INDO-PROG/RAGA ROCK

SATWA was the duo's sole collaborative album that they recorded in 1973 and was based around the dueling aspects of Lailson's 12-string viola and the trichord which is a popular zither that Lula picked up in Morocco. While officially released under the moniker LULA & LAILSON the project was known as SATWA as well. While technically a duo, SATWA included Robertinho de Recife who played lead guitar on the track "Blue do Cachorro Muito Louco." While primarily an instrumental album, a few vocal parts spring up randomly. While solely expressed in terms of acoustic psychedelic folk music, the ten tracks were inspired by all musical forms of the era including rock, folk, blues, psychedelia and Indian ragas with the sitar being the only other instrument to be heard on the album.

The original album is quite rare. It was recorded on the 11th of January 1973 at the Rozenblit studio and limited to a scant few copies distributed completely independently and later Lula would come to find out that his approach was a first in Brazil which makes this one of the nation's first indie records and all of this despite the fact that Rozenblit was a record label as well. Despite its extreme rarity the album has achieved a veritable cult status as a very important milestone in the Brazilian recording industry and has remained an underground favorite release however with the renewed love of all things psychedelic from the 60s and 70s across the entire world, SATWA has been reissued issued both on vinyl and CD since its initial release.

This is a magic mushroom type experience and features two guys simply strumming away lush chords in jamming fashion with the only break from the monotony coming from Robertinho's guitar soloing on the bluesy acoustic rock track "Blue do Cachooro Muito Louco." This is one for the trippers as it sounds like campfire songs being played in the woods with no worries about embellishments to spice it up. Its a bit underwhelming as an active listening experience but gently pacifies the soul if played as background music. It's one of those hippie anthemic types of album that represents a time and age of innocence before the world got all gnarly on us. It's an interesting artifact from the Brazilian subculture and may even appeal to those who love folky jams on acoustic instruments not often heard together but it's a little too tame and stripped down to be essential. Reminds me of some of Leo Kottke's American primitivism guitar strumming. It's an interesting blast from the past but not as mind blowing as some make it out to be.

Now simply known as SHAKTI, the new version of the band features English guitarist, bandleader and composer John McLaughlin along with original member Zakir Hussain on tabla and konnakol. The rest of the gang is new to the original SHAKTI experience however vocalist and konnakol player Shankar Mahadevan from the Remember Shakti is back and ready for action. The band is rounded out by Ganesh Rajgopalan (violin, konnakol) and Selvaganesh Vinayakram (kanjira, mridangam, ghatam, konnakol, composer, producer, arranger) and together they forge their Indo-fusion into the 2020s with a completely new album titled THIS MOMENT. Most notable as a veritable live band with seemingly indefatigable quantities of energetic fortitude, SHAKTI has also embarked on its first tour in quite some time.

THIS MOMENT is about an hour's worth of musical magic with its eight majestic tracks clocking just over the 57-minute mark. Expectedly rooted in its past, THIS MOMENT eschews the traps of trying to live up to its former glories and instead anchors itself firmly into the here and now of the modern era with an impeccable production job and a less frenetic pace which allows the musical performances to exude a wider variety of moods, tones and textures. Noticeably absent is the great Mahavishnu John McLaughlin's virtuosic acoustic guitar bombast which dominated the band's three 70s releases. THIS MOMENT is more contemplative, more reflective and focuses on soft sensual motifs that then erupt into traditional North meets South Indian traditionalism.

In fact the album is shockingly devoid of guitar parts altogether with only the occasional electric guitar prominence of McLaughlin and rather steeped in tabla and vocal trade-offs with the violin providing the pyrotechnic wizardry that McLaughlin once showcased. While the earlier SHAKTI albums focused on the virtuosic possibilities of mixing American jazz with both Southern and Northern Indian traditionalism, THIS MOMENT is more about expanding the musical paradigm and adapts the Indian playing styles to other forms of world ethnic music, the most unexpected coming from the Celtic jig sounding "Las Palmas." The tracks unfold with haunting ambient and atmospheric intros before time signature-rich outbursts of tablas and vocal trade-offs ensue. Given the downplay of the guitar aspects, THIS MOMENT sounds much more like a traditional Indian album than anything in the world of rock music.

If you approach THIS MOMENT from the perspective of it being the album that follows "Natural Elements" with its amazingly wild and untamed frenetic approach, you may be disappointed but after several attentive listens i've found that the magic in THIS MOMENT lies very much in the ancient Buddhist principle of simply being in the "now" of things and approach this album for what it was meant to be within the era it was released. Despite the rather mellowed out approach (as expected due to the aging actors on board), there are still amazing feats of time signature workouts showcasing that all of the musicians on board are more than capable of remaining at the top of their game but the emphasis is more on the expressive changes that offer a greater range than previous works employed. Yeah there are moments where i'm thinking just get on with it already and the album is far from perfect but overall i have found myself loving this album much more than i possible thought i would. Overall a really satisfying SHAKTI album for this late in the game so many decades later.

