Asian Travels II by Various Artists

Review:

The second in a series of albums; the first of course being Asian Travels. This one is decidedly a little stronger than the last because of the variety of genres included such as electronica, drum n base, classical, house and new age.

Tracks / Reviews:

1. Karsh Kale - Distance (Banco De Gaia Remix): Compared to the original, this is certainly a more upbeat version of the original. While the original had a house feel to it, this has more of a trancy - electronica feel to it. Nice lengthened rework of the original by Banco De Gia
2. Outside - Red Earth: A loose collective of musicians perform here to give you a drum n bassy - sitarry - vocalized track that makes you do anything but relax and listen.
3. Govinda - Slow Devotion: Vocoded vocals with spoken arabic and sounds presented with a backdrop of mellow tabla playing and drum n base (alternated).
4. MIDIval Punditz - Aaja Re: Remix of a Bollywood classic - sounds great until the high pitched vocals come through going against the great drum n base line - these guys should have stopped at using just the music from the original not the vocals themselves. Good track now but would have been great then.
5. Makyo - Devadasi (Mantra Mix): An inexplicale track with vocals thrown on top of a fast paced tabla line that intermingles perfectly with the drum line played along with it. Kathak-Rave anyone? (Kind of drags on after a while though.)
6. Banco De Gaia - How much reality can you take?: Loopy, trancy, hard hitting groovy track worth the dance floor but, don't look for drum n base here. This is BDG showing that even techno/electronica is possible with south asian influences thrown in.
7. Karsh Kale - Deepest Blue (KK's Deepest Brooklyn Mix): This remix, done to compliment his home of brooklyn. A nice downtempo beat played with a tiny bit of alterations on the original. Not bad but nothing fabulous.
8. Jairamji - Swaragami: Beautiful mellow piece with strings drums and a kickin' beat that appears half way in the middle of the eight minute long track. Simply amazing.
9. Bob Holroyd - Adrift in Kerala: The south indian state of kerala invoked through this mellow shakers and brush sounds filled track.
10. Dj Cheb i Sabbah - Tum Bin Shyam: A very north indian - almost kashmiri sound - mainly due to the string instrument known as santur. Mellow, relaxing and with a beat perfect to do yoga or any other mental work to. A great finish to the album.

This album is a good follow up to the first. It uses the style of the first but adds with the presentation of a beautiful contrast between some dance worthy tracks and a lot of down tempo mellow ones.