It seems like only last week that Asif Gillani asked me to review his first album as one half of the Fusing Naked Beats duo with Martti Sewell. That was in fact February 2005 and Fusing Naked are now on their third studio disc. There past offerings have been mainly instrumental dance breaks with a bit of spoken word, but there's now a definite vocal edge to their sound.

We kick off with the tantric guitars of ‘Ru'yah', which is a very chilled out track. Qaawalli singers Sandhya Sanjana and Houria provide some mesmeric vocal sounds and it is hypnotic stuff. More so that the guitars are fused together with pritt stick and don't flow so well and the track doesn't really move in any different directions after sixteen bars. It's got a nice groove but stays on it for too long.

Track two is ‘Ishq' featuring Qawalli vocalist Mehi. This guy smashed it on Djinn's ‘Point Of Xstaci' and Fusing Naked's sounds should be right up his street. The music is really nice; not too heavy, but vibrant and the only downside is Mehi's voice isn't brought out as much as it is on the Djinn track. ‘Point Of Xstaci' used Mehi as an instrument whereas he is employed here as a vocal and his best use on this is the Qawalli nonsensical soundings.

The vocalists form the first track return for a more up-tempo rendition than their previous escapade. ‘Freedom' is more electronic and it's a simple loop for them to flip their stuff over and they do better here.

The classic Fusing Naked instrumental desi dance track returns for ‘Psychotropic', our fourth track. The tablas grab your attention and the scratching is a great component. It's got a dirty edge to it, which is nice after the cleaner Qawalli stuff, even if there is no stomach-wrenching bassline.

Sandhya Sanjana re-enters the fray on ‘City Of Angels ', another chilled out Qawalli dance track. It's weird because I actually really like this track but can't think of much to say about it. It's just really well put together and harmonious. The vocal isn't overworked but there's no strong melody; it's not special but it's really amiable.

We get a second dose of Mehi on the slow ‘Needran.' This is different for Mehi as it's a hip-hop paced tune, and he shows great flexibility on this. Again there's no melody, and it's not catchy but it's nice to listen to.

The biggest desi vocal name of the album hits us next on the ‘Sunnah' track. Anyone who loved the classic ‘Elevation' track featuring Gunjan will get high on this. It's not drum and bass, but if you remember that then you should have matured by now and this chill out stuff should be sweetness to your ears. Shahin's vocabulary is limited to wails and hums, but it works nicely and is incredibly soothing.

Cool and soothing are two good words to put to the next track which features reggae MC General Levy. ‘Indian Pearl' is another slow affair which has plenty of air between its deep bass and Unnati's Hindi influenced singing and Levy's light flows which are a total contrast to the fury of ‘Shake What Ya Momma Gave Ya.' I don't think General Levy is that good, but if you don't listen too intently to him on this it's another really nice chilled track.

We get a second instrumental dance track for number nine. ‘Odyssey' is a typical FNB floor filler, which has a pressured bass and a well arranged beat. The tabla riddims stay in your face throughout the tune and you can bubble to this despite its lack of a strong melody.

General Levy returns to give us a ‘History Lesson' where he serenades the achievements of his native dancehall music. Asif and Martti give him some claps to make him feel at home and if you like Levy then this will be a big tune for you. I, however, am not and thus really don't like it.

The mood chills again for ‘Zoroastrian Star' (great title!!!) which is undoubtedly influenced by Nitin Sawhney. Unnati drops the Hindi lyrics and everything else is very uplifting and musical and I really like it. Again, it's soothing and will make you feel good, and Unnati's scales are impressive.

There's a dark edge to track twelve, a spoken word title track of the album called ‘Witness Of The World'. Asif supplies the poetry over the pedestrian beat and Sandhya Sanjana's backing vocal, which at times is off key and broken. All spoken word stuff is an artistic expression, and like Damien Hurst's chopped up cows, you're either touched or not, and in this case I wasn't.

Number thirteen is something new from FNB, an MC relay called @Wise In The Mind', featuring Turi (the artists formerly known as S-Endz), Swami Baracus (the Swami connection there just to confuse you) and Mic Assassin. After a big opening, the beat is pretty simple and I swear that chord sequence is an old Dre tune but it's definitely not been stolen. As for the MCs, S-Endz is as enthusiastic as ever with well thought lyrics but its just bars with little meaning, I just don't like Swami Baraccus' voice although his words are impressive and Mic Assassin is so off beat it's safe to say he had nothing to do with any assassination that has ever taken place.

The penultimate track is ‘Maniakos' which features Fusing Naked favourite Kat Neocleous who sings in a different language on this tune. I love the production on this, the bolly strings bounce off the droning bass and Kat sounds much better in this tongue than she does in English. It's a big tune that is unfortunately hidden at the end.

We finish off with a remix from one of the tracks from the last album called ‘Deeper Reality'. Levy has a sped up swansong, which is his best work on this album, and the reggae MC on an essentially light dance tune works as a nice antithesis. In the words of Borat: “it niyus.”

With backgrounds in hundreds of different types of music, Fusing Naked have drawn a big variety of positives for ‘Witness Of The World'. The one thing that is missing, however, are strong melodies. There isn't a catchy chorus and although technically it is a good work, there's nothing memorable about it. I listened to this at length but I couldn't hum or sing anything from the album apart from the hook of the last track (which is a remix). The lack of a vocal to make a hit record is often a currency issue, but without a strong vocal tracks need to be made through melody and that's not present here. ‘Witness Of The World' gets a solid 7 out of 10.