virsa Panjabi will love track four, 'Bhabi Munda Lambran Da'. Hitting you with a steady dhol rhythm, with flutes whistling at you it's a very strong track for you to sing along to. The chorus is sung to the same pattern as quite a few bhangra tunes but the unoriginality is cool because it's such a good tune. Big tune.

The beats get bigger and quicker for the next track, 'Chaklo Gandsaay'. Bikram's first massive tune was 'Taakre', and this seems to be a little bit of a part two to that. Similar drama flutes and dhol rolls, but still packing heat to jump around to. The urban sublows breath a dirty stank into the track and Bikram's vocal is on fire!!

You can put the pint glass over your head for track six, and dance to the sounds 'Kei Katal Hongay'. Proper shoulder moving old skool desi sounds from Ravi Bal and a sing along vocal from Bikram make this one for the uncles to get busy to.

Tigerstyle return to slow the pace for 'Sada Dil', which is another ballad type. A bit less melancholy in sound than 'Kawan', this is pretty much an album filler, and I thought Bikram singing isn't great on this one.

It's another uncle's track with 'Kushian De Dhol', where Ravi Bal ups the tempo a little. Bikram doesn't seem to sit right on the beat for this, which is a shame because the lyrics are really sweet. I think it's the half-breathy aspect to Bikram's voice, which makes it sound awesome on tracks with lower toned music ('Taakre', 'Kawan') but on this type of thing he gets caught out.

The penultimate is 'Luggian', and is maybe Bikram's best performance on the album. Another treasure we see so often hidden at the end of a disc, it's got Tigerstyle production on a kind of desi swing club tip. It's a very versatile performance from the Bikram, mixing low soft vocals with bigger lines as well. Raj and Pops themselves also take to the mic for backing vocals! Now I'll make an apology on the producer's part if your copy comes from the first batch of this CD to be cut, as a mistake meant the two final tracks appear in the wrong order…

Blitzkreig jumps on board with madness for the 'Chaklo Gandasay' remix, which is pretty much in the same vein, but more urban and grimey. The Canadian MC is big and loud, and I love the 'brrap' and bridge lyrics about beef. I prefer this to the original version of the tune, rap music always adds heat to beef tracks, and the more beef the better because the cow is sacred ;-)

What we've got hear is a high quality stereotypical bhangra album. Title track at the start, a remix at the end and adverts afterwards. On thing that stands Bikram out from many overseas desi's is that he actually writes his own lyrics so he deserves some special praise for this. There's also a capitalist edge with copy protection on it which means I'm forbidden from listening to it on my iPod, which I'm aggrieved about (protect your profits yeah, but it's not fair to ban me (and the other 6m people in the UK with iPods) from listening to it how we want to). I know there's a cliché that goes 'if it ain't broke don't fix it', but I know 'Taakre' was a humongous tune, but to try and recreate that over and over is standing still and not moving forward. That's all the bad stuff I can say about it, otherwise it's a mammoth album and a good close to a below average year in bhangra, so 'American Jugni' gets a massive 8.2 out of 10!!