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Wednesday, November 29, 2017

#0103: Call of the Valley - Hariprasad Chaurasia, Brij Bhushan Kabra, Shivkumar Sharma

I had best choose my words very carefully.  There is an army of people on the lookout for reasons to be offended on other people's behalf and they are dangerous.  People are listening to these idiots.  We live in a world where a handful of isms and phobias are policing us to the point where nobody is responsible for their own feelings any more and everyone is being encouraged to become outraged if they are subject of the slightest mockery.

8 tracks.  None under 6 minutes.  The first is entitled Ahir Bhairav/Nat Bhairav and is 12:31.  It reminds me of the opening of Shine On You Crazy Diamond.  A low drone fades in, a plucked instrument plays an atmospheric lead continued by what would be a bass flute in a western orchestra.  Both sounds are pleasant to the ear but as the main rhythm is established the interchanging of the instruments becomes erratic and a second guitar-like instrument in a higher register takes over. 

You could sit in an alternative healing centre with incense burning having a massage or meditating to this but the volume would have to be quite low for it not to literally harsh your mellow.  After a few minutes, the flute-analogue goes up an octave and it too cuts into the foreground with pervasive shrillness uncharacteristic of the peaceful air I imagine is intended.  At 8 minutes we get some of the bongo/conga type drums of the region entering but they do little to help coalesce the other sounds into anything with direction and it's difficult for me to imagine this was composed.

The piece finally fades out having not moved from the first chord the entire time.

Ragoo Pilo now begins in the same key with the same instruments and the same scale.  It's got the same rubato introduction but without the drone this time.  Now it's the high and low "guitars" exchanging phrases making much use of fast repeated notes like you hear with mandolins a lot.  Blimey, this is hard work.  I can't think of anything to say other than describe the noises and wince at the flute widdliing around.  Bongos are back.  This reminds me of a jam we had years ago where somebody had a poppy plant growing in their front garden which they'd harvested and made tea for us.

I remember sitting there with my foot on the sustain pedal just letting A minor ring out while everybody, completely bonced on what was basically morphine did pretty much the same as the people on this recording - to wit, meandering aimlessly around the same modal scale without ever establishing a melody.

I'm on morphine right now - I have a prescription for it.  I'm suffering with my back at the moment but even with the buzzy calm that accompanies the pain relief, there is little improvement in my perception of this music.

I don't see the point in pushing myself to find different ways of describing the same noise and I don't think it's fair to make you read them even if I could.  Bhoop is the second shortest track at 6:15 and it's more of the same.  Why did they even bother having track divisions?

There is obviously skill involved in this but I can only see the technical value, the physical achievement of playing the instrument.  I am unable to recognise any musicianship here.  I am just so culturally removed from this that it should surely be a moot point that I don't get on with it.

Much as it would be fun to really rip into this and much as I recognise my restraint as a form of positive discrimination, I can't bring myself to do it.  It's awful to me and that's all I have to say about it.  1 star.

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