Miss Lady A would love to be a figure of clandestine intrigue. Unfortunately such cloak-and-dagger ambitions will have to be put on hold. Her second, stupendously brilliant album, “THE WORLD OF LADY A”, demands that the world and his mistress learn a whole lot more about Anjali Bhatia (see, her cover is already blown). “THE WORLD OF LADY A” is the assured follow-up to 2000’s critically acclaimed debut album, “ANJALI”.
Armed with a sampler and an array of battered charity shop albums, “ANJALI” concocted a sublime and incredibly sensual take on lounge exotica. Here, spy-film atmospherics, Serge Gainsbourg sensibilities, 1950s big band grandeur and low-slung beats colluded to put the heat into – whisper it – chill out.
“That album was quite embryonic,” declares Anjali, “it was at the time I decided to start singing again. It was quite a tender, very personal and very adventurous album.” Previously Anjali’s output on three well received EP’s – “Maharani”, “Ju Ju” and “Aquila” - navigated a loose and languid experimentalism over structured songcraft. Compiled on 1999’s “SHEER WITCHERY” album, these forays into sampledelic terrains became a vital learning process.
" When I was signed to Wiiija it was on the back of an acoustic show I did,” says Anjali, “but then I ditched all those songs, bought a sampler and started from there. ‘Sheer Witchery’ was very experimental but by ‘Anjali’ I was already moving back towards songwriting. ‘The World of Lady A’ is a lot more confident and focused. Vocally it is better as my voice has progressed. I really think I’ve arrived with this album.”
The first indication that “Lady A” would be something special was on the tail end of her debut album. “ANJALI” album track “Nebula” was chosen as a single and a b-side was quickly needed. Together with producer and Public Enemy DJ Spykid, Anjali unleashed her most spectacular track to date, “Hymn to the Sun”. A bolt up right amalgam of Wicker Man style acid folk, Northern Soul and pin-sharp hip hop, its offbeat originality was only matched by its top-drawer songwriting.
“That’s what happens when you are not trying so hard,” says Anjali, laughing. “It was really too good just to be lost as a b-side. It not only had to be on the album, it also set the precedent for it too.”
From there, Anjali knew exactly how her second album was going to pan out. The swish and sexy lounge wrappings are now galvanized by rock’n’roll reverb (“Seven x Eight”), Sly Stone-esque psyche-funk (“Turn It On”) and, on the imperiously majestic “Rainy Day”, classic 1960s girl pop. Closing track “Stinging Sitar”, meanwhile, propels surf, sex and sitars into the high heavens. Whereas Anjali’s debut album was predominately sample driven, “THE WORLD OF LADY A” relies on living and breathing musicians to give it an extra kick.
Masonics and Ex-Thee Headcoatees drummer Bruce Brand plays drums on “Rainy Day”, while the Black Madonnas lend some garage rock wig outs on ‘Ain’t No Friend of Mine”. Elsewhere Cornershop hired hand Shelia Mukerjee helps out on sitar, Spykid co-produces three tracks while Spiritualized engineer Mads Bjerke provides invaluable support on the mixing desk. But although Anjali has moved out of the DiY realm, she still remains firmly in control of programming and production.
“I just love being bossy,” she says laughing, “and I’m good at playing the producer role. Some of this album was written mentally, so it was a case of translating that vision into sound. On the track “Sati”, for instance, I sang the melodies of the string parts and Terry Edwards did a fantastic job in translating and arranging the music to get an authentic orchestral Indian sound.”
Anjali’s Indian roots have always been important, and on “Lady A” tracks such as “Kandivali Gulley”, “Rani of Jhansi” and “Stinging Sitars” make that debt abundantly clear. Although born in Chiswick and bought up in Manor Park and Ilford, East London, Anjali feels a closer affinity to Indian culture than British identity.
“Indian culture becomes so integral to your life that you can’t help but feel more Indian than British,” she says. “I also like the subtlety, the mysticism and the music of Indian culture. There are also stories that you hear from your parents, of when India was still a part of the British Raj. All that still has an effect on you. So too does being head-butted in the face on your first day at Wanstead High School and being called a Paki.”
Anjali’s Indian ancestry also reveals that she has genuine claims to being, well, a Lady.
“I am of blue blood,” says Anjali in her best regal manner. “My ancestors were from Rajastan, a little village they call the golden city because there’s a sandstone forte surrounding it. My ancestor was the King Raja Bhatia who built the forte. I love the romanticism of it all.”
This is a long way off from the anti-monarchist Anjali of ten years ago, who fronted Riot Grrl politicos the Voodoo Queens and who was banned from a Cramp’s aftershow party. “I was a go-go dancer for them when they played the Town & Country,” she says, “and I spontaneously started throwing The Cramps’ tour rider into the crowd. After making innocent comments to Lux Interior about his tight Lycra leggings, he started going round saying I was a weird girl who tried to crush his balls. Who’d have thought I was weirder than The Cramps?”
The world of Lady A is surely a lot more refined these days?
“Oh yes, she’s too clandestine and enigmatic for go-go dancing,” says Anjali, “but who knows what she does when she’s moonlighting?”
