TANYET

Amazing psych-raga bluesy rock from this underrated "classic" project by Ry Cooder. With a lot of inventions and variations, this music conciliates eastern buzzing ragas to rocking energy and synth progressive orchestrations. The opening track (divided into 5 parts) features a catchy bluesy vibe, nice percussions parts and evocative, dreamy like flute passages. Rapidly, the composition explores in a meditative style sitar / flute combinations...after 3 minutes, we have the return of Ry Cooder's typical guitar sound, communicating with inspired "ethereal" keyboards and buzzing sitar strings. It finishes with violin like strings with some expeditive classical covers...really enigmatic and passionate song. The second composition (for 6 parts) also alternate bluesy rock interludes and raga sonorities...featuring very catchy melodies and rhythms. Impressive bluesy-folky-psych raga fantasias!

3,5 stars

This surprising record featuring Ry Cooder offers a refreshing patchwork of blues and pure raga. The combination of Ry Cooder's traditional blues guitar with sitar and a mellow flute really works. This is a unique fusion, but the overall quality of the record is lowered by the primitive production resulting in a poor sound quality.

This is an early and rather interesting project featuring a young Ry Cooder, Larry Knechtel, and Jim Gordon who would become Derek & the Dominos drummer, among others. Long-time Beach Boys collaborator Mike Deasy appears on sitar under the pseudonym Lybuk Hyd (as well as under his own name), and also Mike Melvoin who has appeared on album credits all over the place but covered his pension by arranging all those Partridge Family albums in the seventies.

This is supposed to be a raga album but really that only applies for the most part because of the sitars being played. The guitar tuning doesn’t sound like the modal or open tuning you’d expect in raga music, but rather is decidedly blues-based for the most part. The arrangements also have lots of western characteristics. This is to be expected because we’re talking about Ry Cooder here, but I thought this was worth pointing out.

There’s also a lot of contemporary psych influence in the arrangements, not surprising considering this was recorded in the latter sixties. The arrangements are disjointed at times, and the abruptness of some of the tempo and thematic shifts would catch most people who didn’t grow up on acid-laced music off- guard a little.

There’s almost no singing on the album which is okay with me because these are all consummate musicians in the throws of perfecting their various skills and the energy that went into these sessions is apparent even when listening to the tracks more than forty years later.

The album for the most part consists of four “ragas” that as near as I can tell are all nature (sun)-based in theme, each with multiple sub-sections that are either variations on a theme, derivatives, or simply musical equivalents of wandering off the path for a stretch. A serious musician will find plenty to analyze here, but for amateur fans like me this is simply a fun record to play once and a while for a somewhat dated breath of fresh air. Music like this isn’t made much these days.

Most people have heard the late sixties Indian-influenced records of the pop masters from the such the Beach Boys, Beatles, Manfred Mann and the like. If you want to hear how some of the more successful independent musicians incorporated those raga sounds into their own art, this is an excellent primer. Four stars for the originality, creativity and all-star cast.

peace

Curious why none of the progheads ever mention the arbitrary and blatant use of Mellotron on this rare gem. Not only is there the acid rock indian raga influence but there is some excellent and dramatic use of Mellotron notably the use of strings like that of the overused orchestra hits of 80's music. I am not a avid acid/psych listener but I think this release has a very home grown and meditative atmosphere in many sections of the two long epic pieces. Its fun and a great late night listen. The audio recording is below par but I think the music is interesting enough to surpass this shortcoming. I think its a worthy listen and because there is an extensive use of the tron and sitar it will fit nicely in my cd library amoung the many classic prog cds I own. Kudo's for someone taking the time to release this.

Some moments of opening might have existed from one involving to face it in the 70's in the main current and the 60's as time and details from which this album was announced.

It is thought that the time of 1968 when this album was announced as a result is time when the fashion and the absorption of the culture appeared remarkably especially. Some bands and musicians' parts that touched the culture of shape, India, and Africa where they were promoted further and music might have been remarkable each other.

If the respect is considered, one attempt will be able to be discovered as directionality of the musician who participated in the recording of this album and music. Perhaps, this The Ceylieb People can be guessed that the shade of meaning of not the band but the session has come out strongly. It might be true that his music character certainly influences this album like being a few around Sitar player's Lybuk Hyd. However, they also have signs advanced by no simple session it.

A lot of parts of the Orient intention might certainly have been derivative at this time in various places. And, there is a part in which it doesn't stay in the route of simple Raga Rock except that the charm of Sitar is demonstrated enough in this album. The musician who participated in the recording of this album will become a musician known in the west coast if it thinks now. Existence of Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborn, and Jim Gordon. And, there is a part that stands out a little if the existence of Ry Cooder considers this album and the meaning. As for this album, the absorption for World Music might be remarkably expressed from the route of the session and psychedelic for Ry Cooder.

The flavor as the atmosphere of Raga Rock in close relation to the route of a few psychedelic and the united session drifts as a collective impression. And, this album exists as one history to the tension derived from the frame established as a simple session and the music character. This album can be caught as an unusual album that takes the age and the culture even if it considers it from the respect.

