NATURAL ELEMENTS

Well I do prefer this studio album to the live one they released the year before. Man this is impressive. It's hard to believe this is all acoustic because they play at such a fast pace at times with lots of intensity. And also we get all these intricate sounds from some instruments I haven't even heard of before.The guitar from McLaughlin, violin from Shankar and tablas / percussion from Hussain are the focus though in our carpet ride over India. Mind- blowing stuff.

"Mind Ecology" is an amazing start as we get hit with this intricate yet powerful sound.Violin to the fore after 2 minutes. So much going on here. "Face To Face" is another favourite as it opens in a pastoral manner with sparse sounds. It kicks in with percussion and guitar before a minute with violin coming in quickly as well. "Come On Baby Dance With Me" has lots of tablas and percussion.This sounds so cool. Guitar and violin also help out in this intense track. "The Daffodil And The Eagle" is more laid back. I like the guitar and percussion sounds after 2 1/2 minutes. So impressive. Lots of passion here too.

"Happiness Is Being Together" is percussion and violin led early.The violin is almost screaming 1 1/2 minutes in. Some vocal melodies follow bringing SANTANA to mind. "Bridge Of Sighs" is where they get room to actually breathe. "Get Down And Struti" opens with percussion but the guitar and violin join in quickly. Percussion is more the focus here though. Some vocal expressions after 6 minutes. "Peace Of Mind" is the mellow closer with guitar and violin standing out.

This might be the best place to start if your thinking about Indo-Prog.