Not impressed by Indian summer

Channel Four couldn't have cultured a better atmosphere for Indian Summer, its free festival of events tying in with its broadcasts of the England v India cricket series.

An Indian sun pounded down on the thousands who had come to Regent's Park, which momentarily shed its genteel image for a rockfest air. Swarming around the stage and picnicking besides the huge TV screens, the buoyant, hearteningly multicultural and pan-generational crowd waited to be entertained by some of the best British-Asian musicians: Badmarsh and Shri with UK Apache and Nitin Sawhney.

But as for cricket, so for music: great conditions do not ensure great performances. The opening partnership of Badmarsh and Shri and UK Apache might have been energetic, but the evening suffered something of a collapse when headliner Nitin Sawhney offered a pompous set and squandered the generous crowd spirit.

Sawhney, controlling his band from behind his keyboard and acoustic guitar, first kicked his ensemble into Sunset, an infectious song with unusual rhythmical breaks. If only it could have stayed as good. But the smorgasbord of styles that Sawhney employs, encompassing everything from flamenco to soul jazz, makes for an ersatz sound. Grafting musical styles together might seem inventive, but in Sawhney's hands it just sounds lazy. He has created GM music - manipulated textures and melodies without any real flavour or sense of organic growth. Some of the crowd danced down the front while others left before the end or looked bored but happy in the sun. There were redeeming moments, like when vocalist Davinder Singh joined with Sawhney and human beatbox JC001 to count to four in Hindi in a frenzied rhythmical voice competition, but they were few. No boundaries were broken.