The Realm Of Raga Rock The Realm Of Raga Rock

More in the realm of Venice Beach than Varanasi / Benares, The Realm of Raga Rock alas also lacks raga forms, and has only a smattering of rock energy. In the absence of fused structures, the furthest east this music travels is Nevada State. If you dug those eastern-inspired dabblings by 60's and 70's outreaching musicians such as The Moody Blues, The Byrds, Led Zeppelin and Roy Harper then you will not be disappointed by this devotional offering from guitarist and singer Guz Buzbee, flautist and bansuri player Bob Goldman, and the eminent tabla swami David Courtney with his vocalist and tampura-playing wife Chandra.

Some western musicians have achieved a certain degree of fusion between their native music and Indian classical styles; Louis Banks, Joe Harriot and John Mayer, John Handy, Pharaoh Sanders, Don Cherry, Bela Fleck, Jonas Hellborg with Shawn Lane, Rickhy Ray's Mangalam, and of course, John McLaughlin.

However, what oft betrays these musicians is their attempts to write devotional lyrics to accompany the fusion, and this album is no exception. All I ask is to see, The understanding, the understanding, not to mention the classic, Gururbrahma, Guruvishnu, Gururdevo Maheshvarah, .... This 12:51 chant is actually one of the stronger compositions on the album, as Gus leaves the lion's share of the singing to Chandra Courtney, and believe me, this is a good thing.

Some excitement can be had from the rythmic interplay between acoustic guitar and tabla, but beware the inappropriate grunge electric guitar taking the pentatonic stairway to Svargalaka.