Prem Joshua - Dance Of Shakti : Music review

Genre: World Music, Fusion

Prem Joshua is a Multi Instrumentalist and Composer.
He has 14 albums to his credit and is one of the most talented musicians I have heard so far.

His album: Dance of Shakti comprises of 6 tracks.

1.Bolo Hari(6:48): The track opens with a very rural India feel to it, with children playing on the streets.The song is centered around the famous Indian bhajan- Govinda bolo hari gopala bolo.The bass and percussion's slowly start to kick into the song.For the initial half of the song there is a feeling of peace and harmony.The interlude starts with a flautist playing a beautiful melody while the sound of the percussion's lighten up.The song then goes back uptempo for about a minute and then again is followed by a beautiful melody played by the flautist.Now starts the fun .... the track gets really groovy now...house beats introduced with govinda bolo hari still being sung in the background accompanied by melodically brilliant saxophone lines.
The last two-three minutes are quite tantalizing, least said, with a man speaking out shlokas while rest of the instruments lay low, and the song then jumps back to its original groovy self.

2.Mangalam(9:11): Starts with a dilruba(yes a dilruba) playing while smooth backwater accompanying the sound.The bass kicks in first followed by the tabla and other percussion instruments.An alap is being sung in the background while music is played on.A beautiful track to listen to.The meaning of mangalam is : A sacred song. This song does sound sacred for a fact.The way each instrument blends into another is utter brilliance, musicianship at its best.A flute solo,sitars playing the same lines as vocals and some awesome delay and fade always added here and there,lead guitars playing around with track, the song is woven together by different instruments to give it a very psychedelic feel.

3.Secret Place(9:56): A very calming sitar intro.All you need to do is close your eyes , go to your favorite place and let the song take you there, show you the beauty of your favorite place, yes, the song speaks for itself.Words will not explain the beauty of this song, listen to it to understand the beauty of this song!

4.Himalaya Trance(10:27): The minute you start listening to this song, all you ll feel are the Himalaya's, the chilly weather, the beautiful breeze, the stories the mountains are telling you.Very slow to open with and then gets into an unimaginably good groove.The one brilliant thing I noticed about the song was, somewhere half way, there's an almost deafening silence, no instrument, only a little choir and a swell effect can be heard,its like you are hearing the mountain winds again.The song then transits into another completely level, more uptempo, taal's sung at quite a speed and again after a while the same deafening silence with a few effects and back to uptempo again! The song ends with Himalaya's speaking to you.

5.Nanak(10:02): A very relaxing song.Nice vocal melody and nice ambience to it.The song gets monotonous after a while. Being a 10 minute song its the same thing that keeps happening over and over again. Even a beautiful song can turn boring! The song could have been better if it were shorter and had more elements like the previous songs.

6.The Dance of Kali(8:31): This song will definitely make the great Kali dance! Beautifully phrased song, probably the most meaningful song on the album.A very enchanting song, though it also gets slightly repetitive but it definitely takes you to a high of a different kind.If your parents are serious followers of the hindu religion, make them listen to it. They'll be proud of you ;)

P.S: A joint will amplify the effect of the album! ;)

Overall: Good album but could have cut some songs short and at times there is a bit of monotonicity in the songs, but good album nonetheless.

Rating: 3/5