Shiva Station

Artist: Jai Uttal & the Pagan Love Orchestra
Label: Triloka Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording reissued
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 793018521321
EAN: 0793018521321
ASIN: B00005YUFI

Release Date: 2002-04-09

Related Categories:

Ambient

| Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General

| International | Styles | Music

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Jazz Fusion

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

World Dance

| Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Listmania:

Perfect Recordings
Upbeat Music for Yoga
Musique eclectique et moins connu (wow, French!)

Tracks:

Guru Bramha
Shiva Station (Namah Shivaya)
Hari Guna Gao
Calling You
Malkouns (Night On The Ganges)
Rama Raghava
Bhajore
Corner
Sita Ram
Jaya Jagadambe (She Who Tears Apart Thought)
Never Turn Away

Similar Items:

Mondo Rama
Kirtan: The Art and Practice of Ecstatic Chant
Music for Yoga and Other Joys
Monkey
Beggars and Saints

Customer Reviews:

Humbug.......2005-12-04

This is a uniformly poor CD. A number of things strike a listener.

Firstly Jai Uttal's terrible diction hampers this CD. The excuse of being non-Indian does not provide refuge for Uttal who boasts of living in India and traveling with the Bauls (journeying minstrels in Bengal) and undertaking discipleship under Ali Akbar Khan. (Uttal is NOT an Indian living in the west as another review noted). It is in equal parts funny and horrifying to hear Uttal murder Hari Guna Gao by singing it with a deliberate American twang "Haari gunaaaaa gaaaao aaooo Raaadda". Most Indian classical vocalists mispronounce the words for a number of reasons; for the purpose of matching the melody, rhythm and tempo of the raga or to exaggerate an emotion and Uttal imitates this style, but the unmistakable American twang in his voice never disappears. While achieving perfect Hindi diction for a non-Indian might be an onerous task it is no less than the task attempting to be competent at Hindustani Classical music and derivative semi-classical forms which Jai Uttal ostensibly attempts to do.

Secondly most of the positive reviews of Jai Uttal are from westerners who are immediately captivated by the powerful melodies of Uttal's CD's. However, they are mistaken in thinking that the music is original. Uttal's music here owes immensely to many different Indian ragas, and the kernels of many ragas form the melodic backbone for much of Uttal's work; to an extent which Uttal can no longer claim to be the composer. Those Indian musicians that aren't composers and only sing or play the ragas on their instruments never claim to be composers! What is so special about hearing Raga Multani by Ravi Shankar as opposed to Vilayat Khan? A Multani by Ravi Shankar will be quite different than one by Vilayat Khan both in form, style, execution, development and final synthesis. The greatest musicians are gifted musical minds who can fashion the raga into a living and breathing work of art, while the same raga in lesser hands will be just a pretty melody. The only credit that a musician takes when he composes (they prefer to call it discover) a new raga is to give it a name of his own choosing. Those that compose lyrics for a particular raga will insert their colophon into the lyrics to "copyright" it. Jai Uttal has neither developed any new facet of the raga nor demonstrated virtuosity, and the lyrics are traditional verses. As for any "jazz" styled improvization, there is none to be found here.

Uttal's only accomplishment is that he has caters to a market that likes their Hindustani Classical Music amplified, distorted and laced with other "psychedelic" effects to harken back to an era of long hair, peace signs, flower-power and free love. Finally, listening to Jai Uttal's does not take me back to the "dirt and dust" of India as as it does for another reviewer. Neither does listening to any other peice of Indian classical music.

Utterly Uttal.......2005-05-25

Jai Uttal's music is very predictable. You always know you'll get something good. But no one track I've ever heard has been exactly the same as one I've heard before.

He shows his spirituality and musicianship consistently. But nothing really gets in the way of the listening experience. It's not that easy to make something simple and easy to listen to out of something that, compared with most modern music, is quite complicated.

There are three kinds of people who listen to Jai Uttal:
1: Those who are into his kind of spirituality.
2: Those who are into the music.
3: Those who are all the above.
4: Those who just want musical wallpaper.

It doesn't really matter whether you're a 1, 2 or 3. With Jai Uttal, it's easy: just dig it. If you're a 4, fine ... but be prepared to turn into at least a 2.

