September 2010
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Moved to another host

I did the move yesterday to another host but there is work to be done including the new theme. I also lost my post on Prem Joshua’s. Luckily I had a copy of the review.

Hoping to bring back the blog in all its new version soon. Keep watching this space.

Searching for a new theme

It has been a long time since I posted here. Happy New Year to all of you. I am searching for a new widget enabled WordPress 2.7 theme and when I am done with that my new post will go out.

My new and latest blog

This is one is dedicated to the lovely music of the guitar and it is called guitar-appreciation.com. Feel free to read the posts and comment.

Beautiful music from Fleetwood Mac

The classic and unconventional Fleetwood Mac album showcasing the musical abilities of the band
Future Games by Fleetwood Mac

I would not have imagined in my wildest dreams I would be listening to an album as this when I picked up Fleetwood Mac’s Future Games at the MBH store in Singapore in the late nineties. I am not sure if the store exists but it is one of the best in Singapore where they let you try a zillion CD’s before you can buy.

Future Games, released in 1971 is the album where Fleetwood Mac’s musical offering outlasts vocal performances. Though more acoustic singing and lyrics aren’t compromised. The entire album is beautiful and has a sometimes depressing, sometimes haunting, sometimes happy feel to it all through the album. Even the instruments are played that way. Mind you, this is Pre Lindsey Buckingam-Stevie Nicks – Fleetwood Mac.

The album is released at a time when two of the leading members Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer leave the band and newcomers Bob Welch and Christine McVie join the band. This gives Fleetwood Mac a new makeover in their sound and songs.

A review of the lovely songs

Woman of a Thousand Dreams – Lovely rythm guitar and lovely singing…the line Woman of a thousand years is sung so well by Danny Kirwan who also pens the lyrics. Lovely guitar solo parts from Danny and Bob.

Morning Rain – Time for the pianist of the band and Christine McVie to take over singing in that unmistakable and melancholy voice.

The nice lines of the song are:

..how can you know till you try…
…The futures new and the past is dead..
and
… Cause away from the darkness everything seems bright
Clear as the morning rain
Seeing it very plain
We’ve got to start again…

What a shame – A small bluesy instrumental featuring the saxophone.

Future Games – Bob Welch’s contribution and what stylish singing and guitar playing, “Simply too good” would be an understatement.

The lovely lines:

I did a thing last night
You know those future games
I turned off all the lights
Oh, the future came
You were by my side
Will you explain-oh yeah
Real rhyme or reason for those future games…

…But baby it’s alright and so have faith
Oh yeah, you invent the future that you want to face…

….How many people sit home at night
Wondering if they will be here tonight
Wondering if children will he bring to the light
Inherit the world, or inherit the night
Wondering if neighbors are thinking the same
All of the wild things tomorrow will tame
Talking of journeys that happen in vain
Well I know I’m not the only one
To ever spend my life sitting playing future games

The beautiful haunting guitar takes over giving the nostalgic feeling that only the typical Fleetwood Mac guitar is capable of. Check the lovely singing at …Well I know I’m not the only one….

More nice lines.

…You better take your time
You know there’s no escape
The future sends a sign
Of things we will create
Baby it’s alright
And so have faith
Oh yeah, you invent the future that you want to face..

Sands of time – Another Danny Kirwan beauty and my favorite song of the album. The way the music is played is so smooth and beautiful, no wonder it was an FM staple with lovely vocals.

The colourful lines:

The magic of a blackened night
Can go so far, but not seem right

Although my love, will drive away the sunshine
The magic of, a blackened night
And before you go show me

The song’s pace quickens.

More beautiful lines:

And the falling sands of time
Blow my wind and drifted by
To and fro the trees still bend
Wondering what the host will send
We will go right down to the sea
Bathing in light we will be free to wander…

The musicians take over and revel and entertain beautifully and softly with their instruments.

Sometime A love song from Danny Kirwan not very impressive but not boring either. Nice and sad guitar licks.

Let it all down Faster, heavy rocker with some fiery solos, the only song that seems out of place in mood on this album.