Rick Griffin of which it takes charge as Cover Art is known well on business of Cover Art of the poster and Grateful Dead of psychedelic. And, Mike Deasy appointed as Producer works with Beach Boys, Byrds, Monkees, and relations. Flavors of psychedelic and Raga Rock might be indeed united well as a composition and atmosphere of the tune. If the item of a musical history, psychedelic, and Raga Rock is traced, the existence of The Ceylieb People can be caught as important existence.

"Aton 1" consists of the composition of six. Part of rhythm and guitar that produces Groove enough. The melody that Sitar is good twines at once. The anacatesthesia and the relief recollect the traditional music of complete India. Good flow of flute and Sitar. And, the melody with expression of feelings is contained from Groove visited again and it goes to flow chaotically. The production of the tension to unite while making psychedelic and Raga Rock exist together well might be splendid. The part of classics that appear with Coda also gives the listener the impression of diversity as an idea.

"Aton 2" consists of the composition of six as well as "Aton 1". Part of rhythm and Groove that exists as flavor of psychedelic. It shifts from the parts of a few sessions to the part of the harmony of Sitar. The construction of a bright melody is created as much as possible. The band continues the flavor of the session while continuing the melody that Sitar is good.

It is a music character in the sense of unity and the sense of relief that the player weaves that unites the flavor of Raga well. Or, this album that exists as an expression of the flow being united for produced age and culture is a valuable album that contains diversity enough.

While the cross-pollination of other cultures was the norm starting in the middle of the swinging 60s with a particular interest from the exotic and ancient lands of India where every celebratory and musician seemed to be in search of their spiritual guru of choice, many musicians jumped on this bandwagon and added the oriental sounds of sitars, tablas and other exotic instruments to their music in hope of finding that perfect bridge of cultures. While The Beatles opened the floodgates with George Harrison's contribution of "Within You, Without, You" on their hugely successful "Sgt. Pepper's" album, the trend actually began a few years beforehand and is properly credited to Sandy Bull who explored the drone guitar tunings in her folk music as early as 1963. By 1966 when the psychedelic scene was taking off like a rocket, so too did the cross-pollinating cultural musical fusion of world ethnic music with one of the primary interests existing in the Hindustani classical music of India which came to be known as raga rock or Indo-raga rock despite the fact that many of the artists who were engaging in this type of music didn't include much rock in the equation.

Amongst one of the earliest of these groups was the Los Angeles based THE CEYLEIB PEOPLE who only released one ridiculously short album called TANYET which came out in December 1967 and has one of the more exotic and memorable album covers of the era. When i mean short, i mean that this album consisted of two sides that totaled a running length of slightly over 23 minutes long which in modern day terms would be classified as an EP but despite the short length, this is actually one of the more interesting raga rock relics of the era which included a fledgling Ry Cooder who only recently got scouted out by Captain Beefheart to perform on his debut album "Safe As Milk." While many raga rock albums of the era tended to focus on droning or two musical words passing the baton to each other, on TANYET there is a true musical fusion of cultures that works out quite well. With an ensemble of ten musicians, the group consisted of traditional rock instruments such as guitar, bass, drums and keyboards along with the more exotic sitar (with 3 players), tamboura and even some woodwinds.

TANYET is roughly divided into two parts. "Part 1" begins more as a blues rock tune with Ry Cooper wailing away heavy guitar riffs that fade out and give way to the sitar and woodwinds and carries on for awhile as cosmic raga vibes permeate the sound and induce a hypnotic trance. After a while an almost Bollywood type melody emerges which allows the blues rock guitar to flourish alongside the sitar and percussive jams without sounding like each is competing for sonic domination. The symphonic counterpoints to the percussion become more detached and independent until the track suddenly changes to a woodwind and sitar duet but the symphonic keys return to echo the melody. Each part is subdivided into six subparts so they change the mood and dynamics as they transfer to the next. There are very few vocals on this one and towards the end there's even a Western classical outburst to end "Part 1" with a Paganini type of violin solo.''

"Part 2" sounds more like traditional raga music as it emulates a Ravi Shankar type of unaccompanied sitar composition. After a transition the blues guitar dominates with rock styled drumming but it sounds like a sitar is trying to adapt in the background and occasionally stands out. As the part continues the same general patterns where it successfully mixes up the Western and Eastern sounds which alternate and fuse randomly. In general sitars may introduce a theme or vice versa with blues guitars and the other side joins in to fulfill the melodic development. TANYET is somewhat of an obscurity but not super rare. The album was released several times and even on CD where it contained the album played twice with a different mix. The videos on YouTube are a mess as i really had to piecemeal the whole thing together to hear this in the proper order.

It was very much en vogue in the day to take popular music and do raga versions of them, but THE CEYLEIB PEOPLE did an excellent job of eschewing the cliches and conjuring up a nice multi-cultural mishmash of American and Indian sounds that work quite well together. True that the album does sound like a bunch of hippies of the era getting together to jam without taking the time to instill any sort of technical wizardry and production details, but personally that's what i find interesting about this type of music. It feels like a raw jam session that transports me back to an authentic feeling of a certain era. While the genre would continue on and would arguable peak with John McLaughlin's led Shakti in the 70s, THE CELEIB PEOPLE created a tiny but authentically sounding relic of the era that sounds exactly what you would imagine raga rock to sound like if you had never experienced it before.