Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

Reviewed by Jono Ryan

Border (2001)

A winning combination. Talvin Singh, classically trained tablaplayer, producer, significant UK music personality, and 1999 Mercury Prize winner. Back to Mine: a compilation series that asks a DJ/producer/group/musician to compile a chilled album made up of tracks from their personal record collection. The result this time is a diverse selection of tracks that compliment each other, and reflect Singh's personal tastes. ECM artist Nils Petter Molvaer, drum'n'bass guru Photek, world artists Trilok Gurtu and Ali Farka Toure, and Austrian downbeat producers dZihan & Kamien are mixed together with others back to back to create a very unique chill-out recording. Definitely worth a listen.

Reviewed by Jono Ryan

Columbia (2001)

It's hard to know how much to expect from an artist releasing his forty-third album. Incredibly, Dylan's latest is not just "in-the-league-of" previous recordings, but rather stands alone as an excellent new contribution to the Dylan repertoire. It is hard to align Love and Theft with previous recordings, but it certainly contains many Dylan distinctives. His immediately identifiable voice sits very comfortably amongst impeccable arrangements from a conventional band line-up, always the dominating force in the song. His lyrics are beautifully articulated, narrating tales that range from the mundane to surreal, and some of his comical illustrations will have you laughing out loud. Certainly his comments on life are very insightful, creating an album that only gets better each time you put it on.