Show me a smile What a sweet song, its lyrics are worth reproducing here. Christine McVie shows you why she could make lovelier songs later on F.Mac’s later popular albums like Fleetwood Mac and Rumours. The mood lost in the previous song is re-generated by this one and a beautiful song to end the album with the signature Feetwood Mac melancholy guitar sound.

Take everything easy
Show me a smile
It doesn’t take much to please me
My little child
Shine me a light from your eyes dear
Don’t let me see a single tear
Take everything easy
Show me a smile
Soon you’ll be a man
My little one
So have fun while you can
Or there’ll be none
Everything’s going fast around you
There will be things to astound you
You’ll be a man in no time
My little one
So take everything easy
Show me a smile
It doesn’t take much to please me
My little child
Shine me a light from your eyes dear
Don’t let me see a single tear
Take everything easy
Show me a smile…

Personnel on the album – Christine McVie fulltime first time on Piano and vocals, Bob Welch on Guitars and vocals, Danny Kirwan on Guitars and Vocals, Mick Fleetwood on Drums and John McVie on Bass.

The lovely album cover of the two children, earlier had yellow instead of green.

Some more information about the band during the release of the album – Jeremy Spencer departed for Christ. He was in India during the 90′s and even confessed that he left Rock after just one reading of The Bible. The famous Santana hit “Black Magic Woman” is in fact a Fleetwood Mac song of the Peter Green Era.

Buy the CD, Future Games by Fleetwood Mac from Amazon.com.

Better still try and see if you can download the album for free at UnlimitedDownloadCenter.com.

Melodious guitar fusion

Sanjay Mishra's classic Indian Fusion album with Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead
Blue Incantation by Sanjay Mishra

More than a month ago Chennai’s popular newspaper “The Hindu”, had this album reviewed and I just couldn’t wait to get my own review out although I had planned mine a long time ago.

I am not sure how many of you lived in and around Atlanta, GA around the end of the previous milleneum (1999-2001) and used to watch Indian programmes on the NPR (I think it was that) and similar channels on T.V. Most of these (Indian Movies and other Indian programmes) were a weekend thing and not of consistent great quality but being nostalgic about life back home in India we would watch them anyway.

However I had another reason to watch these programs, the small 10 sec or so CRY (Child Relief and You) advertisement. It could have also been from CRY America. Anyway, it was an advertisment asking people to contribute to CRY and be aware of the sufferings and things happening to underpreviliged children in India. The ad didn’t carry any video but only black and white images including one of the founder the late Rippan Kapur. As the images would flash across the screen a very haunting guitar tune would play in the background. Only the guitar was heard with a little percussion as the advertisement concluded. The hauntingly beautiful tune was so soulful that I would wait every week to listen to this small 10 second ad. I was desperate to find which band or guitarist was playing that irresistable tune. Which was the album it came from? I was only groping in the dark thinking I may never find out.

Several months later I moved to Eagan, Minnesota. I used to frequent the Madras Cafe there. Over the music system they would play songs from popular Hindi and Tamil films. On one ocassion they were playing popular songs which I recognized as ones performed by the Pakistani band Junoon. After a couple of songs there was an interesting guitar and tabla instrumental. The sound of the guitar rang a bell in me but I was not able to find out why. At that time I was under the impression that song could have been a Junoon instrumental. I checked with the guy at the restaurant only to receive a blank reply saying someone had burnt an assorted CD for him.

But providence has other things in store for you when your yearning is strong. I started checking Indian guitarists and Indian fusion bands on Amazon.com but not with much luck. I then came across Sanjay Mishra, an India guitarist living in the U.S whose three albums Amazon was selling. A name like Sanjay Mishra would have hardly rung a bell but I decided to just check out the album “Blue Incantation” purely becuase Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead had collaborated on the album. I first clicked on the Monsoon song and I instantly recognized it as the one they played at Madras Cafe. Something then told me that the tune I heard on the T.V ad in Athens, Georgia was almost there and that the wait was over. I then click on the song “For Julia” and I couldn’t believe my ears. I had finally stumbled upon the song, album and artist I was longing to find out for several months. How many times I heard the little sample on Amazon I cannot recall.

