Shakti with John McLaughlin LIVE (1975)

Shakti with John McLaughlin - Shakti with John McLaughlin LIVE

1. Joy
2. Lotus Feet
3. What Need Have I For This What Need Have I For That I Am Dancing At The Feet Of My Lord All Is Bliss All Is Bliss

Indian food is amazing. I really don't know what the Indian food is like in America or Europe or other western places but here, in Singapore, it's really, really tasty. And it can be had for so little money! Or a lot of money, if you're so inclined. But really, the rice, yoghurt, vegetables and spiced meat, the thosai, the dhal, the rasam... oh lawdy, I haven't had lunch.

Indian food, however, as in, the food people eat when they go to India, has a curious knack for making the people that I've met violently sick and bringing them closer to the jaws of death than they would care to be. One of my friends, who loves India, considers the chance of DEATH to be a legitimate reason for not visiting it. Not right now. Maybe when he's older and more ready to be snatched from life.

But the best Indian food, should be Indian food, right? And why am I talking about food anyway?

To the uninitiated listener, Indian classical ragas, long droning things based around one scale, can be interminably dull. Especially since they last for hours. Ok, not hours, one hour, maybe half, but still! It's not like Western classical where the structure is all important and the composer actively tries to engage you. It's more a meditative thing that you really have to be in a certain state of mind to appreciate. If not you just fall asleep.

But even though sleep is nice too, the riches and depth of Indian classical music once you get into it, is quite unparalleled, offering a very unique, very special kind of peace of mind and beauty.

So, how do you get into it without sleeping for hours? Well, what I did was, I listened to this album. It's not Indian classical but introduces you to some of the intstruments and the vague form of it. The songs are long but exciting, not meditative, and much easier to get into. There are sparks, flashes of beauty in the tracks, gorgeous melodies that will pull you in and it doesn't take you years to get into, just a couple of weeks, maybe.

In short, this is the Singaporean version of Indian food, which is still very tasty since it is made by actual Indians, some of whom come from India, but is clean enough not to upset your stomach and kill you (or put you to sleep).

Now consume it and godspeed. I'm off to find some Indian food for myself.

Shakti with John McLaughlin - Shakti with John McLaughlin LIVE (mf)

Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert (1975)

Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert

1. Köln, January 24, 1975, Part I
2. Köln, January 24, 1975, Part IIA
3. Köln, January 24, 1975, Part IIB
4. Köln, January 24, 1975, Part IIC

So, I went to a party last night and ended up in a park arguing with this guy from California about music. Despite being pretty drunk, I managed to make what seemed like sound arguments to me but not to the guy, apparently.

Anyway, he was gushing about how emotional gothic rock like Evanesence and Nightwish was and I told him I had the exact opposite opinion of gothic rock because I felt that the subculture and structures in place have corrupted, to some extent, the 'natural-ness' of the music. No matter how hard you scream at the top of your lungs, choosing a mode of expression that has been so standardized feels a little stilted to me and I can't connect to it emotionally at all.

But maybe, that's just my personal bias against gothic rock. I've always been a structure over style person when it comes to music, really. AND FUCKING JOY DIVISION WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THAT SHIT. Wow, I wish I was fucking Joy Division. Last night, I dreamt I was taking pictures with Liam Gallagher, of all people.

So anyway, long and rambling intro over? No, not yet.

So, I told him about my ideas of the 'natural-ness' of music, a kind of authenticity and sincerity that has not so much to do with sincerity of emotion as the sincerity of the mode of expression. I firmly believe that it is something you can hear in the music and it's something that is very, very valuable. Maybe because I didn't explain myself properly, he went off on a tangent on how I contextualized music too much but that's really besides the point.

Anyway, I tried to break into his tangent with my tangent on how I HEARD IT, I REALLY DID, THERE WAS THIS GUY WHO PLAYED POP MUSIC, POPPY IMPROVISED TUNES, BUT FUCKING HELL IT HAS SO MUCH DEPTH AND SOUL AND EMOTION AND EVERYTHING YOU COULD WANT IN MUSIC AND ITS FUCKING POP TUNES AND DO YOU KNOW WHY ITS SO FUCKING GOOD ITS BECAUSE ITS SINCERE EXPRESSION ITS REAL ITS SOMETHING REAL SO THE OUTER FORMS REALLY MATTER LESS THAN THE SOMETHING SOMETHING BLAR BALR BLARR. Sadly, he didn't hear me (how? right?) and the rest of my friends ignored me because they all knew I was in one of my Keith Jarrett frenzies again.

So, this is it! The kind of music that changes your life, if you let it. The kind of music I have slapped people for insulting. The kind of music you cry to. The kind of music you listen to for the rest of your life and it just gets better and better and better each time. This is real music.


Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert (drop.io)

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