Following on the release of his full-length Broken English, Karsh Kale now offers a digital-only single of remixes for the song "Manifest". There are seven unique mixes presented here and each explores a different avenue, with some turning up the hip-hop, others focus on the Indian vibes, and others still take it into a grimy dub space that kind of reminds me of old Neotropic (but with Hip-hop and Indian vocals).

1. Manifest (Rise Ashen's rise up remix)
2. Manifest (Rara Avis remix)
3. Manifest (Radiohiro remix)
4. Manifest (Desert Dweller's breaks mix)
5. Manifest (Benny Cha Cha's Mudville remix)
6. Manifest (Seed remix)
7. Manifest (Desert Dweller's dub mix)

On "Manifest" Karsh Kale collaborates with New York City rapper MC Napoleon and Indian vocalist Vishal Vaid, whose energetic Sufi styled verses mix nicely with Napoleon's rap and tone. Many reviewers and fans alike have pointed this out as one of the best tracks off the album.

Rise Ahsen's "rise up" remix is one of the most impressionable. It marches along with a dark and heavy menace that erupts into some excellent snare hits and subbass kicks without breaking the slow marching tempo. The "Rara Avis" remix employs a breakbeat style that maintains a fairly mellow mood throughout, blending the various vocal elements together with minimal, slightly reminiscent of the 80s synth keys. Radiohiro pick up the pace and give Manifest a grimy drum 'n bass treatment accented with tablas and an assualt of distrorted bass keys. Despite the assault, it maintains an almost consistent calm undercurrent.

The Desert Dweller's "breaks" remix comes on with slowly folding analog synth pads that are joined by super mellow beats and almost digeridoo sounding vocals clips. For the laid-back, eastern hip-hop experience this the mix to find. Benny Cha Cha's Mudville mix is the one that reminds me of Neotropic's old sound. It's got an abstract, distorted, dubbed out and dreamy laundromatic style layered under MC Napoleon's rap and Vishal's vocal chants.

The Seed remix brings a little electro-breaks style that's backed up by Latin influenced cowbell-like percussion. When it comes to a consistent flow with enough highs and lows to keep interesting, this is in my top three for the mixes presented here. To close out the collection, Desert Dweller returns with another mix that takes the slow breaks style of their other mix and dubs it out a bit. Nicely done too.

The interesting thing with digital-only releases is that each major vendor wants a piece of exclusivity action, so you'll find that between the Six Degrees store, iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody each offers mixes the others don't. I didn't specifically compare track lists, but it's clear to see that some have what others don't, but all the running around you have to do to find all seven mixes should be well worth the effort.

If you're into the more masculine influenced side of near Eastern fusion these are some essential mixes.

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