Honestly Jerry Garcia’s part is the one where the guitar playing distracts although there’s not much of him in this collaboration. Garcia’s electric guitar sometimes interjects unnecessarily when compared to Sanjay’s finger picked nylon classical (I am sure Sanjay’s classical guitar has been made electric too, I mean connected to an amp). Except for Noturne/Evening Chant I thought the rest of the songs could have done away with Garcia. Sanjay could have filled those Garcia-played parts with this own better compositions. Garcia collaborates only on three songs and that’s a reason to forgive his parts.

A review of the songs.

For Julia – Clearly the number one song of this album and one that you must listen to first. This is the song that has made Sanjay Mishra and his music famous. Once you listen to “For Julia”, you are going to keep getting back to it an incredible number of times. Extremely haunting, soulful and beautiful. Just two instruments, the guitar and Tabla do it all although I find traces of other instruments such as bass and percussion. For Julia also appears on two other albums one of which is the award winning soundtrack for the film Port Djema.

Monsoon – Not the second best song but a faster number, fastest on the album. Lovely playing reminding you of the wet rainy weather. Beautiful guitar playing though he sometimes settles in the background to let Garcia take the limelight.

Passage into Dawn – The longest song on the album and vocals are used. The tabla works in unision with the guitar tunes to produce a soft and beautiful effect. At 3:33 min the tunes of the guitar changes evoking an even deeper feeling of serenity. This song can be used for Meditation, relaxation, doing Hatha Yoga etc and it will compliment the activity perfectly.

Self Portrait – The smallest song but it so beautiful you could listen to it over and over again. It too has a haunting feel to it.

Bach in Time A variation of a Bach composition played melodiously on the guitar with the support of Tabla as percussion.

Allegro – Faster song, not as fast as Monsoon but moves beautifully. Sanjay plays beautiful tunes on his guitar against the steady Tabla rythm. Towards the end tabla and guitar combine well for some interesting moments.

My Meditation – A beautiful opener, a pleasant number indicating the style and sound that is to come.

Nocture/Evening Chant – Light vocals can be heard in the background as Sanjay weaves his majic for an evening chant a title befitting the relaxing sounds of the guitar and other instruments.

Clouds – Beautiful duet between Sanjay and Garcia. A longer song, slow, soft and lovely with Sanjay taking more of a support role and Garcia doing more of the solos. Tabla gradually join in. If not for Garcia’s guitar this could have been another good song in line with “Passage unto dawn”.

Before the summer rain – The concluding song on the album and one where the flute is also used. Sanjay provides the lovely support as the flautist does most of the solo. Soothing number to end the album.

In conclusion a great album. Blue Incantation is also a must-listen if you are a learning or practising guitarist.

Listen to MP3 clips of the songs here.

There are a couple of videos on Youtube though they aren’t the masterpieces. Here is one of them.

Sanjay has other gems from his earlier and new albums but “Blue Incantation” must be your place to start.

Sanjay’s site at www.mishra.net.

Buy the CD, Blue Incantation by Sanjay Mishra from Amazon.com.

Better still try and see if you can download the album for free at UnlimitedDownloadCenter.com.

More melody Jam! You have to believe this one too…

The sequel to Chicken Noodles, classic Guitar and Keyboard jam by Buckethead and Travis Dickerson

Chicken Noodles II by Buckethead and Travis Dickerson

If you thought you didn’t get enough with their first offering of melody jam from their album “Chicken Noodles”, Buckethead and his friend Travis Dickerson offer you more of the jam in a sequel titled “Chicken Noodles II”. This time they have a longer album with more songs than the first.

A review of the songs:

1. The chicken or the egg – Sounds bluesy; nice intro jam

2. Ovum Prophecy – Good song, reminding you of chicken noodles 1; faster one but shorter.

3. Concentric Motion – Long song. Starts lovely and melodious and towards the end comes with and nice string arrangements (programmed into the Rhodes?). Sounds Mark Knopflerish but this one is from Buckethead. The soulful playing starts well then gets into a fast pace and then sounds like shredding but just when you think it is going out of control or boring both the instrumentalists come back to end beautifully.

