Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

I'm not even going to pretend to be the sharpest blade in the box, particularly with respect to Eastern culture. My B-S detector, however, was giving me a three-alarm when I opened up MANTRICA and, while perusing the liner notes, found the statement "...this Sanskrit text is almost 4000 years old..." And ..."chanting these mantras produces a strong and resonant calmness..." With respect to "Sri Rudram" the first track on the CD. It's always been my understanding that Sanskrit was a written, not spoken, language. So how do you sing it?

Maybe that tainted the whole project for me, but MANTRICA is what I call an incense CD, one of those things you hear playing when you go into a New Age store to buy fresh crystals. Getting past the Sanskrit issue, it's purportedly ancient text set to music with sitar, tamboura, flute, and electric guitar, bass, and keyboard. Oops! No sitars here, Ravi Shankar was apparently busy, so what I took to be sitar is actually a keyboard. And there's lots and lots of heavy chanting. It isn't all bad; "Maha Mrtyunjaya Mantra" has an opening guitar riff which kinda sounds like the opening riff on Jimmy Hendrix' "Voodoo Child", I swear, before it gives way to a decent dance track which would even  have Eric Cartman tapping his toe and wanting to boogie. This gives way, however, to "Mangalya," which should be banned from car CD players due to its slee- er, trance-inducing qualities. MANTRICA closes with "Savasana" whose introduction resembles nothing less than the interminable droning of an intergalactic refrigerator. This is followed by some flute noodling and goes on for almost 13 minutes. 

Listening to MANTRICA was not without its enlightening moments. I became aware that any Crash Test Dummies CD I may have heard might not be the biggest potential waste of a blank CD after all. I also learned that while I may not be one with the Universe, the Universe may be one with me. And I also found that if you have anyone on your holiday list who is 40 or older, doesn't date,  and has a cat to room ratio in their household of 5 or more to 1, why, I've just solved your gift problem for you. They'll love this.