Every so often, an album comes along absent of all the hype that surrounds even the most average of albums being bought out today. This does not automatically mean the album doesn't deserve a listen. Hence, when I recently got the chance to listen to Mela 2003 - The official album, I decided to write this review of it. Just a glimpse at the track listings, and I noticed this was a compilation album. These seem to be the trend at the moment. Is this because one single producer cannot keep the listener entertained enough? Or perhaps it's more to do with giving the consumer value for money? Whatever the reason is - I'm definitely a fan of these compilations - as long as they don't ALL feature the same tunes over and over again. Luckily with Mela 2003, this isn't generally the case. The majority of the tunes are from the Envy camp.

The album kicks off with some new names. The track is called Mela Vich, and the artists are D.S.I. Vs Inspekta $. I had previously heard D.S.I featuring in DJ Stin's second album (see later), but the Inspekta was a brand new name for me. The track begins with some nice traditional vibes. The beat is a little like the summer smash hit 'Das Ja' The chorus has a slight Knightrider feel to it, but it is not over-riding, and most people would not even be able to spot it. Overall it's a really lively, upbeat start to the album. The singing is good, and the lyrics are not too bad either. Not sure who the singer is due to lack of info on the album sleeve - is it the Inspekta? Or is he the producer. The D.S.I boys don't make their appearance on the mic on this, so I can only assume they were involved in the production side.

Onto Track 2 by D/I/P. The Dance in Pleasure crew recently bought out their second album, but this song - Oh Soni Kuri - was not included on it. To be honest, I don't think much of D/I/P. They're voices are weak, and the fact they all have to sing together says something to me. They're tunes also all sound fairly similar to me. If you are a fan of theirs, then you'll like this one. The beat is kinda watered down desi. Comparing it to the previous tune, you definitely notice a big difference - both in the quality of voice and the beat. Guess the tunes are aimed at different people though, however I know which one I prefer.

The Sona Family perform for Track 3. If you haven't heard of Sona Family, they're a group of desi rappers from Southampton. Much of their previous material has been strictly underground, so it's good to see them getting some of their tunes released. Hopefully this is a stepping-stone for them. The tune is just a jokes tune. Some of the lyrics are worthy of a parental guidance sticker being placed on the front! Overall their flow is quite decent and the beat is a nice hip-hop beat, despite the sample. The one major bad point is the fact that the tune doesn't even come in at two minutes. Way too short. If Sona Family want to make it, they gonna have to come up with much longer material.

The Shaanti Allstarz make their first appearance on the fourth track. Again, Shaanti are a group of guys who have been around the underground for a while now. They run probably the best Asian nights around. If you want a stress free night with decent music, I would definitely recommend a Shaanti night. They were also responsible for the Urban Underground compilation released earlier in the year (The one where you got an amazing three CD's for just £10) this tune was one of those featured on there. Shabz has produced it. It is an instrumental, and to be honest will not appeal to the average bhangra fan. The beat is very electro-dancey, and there ain't no dhol beats or anything to get excited about. Despite all this, I quite like the tune. It's something different, and makes a change to the usual stuff we get exposed to.

The Shaanti Allstarz again produces the fifth track. This time it is the 2am Project and features the vocal talents of A.S. Kang. The track begins with a very housey type of beat. Then AS Kang begins to sing. Now I'm a massive fan of Kang, but I really think he is much better suited to the proper desi tunes. His lyrics and singing are again of top quality. However, don't think it goes well with the beat at all. Not much positive to say about this as an overall tune. Think the beat and singing are both good, but putting them both together wasn't the best of ideas in my opinion.

Track 6 sees a return to the Envy camp. This time it's DJ Stin with the best of his second album - Bhangrah Vich. The D.S.I. Boys actually do rap in this track. They do a fairly good job. I don't think the track is anything special. The singing is just typical, and the beat is a mixture of desi and a ripped off Wyclef hip-hop beat. It's the usual type of stuff Stin comes out with. Again the track is a little on the short side - just under 3 minutes. Overall, a very ordinary track.

