TRACKLIST

1. Makyo - Pashyanti (Deeply Dubbed Mix). . .9:42 2. Ascendence - Marathon. . . . . . . . . . .9:26 3. Bageshree - Bhakti . . . . . . . . . . . .6:53 4. Karsh Kale - Ashes . . . . . . . . . . . .5:05 5. Macchiato - Kenya AA. . . . . . . . . . .10:57 6. Jaïa - Evolving To Outside. . . . . .9:52 7. Essa 3 - Sundial . . . . . . . . . . . . .9:44 8. Jairamji - Temple . . . . . . . . . . . .15:47

The emergence of globalism as a dominant force in the world’s political and economic shaping is not merely limited to the flow of goods and technology. It’s also intrinsically tied to the idea of culture and, as such, music. The emergence of a variety of genres of music, for example, would have never taken place without the constant flow of ideas about melody, harmony and rhythm. In most cases, the recipe goes something like this: take a little of this a little of that and voila! -Italo prog disco. Unfortunately many of these fusions have been less than the sum of their parts. As engaging as the idea of the lyrical genius of hip-hop mixed with the aggression of metal might sound on paper, the most popular example of the genre is Limp Bizkit. Not exactly an appetizing melting pot of influences, is it?
Luckily, sometimes it does work. When a genre’s adherents become so ensconced in learning what makes a particular music work, the results of its combination with others is usually a fascinating and wondrous work, full of possibilities. Thus, when you mix the hypnotic qualities of dance music with the mystical range of Indian tablas, you open up the doors for interesting experimentation. The Dakini label has been following this merging of the ancient and spiritual with the rise of dance music over the past few years with their Sky Dancing: Nada Masala series. With the first two entries into the series the beat-driven side of this partnership was explored in great depth.
With this, the third installment, the label takes a step back from the frenetic pacing of the previous two compilations into a more chilled-out territory that rises and falls along the album’s running time. Makyo’s ‘Pashyanti (Deeply Dubbed Mix)’ starts the proceedings easily with a slow-burn atmospheric piece that owes as much to its melodic sensibility as it does to its creamy beat. The compilation picks up the pace with Bageshree’s ‘Bhakti’, which serves as the major beat-driven piece on the album. The groove succeeds in its purpose, but the track ends strangely with the intonation of the Lord’s Prayer.
The album’s gem is Karsh Kale’s ‘Ashes’, which was recorded in 1999. Rescued from a film score, the track typically changes little throughout its duration. Despite this, the song, propelled by a drum and n bass-esque electric tabla melody and a beautifully arranged chord sequence, ends up enchanting the listener.
From there, the disc once again returns to the atmospheric mood building of the opening tracks, providing the come-down for the climax of these two forceful tracks. Jaia’s ‘Evolving to Outside’, for example, takes nearly five minutes to unearth a trip-hop influenced beat amid the swirling atmospherics that permeate it.
In the ever-evolving search for the perfect collaboration of genres, it seems to be ignored by most that what these collaborations end up doing is point towards new roads of departure for the original form of music. The lengthy mystical compositions of a religious Far East shrouded in relative mystery to Western ears is, indeed, a perfect match for the atmospheric dance music that has been transplanted from Europe’s shores. Dakini is showing both genres how to do it. They’d be wise to listen. ~ by Todd Burns


1.) MAKYO "Pashyanti" (Tokyo)

MAKYO's pioneering work in Indo-electronic mixes has influenced many of the artists creating "Asian Underground" music today. "Pashyanti", a super-groovy piece of Hindi-house featuring layers of percussion and ambient effects, is a dub remix of a track originally recorded during the "Yakshini" sessions.

2.) ASCENDENCE "Marathon" (Sweden)

ASCENDENCE has released but one 12" on the UK-based Qube label run by Mike Maguire, formerly of Juno Reactor. This hypnotic, bass driven piece of dub-house appears on cd for the first time. More such work is anticipated from ASCENDENCE but the artist is in great demand for his skills as a house-music producer.

3.) BAGESHREE "Bhakti" (Canada)

Montreal-based Bageshree is a Kathak dancer and vocalist who spends most of her time on the road, or in India, improving her skills. This piece of classic Indi-pop owes an obvious debt to Sheila Chandra's groundbreaking work in the '80s, and is based on an ancient Hindu bhajan. Look for a collaboration between Karsh Kale and Bageshree in the near future.

4.) KARSH KALE "Ashes" (NYC-USA)

KARSH KALE is a drummer and tabla player known for his work with NY-based musicians like Herbie Hancock and Bill Laswell, and has recently garnered acclaim for his live sets with Tabla Beat Science. Karsh also works as a dj and producer, with two albums on Six Degrees. Karsh played for the first time in Tokyo at Dakini Nights at Aoyama CAY in Feb. 2003 to a full house. "Ashes" was originally created for a film soundtrack, and features Karsh's use of electric tablas...

5.) MACCHIATO "Kenya AA" (Italia)

Roma-based Macchiato make their debut here with some swirling ambient house that comes from drinking too many cups of coffee while listening to Ashra's "E2-E4" on repeat. MACCHIATO only record under the influence of dark-roasted espresso beans...

