Customer Reviews

Last Train to Lhasa

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this CD on a whim because the name of the capital of Tibet in the album's title attracted me; I had no idea what Banco de Gaia was. And I owned the album for a couple of years before I learned that Banco de Gaia isn't a 12-member multi-ethnic band of cool people as I'd surmised but just one lone Englishman who happens to have a lot of talent.

It's best heard, in my experience, on a long drive. If you're hitting the road for a couple of hours or a couple of days, pack up the car, sit behind the wheel and turn on the CD player as you wheel onto the street. The slow chugging and shrill whistle of a steam engine that begin the CD will get the miles humming by under your feet as you journey through this album.

I must admit that Last Train to Lhasa makes me want to put the pedal to the metal. My two-year-old son also happens to like it -- in fact it's a favorite. I would hate this to turn off potential listeners. I like to think it's something we can both get emotional and intellectual pleasure out of, together -- pretty rare between an adult and a toddler.

It is such a joy to have this album back in print.

In 1995, Last Train To Lhasa struck me as an amazing fusion of true musicality and electronic sensibility. Sonically, it has an engrossing balance between real and synthesized sounds. The album as a whole (I'm referring mostly to disc 1 of the cd) is cohesive and covers a range of emotion and mood that is and was unusual for a piece of so-called 'electronica'.

Listening to a new copy seven years later, my original long dead, I enjoy it as much as ever. It's a bit less fresh, maybe, or a touch more repetitive than it needs to be, but a wonderful listen all the same. I'm reminded of places & times that I've listened to it before, which probably colors my opinion, but also speaks to its effecitveness. In 1995, I found that this was able open many a rocker's ear to electronic music.

With the exception of Kincajou, which more or less deconstructs a dance track, this album tends to be on the slower side of the tempo spectrum -- you'll be disappointed if you're looking for a dance album. But it's certainly worth your time to check out the samples (even though it's unlikely that they do the album justice), and if you enjoy anything on the slower side of the spectrum, or aren't generally a fan of electronic music I can't recommend this enough.

If you like an album which will take you on a journey, you have to listen to this one and decide yourself. It is like a landscape changing, as if you are in a train and going through the lands.
Give it a shot, you won't regreat.

/cheers

I heard a track of this CD while driving, wrote down the name and ordered it immediately from Amazon. The main track -- Last Train to Lhasa -- is a classic. I have listened to it dozens of times and it doesn't get old.

It is electronic music, which I usually do not bother with, but Banco de Gaio is compelling. They have carried the train theme throughout the track, a drumming beat that becomes insistent as the song goes on and drives the mood and excitement. The long track develops vocals and instrumentals around the train theme. It dies out slowly, as does a train fading into the distance, and leaves you wanting to begin the piece again.

I absolutely adore this album. It's political without being brash (in fact, without very many words at all), it's got dance beats but it's not your standard formulaic techno, and it's got a nice variety of Eastern instruments and that worldbeat sound, but it's fresh and uncliched, and, like Paul Simon and Talking Heads and other great artists from the U.S. or the U.K. who borrowed from musical styles from elsewhere around the globe, this feels like true musical exploration rather than theft. Toby Marks is a musician, not a sample plunderer, and a whole lot in the electronic music world today (many of them on the Six Degrees label) quite possibly owe their musical existence to groundbreaking records like this one.

More important even than all of the sociopolitical ramifications of the record, the record is REALLY REALLY GOOD. It's much lighter and more delicate than what I've heard of "Maya," the album that immediately precedes this one. But this is not electromuzak, and I assure you even when it's not danceable (which is actually rather often), that it's not boring.

P.S. The mixes on the second disc are so unbelievably long that it's a little over the top. But who cares?! Disc 1 is great.

I bought this in the summer of 1995 - just in time for a long drive with beautiful weather. That whole weekend I was mesmerized by the music. I still am. And whenever I get the opportunity to take a long drive, I savor putting in this cd at just the right time - when there ain't much traffic and the scenery is beautiful. . .

This is a seminal piece of downtempo work. It certainly emulates and exceeds where the orb left off. In my opinion this is a classic downtempo album and perfectly illustrates the transition from techno/trance and rave culture into a much more accessible realm.Last Train to Lhasa
Other artists work listening too are Sabres of Paradise & Nightmares on Wax.

LAST TRAIN TO LHASA, released in 1995, was the second album by Banco de Gaia, the artist name used by Toby Marks as he has explored ambient stylings which combine a dance beat with references to indigenous musics from around the world. While the Banco de Gaia debut MAYA was an immature effort, where Marks couldn't help but repeat the same groove on nearly every track, LAST TRAIN TO LHASA is a much more diverse effort.

It's also a dance album with a conscious, for Marks put it all together after reading about how the people of Tibet were being marginalized by the occupying Chinese authorities. The title track is built around a sample of a Tibetan man and woman singing a traditional song. "China (Clouds Not Mountains)" has a male speaker relating a Chinese fable about a family moving a mountain over the centuries by having each generation do its part, a charming tale that takes on sinister tones when one considers how China is moving ethnic Chinese into Tibet to overwhelm the original inhabitants. But it's not all politics, or even all Tibetan. "Kuos" uses a vaguely African sample. "Amber" combines a sample from a documentary on Tibetan exorcism rituals with sounds from the film 2010.

No Banco de Gaia album as a whole as the same impact as a single BdG track expertly placed into a DJ's set. The title track, for example, won its legendary status when Sasha and John Digweed chose it as the closer of their NORTHERN EXPOSURE mix. As the reissue of this album is rather pricey, I'd recommend instead IGIZEH as an introduction to Banco de Gaia, and then suggest going on to LAST TRAIN TO LHASA and other albums if you really fall in love with Marks' work.

I first heard this album after downloading it from usenet. I fell in love with it immediately and went looking for more from this artist when I discovered the album was out of print! This became a big deal some months later when I had a hard drive crash and lost all my music. Fortunately, I was able to purchase it online via emusic's fantastic "25 track" introductory deal.

As luck would have it, a year or so later I AGAIN lost my music (no, I don't keep backups because usually it can all be found again) but am delighted to find that now this album has been reissued so I can at last PURCHASE it and have the CD on my shelf (the ultimate backup).

If you like techno, trance, ambient, house, or even "new age" you won't go wrong with this album. It's a fantastic journey that plays well in the car, at work, or late at night - whether alone or with someone special.

I think this style of music would be called House. It's the music you hear in a dance club. Thump thump thump thump thump for 7 minutes or so, then the thumping stops and a fluttering synthesizer swirls around long enough for you to catch your breathe and trip out for a while. Then the thumping starts again. Sort of like the 21st century version of disco. There are some interesting talking dubs here and there, and great rhythms, but nothing stands out as really creative or catchy. I wouldn't say it's bland necessarily, well maybe a little.

This is a good thing in my opinion. It's definitely not pop music, thank God. It's great in a club. It doesn't translate well to my home, though. Probably, this would be better for an ipod. If you are working out or running or dancing, this would be perfect. I don't know if it would be interesting enough for me while driving.

I would suggest downloading it from the internet rather than buying the CD. It looks like that is the way the industry is heading anyway. Who needs all those CD's stacked all over the place. Save the plastic for the take out containers and mesclun salad packaging. Maybe we should all just go digital.

I'd probably give it 3 1/2 stars, but that's not an option so it gets 3. Definitely not 4.