Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Carlos Santana - Divine Light CD (album) cover

DIVINE LIGHT

Carlos Santana

Jazz Rock/Fusion


From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Bookmark and Share
Sean Trane
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Prog Folk
5 stars This strange but delightful album is a reworking of two of Santana's greatest solo albums (Love, Devotion, Surrender and Illuminations) from the early 70's. I am generally very wary of this type of "démarche artistique" as I have heard many atrocities especially when mixings are mentioned. So before picking this up, I heard roughly half of it at the store and headed on out with this record safely tucked in my jacket's pocket. Speaking of the jacket, or cover, the album boast a completely new artwork not reminiscent of the original ones: we have a superb digipack with a sober blue artwork, but once you open up the fold-out, you will be convinced of the seriousness that was paid to this object.

On of the first thing I must is that Laswell did not screw around too much with the original tracks, just mixing the tracks from both album together and just content of linking them up by creating discreet bridges. So even if both albums are not complete on this single disc issue, the original oeuvres are completely respected and the purist can safely indulge into them. Yes, there is one track missing from LDS and two from Illuminations but we get Eternal Now twice. I will not spend time describing the music on this album, because it is written in the original album reviews. Happy reading and a superb listening.

Report this review (#95909)
Posted Friday, October 27, 2006 | Review Permalink
Neu!mann
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Bass player / producer Bill Laswell performs the same reconstructive surgery on the music of CARLOS SANTANA that he previously did for electric Miles Davis (Panthalassa, 1998), and with equally stunning results. This time he combines a pair of complementary but very different albums in his digital blender: Santana's 1974 solo LP "Illuminations", and "Love Devotion Surrender", his 1973 collaboration with fellow guitar legend and Sri Chinmoy disciple JOHN McLAUGHLIN. The track selection is split pretty evenly between the two original LPs, but the new musical facelift seamlessly melds everything together into an exciting hybrid even stronger than the sum of its parts.

The music itself showcases two virtuosos at the top of their game, and newly transfigured by the spiritual teachings of their shared guru. But don't let the starry-eyed Eastern mysticism of song titles like "The Life Divine" or "Bliss: The Eternal Now" scare you away. The performances owe their (considerable) energy more to the engine of early '70s Jazz-Rock Fusion, in this case with a strong John Coltrane connection: "LDS" was a tribute album of sorts to the celebrated Jazz saxman, and "Illuminations" was recorded with Coltrane's widow Alice, who contributed the gorgeous harp and string arrangements.

What Laswell adds is a discreet measure of enhancement, clarification and focus, all applied with the utmost respect for his sources. This isn't your typically slapdash remix album. It holds together more like an extended sixty-minute suite, from the pinpoint acoustic perfection of McLaughlin's "Naima" to the ecstatic fusion guitar fury of Santana's "Angel of Sunlight", and from the unbelievably lush orchestral sweep of "Angel of Air" to the propulsive rhythms of "A Love Supreme", in which the two guitar heroes trade lightning solos over a bed of Latin percussion.

Imagine a shotgun marriage between SANTANA (the band) and McLaughlin's first MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA (members of both groups are prominently featured), with Laswell presiding over the ceremony. The only reason I'm denying his remix the five stars of an acknowledged masterpiece is because all the material is pre-existing (and I'm not familiar with the original Illuminations album). But this disc is truly something special, and deserves more exposure than it so far has received here at Prog Archives.

Report this review (#163849)
Posted Thursday, March 13, 2008 | Review Permalink
ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars This repackaging of the earliest Carlos albums might have been quite interesting to tell the truth. But the global feeling is that dear old Carlos had little (to none) new ideas and that it was easier to record some old numbers and refresh them into this single album than to record a full original album.

On top of this, it is true to say that I far much preferred ''Love, Devotion.'' to ''Illuminations''. And since this album features more tracks from the latter, I am somewhat less enthusiastic about this ''reconstruction'' than my fellow reviewers.

I can't honestly say that the tracks featured into their newer enveloppe sound better than the originals. They just sound different, but they were not improved by any means here, IMHHO. For instance, ''Illuminations'' just sounds as mellow as the original: same orchestrations, same feel: average.

I can't be thrilled either with this rendition of ''Angel Of Sunlight'' which holds a complete improvised and chaotic section (over half of the track basically) which doesn't supersedes the original version.

In all, I am not really impressed with this release. Since it is only made up of existing old numbers, that there is no real improvement (was it possible?) in comparison with the originals I can't go over three stars for this album.

I only can suggest you to grab the great ''Love, Devotion & Surrender'' which is a superb album.

Report this review (#198456)
Posted Sunday, January 11, 2009 | Review Permalink

CARLOS SANTANA Divine Light ratings only


chronological order | showing rating only

Post a review of CARLOS SANTANA Divine Light


You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.