My biggest complaint with the music here is that once they lock into that groove early in the song they stick with it. And I'm not big on this style of music as it is but I certainly agree with the critics that this can be boring. We do get vocals which are quite strange sounding but I must admit that the closer "Tante Olga" is where the vocals actually take the song to another level. And I'd call it that Krautrock level with one guy singing out of the one speaker while the other talks and laughs(clearly stoned) throughout the song. Again they get an idea and they won't vary from it but this is the song I appreciate out of the six.

A lot of acoustic instruments here but some bluesy guitar at times. Singing and speaking are in German. Worth the 3 stars but yes this one is lacking in my opinion.

The end result sounds an awful lot like a prototype for Univers Zero. That isn't something you might expect given the musical influences that feed into their work - medieval folk, traditional Indian music, a touch of psychedelia here, a larger dab of free jazz and avant-garde classical there - but between the dark atmosphere, the "chamber rock" instrumentation, and the unconventional approach, it very much feels like a prototype for the sort of territory that Univers Zero, Art Zoyd, and Present would eventually explore.

Careful listeners may also detect elements of avant-garde classical music and free jazz deep in the DNA of this bizarre musical chimera, but really there is little precedent for Third Ear Band besides the group's own debut album; Univers Zero or Art Zoyd would later revisit some of these territories (listen to the start of Water, for instance, and tell me you can't imagine those ROI stalwarts doing something similar). Like its predecessor, astonishingly ahead of its time.

There is a certain raga influence - right down to Glen Sweeney using tabla for much of the album - but it's far more artfully handled than the usual "add a bunch of sitar to some psychedlic pop" approach that the Beatles-imitators of the era would run to. Instead, the band use the repetitious and hypnotic aspects of Indian music as merely one tool in their portfolio, with aspects of free jazz, avant-garde classical, and folk music all blending together.

The downfall of a lot of experimental music lies in becoming so obtuse as to be inaccessible, or so technical as to lose sight of feeling. Not so here; Third Ear Band clearly have a very specific mood they wish to evoke here, and they communicate it adeptly. At the same time, the material is intricate enough to reward mutiple listens. The overall impression is of a free jazz band transported to the medieval era, and that's an intriguing enough proposition to keep the album interesting for its running time.

Starter "Jesus Is My Life" is very funny piece! Maybe they made it seriously, but now it works only a humor song. But direction changes into next one: although "Butterfly Music" is very short, it has really deep atmosphere played by flute, guitar, bass and very gentle drums! It sounds to be from the larger piece, it´s sad they put only so short part of it in this album. "It´s All the Same" is long acoustic song with very warm feeling in it! To me it sounds title piece has taken also from the longer improvisation piece as "Butterfly Music", because it sounds as awesome! "Portable Realm" ends the a-side in acoustic way and has great "late evening"-feeling. "Sai Baba" is mantra song. "Holy Roller" is little bit mediocre song, but has good groove whole through. "On the Other Side Of the Wall" is again very serene and melodic piece with great flute playing. "Dedication" is calm, short acoustic very Indian sounding piece including some mantra. "Bliss Trip" starts with organ, thunder sounds and gong. Soon comes very meditative flute. In the middle there comes beautiful sounding vipraphone. Very holy atmosphere continues whole over six minutes. "Mother Of the Universe" ends album as cheerful way as it starts, it seems to include again some mantra.

I have listened now only once their all albums, but really going to listen them again. I have given four stars to everyone. To me this albums sounds as great as those others. Quintessence was from the begin very spiritual taken influences specially from eastern religions, so if that´s too much for you, you´re not liking this or their any other albums. I haven´t got anything against those philosophies, but it´s the music that I love in this band! Still I don ´t think they made any masterpieces, in every album there are empty moments here and there. Anyway you hear very rare this kind of music these days.

"Mindrama" is a great opener bringing FLOYD to mind with that urgent sound with mono-toned, low key vocals. Very much a sign of 1971. He repeats "Mindrama" over and over on the chorus. But man this is experimental to start and finish. This is such an amazing headphone album, the sounds are all over the place. "Organza" continues that vibe and we get Turner adding flute and there's also some guest electric piano that I love. "Kyte" reminds me of that song off that MORTE MACABRE album with a female going "La la la la la...." same here. Catchy stuff. "Infinite Chord" has some delay and sitar and then it explodes into an uptempo groove. Crazy synths and mellotron too along with some wordless vocals.

"Analepsis" opens with what sounds like people playing tennis as guest acoustic guitar joins in then it becomes spacey with vocals. Such a cool and drifting track, I like this one a lot. "Aqua" is powerful to start, experimental too before becoming this flute-led piece late, quite beautiful after 5 1/2 minutes. "Nipple" opens with samples before heavy beats take over and organ. Vocals are laid back as they sing over top, flute too. So much going on instrumentally once again as this plays out. "Utterly Luminescent" has a nice slow heavy beat with sitar and sounds that echo and more. It's dark as soft vocals join in. I really like "Hedge Maze" a trippy tune with echoes and beats, sitar too and vibes. Yes I'm hearing mellotron too. Love this stuff. And what a great way to end the album with "Syrian" the longest track at almost 11 minutes. So much atmosphere and Daevid speaks!

