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
from Q Magazine, 1998
by David Sheppard
[archived here without permission]

Essentially a remix album in which the cream of the UK Asian underground scene get to re-invent the late Pakistani Qwaali superstar's acclaimed cross-over collaborations with Canadian guitarist / producer Brook. Much here is an exciting fusion with already genre-free source material. Thus, Joi's elegant breakbeats turn Sweet Pain into an eminently danceable breeze, while Talvin Singh re-casts the elegiac My Heart My Life as a tabla-assisted foray into deep dub and guitar distortion, bits of which sound like The Clash, bizarrely. Elsewhere, Black Star Liner and State Of Bengal do similarly delirious things to My Comfort Remains and Shadow respectively. Best of all is Taa Deem, a lovely spiritual meditation judiciously made-over as state-of-the-art trance. In fact a general seamlessness throughout is a tribute both to Khan's timeless vocal prowess and to the skills and taste of all concerned.

rating: 4