BHANGRA music will be used to help ease racial tensions and promote the work of the police.

Bhangra musician Indy Nan-dha has joined forces with Tha-mes Valley Police on his latest album to promote their drive to combat racist incidents.

Mr Nandha, 31, who works full time as a community and race relations officer for Tha-mes Valley Police, writes, produces and plays music in his spare time under the name Popsy.

His latest album, entitled "Bangin", displays the Thames Valley Police logo on the front cover and contains an insert giving information on the work of the Race Relations Depart-ment.

The idea of using music to help race relations came from Steve Baker, crime reduction and partnership manager for Thames Valley Police in Ayles-bury.

He said: "The police can sometimes have a credibility gap when trying to get messages across to the younger members of the Asian community.

"I hope that by teaming up with Indy we can reassure people that we take racist incidents extremely seriously and that we have people and procedures in place to deal with them.

"As a community and race rel-ations officer for Thames Valley Police, Indy is an excellent role model. He is working everyday to promote the Thames Valley Police promise to listen carefu-lly to any allegation of a racist incident, treat the victim with respect and then fully investigate that allegation."

Mr Nandha has been playing the keyboard since the age of 12 and has established himself as a household name on the Asian pop scene.

He added: "I think using my music is an excellent way of promoting cultural diversity.

"My album features traditio-nal Bhangra instruments as well as westernised ones and by fusing the two together we are creating westernised Bhan-gra and therefore promoting cultural diversity."

The album was launched on Friday, April 1, and is available to buy at all Asian music stores or online at www.punjab2000.

co.uk.