4. Oyster Crackers – Rockier riffs, bluesy notes, long song but doesn’t get boring and you can just let it play.

5. Heat and Save – A song with guitar chords at the beginning and towards the end of the song. Good small song you wonder why it wasn’t accompanied by vocals but the instruments sing instead.

6. Let it cool – Keyboard doubles as bass – Lovely Mark Knopflerish and bluesy sounding guitar for this blues instrumental.

7. Chicken Nostrils – More chords played in this song than single notes but song has an intriguing feel, at 3.45 more single notes are played.

Buy Chicken Noodles II by Buckethead and Travis Dickerson from Amazon.com.

Better still download the album for free at UnlimitedDownloadCenter.com.

A great pop-rock album

Al Stewart's classic album Year of the Cat
Year of the Cat by Al Stewart

In its heydays the album reached no.5 on the American Billboard Album charts but even that rank doesn’t make Al Stewart a household name as other albums that reached the same or lower status on the popular albums chart. It may have gathered interest in the 70′s but today this album is almost forgottten. Who wants to remember an album that went to no.5 on the U.S charts in 1977?

Engineered by Alan Parsons and recorded at Abbey Studios, 1976 this was Al Stewart’s finest and most popular work. Though considered a folk artiste I would like to put this album under the “Pop” category as it appeals to more that category or the pop-rock category.

Al Stewart is known fo his mellifluous voice, poetry like lyrics (which can be a pain after a while), using numerous and varied musical talent on his albums. Jimmy Page played on one of his earlier albums. Other greats with whom he had collaborated are Rick Wakeman, Peter White and Richard Thompson.

Al Stewart’s lyrics are often related to historical and cultural events and people.

All said, if there is one album of Al Stewart that you should be listening to, it must this one, “Year of the Cat“.

A review of the songs:

1. Lord Grenville - Beautiful opener for the album. Such soft singing is rare these days. Lovely string arrangements laced with melancholy. Lovely ending with melancholious guitar licks and the strings in the background.

2. On the border - One of Al Stewarts most popular songs. Good keyboards almost replace the strings as background music. Nice acoustic guitar too. Tamil movie music listeners may recall Shankar-Ganesh the popular music duo of yesteryears who had a knack of lifting popular tunes. Their song “Unakkaga engum intha pithanamma” a hit in the early 80′s was based on this song of Al Stewart. And writing about lifting tunes their “Devi Koondhalo Brindavanam…” from Hermans Hermit’s “Happy Together”. Even “Meghame” their evergreen hit for singer Vani Jayaram was tune for tune copy of Jagjit Singh’s popular song “Tum Nahin”.

Here is a video of Al Stewart and his boys playing “On the border”. Check out Peter White’s solo on the classical guitar and his shirt on stage. Really sweet.

3. Midas Shadow - A slower song with soft and lovely singing with a lovely keyboard solo.

4. Sand in Your shoes - Happier songs, starts rhymey but still makes for a lovely listen. An O.K guitar solo but well played accordion in the background.

5. If it doesn’t come naturallly, leave it - Faster paced song than the two previous songs. Good song. Lots of piano work on this one and a decent guitar solo.

6. Flying Sorcery - Good song. I love the harmonica on this one and it has a lovely guitar solo too.

7. Broadway Hotel - Violin on this one with a lovely solo at the end.

8. One Stage Before - Lovely guitar solo on this one and I like the bass on this one.

9. Year of the cat - Longer song, 6 min plus, co-written by the late Peter Wood this song reached No.8 on the US Billboard chart making it Al Stewart’s most successful single. Is also the longest song on the album with piano, acoustic guitar, background strings, lead gtr; keys and saxophone solo’s makes it a befitting final and title song to end the album.

Here’s Al Stewart on the “Old Grey Whistle Test” performing “Year of the Cat” with his talented friends.

The personnel on the album – Al Stewart (vocals, keyboards); Tim Renwick, Peter White (guitar); Graham Smith (harmonica); Phil Kenzie (alto saxophone); Peter Wood, Don Lobster (keyboards); George Ford (bass); Stuart Elliot (drums, percussion); Marion Driscoll (triangle); David Pack, Tony Rivers, John Perry (background vocals).

