The dhol is a large hand-held drum that's deep, ringing tone is a key component of bhangra, a traditional Punjabi folk music that has itself grown and mutated into one of the key elements of London's Asian underground dance music scene. You hear the dhol thundering and rippling beneath singles by such eminent Asian underground artists as
Talvin Singh,
Joi, and
the Asian Dub Foundation, and also in the music of
the Afro Celt Sound System, whose drummer moonlights as a master teacher of the dhol and runs a school called
the Dhol Foundation. Recording here for the first time under that moniker,
Johnny Kalsi delivers a fascinating and funky program of modern dance music that draws heavily on bhangra and other Indian influences while at the same time keeping the ambience pleasant and dreamy. Occasionally things get just a little bit too pleasant and a little too dreamy, and the music teeters dangerously on the edge of soporific new age-ism. But that happens rarely, and just when you think you're going to fall asleep -- during the first two and a half minutes of "Iridian," for example --
Kalsi snaps you back to attention with a funky breakbeat or a bracing splash of frantic drum'n'bass. If you're an
Asian Dub Foundation fan, you might find
Big Drum: Small World a bit on the tame side; but if you love
Afro Celt Sound System and
Joi, this album will stay in your CD player for days. ~ Rick Anderson