Customer Reviews

Remember Shakti: The Believer

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just saw Shakti live last night at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, CA. I am still stunned. One can only marvel at the virtuosity of McLaughlin and company. To hear and see these incredible musicians perform the wonderful music from this album was just an awesome experience. As a long time McLaughlin fan (I had the incredible good fortune of seeing the Mahavishnu Orchestra live FIVE times!) I can only say that his playing is as incendiary and intoxicating as ever. However, unlike the first Shakti incarnation, he now plays a hollow-body jazz guitar that produces a less forward sound than his scalloped-fretboard acoustic. I do miss that more sitar-like twang he was able to get from the acoustic, but the latest guitar produces its own distinctive sound that I completely enjoy. Tabla player Zakir Hussain is without peer and to have been able to watch his hands fly as he wove his mystical spell was fantastic. The incredible electric mandolin player U. Srinivas gets a very unique yet unmistakably Indian sound out of his instrument. V. Selvaganesh on ghatam, mridangam and kanjira is equally awesome in his playing -- the speed and range he achieves on the latter is simply beyond comprehension! This music makes a direct connection with the universal mind. Like jazz itself, you're either hard-wired into it from birth or forget it. If you make that organic connection, then just buy the CD and hold on. Believe it!

This is the first CD release to match and perhaps even surpass the high energy music of the original Shakti album. The two studio albums with the original lineup were interesting but lacked the same intensity as the first album in part because they were both studio efforts.

It was nice that McLaughlin decided to resurrect Shakti and U. Srinivas on mandolin is perfect for the group because he can match McLaughlin's lightning fast riffs.

The real standout on this album is not virtuoso tabla player Zakir Hussain, but rather Selvaganesan on the kanjira, the South Indian frame drum. Selvaganesan is the son of Vikku Vinyakram who was part of the original Shakti lineup.

His kanjira solo is amazing for several reasons. The kanjira is played with one hand striking and the other hand modulating the sound through tensioning and releasing the drum head. Not only is the range of sounds that he gets from modulating the sound astonishing, but the fact that he is able to reproduce with one hand what Zakir has played with two hands is mind boggling.

Whether you are a fan of McLaughlin, Zakir, world-music, Indian music or just want to hear several virtuoso musicans from around the world come to together to create high energy acoustic fusion, this is a MUST HAVE CD for anyone with a pair of ears.

This album is another magnificent creation by genius McLaughlin- As usual you can find here all of the super-human energy that McLaughlin puts into his music and into the musicians he works with. Zakir hussein is tremendous like always, and the combination of the mandolin Shrinivas plays with the guitar just makes this album really, but REALLY worthy of buying. The version of Lotus Feet ( a creation which first appeared on the first Shakti Album ) is even better ( to my liking ) than the original piece itself. BUY NOW!!!

This is a "unit" that knows when and how to solo, be silent, or play in unison. The previous incarnation of "Remember Shakti" was more like a society of VERY good players that got together and just solo'd their own stuff.

Here the group treads closer to classical South India... yet in a breath, bends the rules, and leaps like jazz into 'indefinite time yet to come'. Despite being intensely focused, the music is soothing as a summer breeze. Highly recommended!

Wow, John Mclaughlin and Zakir Hussain have come together again under the name Shakti and put together another winner. Recorded live during their 1999 European tour. This is a great follow up to the last double cd "Remember Shakti" that came out in '99. This cd features Mclaughlin (electric guitar), Hussain (tablas), U. Shrinivas (electric mandolin with six single strings not paired like the western insturment), and V. Selvangalesh (gatham or clay pot, mridangam a two headed barrel drum, and kanjira a small pair of cymbals.) Most of the music is fast and amazingly together when they are playing the melodies of each number. This reminds me a lot of the Natural Elements cd form their seventies outings. There are a lot of the South Indian tradition (Carnatic) in this cd which is usually fast and rhythmically complex. This is drastically different from the last cd using the North Indian style of starting slowly and building speed and intensity. There is one common element, "Lotus Feet" is presented here again. It is interesting to hear how this tune changes with the musicians present. There is plenty of room of all the musicians to solo in each tune and some incredible interplay between the players displaying their phenomenal musicianship. This is a must have cd for all music lovers. I hope Shakti will continue to put out great cds like this one. I have my tickets to see them in Oakland in Nov., I can't wait.

