Artist: Pete Ardron &
Psibindi
Title:
Lilaya E.P.
Label:
Altar Records
Released:
1st May 2019
Whilst
Pete Ardron’s classical background adds to the uniqueness of his
compositions, he has often drawn on eastern flavours and included
live instrumentation and vocalists alongside the electronic sounds.
He seems to have a knack at discovering suitably competent vocalists
and it was evident from their first collaboration ‘Mera Dil’ on
his ‘Unexpected Pleasures’ album that this was a pairing that
deserved further exploration.
Until
the aforementioned track I knew nothing about Psibindi (whose real
name is Rena) and aside from these releases she’s still somewhat of
an enigma. What I can say from the press release for those who wish
to delve deeper is aside from being a classically trained Indian
singer, she DJ’s on the Psytrance scene as Psibindi, is the founder
of the Psy-Sisters collective and label and produces and releases
music in that field.
This
particular release is also little different from the progressive
ambient or space music released by Altar Records which only goes to
show they were impressed enough to add them to their catalogue.
Moving
on to the E.P. it’s self, the opening track ‘First Light’
begins with bamboo flutes, digeridoo and gongs immediately delivering
a spiritual feeling before the beat commences and the sitar takes
over. There’s somewhat of a teasing suspense before the vocal drops
but it’s well worth the wait as it’s a joy to hear amidst this
lovely piece of ethic chill out. This is followed by ‘Rookah
Surfar’ which drifts seamlessly between Indian flavoured dnb (which
I’ve always felt is a heavenly match) and vocal chill out. I half
expected the pace to pick up at the tail end of the piece but it
doesn’t.
Next
up is the Equinox re-mix of ‘Mera Dil’ which I found to be a more
laid back take, obviously it still retains the beautiful vocal and is
an interesting enough alternative. However, for me I still prefer the
original. Moving on to ‘Time Stands Still’ where atmospheric
synths are introduced alongside a xylophone intro, which is soon
replaced by a more groovy percussion and the vocal is implemented
before the bamboo flute takes centre stage in the instrumental
breaks. The final track ‘Shokhee’ moves up the gears with a
harsher looped synthetic intro and dnb percussion that is
counterbalanced with the exquisite vocal harmonies and joined by
rhythmic vocal talas.
Review
by Woodzee
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1 comment:
Good blog this one..i'm going to have a listen today..thanks Martin.
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