Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Landmark Album From World Devotional Pioneer, March 25, 2009
Always the most adventurous and musically eclectic artist on the mantra/world devotional music scene, Jai Uttal has exceeded even his own high standard of excellence on Thunder Love. Jai's got a new groove and it's Brazilian, sexy, captivating, profoundly devotional and deeply hypnotic in a distinctly Latin, Magical Realist mode. Somehow Jai has found a way to subsume the vast ocean of North Indian devotional music into the equally capacious continent of Brazilian rhythms. The result is an album that will wind up your waist while it touches your heart and soul.
Thunder Love belongs in a class with landmark albums like Byrne & Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and Paul Simon's Graceland. Those discs helped introduce African music to North American listeners; and Thunder Love may well do the same for Brazilian music. But Jai doesn't merely appropriate Brazilian idioms like some cultural tourista. A master musician, he's completely grasped the lilting sway of Brazilian rhythm--just check out his nylon string guitar work on "Bhavani Shankara," for example. Beyond this, however, he uses the sounds of Brazil as a gateway to his own private musical and devotional universe. Listeners familiar with Jai's work will find references to many of his most beloved musical influences including Appalachian mountain music, Bengali kirtan and the spectre of bluesman Robert Johnson--all alongside glances at contemporary dance music and pop sounds. The Brazilian thing also seems to have given Jai a whole new angle on Jamaican reggae riddims. The Bob Marley/I-Threes vibe comes on strong, particularly in the gorgeously silky backing vocals.
And the loops! The backwards guitar stuff! The ambient textures on Thunder Love are truly are worthy of something from Radiohead's OK Computer. The mixes are so beautifully dense that you don't know what you're hearing at times. Is that a tabla? A guira? Some kind of ultra processed guitar scratch? Buddhist nuns chanting? It's so blissful to swim in that ocean of aural indeterminacy. There's this sense of street sounds and rural rituals drifting in through the windows and doors of perception, all blending into the oneness of music and consciousness.
Lyrically, Jai also goes out on limb, combining his own English verses with traditional Sanskrit mantras. This is a particularly courageous move. It's very hard to translate the language of devotion into our everyday English. Most efforts to do so come off mawkish and kind of wincingly "New Age." But Thunder Love finds ideal meeting ground here as well. The transitions between personal lyrical expression and timeless mantra are really flawless. Jai really make us feel that his own journey is the journey that we are all on. On Thunder Love, it's as if Jai Uttal has found a way to get the entire universe onto a compact disc. -- Alan di Perna
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterful, May 3, 2009
The rich tradition of kirtan and Bhakti Yoga... combined with contemporary western instruments... intermingled with English lyrics and Brazilian influences... Jai Uttal has created yet another unique and beautiful call to the Divine in a way that only a musical master can... an exciting evolution of a timeless art form... a joyful call to the Infinite and the Intimate.
Thank You!
K & S Light
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Landmark Album From World Devotional Pioneer, March 24, 2009
Always the most adventurous and musically eclectic artist on the mantra/world devotional music scene, Jai Uttal has exceeded even his own high standard of excellence on Thunder Love. Jai's got a new groove and it's Brazilian, sexy, captivating, profoundly devotional and deeply hypnotic in a distinctly Latin, Magical Realist mode. Somehow Jai has found a way to subsume the vast ocean of North Indian devotional music into the equally capacious continent of Brazilian rhythms. The result is an album that will wind up your waist while it touches your heart and soul.
Thunder Love belongs in a class with landmark albums like Byrne & Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and Paul Simon's Graceland. Those discs helped introduce African music to North American listeners; and Thunder Love may well do the same for Brazilian music. But Jai doesn't merely appropriate Brazilian idioms like some cultural tourista. A master musician, he's completely grasped the lilting sway of Brazilian rhythm--just check out his nylon string guitar work on "Bhavani Shankara," for example. Beyond this, however, he uses the sounds of Brazil as a gateway to his own private musical and devotional universe. Listeners familiar with Jai's work will find references to many of his most beloved musical influences including Appalachian mountain music, Bengali kirtan and the spectre of bluesman Robert Johnson--all alongside glances at contemporary dance music and pop sounds. The Brazilian thing also seems to have given Jai a whole new angle on Jamaican reggae riddims. The Bob Marley/I-Threes vibe comes on strong, particularly in the gorgeously silky backing vocals.
And the loops! The backwards guitar stuff! The ambient textures on Thunder Love are truly are worthy of something from Radiohead's OK Computer. The mixes are so beautifully dense that you don't know what you're hearing at times. Is that a tabla? A guira? Some kind of ultra processed guitar scratch? Buddhist nuns chanting? It's so blissful to swim in that ocean of aural indeterminacy. There's this sense of street sounds and rural rituals drifting in through the windows and doors of perception, all blending into the oneness of music and consciousness.
Lyrically, Jai also goes out on limb, combining his own English verses with traditional Sanskrit mantras. This is a particularly courageous move. It's very hard to translate the language of devotion into our everyday English. Most efforts to do so come off mawkish and kind of wincingly "New Age." But Thunder Love finds ideal meeting ground here as well. The transitions between personal lyrical expression and timeless mantra are really flawless. Jai really make us feel that his own journey is the journey that we are all on. On Thunder Love, it's as if Jai Uttal has found a way to get the entire universe onto a compact disc. -- Alan di Perna
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by Jai Uttal 