I've waited for this CD for months, and it's finally arrived...and it's everything I thought it would be, and a lot more! As fans will remember, the last "Remember Shakti" album came out last year, having been recorded nearly 3 years before (Indian music is not so bad to be put off for that long!), and it was very good. What's different with this one (besides being closer to the actual recorded date) is the lineup. Replacing Hariprasad Charasia is the incredibly gifted U. Shrinivas. This man is unbelievably great at the electric mandolin, and follows in the tradition of original member L. Shankar by playing a Western stringed intstrument. John McLaughlin plays great here as expected, less focused and intense than the last CD, as is Zakir Hussain. These guys just seem to be more into the sound, more into the actual flow of the music than ever before, and it makes them stick out less, sound more like part of the band. New member (and son of former member T.H. Vinkakaram) V. Selvagenesh, is great as well, a welcome addition to the Shakti legacy, playing ghatam as did his father, but also a few other instruments as well, including a sort of tambourine that has a variety of great tones to it. The current lineup is probably the most relaxed, laid back of them all so far, but yet it could have simply been that night that it was recorded. The CD is more song-oriented than the previous effort (sorry, no more hour long tunes!). Clocking in at 77 minutes, "The Believer" has a great variety of music. In fact, Shakti sounds less and less like Indian music as time goes by, and more like.....well, Shakti! They're on tour as I write this, so catch em if you can, okay? It's worth the price of the CD and worth seeing live if you can make it. You won't be the least dissapointed, unless of course your'e an eminem fan. But then, would you be reading this far into this if you were? Just get it already!!!

Shakti's immortal music strikes a chord the first time you listen to them. This album is no different and puts one more stamp on the quality of music they produce. Highly recommended for people interested in fusion music.

"The Believer", a live album culled from shows from Remember Shakti's 1999 tour, is a stunning document of brilliant music. The second incarnation of Remember Shakti, with guitarist John McLaughlin and tabla master Zakir Hussain joined by electric mandolin player U. Shrinivas and percussionist V. Selvaganesh (son of original Shakti member T.H. Vinyakram), has a far different feel to its predecessor. With the second string player, there's a greater interaction between the two-- Shrinivas is an amazing player, matching wits and riffs with McLaughlin and more than holding his own, an impressive feat in the face of such a powerful guitarist. Between and around the two of them is a bed of percussive sounds that drives, holds, and smooths the music as necessary-- the four musicians, who performed sitting on the stage, have formed an intense bond by this point, one needs to look no further than the opening number where the four instruments intertwine sympathetically around each other, with one string dropping out whilst the other solos over support from the percussionists. Again, to Srinivas' credit, were it not for the pitch of his instrument and few subtleties in style, you'd not be able to distinguish his playing from McLaughlin's somewhat more matured style-- but listen to him boil about ten minutes into "5 in the Morning, 6 in the Afternoon", totally breathtaking.

For more explosiveness and powerful playing,check out Srinivas' "Maya", with blazing fast harmonies from the two string players as they're pushed by the drummers and McLaughlin's burning "Anna", which, while much more patient, features no less incredible playing.

While the pyrotechnics abound throughout the album, the band has not forgotten subtlety and voicing, the record settles a bit in the middle with the wavering "Ma No Pa" (with McLaughlin comping to great effect under Shrinivas' subtle and swirling solo and then eventually pushing forth his own solo, this one bubbles over slowly over its 18 minutes, an exercise in tension) and a reprise of "Lotus Feet" (a feature for McLaughlin's exercise of taste, subtlety, mood and power, with the theme delicately stated on mandolin, freeing McLaughlin further to explore the hautning moods he's developed), or consider the set closer-- "Finding the Way", a percussion feature where the backdrop becomes the foreground.

All in all, "The Believer" is a fantastic record, although I will say this-- the album lacks something the live shows have, and I've enjoyed it less since witnessing this performed. Nonetheless, its a fantastic document of a killer band.

Listening to this album is always amazing. The energy and incredible mix of guitar and traditional indian instruments works perfectly. I got a chance to see Remember Shakti perform live on their 2004 tour and it only reaffirmed my belief that McLaughlin and co. are among some of the most amazing musicians around.

This - the second album from the Remember Shakti reunion line up is just as good, if not better than the first. Mandolin is added to the line up and this second release is much more energetic than the first.

My only complaint about this album is what the record company did in its release. They only issued this as a single disc in the US, but a double disc is due to come out in Europe next week?!? What's with that? I guess they want us to buy it twice.

If you can swing the cash - go for the import version. Either way, this is a fabulous live recording of several of world music's best musicians!