6.) JAIA "Evolving To Outside" (France)

JAIA follow-up their double-album "Blue Energy" and their appearances on the first two Sky Dancing comps with an ambient journey that builds in intensity to reflect the experience of being born. JAIA are currently recording a new album of trance while recent tracks have appeared on DJ Domino's "Moon" mix cd, 3D Vision and Iboga Records' compilation.

7.) ESSA 3 "Sundial" (SF-USA)

ESSA 3 were a duo who released a number of 12" singles on San Francisco's Zoe Magick label in the mid-90s. This classic track utilises warm, soaring pads and heavy, rotating drums to create a moody ambience, that dares you to close your eyes and soar away. A regular end of the evening track in MAKYO's dj sets over the past few years...

8.) JAIRAMJI "Temple" (UK)

Jairamji follow-up their debut album on Dakini, "kindred Spirits", with an epic, 15-minute track that was too long to fit on the album. JAIRAMJI continue to develop as an Ambient Jam-Band, mixing improvised solos on flute & acoustic guitar with some subtle electronics, percussive loops, and sampling. JAIRAMJI tracks have also appeared on Six Degrees' "Asian Travels 2" and Liquid Sound Design's "Mana Medicine" compilations.

The third and final volume in Dakini's original compiltation series featuring original hand-painted artwork by Seisen Ito and 80 minutes of deep, groovy chill. The "Sky Dancing" series remains Dakini's best-seller, with over 20,000 copies of vol.1 in print. Vol.3 has been two years in the making and features new tracks from regular Dakini contributors like MAKYO, JAIA and JAIRAMJI, as well as some fresh new artists and a track from Six Degrees artist (and Dakini fan) Karsh Kale.

SPOILER!

CODE Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008 EAC extraction logfile from 16. December 2008, 21:27 Various / Sky Dancing - Nada Masala vol.3 Used drive  : HL-DT-STRW/DVD GCC-4241N  Adapter: 1  ID: 0 Read mode              : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache      : Yes Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction                      : 102 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out          : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks  : No Null samples used in CRC calculations      : Yes Used interface                              : Installed external ASPI interface Used output format              : User Defined Encoder Selected bitrate                : 768 kBit/s Quality                        : High Add ID3 tag                    : No Command line compressor        : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\wavpack.exe Additional command line options : -hmxd -w "GENRE=%m" -w "DATE=%y" -w "COMMENT=Released by a-one" %s %d TOC of the extracted CD     Track |  Start  |  Length  | Start sector | End sector     ---------------------------------------------------------         1  |  0:00.00 |  9:42.44 |        0    |    43693          2  |  9:42.44 |  9:26.33 |    43694    |    86176          3  | 19:09.02 |  6:53.42 |    86177    |  117193          4  | 26:02.44 |  5:05.59 |    117194    |  140127          5  | 31:08.28 | 10:57.01 |    140128    |  189403          6  | 42:05.29 |  9:52.69 |    189404    |  233872          7  | 51:58.23 |  9:44.67 |    233873    |  277739          8  | 61:43.15 | 15:47.41 |    277740    |  348805  Range status and errors Selected range     Filename C:\Rips\Various Artists - Sky Dancing - Nada Masala vol.3.wav     Peak level 99.2 %     Range quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 3B7ED5D7     Copy CRC 3B7ED5D7     Copy OK No errors occurred End of status report

SPOILER!

CODE REM GENRE "Ambient Dub, Tribal" REM DATE 2003 REM DISCID 60122A08 REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb4" PERFORMER "Various" TITLE "Sky Dancing - Nada Masala vol.3" FILE "Various Artists - Sky Dancing - Nada Masala vol.3.wv" WAVE   TRACK 01 AUDIO     TITLE "Pashyanti (Deeply Dubbed Mix)"     PERFORMER "Makyo"     INDEX 01 00:00:00   TRACK 02 AUDIO     TITLE "Marathon"     PERFORMER "Ascendence"     INDEX 00 09:41:00     INDEX 01 09:42:44   TRACK 03 AUDIO     TITLE "Bhakti"     PERFORMER "Bageshree"     INDEX 00 19:07:37     INDEX 01 19:09:02   TRACK 04 AUDIO     TITLE "Ashes"     PERFORMER "Karsh Kale"     INDEX 01 26:02:44   TRACK 05 AUDIO     TITLE "Kenya AA"     PERFORMER "Macchiato"     INDEX 01 31:08:28   TRACK 06 AUDIO     TITLE "Evolving To Outside"     PERFORMER "Jaia"     INDEX 00 42:03:63     INDEX 01 42:05:29   TRACK 07 AUDIO     TITLE "Sundial"     PERFORMER "Essa 3"     INDEX 00 51:56:55     INDEX 01 51:58:23   TRACK 08 AUDIO     TITLE "Temple"     PERFORMER "Jairamji"     INDEX 00 61:33:06     INDEX 01 61:43:15