Label: BlackAsia Recordings

Producer: r-H

Release Date: 2005

I don’t believe that there is a more proper group of words than “Has that girl just stuck her wet finger in a light socket?”  To describe what I look like as a result of the excitement that I have pent up inside of myself in the anticipation of listening to this album.

Karanguni is the intro that prepares the listener for what is about to occur in the minds of the composers of this truly eclectic album. The first track to follow is the erotic tale of Bollywood Lust. A very sexually intense ride on a rhythmic journey of one’s own image of the way a good fantasy leaves you breathless and longing for a second helping.
 
Liquid will at first paint a picture of a Congonian-like jungle inhabited with a vast plethora of insects, birds, and wild things that can only be spotted by glowing yellow eyes in a shadow. It then transforms into a tribalistic sensation that thrusts the listener into a dance frenzied satisfactional bliss. Then, the short but sweet interlude Welcome to Singapore sounds like someone experiencing the overhead intercom in an airport with a head either full of leftover hallucinogens or recovering from an insanely mind-blowing dream. 

Salvation Man is a brilliant conglomerate of different ethnic sounds that are woven together with a talent that is immeasurable against most previous attempts that I’ve heard at this sort of musically magnificent expression.   

One of my favorite flavors to choose from when dining out is Lemon Grass. Now this Lemon Grass is meant to be ingested but not through the mouth but through the mind and soul as it is the perfect accompaniment to the many things that are already swirling around in the cyclonic action of our body’s as a whole.   

Sivaji Park is an interlude that makes me picture a large city’s ‘goings on’ playing in fast forward while one still man observes the madness to capture a glimpse of beauty.

There is always a track that makes you say “Oh my God” Indian Blues is that track. Its B.B. King meets Ravi Shankar in a crazy bar in the seedy outreaches of somewhere most would avoid where there are lost drunken souls playing Russian roulette with the last fibers of what are holding them together. 

Sushi has just “sealed the deal” for me. I mean can you get any more amazingly adverse in a composition than this? Its wackiness at its most prominent level, promoting a playful dancieness deep in the heart of its listener. The track is ultimately a “raw” and delicious treat that should be accompanied by a dash of wasabi and pickled ginger

The Hong Kong Terminal interlude provides a little bit of a ‘drumtastic phsycadellia’ to smooth out any of the rough edges that may have been caused along the journey thus far. 

It’s hard not to feel a sense of pleasantness when listening to Tim Sum Vindaloo so my suggestion is to just go with it and to enjoy the ride. When a track gives a person an uncontrollable need to smile the far stretches of their face, its composer has accomplished something very meaningfully sound indeed. 

Indians & Gays…an interlude that touches on a subject that is in someway important to the album’s innovative and expert creator.

There is a build up of the phenomenal components of Sweet Pain that seem to stretch out across the entire globe’s musical surfaces. Involving types of bluesy, orchestral, operatic, and old school rap-like inflections of Indian delight this concoctive mixture satisfies the ultimate of thirsts.  

The track Battle has the qualities of an industrial science fiction sound that penetrates the outer limits of spaces vast array of inter stellar activities. It’s not hard to imagine this track as being the perfect theme tune for a film about a masked space traveler that fights the evil forces that threaten the universe.     

India Is of a very upbeat tempo that would keep anyone on their toes willfully anticipating the next thrillful installment of beats that follow each second of the track. Its quirky sound effects add a certain playfulness to the integrity of the songs luster.  

Chinese Medical Hall is the last interlude that paves the way to end of the albums rainbow. It’s reminiscent of a creepy scene in a horror film that accompanies the torture of the innocent victim that pleads for mercy.     

Blackaisa Volume 1 has chosen Crack to be its send off track. Starting with a comedic look at the interpretive meaning of this drugs name, the track quickly transforms into a vibrantly vertualistic eruption of floor stomping excitement that certainly provides closure to the first of (one would hope) many volumes to come in the future.

Now instead of looking like Frankenstein’s wife after a lightning storm, I now look more like a woman who has just been released from a maximum security prison having made mad passionate love to her long awaiting husband twelve consecutive times and is now in full enjoyment of a soothing cigarette…

Bravo to the composers of this outstanding album…a glass shall be raised at my dinner table this night to commemorate your accomplishments and how they have enriched (and will continue to enrich) my life as an avid enjoyer of music and what it has to bring to the heart and soul and senses when it’s truly magnificent.

 

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