Next stop for this lineup found the band changing its name to International Harvester which did release one album in 1968 titled "Sov gott Rose-Marie." This project continued the psychedelic folk and rock but drifted more into the world of progressive rock and what would be later named Krautrock. This version of the band proved to be highly influential for all those true trippers who would make the Nurse With Wound List however this band just couldn't decide on a style to settle upon and then once again dropped the "International" part of the moniker and simply carried on as HARVESTER. Under this name the band once again released a single album in 1969 only this time crafted its droning and jam based psychedelic rock around Swedish folk music.

This band would only last for one album before carrying on as Träd, Gräs och Stenar in 1970 after adding some new members. That band would release two albums in the early 1970s before going on hiatus for several decades and reforming at the turn of the millennium. As HARVESTER the band released HEMÅT which jettisoned the more structured compositional style of "Sov gott Rose-Marie" and reclaimed the hypnotic jamming style of Pärson Sound. While some lump this into the world of raga rock for its transcendental freeform flow, the only ethnic influences are homegrown with moments of traditional Swedish folk music. The music for the most part sits comfortable with the Pärson Sound noise jams that offered some of the earliest true psychedelic tips. The Germans would pick up on this and create a fertile music scene of it.

Despite the seemingly detached escapism that the album exudes, HARVESTER was very much a band that promoted Swedish nationalism that tackled the sticky wickets of politics and environmentalism. The album itself was recorded in the Kafe Marx which was owned by the Swedish Communist Party. Consistintg of seven tracks, HEMÅT captured the sounds of the 60s heavy psych world with fuzz guitars, heavy bass and pronounced percussive beats. The addition of the horns, fiddles and cello offer the local folk flavors and the incessant repetitive grooves off minimalist composiitons that for the most part are instrumental but off a few muddled vocal performances such as on "Everybody (Needs Somebody To Love)."

This is decent but less compelling than the psychedelic otherworldliness of Pärson Sound or the much better compositional charm of International Harvester. This is this team's least known album as it has been eclipsed by what came before as Pärson Sound and International Harvester as well as the Träd, Gräs och Stenar that followed and there is good reason for that as this one sounds like an impromptu jam with minimal production and mixing having taken place. While it perfectly exemplifies the wild and experimental psych scenes that were quickly taking over much of European rock, it is hardly essential but a decent lysergic detachment that is well worth the experience once you have checked out the other versions of the band's frequent name changes.

This band that emerged from Nimbin just south of Brisbane didn't stick around for long and only managed to release its sole album DREAMING before the musical tastes for such occidental meets oriental musical fusion had waned a bit but what a beautiful album these fine musicians left behind! By the latter half of the 1970s John McLaughlin with Shakti had pretty much stolen the show for anything remotely jazz / raga fusion but this band from Australia did an excellent job at crafting beautiful pastoral soundscapes that live up to the album title.

While Shakti delivers an incessant bombast of jazz-raga fusion, KANGURU focused on a more intricate fusion of Indian sounds that included the the sarod, pakhavaj and tabla with other non-indian ethnic instruments such as the the indigenous Australian didgeridoo. Add to that some gypsy folk sounds of the electric viola as well as some lush flute sounds and acoustic guitar occasionally accompanied by vocals and what you get is an interesting interpretation of the raga rock scene from a part of the planet not usually associated with these fertile hybrids.

Cited as a hippie band that is certainly evident in the few lyrics on board with themes of being a rainbow and a moonbeam however this is a mostly instrumental affair and really does evoke a dream state with doesn't really rely too heavily on any particular style of ethnic music. There are definitely some Mahavishnu Orchestra vibes that would evolve in the Shakti universe but the album seems to incorporate various ethnic influences ranging from Indonesian folk music to homegrown aboriginal sounds into a unique tapestry of raga influenced majesty. The sounds experienced on DREAMING are perfectly in line with the om symbol featured on the cover art. The music is non-linear and features some interesting transitions and stylistic differentiations that incorporate jazz and Western classical as well as the Indian and other ethnic sounds.

As far as i'm concerned albums of raga rock nature need to take the listener on a spiritual journey and in the case of KANGURU on DREAMING, that is exactly what transpires through a unique procession of musical motifs that never remain static for too long. While the meditative and transcendental aspects of the album are clearly in tact, so too are those moments of imploring action and promoting periods of growth that eschew stagnation. What makes this sound most like Shakti is the electric viola performed by Cleis Pierce of the progressive jazz-rock outfit MacKenzie Theory that released one album in 1973 however this album really stands on its own two feet and a gem of the Australian underground. As far as i'm concerned this one is extremely successful in crafting a seamless fusion of various ethnic sounds and one of the highlights in all of the so-called raga rock scene of the era.