Floating Point

John McLaughlin

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 20, 2008)
• Original Release Date: May 20, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Abstract Logix
• ASIN: B00158K146
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,731 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #26 in	Music > Jazz > Orchestral Jazz
  #69 in	Music > World Music > India & Pakistan > India

Editorial Reviews

Ken Micallef, Downbeat

John McLaughlin has created many high notes in his career, and just as many superb albums: Devotion, The Mahavishnu Orchestra's Birds Of Fire, Shakti, Electric Guitarist and Friday Night In San Francisco. Add Floating Point to that rarefied list. Seemingly cut from the same cloth as last year's Industrial Zen, Floating Point is by far the superior record. Recorded in India with a resident cast (save exceptional bassist Hadrien Feraud and saxophonist George Brooks), Floating Point features similar guitar synth overtones as Industrial Zen, and similarly polished production, but this brilliant collective plays as a single unit, not a band of hired studio guns. A shared sense of exhilaration, intensity, joy and purpose emerged in tracks like Off The One, Abbaji, and Five Peace Band, much of the propulsive fury created by the team of drummer Ranjit Barot and percussionist Anant Sivamani. This is a case of Indian musicians using their extraordinary skills to explore U.S. fusion, giving the guitarist an amazing platform for compositional/improvisational development. Barot and Sivamani rattle and shake their tubs like mad in Abbaji; later Barot double-times the tempo below as keyboardist Louiz Banks blows above - a ferocious whirlwind. Vocalist Shankar Mahadevan leads The Voice, a dancing drill of willowy synth riffs and Barot's endlessly percolating drum conversation. Mahadevan's dark, melancholic tones spread like dark clouds as bassist Feraud spins decidedly Jaco-ish commentary. This is a landmark recording, marked by detail, subtlety, and extraordinarily moving performances.

Product Description

2008 release from guitar legend John McLaughlin. John has already said Floating Point 'may be the best record I ever made.' That's really saying something when you consider McLaughlin's prolific and trailblazing career. The guitarist and composer has appeared on some of the most important jazz-rock and world music albums in the last 40 years.

For Floating Point, which was recorded in India, McLaughlin used several of the best Indian musicians in the world. McLaughlin calls these players the 'young lions' of India. They include keyboardist Loiuz Banks, drummer Ranjit Barot, electric sitarist Niladri Kumar, flautists Shashank and Naveen Kumar, percussionist Sivamani, vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, electric mandolinist U.Rajesh, and Hindustini slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya. Joining them were other Western stars, saxophonist George Brooks and bassist Hadrien Feraud. With a line-up like that, you would expect a very Indian experience. But, McLaughlin says not necessarily so.

'Now while this CD features predominantly Indian musicians, we are in quite another form compared to the group Shakti,' McLaughlin says. 'The music is for the most part 'Jazz-Fusion' if a label has to be put on it. But with the musicians involved in this project, it has also a 'world' kind of atmosphere.'

McLaughlin adds, 'I really am happy with the outcome of this CD which actually came about quite spontaneously and without any real planning. You can hear in the music where I am in my development, and in which directions I'm moving. It was a real thrill to play with these players, and I offer my thanks to them for their unique contributions. I truly wish and hope that it brings something to the listeners. I also offer my deep thanks to them for their continued support to my dedicated work.'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Indian-fusion heading for outer and inner space, May 20, 2008

By	Bodhi Heeren (Copenhagen) - See all my reviews

Well into his 60s the illustrious John Mclaughlin is as creative as ever. Having made music history with Miles Davis, Lifetime, Mahavishnu, Shakti he never rests on his laurels but continue to explore and expand his musical universe.

And in many ways is this new release a mixture of everything from his past yet given a new twist. Sounding most of all like the criminally underrated 80s version of Mahavishnu Orchestra, not least thanks to John's widespread use of the guitarsynth.

The album is recorded in India with a host of talented (mostly young) Indian musicians - some of which, like John himself, also participates on the highly interesting "Miles From India" tribute-album. The core on all tracks consiting of the excellent and rather Trilok Gurtu like drummer Ranjit Barat, percussionist Sivamani, the rather discreet Louiz Banks on keyborards and the stunning young French bassvirtuoso Hadrien Feraud. While McLaughlin's claim that he is the 'new Pastorius' might be slightly exaggerated, Feraud is none the less a formidable force on the low
end.

On each track except "Maharina" these are supplemented by a host of guest soloists, all young Indian supertalents except for the fine, lyrical sopranosax of George Brooks. All of them showing the stunning ability of Indian musicians to combine the virtuosic with the profound and the
spiritual. The fluteplaying of Shasanti on "Off The One" and Naveen Kumar on "1 4 U" simply breathtaking.

It's not Indian music like (Remember)Shakti, but jazz-world-fusion, or rather uniquely McLaughlin music. Not just great and inspired improvisations and solos, but also complex, moving and well-crafted compositions. And all of it infused with a tangible feeling of plain Joy. Endning on a very high note with a beautiful exchange between Niladri Kumar on electric sitar, sounding so much like McLaughlin in his younger days and the maestro himself.

As every McLaughlin-release in recent years, this is quite simply an important musical event.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine Playing - Excellent Album, June 5, 2008

By	Max Ridgway (Alva, OK United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

John McLaughlin's recordings are a reflection of his changing interests and pursuits. However, his playing has been a constant throughout his career, ever setting new standards of creativity and excellence. "Floating Point" presents McLaughlin's most lucid and musically interesting improvisations so far. His playing is highly chromatic and yet, at the same time, very bluesy. This recording is a good companion to "Industrial Zen" and has a very similar sound. There were some complaints in other reviews about the drummer. I found the drums to be very exciting and clever. This is an excellent recording by a guitarist whose style and taste have steadily improved with age.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth getting, June 17, 2008

By	C. Oberst "guitargeek" (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This album takes awhile to fully sink in (there's a lot going on), but I personally enjoy it more than Industrial Zen, even though it is in the same general sonic ballpark. It sounds more cohesive, to me. Working with a mostly Indian group of musicians in a 'fish out of water' jazz context seems to have inspired McLaughlin, since he plays some wonderful solos on this album.

Having said that, this is much more of a 'textural' album than a balls-out guitar album. If you want Mahavishnu-style intensity, get the live recording from the 2007 4th Dimension tour--that features a much more intense John McLaughlin than you'll find here. On Floating Point, John's solos are full of melodic invention, wonderful use of space, and yes, plenty of finger-twisting difficulty. But it's not going to tear your head off and isn't supposed to. Besides, didn't he already tear our heads off sometime around 1973? :)

The one downer on the album for me, as a guitarist, was John's choice of guitar synthesizer sounds. Unlike on Industrial Zen, John uses the guitar synth mostly just for solo parts (don't worry, he also recorded several of the solos with regular guitar sounds), leaving the synth background parts to keyboardist Louiz Banks. However, the synth sounds that John uses are too soft and indistinct to work in such a heavily percussive atmosphere as this album--to the point that many of his synth solos don't stand out very well against the background and don't have equal force when he's trading solos with other musicians. In quieter moments, his guitar synths do a lot better.

Had I produced this session, I would have had John try out more percussive, brighter synth sounds (which I admit can be problematic and glitch-prone to use with a guitar controller), or more likely mixed in real guitar sound along with his synthesizer sounds to provide more body and "snap." This seems like a technical point, but it really does impact my enjoyment of this otherwise splendid album, unfortunately.