Sohni Lagdi from Mukhtar Sahota's debut solo album (Time Out) is track 7. Now most of you would have heard this tune. It was a smash hit when it was released last year. It's a top tune with a wicked beat. Not a dance floor tune, but much more chilled. The track is well produced and the singing, I think, is by the man of the moment - Lembhar Hussainpuri. An excellent tune overall. Look forward to hearing more of this high quality stuff from Mukhtar in the future.

The intro for North American's finest for Track 8 - Boliyan is taken from his first album. I think the singing is by Anamika. The tune is typical Boliyan (How many different Boliyan have actually been released?!?). The beat is traditional and is quite average. It's good to see that Sanj has come some way since this type of production. Halfway thru' the tune breaks off into Jind Mahi (PMC style) in the typical boliyan fashion. It jus reminds me what a classic the grass roots version of Jind Mahi was. Bari Kholkey is also thrown into the boliyan.

Envy's best (in my opinion) Dr Zeus makes his first appearance on track 9. Hai Rabba is taken from the Escape compilation album, if I am not mistaken. The track is typical of Zeus' old style. Glad to see he has changed his beats. At this stage, all his biggest hits were starting to sound very similar. The beat for this one is, hence, very reminiscent of Gwandian Da Dhol and Charka Chanen Da. Safri - one of the icons of the bhangra industry - performs well. His voice seems to be adaptable to both desi and remixed markets. A decent tune overall.

DJ Swami, another of the big names of Envy, provides us with the 11th track. The track is called mad duet, and is the standard duet between a guy n gal exchanging verses, with a very traditional beat. The tempo is fairly sluggish, not as fast as many other duets. All in all it's a fairly ordinary track - have heard much better from DJ Swami.

Dippa is the vocalist of the Sanj produced Jee Karda. The beat is just lame. It's just the Eve feat. Gwen Stefani beat, with a hint of desi. This is a really disappointing effort from North America's best. I'm glad to say this was produced some time ago, and I'm sure Sanj has started to move away from this type of blatant bootlegging. The track all on all is quite awful. Dippa Dosanjh gives a very run of the mill performance, and the lyrics aren't exactly anything to write home about. The album would have been better of without this!

Zeus returns with Track 12 - Patola. This has been taken from his album, the High Life. It again showcases the old Zeus production skills. It is a fairly decent tune. I feel it could have done without the Dr Dre influenced rapping. Again, I'm glad to see Zeus doesn't resort to this type of sampling in any of his new material, which sounds much better for it. Putting all the sampling to the side, this is a pretty good tune.

Dj Swami's second outing on the album is in the form of Naina from his Pure Garage album. The tune features MC Sarpanch, who was all over the Pure Garage album. There were certainly better tracks than this on the Pure Garage album, but this ain't a bad one. The MC'ing by Sarpanch ain't all that. He sounds quite good when he's just saying a few words over the top ('Like rewind selelecta') However when he tries to drop a verse, he jus sounds wack. His verses don't flow very well at all. He's been very quiet since the Pure Garage album came out - wonder why?!? Despite the very average MC'ing the track has been well enough produced to compensate for it.

The other half of Simon & Diamond - namely Subs provides track 14 - Tera Torh. Their cousin, Apache provides part of the vocals on this. Binder Bajwa also sings. I think this was one of the best tunes last year. The beat is amazing, and 100% original. The singing is good, and the appearance of Apache is just a massive bonus. All in all it's an outstanding tune.

The final track is courtesy of Zeus once again (has he officially dropped the Dr ?). It is a very slow tune. The beat is fairly good. A female sings the lyrics. It isn't anything special at all really. Couldn't see it having a place on his new album.

Overall Mela 2003, is a decent album to cash in on if you haven't been able to get your hands on many of the top tunes that came out on Envy in the last couple of years. The first bit of the album introduces us to some hot new talent, while the rest seems to be more of a best of Envy compilation. There isn't anything in this, that is a must have that you probably haven't got. Saying that it is better than a lot of the compilations coming out at present. As I said before it is a chance to get virtually all the best tunes from the solo artists on Envy on one album. Therefore, I do recommend it as it's priced at a tenner, which is what you expect to pay for the average desi release these days. I'd give it 7.5 out of 10 as with a whopping 15 tracks, there's unquestionably something for everyone.