Al Stewart can get stale over repeated albums but certainly he is no one-hit wonder.

Listen to MP3 clips of the songs here.

Buy the CD, Al Stewart’s Year of the cat from Amazon.com.

Better still download the album for free at UnlimitedDownloadCenter.com.

Melodic progressive rock doesn’t come like this

Camel's classic progressive rock album The Snow Goose
The Snow Goose by Camel

In all my music listening life I have been overwhelmed by a couple of bands and the moments when I discovered them. These were: listening to Wishbone Ash the first time, rediscovering the original progressive side of pre-Phil Collins-fronted Genesis, rediscovering Pre-Breakfast in America Supertramp and off late Canterbury based progressive rock band Camel.

What a joy and an honour to be writing about such a great band fronted and still lead by the talented Andrew Latimer, one of the original founders of Camel. It is interesting to note that the band, Peter Bardens’ On changed their name to Camel after a gig supporting the big band, the inspiration behind great-anonymous-albums.com, Wishbone Ash.

It’s a shame that such a great band must only be listened to by Camel’s cult following. Such a big shining star in the world of Progressive Rock Camel certainly needs more air play, listening and viewing. I have also become such an ardent fan of Andrew Latimer and I think he is one of the few guitarists out there who can reproduce the same guitar time and again on stage, that you heard inside the studio on the CD. I have watched him perform live on videos on YouTube and it is unbelievable how he can come up with such performances. His hallmark is his beautiful melancholy sound and his ear for melody and great tunes even shows up in the fast paced songs. The other musicians support him well on this album; Peter Bardens on keyboards, Doug Fergusson on bass and Andy Ward on drums.

Released in 1975, The Snow Goose was Camel’s third album. Mostly instrumental this is one of those beautiful prog-rock albums that you can take on the road or listen in private and will never wear you down. And unlike most prog-rock albums most of the songs are small but knitted together. The longest (just a couple of them) are only just a little over 5 min long and one over 4 min. After using “novel” based concepts in their breakthrough album “Mirage”, Camel decided to go with Doug Fergusson’s suggestion of “The Snow Goose” by author Paul Gallico. Earlier they had contemplated on Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha and Steppenwolf. When Paul Gallico who detested smoking decided to take the band to court (Camel is also the name of the popular cigarette) the band avoided legal action by adding the words “Music inspired by” before the title of the album “The Snow Goose”.

This album also showcased Andrew Latimer’s flute abilities that he did for the first time on the previous album “Mirage” and he doesn’t disappoint. This is not the energetic and distorted sounds like Ian Anderson’s flute of Jethro Tull but melodious as flutes normally sound.

Here’s a review of the songs.

The Great Marsh introduces the album with the sounds of geese in a marsh. Gradually Peter’s chords on the keys take over. Female vocals and Andrew’s guitar can also be heard. Bass and drums join in for a lovely small introductory tune.

Rhayader introduces Latimer on flute with Peter on Piano and with other musicians break into a lovely instrumental with solos on the flute by Andrew and later Peter on the keyboards and finally Latimer concludes with the flute tunes once again.

Rhayader goes to Town starts with a bang. Latimer switches to the Fender Strat and the band delivers a lovely instrumental with Latimer doing a delightful solo on his guitar engaging the tremolo. Peter, Doug and Andy Ward provide all the necessary support.

Sanctuary – Lovely little guitar instrumental from Andrew Latimer.

Fritha – Lovely little guitar instrumental from Peter on the keyboards, Andrew on guitar and Doug on Bass.

The Snow Goose is a beautiful instrumental (befitting the title song) from the four musicians and I have listened to it infinite times already. Andrew’s Les Paul is soulful and beautiful.

Friendship – A nice digression using wind instruments. Except for the keyboard played by Peter the rest (trumpet, horn etc) are played by guest musicians. (This can be seen in the video, link below.)

Migration – With drum roll on the snare this song features non lyric-vocals from the musicians. Check out the lovely bass notes from Doug.

