There are plenty of people in the music industry who you wouldn't actually describe as musical. Producers might make some great beats but couldn't put a chord sequence together if their life depended on it. Mukhtar Sahota is very different to that mould. His solo debut album was called ‘4 The Muzik' and after a whiz with Arif Lohar on his last appearance he has now employed Lakhwinder Wadali as his singer on ‘Unpredictable.'

Wadali is the son of Puran Chand Wadali, who those of worldly knowledge will know as one half of the Wadali Brothers, who are big Sufi and Qawalli singers from Amritsar with a large following.

Mukhtar on the other hand has big background in the desi industry. Part of the massive Sahotas group who smashed every day timer for some time in the 90's, the one thing that is not ‘Unpredictable' about Mukhtar is his musical skills. On picking up this album I expected a collection of songs, which I would rate more for their musical statements rather than how good they sounded. I was surprised…

The album begins with ‘Jogia', a very typical track of the album. Lakhwinder doesn't blow you away, and it's not something you can ‘do' anything to; it's not a dance floor tune, and its not mood music, it's just there to be listened to and admired.

Track two is ‘Gal Tha Bandhi' with its wistful choruses and choreographed chord movements. Another very musical track, the production is impeccable and it's a good proper song.

My favourite song from the album comes next: ‘Jaan.' Again, I'm not gonna start shaking my ass to it or anything like that, but it's just musically superb. Lakhwinder's style works great on the slow break beat with a powerful chorus, which he rides excellently. Most of the tunes on here I really disliked when I started listening to it but I could pick this out as the best immediately. It's dramatic, and if you listen to it loud through good speakers it will send a shiver down your spine.

The tempo is raised a little for track four, ‘Nishani.' There's more of a desi vibe to this, but western instruments (including the ‘Jogi' rock guitar with a welcome reappearance) are used as effortless undertones and it's another work to admire. Lakhwinder is on top form here – his best performance so far – and he just rides in and out of the music like it's nothing.

Anyone who's followed Mukhtar's music in the past will have noticed a proper reggae feel is always present on his stuff and ‘Unpredictable' is not unpredictable in this sense. When I say proper reggae, I don't mean Sean da Paul dancehall or Pon Di River Elephant Man stuff, I'm on about proper Marley stylee. ‘Mahiya' is the offering here and I don't really like it. It's a dub, with rasta guitar flows and some jazz trumpets but Lakhwinder isn't at home on it and the chorus is annoying.

Track six is another favourite; it's called ‘Electro Fused Ranjha' which hints that it's a bit experimental. The experiment works. In the same way that Nitin Sawhney employs a solid western beat and fits splatterings of classical Indian instrumentation over it, Mukhtar covers all bases on this one. Lakhwinder gets on a proper Qawalli tip with this and lovers of music will get taken by this. There's a decent video for it out on circulation, but this is the type of intelligent music that is just different and deserves plenty of props because of it.

We hit an almost club vibe on track seven, which is called ‘Gabroo'.
It's a bit too tribal for my liking, but if you like Bolly stuff you'd probably find enjoyment in it.

We come closest to a proper bhangra track with ‘Sach Siyane', a nicely sung track with a constant dhol and hints of the ‘Jogi' guitar. It's all right, but probably one of the weaker produced tracks.

Track nine sees Lakhwinder hook up with his dad for ‘Charka', a mellow classic Qawalli song. The violins marry up well with the singing and when the two generations of Wadali sing in unison it's a really nice sound. Mukhtar throws decent instrumentation in but the only energy is from the singers who carry some emotion in their voices.

Although the pace was settled for a finish on the last track, Lakhwinder has his swansong on ‘Ajaa.' It's dead and I'm surely emotive and lovely but although there were plenty of things for me to admire in the orchestration, you need to like lyrical music to rate this one.

As is popular (and some say lazy) we get a few remixes to fill up the rest of the album, the first being the ‘Old Skool Dub' of Mahiya. It's the more or less the same but without the verses so any wannabe Cheshire Cats can drop their lyrics over this in their bedrooms. Waste of effort for me.

The second is ‘Charka', but this time the ‘Club Mix', but I can't picture myself at any club where they would play this. As the tempo has rocketed along with the amount of percussion, the emotion is lost and it's a sorry state for what was a nice song.

When I first started listening to this album, I hated it. I like ‘musical' music, but I just didn't connect to this album initially. But, as I always say with well-produced music, it really grew on me and I'm quite a fan now. You have to concentrate when you put it on, and when you do you can take an awful lot from it. It does mix up the styles but the engineering and musical technicals are there throughout. My one complaint is an unfortunate one: Lakhwinder. I'm not knocking him at all, but having one singer throughout an album when the real quality is in the music is a bit frustrating because it can sound one-dimensional. Okay, that means I've got more respect for Mukhtar his achievement of getting one singer to work on many different styles, you have to contemplate how good it would have been had he selected different singers to match the styles. ‘Unpredictable' gets a very unpredictable 7.5 out of 10, but you'll have to listen to it five times to see why!!