I first discovered the sound of Midival Punditz, a New Delhi based electronic duo, in the summer of year 2001, when I was a fanatic ant digging tunnels through various kinds of music. At that time they were giving away mp3s from a makeshift website on the web, and were just beginning to collaborate with big name musicians on the Asian Underground scene such as Talvin Singh.

Since then, they have hit the big leagues, and have released two CDs worldwide on the Six Degrees label. Their latest CD "Midival Times" came out an year ago, and I heard it first in that giant Virgin Music store on Times Square really late one night in last summer about four times in quick succession; if you don't want to hit the bars, and are driven to insomnia by NYC, camping out at Virgin to sample music is a capital idea. I even wrote down some feverish lines on my hand on the subway back to the dive I was crashing at on the Upper Westside.

The most dangerous of the tracks on this CD were "Saathi" (on NPR!), featuring Ustad Sultan Khan on the sarangi and vocals, and "Rebirth", featuring Anoushka Shankar on the sitar - I suppose the presence of these Indian classical musicians explains my predilection for music that can seamlessly make the twain of East and West meet. You may listen to some of the Punditz’s tracks from Midival Times here, and their popular hit, "Bhangra Fever" here. Good stuff!