Realize by Karsh Kale

Review by Prasenjit Sarkar:

Karsh Kale has a masterpiece here in this eclectically-composed album. Want raga,fusion,east meets west,asian underground,breakbeat,DnB,electronica-well, you get all that on one album. There aint a better combination than that.

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Tracks / Reviews:

1. Empty Hands: Starting off the eclectic album with a pure soothing flute coupled with a good solid beat, Karsh drops in the vocals. Adding in all kinds of varieties, even electronized voice samples, this truly is a fusion song mixing both the traditional with the ultra-modern.
2. Distance: The first couple of beats sound like he was experimenting on those cheap beat simulators; suddenly Falguni Shah clears the song with her graceful, understated melody and Karsh then proves his tabla talent once again. Definitely, one of the best (if not the very best) songs in this album.
3. Tour Guide: He is classified under breakbeat and thats what he employs in this song. Throws in some TS-404's for good measure. This song has a good solid feel to it, but doesnt really stand out all that much.
4. Anja: Starts out slow with a melodic voice, a little tabla here and there, and again, I'd say a pretty good breakbeat employed throughout half the song, but he gets pretty up-tempo during the last part of the song.
5. Home: Stings,Wind,Percussion-what else can you pack into a song? Vocals? Thats there too. Melodic song with a constant light beat to take it through. But wait, is that it? Nope, he gets into a slow DnB halfway through the song. Karsh really knows how to bring out everything in each and every song.
6. Satellite: Making a rare vocal appearance, Ustad Sultan Khan shows that his talents dont stop at playing the sarangi. Feel good song again, light flutish atmospheric feeling. Would classify this under Ambient music.
7. One Step Beyond: Sounds very much like a Talvin Singh song, with a lot of tabla, Korg's, heavy dull beats, this pretty much comes across as a "dark" song (even though the title suggest otherwise)
8. Saajana: This song seems to be the most famous in the album. Mainly because it is written in bhajan style but grooves in a electronic frenzy of enchanced trancy rhythms of Indian folk music. Truly classic song and a must-hear.
9. Conception: The strings in this song remind me of the far east, the tinkles of the temples of India, the sticks sound like a gulli-danda. A fusion song to the core. Lovely atmospheric feeling-one of those songs you want to listen to on the headphones when the first rays of the morning stream through your window. 10. Light Up The Love: Slow song with vocals from Ustad Sultan Khan, definitely on the romantic slower side. Karsh seems to be trying to slow down the pace before he reaches the end of the album.
10. Deepest Blue: The beat definitely sounds a lot like Talvin Singh's, vocals make it sound like a Indian pop'ish song. Think Karsh is trying to experiment a bit here at the end.
11. Fabric: A very thoughful song described as "a florid raga melody". It definitely is at that. Shahid Siddiqui asks an intriguing question repeatedly, but we're left on our own to find the haunting answer.
12. Longing: Closing out an album is never an easy task. How do you tactfully end an album so it leaves an impression-the right impression-on the listener's soul. Karsh has gone in for the lets-do-it-all-once-again tactic and he hasn't failed. The song starts off slow but gets into the groove pretty soon, employing maybe a good DnB beat, slowing it down, synthesizing the middle, throwing in little pieces of flutes, sarangi's-the works. Definitely a good song in its own and a good end to a well-composed thought-out album.

A must-buy for a fusion, Asian Massive, Asian Underground junkie. Like his friend Talvin Singh, Karsh Kale is definitely on the road to prove that he's part of the revolution. A man to look out for in the near and far future.