Rhayader alone – Soft keys and lovely guitar, Peter and Andrew perform a beautiful little tune befitting the lonliness of Rhayader in the song.

Flight of the Snow Goose – Starts with silence, Peter Bardens’ keyboards then sets in and the musicians burst into a happy tune.

Preparation – Andrew uses his flute again starting softly then vocals are heard with the music in the background become a repetitive loop giving it the real prog-rock feel. Some other sounds can also be heard. Song kept reminding me of the start of Wishbone Ash’s “Pilgrim”, as though preparing for something exciting.

Dunkirk – The rythmic sound on the keys, bass and drums does make you inquisitive but the monotonous tunes that start go on for about three minutes but after that Andrew Latimer delivers a searing hot solo on his guitar.

Epitaph – We hear a similar loop that we did before in “Preperation” and it goes on to fade.

Fritha Alone – Beautiful piano tune from Peter Bardens.

La Princesse Purdue – Starts from silence and gradually violin strings break the silence and the band goes into a tune and then pausing for Peter Bardens to do his bit on his keys and later to continue the earlier tune again with background score. Once again Peter goes into solo mode on his keys and almost coming to a stop. Andrew now takes over with his melancholy tune on his guitar signalling a “Goodbye” with Peter mixing tunes from “The Snow Goose” instrumental. The Bass from Doug is almost identical to what he played on The Snow Goose. You could say this was a different version of The Snow Goose instrumental.

The Great Marsh – As conclusion a visit is paid to the marsh and sounds of the geese is once again heard. Peter Concludes with the same keyboard sounds that he used to start the album.

The YouTube link to the live performance of “The Snow Goose”, “Friendship” and “Rhyader goes to town” on the Old Grey Whistle Test recorded way back in May 9, (also my birthday anniversary), 1975, displays Camel’s fantastic live playing. Watch a shy Andrew and his friends play great tunes from The Snow Goose.

The album’s success also led to a prestigious sell out concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, with the London Symphony Orchestra in the same year of the album’s release. In 1981 The Snow Goose reached Silver status but I really wonder if many good music listeners have listened to this lovely album.

A very different prog-rock album from one my all time favourite prog rock sounds, the Canterbury sound. You won’t regret it.

Buy Camel’s The Snow Goose from Amazon.com. The 2002 remaster even has additional bonus covers and unreleased versions of the songs on the album.

You can find all Camel related information on their official site www.camelproductions.com. Anderw Latimer is just recovering from a stem cell transplant operation to help him fight his blood disorder. Susan Hoover, Andrew’s wife reports regularly on his condition on the bands newsletter, also found on the same site under the link News. Also find all merchandise and recordings (Audio and Video) of Camel on the site www.camelproductions-store.com if you cannot get them on Amazon.

Better still download the album for free at UnlimitedDownloadCenter.com.

Colors of India – Ganesh Kumaresh

Ganesh and Kumaresh's classic fusion album
Colours of India by Ganesh Kumaresh.

Colours of India is a fusion album that can rival some of the best fusion albums from India in the recent past. It was also my first review on my other music blog madrasbee where I review and write about music from the Indian sub-continent. If you thought Illayaraja’s “How to Name it” (1986), another very unpopular fusion album even among staunch Illayaraja fans, or “Conversations” from the late 80′s, the fusion album from L.Subramaniam and Stefan Grapelli were some of the finest fusion albums involving musicians in South India in the recent past, here’s an album that lives up to the reputation of a great fusion album. When it was launched I was sure it was going to be well received and certainly one that was going to be talked about for some time. However even the freshness or the recent release in 2003 doesn’t seem to be fetching the album its due credit and so it is here on great-anonymous-albums.com.

The notes on the website indicates that this is a live album. However that is apparent only on one song.

Brothers Ganesh and Kumaresh have been playing the violin since the age of 7 and 5 respectively. Sons of reputed musician Rajagopalan the early grooming helped them give over a 100 concerts by the time they were into their teens. Ganesh even starred in a K Balachander’s Tamil film in his later years.

The tunes on this album will please, elevate and soothe your mind.

Here’s a review of the songs starting with the best of the album.

