Nitin Sawhney

### Immigrants

SONY MUSIC MASTERWORKS. CD/DL/LP

Composer tackles perceptions of identity on sequel to 1999’s Beyond Skin.

After the explicit politics of his 2019 Barbican stage spectacular about Brexit, guitar-playing polymath Nitin Sawhney hits a more nuanced polemical groove on Beyond

Skin’s belated sequel. With the world having caught up with that winding borderless blend of Indian classical, flamenco, hip-hop, drum’n’bass and R&B, the greater focus here is on Sawhney’s writing and interactions with a lengthy roll call of collaborators. Neither disappoint. Spek’s almost Q-Tip-like rap flow on Lifeline and Natacha Atlas’s understated vocal on Exile enliven typically mercurial grooves just the right side of global mood music, although it’s the less forthright tracks showcasing Gina Leonard (Box), Nina Miranda (Vai) and YVA (You Are) that prove most affecting. Carefully spliced with voiceovers from hopeful emigrees and needled dissenters, this worthy and humane sequel lacks only the original’s pioneering force.