Some of his albums fall more easily into spirituality than the others - for example, "Music for yoga and other joys" - but Shiva Station is indisputably best for listeners in zone three.

I've listened to a handful of his albums, and got the desire to buy them too.

I disagree with the suggestion that he's taken Indian music and corrupted it into Reggae. That could only come from listening to a small part of only one track. What he's done is carved one more step in his path.

The hand of co-producer and guru Bill Laswell is evident more on some tracks than others, but that's the way he does it. And although Jai plays most of the instruments himself, there are more than a handful of others involved. The music is quite loosely hung together; at times it's almost improvisational. There are obvious Indian elements. Some of the lyrics will go over the heads of purely English speakers, but the whole image of the music isn't diminished by that. It includes elements of more than one genre, dipping into singer-songwriter (Corner is Sting-ish), modern Afro-pop (Jaya Jagadambe), Reggae (Shiva Station), and an almost bluegrass tinge (e.g. Bhajore). You'll no doubt spot more, and several in one track.

All together, the end result is an album that can reach mainstream musophiles more than any of his other releases, but it doesn't trade quality for appeal.

So if you haven't heard him before, and want to try out his music, this is probably the best first album you could choose. An utterly Uttal album.

Raga Rock Meets Tasty Jazz.......2002-12-27

This is a thoughtful and consistently interesting release by Jai Uttal. There's plenty of precedent, both good and bad, for western musicians appropriating Eastern music, but the fact that Uttal lived in India, toured with Indian musicians and studied with Ali Akhbar Khan lends a note of credibility to the proceedings. And if Uttal made a living on previous albums by appropriating contemporary Indian "Raga Rock", he's all but evolved past that practice here. Songs such as "Malkouns (Night On The Ganges)" and especially "Bhajore", with its hair-raising trombone solo, are simply smoking, funky, and exciting exercises in East/West fusion the likes of which isn't often seen this side of Bombay (or the other side, for that matter). The songs are surprisingly rooted in classical Indian music, especially Mantra-like invocations like "Shiva Station (Nama Shivaya)" but are given a contemporary feel by Uttal's synths, ambient guru Bill Laswell's dub touches and lush mixes, and the oftentimes exciting orchestration and backing by the pure funk of The Pagan Love Orchestra. "Sita Ram" is a great example of this balance, keying on Uttal's heartfelt repeated titular mantra with deep dub beats, basslines and airtight horn arrangements. Uttal himself, posessing a fine voice, occasionally missteps a bit with the more new-agey, slower stuff like "Calling You", but even his mostly unadorned "Corner" is a fine, moody solo piece indeed. Recommended highly to fans of Bill Laswell, Peter Gabriel and other world-music experimenters, or those that enjoy more dense, thoughtful, genre-straddling music.

Hindus! Non- hindus! Lively up your self!.......2002-07-28

Some musical artists appear fully formed, their sensitivities totally developed. Examples would be Midnight Oil or Jimi Hendrix or Miles Davis, people whose music was distinctive and different from their first release.

This is the case with Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra. Uttal is an Indian who has settled in the USA, someone who has studied classical Indian music, only to pervert the form and develop his own style. This is an album of Hindu devotional song presented as reggae, I suppose, with the instrumentation including Western, Indian, electric and acoustic instruments, a new synthesis for the end of the Twentieth Century. Three of the eleven tracks are in English, the others in Indian languages. One song includes a sample of a field recording of the Bauls, the minstrel Gypsies of India. Listening to it takes me back to India, the dust and the dirt, the sense of difference all about me. Different? Yes. For you? Maybe.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

Mama Was Right ~ The Deighton Family

Archives and Artifacts ~ Death Angel

Live in the Flesh ~ Westworld

On a Night Like This ~ Buckwheat Zydeco

Rock N Roll Hits Golden 1967 ~ Various Artists

The Greatest Songs of Woody Guthrie ~ Woody Guthrie

Life's What You Make It

One Nation Underground ~ Pearls Before Swine

Postcards From America ~ Original Soundtrack

Night at the Opera ~ Various Artists