1. “Taj Mahal” must be the first song you should be listening to. A beautiful instrumental befitting the monument. India has gifted the ultimate monument of love – the Taj Mahal – to the world. The composition ‘Tai Mahal,’ is set to the raga “Nalinakanti” is a tribute to the monument for which John Keats wrote “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”.

2. “Utsav”. Wait till you hear the vocals on “Utsav” based on the raga “Shuddha Dhanyasi”. You won’t believe that even vocals can get you on a natural high when Ganesh starts his singing. These two songs alone are worth the price of the CD. Ganesh-Kumaresh and company are going to be remembered for a long time for these two songs.

3. “Gambhira” is a lovely intro to what’s in store on the CD. The musicianship here is top notch. Arun is tight and fantastic on his drum set here. Some of this rolls and fills are a beauty to listen to, fast, furious and perfect.
‘Gambhira,’ is set to the raga “Gambhira Nattai” and according to the website composed as a tribute to that majesty of India.

4. Chanchal is a lovely jam in typical carnatic style showcasing the talents of the musicians without sacrificing composition. Starting as an ensemble and finishing off with solos from the percussionists this is a superb composition. ‘Chanchal’ in raga “Ranjani” is the one where the audience can be heard. A longer song but worth the listen to the amazing talents of the musicians. Arun’s drum solo is the last and what a treat it is.

5. “Ahimsa” is a delightful soft Hindi devotional song sung by Ganesh on non-violence that also calls and refers other religions.

6. “Colours of India” is the only spoilt song on this album. A long and out-of-place composition reflecting various music styles from around the country it fails to match the creativity and of the stellar compositions “Taj Mahal” and “Utsav”.

The musician who grabbed most of my attention was of course Arun Kumar. He made the drums sing and talk. There was so much meaning to the fast and furious playing.

Beg, borrow, steal, or buy this album. If you don’t have this album I suggest you make a bee line to your nearest music store and get it without fail. You could listen to complete samples on musicindiaonline.com.

The Artistes on the album: Ganesh-Violin and Vocals, Kumaresh-Violin, Keith Peters -Bass Guitar, Satish Kumar-Mridangum, Kanjira, Konaakol, Deena-Keyboard, Giridhar Udupa-Ghatam, Konnakol, Arun Kumar-Drums,Percussion and Moharsingh

I have had the privilege of watching them in two fusion concerts in Chennai and they hardly fail to disappoint. Ganesh and Kumaresh have gone to release two more fusion albums. Watch out for the reviews.

Buy Colours of India by Ganesh and Kumaresh from Amazon.com.

Melody Jam? You have to believe this

Chicken Noodles by Buckethead
Chicken Noodles by Buckethead

This is a shorter review.

Chicken Noodles is a much newer album and my prediction is that it is already anonymous or is going to be forgotten soon but in my opinion this is a landmark album. I haven’t heard of an entire album full of Jam as this. Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew” was a double album of jam but it featured many artistes. However in this album you are only going to hear two instruments, the guitar and the keyboard. The musicians of the album are the highly versatile and immensely gifted guitarist Buckethead whose Monsters and Robots album I reviewed earlier on great-anonymous-albums.com. The other person and worthy of every mention is Buckethead’s associate on the Fender Rhodes, Travis Dickerson. I have listened to the duo on the Population Overdrive album and was very impressed with the keyboard skills of Travis but this albums takes their association to another level.

Running into a little over 50 min this album is enjoyable whether listened to with full attention or while doing other tasks. The album has only 4 instrumentals and they are: 1) Enter Tomorrow (13:07), 2) Loss From a Distance (18:01) 3) Sorrow of Discord (11:28) 4) and False Directions (8:24). Each one is sublime and beautiful in melody in its own way and is sure to transport you to another world of listening enjoyment.

As of today one one review of it exists on Amazon.com and I am not sure how many more will appear but do take a listen to this unusual but superb album from one of today’s finest guitarists.

I have also included it under Acoustic and Instrumental category though I would normally include Buckethead under Heavy Metal.

Buy Buckethead’s Chicken Noodles at Amazon.

Better still download the album for free at UnlimitedDownloadCenter.com.