No Reservations is the debut studio album by British-Asian musician Apache Indian, released in January 1993 by Island Records and their subsidiary Mango. The musician and singer recorded the album primarily in Jamaica's Tuff Gong studios with producers including Simon and Diamond, Bobby Digital, Phil Chill and Sly Dunbar. It follows, and includes, Apache Indian's 1990–91 singles – "Move Over India", "Chok There" and "Don Raja" – which saw him pioneer a fusion of Jamaican ragga and Indian bhangra later known as bhangramuffin.
The album showcases Apache Indian's fusion of ragga and dancehall beats and basslines with bhangra and other forms of Indian music, such as filmi, with songs delivered in a fusion of English, Punjabi and Jamaican patois that the musician called "Indian patois". He sought to write about topics that were traditionally undiscussed in Asian communities, such as alcoholism, AIDS, the caste system and arranged marriages, and the controversial nature of the lyrics drew criticism and protest from castes. The singer named the record with reference to Indian reservations and is depicted on the artwork before a mixture of Jamaican and Indian iconography, reflecting his mix of musical styles.
On release, No Reservations drew acclaim from music critics, who saw its fusion of ragga and bhangra modes as innovative, and it reached number 36 on the UK Albums Chart. "Arranged Marriage", issued as the album's official lead single, was the musician's breakthrough success in his home country, reaching number 16 on the UK Singles Chart. Apache Indian was particularly successful in India, where the album sold over 500,000 copies and is certified triple platinum. No Reservations has been credited for helping popularise ragga music and British-Asian pop, and was shortlisted for the 1993 Mercury Prize, while Apache Indian received four nominations at the 1994 Brit Awards.
Background Born Steven Kapur to an Indian migrant family, Apache Indian was raised in Handsworth, a multiracial neighbourhood in Birmingham home to reggae bands Steel Pulse and UB40. He grew up enjoying roots reggae artists like Bob Marley and Burning Spear, and interest in reggae grew larger when introduced to sound system culture by a British-Caribbean man, Sheldon, who ran the local Siffa sound system. Kapur began chatting with numerous systems, and grew out dreadlocks in his teens. He later said he was the only Indian he knew who enjoyed reggae, saying "There was just something about the music. Regardless of what anybody said, it was for me." However, as Kapur would later explain, it was common for Asians in Birmingham to "[pick up] things from the black kids 'cus they're living together. So you hear reggae in schools and in the streets, but you also hear traditional Indian music as well." Kapur took part of his stage name from Super Cat or the "Wild Apache", a Jamaican reggae musician who is also of Indian descent, and who was Kapur's musical idol.
Kapur developed his own musical style in 1990, when he visited a cousin's recording studio in Birmingham to record "Move Over India", featuring his own lyrics, dance beats and tabla. The musician modelled the song on the popular "Shank I Sheck" riddim and wrote lyrics around the theme of translation, with the song providing "rudimentary lessons in Punjabi and patois". Although he did not intend to release the song, he changed his mind when his friends enjoyed it and pressed a few private copies for himself, local pirate station PRCL and nearby reggae shops. An official release followed on Sure Delight Records, and it reached number one in Britain's reggae and bhangra charts, where it stayed for six weeks. The song was also popular in Jamaica, sold over 500,000 copies on the Indian subcontinent and was heavily bootlegged in Canada. Kapur credits the single for helping solidify young Asian aesthetic, combining Asian, white and black fashions.
"Move Over India" and Apache Indian's subsequent singles saw him fuse Indian bhangra and Jamaican reggae, earning him the media title The Originator of Bhangra-Muffin, a combination of the words bhangra and raggamuffin, although the singer did not care for the term. Bhangra had become popular in the UK in the mid-1980s and was, according to Timothy D. Taylor, the first music to "develop a strong Anglo-Asian identity", particularly, argued Brooke Wentz of Vibe, when young practitioners began introducing influences of hip hop to make bhangra more danceable than the original, folk-based form, with Apache Indian proving innovative for introducing reggae to the genre. Apache Indian explained he initially received criticism from the Indian community, who saw him, as he described it, as a "traitor to the community" for working in reggae, a genre that was seen as "violent and drug-related", but that attitudes changed when he expressed his Indian pride. Similarly, he said "the black community felt I was using reggae to make a lot of money" but changed their minds upon discovering his genuine love of the genre.
The translation themes of "Move Over India" carried over into its proposed follow-up, "Come Follow Me", which featured Birmingham MC Mickey G, but the single was cancelled after the song had been heavily bootlegged. Instead, Apache Indian's next two singles, both for Sure Delight, were "Chok There" and "Don Raja". Aided mostly by pirate radio airplay, both singles continued Kapur's success in topping the UK's bhangra and reggae charts. In 1991, The British Reggae Industry Awards awarded Kapur with the award for Best Male Newcomer. Although none of his singles had reached the national pop charts, they attracted the attention of Island Records, who signed him in early 1992. Marc Marot of Island said they judged Apache Indian "just from those singles [...] We felt that he had commercial possibilities regardless of where he came from and what background he had." After signing to Island, he made a national television appearance in the UK on Blue Peter.
