Cornershop Crafts Eclectic Grooves

Cornershop mixed up an East-meets-West sonic cocktail on Monday during its El Rey Theatre performance, shaking soul, Indian pop, glam rock, R&B;, dub reggae, electronica and funk into exuberant, envelope-pushing music that was as multihued as the audience of international bright young things.

Led by singer-songwriter-guitarist Tjinder Singh and guitarist Ben Ayres, the London sextet crafted a laid-back, propulsive groove with bass, percussion, sitar and drums, drawing selections from its acclaimed new album “Handcream for a Generation” and earlier collections. Sung mostly in English, but occasionally in Punjabi, the tunes percolated with an introverted intensity that gradually licked tendrils from the stage, enveloping the crowd by the closing notes of the epic psychedelic antiwar number “Spectral Mornings.”

Singh was poker-faced, almost dour, for much of the 80-minute set, but he may have just been concentrating on keeping up with all the recorded parts. It was a bit absurd that apparently not one of his bandmates could handle such challenging backing vocals as “oooh, oooh, yeah, yeah,” but the taped bits ultimately didn’t undermine the show.

A Punjabi rendition of the Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” wryly underscored the band’s debt to the old school. But Cornershop hardly came off as some 21st century Fabs update, nor even the next-generation Oasis. Stirring in a social conscience and endless sly pop-culture references, Singh and company variously evoked Booker T., the Velvet Underground, T. Rex and countless other acts, yet proved aggressively original. Not to mention tons o’ fun.