Following the success of their debut album Digital Asia, the duo behind Fusing Naked Beats are back with a follow-up album released this month.

Outer Perspective comes a year after DJ Asif and Martti came into the spotlight with their acclaimed electronica album, which was playlisted across Europe and India and featured extensively on Bobby and Nihal's Radio 1 show.

"Outer Perspective is a much more vocal album with different styles of music. It has a unique electronic landscape which blends many diverse elements into one cohesive and unifying experience," Asif tells AIM magazine.

"From eastern electronica to uplifting global house and Arabic and Indian beats fused with hip-hop, D&B rhythms and funky dance baselines. It embraces the drumbeat of London. There is a lot of funky house and DnB fused with classic Indian vocals and Arabic rhythms."

The album features guest artists including Greek R&B singer Ms Kat, legendary Pakistani singer Najma Akhtar, Sonia Mehta and rapper Swami Baracus. Also making an appearance is Nihal on 'Fusing Faces'.

Their first effort, while not supported by a major label, made an impact in the British dance and Asian scene. Six tracks were playlisted on Radio 1 and the duo toured Europe to promote it. It has yet to be released in India but there are plans for the end of this year to do so.



25 year old Asif started as a guitar player and by the age of 17 went touring with the band Fun-da-mental as their guitarist. He created Fusing Naked Beats after tiring of of playing and touring with other bands, having created his own punk-rock band called All You Can Eat and toured with another band called Charged on the way.

"The idea was that MRT [his partner] and I would be the core music producers but that we would also work with other musicians, songwriters and vocalists."

They met at Westminister university when he was reading a BA in Commercial Music Production. "We all had really good ideas about where we wanted to take our music so we decided to collaborate."

His musical influences include Nitin Sawney, The Prodigy, TJ Rehmi and Natacha Atlas.

The west-London based producers formed their own label, Just Play Records, to support both Digital Asia and now Outer Perspective. They hope that eventually a bigger label will take an interest.

He says they hope to provide listeners with an alternative idea of the contemporary Asian sound with the new album. "It takes you to the next level of the universal dance scene and grabs you with its frantic, dirty spun-out beats."

The album can be bought from their website: www.fusingnakedbeats.co.uk