Recording
According to Apache Indian's manager, Mambo Sharma, "so much thought" went into recording No Reservations because, as the singer's debut album, it had to introduce listeners to his work effectively. Apache Indian travelled to Bob Marley's Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, to record part of No Reservations. He collaborated with numerous reggae stalwarts, including Sly Dunbar, Robert Livingston and Bobby Digital, who all provided riddims for the album, as well as vocalists Frankie Paul and Maxi Priest. Most of the album, however, was produced by Simon & Diamond, with production credits for Phill Chill on "Fix Up", Bobby Digital on "Guru" and Dunbar on "Magic Carpet", with Livingston providing mixing and additional production on "Fix Up". Apache Indian and Trevor Wyatt acted as executive producers, while Phill Chill mixed "Arranged Marriage".
According to writer Les Back, Apache Indian's decision to record in Jamaica with local reggae luminaries was partly an attempt to legitimise his fusion of reggae with bhangra, while journalist Dave Cavanagh said the "slew of the island's big names" helped endorse the album's ragga elements. Although Kapur enjoyed working with reggae musicians, he made a conscious decision to "separate from the Jamaican music scene," according to Wentz, with Kapur explaining that he made an effort "to lean more towards my people." Part of the album was also recorded in New York City. No Reservations incorporates electronic production and digital sampling, which combined with Kapur's toasting and affinity for sound systems, situates the music in what writer Carla J Maier calls "the clubs and the recording studios in which he works, while at the same time being part of a globalized and digitalized music culture." Kapur's earlier singles, including "Move Over India" and "Chok There", reappear on the album.
Composition Music On No Reservations, Apache Indian uses beats and basslines familiar to reggae and dancehall, incorporates styles and samples of bhangra, Hindi filmi music and Indian classical music to represent his Indian identity, and sings in a ragga style, resulting in what writer John Connell describes as "a contemporary Anglo-Indian fusion". Although described as primarily a bhangra album, critic Ken Hunt argues that the album is not bhangra itself but rather a "bhangra-related dance music." J. Poet of Trouser Press similarly felt the record to primarily showcase Kapur as a raggamuffin deejay, while Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian observed that Kapur uses Indian instruments and subject matter to flavour a "macho" ragga style derived from Super Cat. Apache Indian considered his style to be "first, and foremost, street music", explaining: "My stuff is all about the fusion of cultures and styles. I grew up with black and white people, my music is part of the people around me". The sounds of sitar and "hard-edged" tabla permeate the record. David Vlado Moskowitz considers No Reservations to be more mainstream than Kapur's earlier releases, while Eamon Carr of the Evening Herald, who considers the album to fuse "club styles, cultures and funky beats", emphasises the "ear for a commercial hook".
The album opens with the sound of a "hail of bullets", a "gangster stance" familiar to reggae and rap which is deflated by Kapur's boast that he is "hotter than vindaloo curry". The re-appearing "Chok There" fuses bhangra and ragga rhythms, notably using a pronounced dhol drum riddim, and features sitar and percussion breaks. Despite its challenging subject matter, "Aids Warning" is among the album's poppiest songs. Considered the record's most Indian-styled track, with its sampled usage of Indian filmi music and tabla, "Arranged Marriage" opens with a dancehall-style introduction with Indian instrumentation, namely a dhol drum, a flute hook line and tabla. Taylor writes that although reggae dominates the song, the "distant sounds of India", like the aforementioned instruments and "vocalise of Indian film music", as well as its "folklike ululations", flitter among "the edges". Also features is synthesised harmonium, an instrument popular in South Asian religious music. "Don't Touch", a duet with Frankie Paul, features what Cavanagh describes as an "unadulterated JA sound", while he described "Come Follow Me" as a "barely-reggae, acoustic guitar-based Indian tour guide"
Lyrics
The album's lyrics, written by Apache Indian, feature social commentary and themes of social realism. Colin Larkin wrote that the record moved Kapur "away from the frothier elements of his distinctive ragga-reggae and towards the role of social commentator and Anglo-Asian representative." The songs are "relevant to Indian youth identity in Britain," according to Connell, while writer Steve Tilley says they deal with concerns typical to Asian youth, and they discuss racism, AIDS, arranged marriages, divorce, alcoholism, drugs, the caste system and bridging black-Asian hostilities, often taking a cautionary stance. References to the Taj Mahal, Amritsar, Gandhi and Ravi Shankar also feature.