It's not your everyday occurrence to open an album and find shout outs to Amitabh and Abishek Bachchan. But today's album is by Trickbaby, one of the few British acts to have penetrated the gates of India 's cultural mainstream. We don't do reviews of Bollywood music here at desitunes4u, so to be looking at an album with such a positioning can be expected to be ‘fresh' - in the two senses of the word.

The talisman and taliswoman of Trickbaby are Steve Ager and Saira Hussain and they are great people. We interviewed them last year when they released their last album ‘Hanging Around' but since then it's all blown up a bit for them a few thousand miles away in India. That album exploded in a way nobody really expected it to over there so now they are back with a bigger budget and, I guess, bigger expectations. ‘Chor Bazaar' is the name of the album, can this explode like the last one, or will this be the one left ‘Hanging Around'?

Let's take a look…

The album opens up with a track which is unmistakably Trickbaby. ‘Fighter' is composed of acoustic guitars, bolly-strings and a sprinkling of desi percussion with Saira's vocals hushed to that signature whisper during the verses and rocking up with the music during the choruses.

The second track begins a dramatic guitar melody, the type you get in a film when the hero has to get somewhere really quickly before something bad happens. ‘Crisis' is a very apt name for the track, it is full of drama from the choruses and bridges with the tumbi and the breaks where things build up. Musically this is excellent but what really makes this track for me is Saira's vox which are calm yet contain anguish, especially at the ends of the choruses.

‘Baja' is track three and is best described as original. It's got tablas complemented by a harmonica supplied by Marcella Detroit (once of Shakespeare's Sister, who you might (or more probably might not!!) remember as the group which did the song ‘Stay' which ended Bryan Adams' record-breaking reign at the top of the UK singles charts (I don't mind if you send me abuse for knowing that, I know I'm a bit of an anorak). Anyways, Trickbaby yeah?…Saira is on form again on this track, doing her usual trick of not stealing the show with a Mariah Carey-type show of song, but just singing the song in a way which totally suits the music going on around her.

Track four, ‘Light Up My Life' is essentially a dub, and I really like it. It's not a happy, weed-smoking reggae dub, but the carousel keys and thick bouncing b-line are beautiful for those of you who like that sort of stuff. There's some Indian percussion in there and it's a lyrically strong song but without intending to diss Saira I wish she was less involved so I could just turn up the bass and wallow in some eardrum-perforating low frequencies.

‘Babu' is the first track on the album with Hindi lyrics and is on a bit of a Bombay disco vibe. Guitar laden as ever, and it's got a nice bouncy beat but the chorus kind of kills the vibe if you want to go nuts to it. Trickbaby don't make club tunes, but this type of beat is obviously intended to try and be a floor-filler yet the rest of the composition is just a bit too ‘musical'. Incidentally, Saira's voice loses no clarity switching from English to Hindi.

After those two encroachments on to different genres of music, Steve gets his Trickbaby groove back on with ‘Drove My Chevvy To The Devi' which is a wonderful name for a song. The guitars are heavier, Saira sounds freer in the upper climes of her vocal range and it's a solidly put together song.

The title track comes next and I tell you something, it sounds like they had a lot of fun making this track. ‘Chor Bazaar' features punksters Gogol Bordello – a band made up of Eastern European immigrants in New York City - and is just a complete jam of madness. There are violins, guitars, classical Indian instrumentation, English vocals, Russian vocals, some Hindi vocals and fundamentally utter chaos. But it works!!! I can't explain how or why, but the nonsensical madness is brilliant with its changing tones as a new instrument is brought in but with the familiar melodies brought in over the top.

The second Hindi song is next on the list, and combines Steve's punk background with the Indian twist which has made Trickbaby so popular. The beginnings of ‘Mujhe Tujhay' have Steve's army of heavy metal guitars and heavier percussion from Vik Sankadecha – all very loud and aggressive, but they just slip away when Saira enters with her sweet sounding vocals. Of course the guitars return and it makes for a nice idea for a track as the two styles eventually amalgamate into something, but for me the melodies aren't strong enough.

The last ‘new' song on the album is ‘Broken Dream', another tune with the heavier sounding guitars. This is the first time where Saira's characteristic softly-sung vocals don't fit the rest of the track and this makes this a bit of a misfire for me.

After the new stuff we get a couple of old favourites from the Hanging Around album, the first of which is ‘Nine Parts Of Desire (Purday Kay Peechay)'. I liked this track the first time round, but they've given it a bit of a remastering and the instrumentation sounds more original and a bit more gourmet. Saira's vocals have lost a little bit of their edge but I prefer this version.

The second reworking is of ‘Neela', where you can still appreciate its musical manoeuvres and rock your head to the thicker beats. I love the arrangement on this song, its so harmonious and got a great, original, mix of East and West in its style.

I have to make it clear that Trickbaby make mature music – ‘musical' music which has to be appreciated for its technical aptitudes as well as how it sounds. Steve makes music which most of those urban-influenced producers can only dream about. It's not about catchy hooks or thumping beats (although ‘Light Up My Life' nearly achieved this had it been more dub-step than just dub), it's about making clever songs for a wide audience.

But there has to be a point where you need to take a step back and assess whether you actually like the overall sound of the music. Don't get it twisted, I do like this album but I haven't got it glued into my CD player on repeat because once you've taken pleasure from identifying the clever arrangement and production and the way everything works together, you aren't left with a tune in your head. I appreciated this album the most while writing this review: sat in front of my good quality amp and speakers, not when walking my dogs with it on the iPod. It's nice on the hot days in the car and would be a decent soundtrack for a long summer roadtrip but it's not something that you can appreciate if it's on in the background.

Trickbaby as a group are immensely talented and I love to hear new stuff from them and other artists of a similar ilk; perhaps they're not commercial enough? ‘Chor Bazaar' gets 7.5 out of 10.