Shye Ben Tzur, Johnny Greenwood and The Rajasthan Express – ‘Ranjha’ album review: Transportive explorations of Indian tradition bogged with political uncertainty
After over a decade since their first LP pairing, Radiohead’s multi-instrumental polymath Johnny Greenwood and the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur have teamed up for a long-awaited sophomore with the Rajasthan Express collective of Indian Qawwali musicians for Ranjha, another document of Greenwood’s efforts to capture the rustic soul of Arabic traditional music.
The Skinny: Radiohead fans who managed to nab tickets for 2017-2018’s A Moon Shaped Pool tour would have been exposed to the mystical collective as the Junun support act for much of the dates, a cabal of Sufi Qawwali, Muslim Roma, and brass players more used to scoring weddings and parades than mammoth rock arenas.
Founded by Ben Tzur after moving to Rajasthan’s Ajmer from Israel and immersing himself in the local culture, the project’s work soon caught Greenwood’s attention, lending his services to the venture and captured by Paul Thomas Anderson for the 2015 Junjun documentary.
Throughout Ranjha, there is a healthy air of a soundtrack able to let loose and flaunt itself without a Westerner’s hands trying to shape a more palatable work for Billboard charts. Having cut the first album in the genuine 15th-century Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur, such creative lessons from the heart of Rajput culture meant both Greenwood and Ben Tzur felt comfortable enough to bring operations over to the less-than-exotic Oxfordshire, inviting over 20 of the Rajasthan Express members to the home studio that hosted sessions from The Smile.
It’s a notable detail, as much of Ranjha’s pieces transport authentically to somewhere arcane and netherworldly the moment the ensemble’s Indian rhythms and scales cascade out of the speakers.
They’re the real stars of the show, a nebulous and fluid force that effortlessly absorbs Greenwood’s arrangements and creative dexterity and interprets Ben Tzur’s Sufi and Punjab-inspired folk pieces with authority. Such conjurings dwell within a certain periphery, but this soon reveals itself to be the point, sinking deeper and deeper into the trance-like hypnosis, promoting introspective exploration over far-flung and obvious traverse.
Greenwood’s flashes are welcome. ‘Marbolot’ pulls in some electronic scree for new flavours, ‘Aviv’ takes a welcome detour into Neu! style Krautrock, and the knotty grooves that twisted and tangled The Smile’s ‘Thin Thing’ seem to hover all over ‘Saqi’s similarly fractured skulk. There’s a restraint to Greenwood and Ben Tzur’s credit, chucking piquant and intelligent blasts of outside influence that offer further alchemic frissons for the Rajasthan Express to play off.
As evocative and well executed as Ranjha is, there’s a big question mark that hovers over the album’s timing. Given that the record examines cultural connections, it’s hard not to consider Israel’s military actions in Gaza, including accusations of cultural destruction raised by the International Court of Justice.
Greenwood’s reach into the rich seam of Islamic art and culture, while sharing an uncomfortable proximity to the Israeli state’s destructive actions via his previous BDS picket-crossing and an ‘art is above politics’ justification indeed blunts the noble creative premise Ranjha attempts to strive for. Whether fairly or not, with Palestinian cultural heritage in a perilous position, that context inevitably colours the album’s message of artistic and spiritual communion.
Standout Track: ‘Sharminda’
The Verdict: Spun with evident love and affinity for the Indian music tradition, Greenwood and Ben Tzur’s second album, together with the Rajasthan Express, plumbs sincerely moving slices of arcane exploration, if overshadowed by the political backdrop the Radiohead guitarist has orbited.
Release Date: May 8th, 2026 | Producer: Sam Petts-Davies | Label: World Circuit
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