Search - Ananda Shankar & State of Bengal :: Walking on

It glides and grooves, swoops and soars! What is it though?

02/10/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you are looking for only traditional sitar music then just keep on clicking to the Grampa Shankar section because you won't be happy with this CD I bet. Likewise, if you are looking only for old-school 60s psychedelia/70s rock keep on truckin to those respective sections. And if pure 90s technobeats are your only destination then thump on by this one because this CD will only disappoint or confuse you.BUT if you are looking for something that could somehow combine ALL of those categories then check this CD out! These musicians actually made it work somehow.- The song "Betelnutters" is, what, Aphex Twin in the Bombay version of Motown?
- "Alma Ata" is, er, Bangladeshi surf-prog-rock with the Beatles playing rhythm?
- "Jungle Symphony" is, hm, Jethro Tull as a whirling mondo-gypsy on too much curry?
- "Tori" makes me want to gallop a horse or do the frug or something. Both?Anyways, I thought it might get muddy or lose its energy with time but the CD has plenty of great musicianship and compositional complexity to hold up to repeat listenings. And the grooves just don't let go either. I've been having a ball with this cd. Your Mileage May Vary."

Soundtrack For Spies

Meathook Williams | Warwick, Massachusetts | 08/10/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Here's a absolutely unique disc that marks the passing of an Indian music great who had one foot firmly placed in the history of American rock music as well. Thirty years ago, Ananda Shankar came to California to savor the psychedelic music scene firsthand. The mood for experimentation, perhaps at it's zenith then, found Shankar jamming with Jimi Hendrix, among others. Incredibly hard to find, some of his records have recently been re-released, posthumously. Shankar died at 56 just over a year ago, when he failed to recover after a simple hernia operation. This album had been recently finished, and he was working on the second with this agregation. He was the nephew of Ravi, and the son of India's most renowned dancers. His own wife, Tanushree is herself a choreographer. The artistry and appeal of this disc, which can't help but bring his music to a larger audience, makes his passing all the more heartbreaking. Once again, my hat's off to the forsighted and principled folks at Realworld for expanding the the sights of countless music fans throughout the world with this, and other fine releases. It is, of course, hard to describe music with this many facets, but I'm going to try anyway. First of all, by virtue of it's instrumentation, imbued with an obvious sub-continental sound, it shares an immediate kinship with Indian film music,"filmi". But it's so much more. It doesn't seem as comical, as whimsical as your average soundtrack from India. The arrangements are fantastic, totally captivating. The lineup of instruments is not as crowded as are most filmi albums, and the entire disc is without vocals. This makes it undoubtedly easier on the ears of the average listener in the west. It also captures the spirit of the sixties to some extent and would therefore have been a killer inclusion on the Austin Powers soundtrack. There's also definately an appeal for those who've bought those "cocktail" compilations in recent years. It's very much a viable party album. But with careful listening it's a most interesting recording. The production is nonpareil, no mean feat when so many diverse elements are at work. But, work it does. A little over a decade ago, another sitarist, Ashwan Batish, put out an album called "Sitar Power". A mix of sitar, bass, drum machine, and tabla (also played strikingly by Batish), it tried, I think, to capture this general feel with only limited success. He never made a second effort, and returned to playing Indian classical music, which, thankfully he was also quite good at. His father, by the way, played sitar on the Beatles "Help" album. But, once again, I digress. As if the project wasn't difficult enough already, several tracks are live performances. The production on these cuts are absolutely seamlessly placed amid the studio work and come off brilliantly. It is, all in all, the mother of all ethnic fusion albums. Recently, as asian flavors are becoming more popular in hip-hop and dub music, Some of Ananda's material has been sampled, but here's a chance to hear the undiluted truth. An absolute classic."

Shukria Ananda Ji

Hitty Sharma | Southall, London, United Kingdom | 10/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The great man returns with an explosive yet beautiful mix of east meets west. All the traditional Indian instruments are there with Ananda Ji at his magical best on the sitar, and with backing beats from the UK's Asian Underground scene giants, State of Bengal, this album is a must have for all fans of fusion everywhere. The album opens with the title track, Walking On, which slowly takes your mind away from the real world into the land where Ananda is king and where he controls your mind. From then on you are at his mercy, you have no control through the amazing live recording of the Jungle Symphony right up to the equally amazing live recording of Streets Of Calcutta. Then you wake up and realise that the last hour of your life was the best time of your life. Totally amazing, totally brilliant. Ananda Ji, we look up and salute you and simply say 'thank you'."