Desi underground, Asian dance beats, sitar funk…call it what you wanna call it but the Shaanti collective have been at the forefront of Asian youth music which isn't bhangra for a long time now with their quality club nights and the first release on their own independent label has been a long time coming. 'Fused Rocking Beats' is an album that captures the Shaanti sound and features all the different genres you would expect to hear if you went to their last club night.

After the successful collaboration with Ministry of Sound on the Urban Underground album two years ago (you know, three CDs for a tenner), Manga and Sharnita - the founders of Shaanti Play Records - are back with this project which gives freedom to put out a compilation which they like. Is it any good? Let's find out…

If there was ever a song which encapsulated the title of an album then 'Disco Warrior' by The Kalyan is it. It is simply beats, that are fused and they rock!! Featuring the vocal talents of industry standard Lembher Hussainpuri, it is a banging track with an electro guitar riff and pounding drums and relentless energy. This never tires and it's that reason why this tune is doing the rounds on daytime desi radio as well as late at night.

Track two is called 'Spin It Round' and is by The Nextmen featuring Dynamite MC. There's a lot of pedigree to this track, with Dynamite MC part of drum n' bass guru Roni Size's collective, and The Nextmen big artists in their own right. This is the Superjones remix which sees spinning baja flows underneath the MC'ing and I think it's a bit of a blatant 'Indian mix' and I'm not a huge fan. The production is a bit simple, the chorus annoying and the only consolation is that it's less than three minutes long.

Moving on to track three, we are given two gifts: one in production and one in a vocal. Prithpal Sirjeet's 'Jalee License' has an epic intro, and breaks into a strong beat with electro sounds flitting around on top and good threaded keys making a quality strong dance track. There's more good stuff in Banni Sandhu's vocal, which is emotional and stretches the singer (who I'm not saying is a superstar) and generates another strong element to the track. However, the music and the vocal don't gel too well, with the vocal sitting a little above, but I still think it's a good song.

We move on to 'Aaja', by Taz/Stereo Nation/Johnny Zee/Identity Crisis. It's a bit less intense than the previous track, with a light chorus the only vocal but backed by some good guitars, tablas and production work. I liked this a fair bit and it could've been really good had it been given more lyrics.

Now any of our regular readers will know all about Sumeet and her track 'Agony' which originally featured Elephant Man but all the desi people dropped that and picked up Harv Singh's Hot Curry Mix. Now this is the third time I've reviewed an album with this song on and I was shocked to see this is the first proper UK release with it! The bhangra fused reggae vibes are still quality, with Sumeet's chorus one to get down to and you can put your hands in the air for the Punjabi verse too. Still bangin', someone sign this girl and make her a superstar.

There's then another track we've seen before on a smaller release, 'Kamasutra' by Azian Empire with Tigerstyle on production. The Glaswegian duo had it on their second mixtape so this is your opportunity to grab this quality but dirty track. I love the lyrics, they're sick…. check this from Blitzkreig: "You can hug your wife sayin' you're happily married, well how happy can you be doing it missionary?" Quality.

Track seven is 'Gypsy' by the Sonik Gurus, a hard-hitting dance track that I struggle to find faults with. Rocky's voice is brilliant, the beat is great and when the b-line drops everyone's gonna jump on that dance floor. The tumbi flow might seem simple but it sits like a flat roof on top of a 5 star hotel. It's basic but it's grand, like many things in this track, but there are special complexities too which you can extract from the production. My favourite track on the album.

Superjones returns for his second track, having not been content working with Roni Size's boys on his earlier offering he posthumously employs the great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for some Qawalli dance beats on the cleverly named 'Rest In Beats'. The production is great and I think a lot more of Superjones after listening to this. It has a simple riff, but it is encoded, decoded, oscillated and run through a hundred different plugins to make it sound different every time it drops. You'll be there dancing away and you'll calm when the break comes but just before silence Nusrat actually jumps out of the grave to hit you with a piercing note that will stand the hairs on the back of your neck, proving why he is the great one. Then that mad riff returns with vengeance and power to the end.

When I saw the name of this next track I was apprehensive. Any song called 'Electric Vindaloo' is going to be by someone who normally makes English music and this is his dabble in desi vibes. Cosmic Rocker is quite a big artist in the dance scene and this attempt has good technical skills but you'll think that it's your head being hit and not the dhol before long. Weak, repeated vocal too, not my thing.

'Words Of Truth' is track ten, from Shabz who featured on Urban Underground. I'm a big fan of this from the sci-fi intro, through the constant coolness in its drum patterns and than tumbi sound rings around a dance floor electrifying feet to start moving. Shabz is a very talented and underrated producer who has his own style in desi dance beats, and this track is a good example. Traditional flows are fused (there's that word again) with dirty b-lines and simple chord sequences to create solid music. Oh, and if you think there's a beat missed on the breaks, he meant that apparently. Very creative, it keeps you guessing.

Prithpal Sirjeet gives us his second offering at number eleven with 'Flip The Skirpt'. This has desi vocals from Debipriya Das and caressed skillz from JC001, the world's fastest rapper. Fast but not furious and you wont be able to (or need to) understand his lyrics, but it's a dance track so it won't matter. Not a dance floor banger, it's easy on the ears but the strings come through to fill the track.

Now, house music is club music and you don't sit in your room and listen to a 12" from start to finish. It has a long intro and a long outro which only DJs care about because they need to beat match etc. For me, listening to a compilation album, I don't care about the bpm, and I've not had my attention grabbed until one and a half minutes into this (there's also a two minute breakdown at the end, so if you cut these you've got enough space for another song on the album). My interest has been grabbed by the emerging whispering of 'Tum Ka Ho' (that's what the song is called by the way) as it's creating a build up to something. But my interest suddenly disappears when I hear a sample so obvious and uncreative that it makes me realise that Oddme does not deserve to have a record deal. Bhangra Knights, the 'I See You Baby' remix, we've heard it and on a house beat that has bored me to death already, I'm reaching for the phone to get Usman to arrange that blind barber… One word for this: Fruityloops.

I think track thirteen has a great name. 'Bloodshot' is a hard edged drum and bass piece from DJ V which would sound great anyway after the shit I've just heard, but I don't want to take anything away from this because it is an awesome tune. It is cold, wintry and iced at the start through the beat and key, and when the grimey, dirty, filthy bass sound comes it does hit you like the whiskey, which made your eyes bloodshot. Or is it the icy cold blade at the start, which causes blood? I don't know, answers on a postcard please (or e-mail, it's quicker). Oh and one more thing Irfan tells me the lyrics are very Islamic and could cause a little controversy.

Oddme returns to sound out with the original mix of '2050 India'. This is much better than his previous attempt, with lightening tabla and cutting sounds generating a good sense that something is going to happen, and even though he doesn't drop something powerful, the production levels are high enough to keep you engaged for when something else enters or leaves the arena. The breakdown is apt and suits the end of the album too.

The desi dance scene has had a good year so far and 'Fused Rocking Beats' only adds to it. There's plenty of different styles on there to keep you amused, and genuine highlights like 'Disco Warrior', 'Rest In Beats' and the amazing 'Gypsy' overpower the weaker tracks. To boot, there's quality tunes from not so long ago given a proper release, so go get this album because it deserves to be bought.