Welcome to Breakdown, an unofficial resource and discussion list about the innovative guitarist/producer Michael Brook. This site is infrequently updated, but contains a great deal of background info which will remain online. For up-to-date news and information, visit Michael Brook's official site and MySpace page.

Star Rise review
by Bryan Tilford
from Ink19, February 1998
[archived here without permission]

Nusrat's beautiful and magical Qawwali singing sears and soars through beds of hipped, hopped, bassed, tripped, tranced, and boomed mixes in nine different renditions of selections from his Musst Musst and his collaborations on Night Song with Michael Brook (who produced this one). Ever groovy but never sleazy, Star Rise maintains an even pace, evading monotony at every turn with the grooves that demand your complete cooperation, then lightening up at just the perfect spots before diving into an india-ustrial (try saying it) chugfest or two.

I'm aware of most of Nusrat's work since his appearance in Peter Gabriel's WOMAD festival in 1982 but I'll admit my ignorance here -- I'm not very familiar with the artists doing the remixing here (but certainly will be soon).

Hopefully fans of Joi, Asian Dub Foundation, State of Bengal, Earthtribe, Black Star Liner, and others will now take the opportunity to experience some unusual vocalizations from far away. Or perhaps even those familiar with neither will take the dare and try out both.