Bharat Karki & Party: International Music

Bharat Karki & Party
International Music
EM
2010-03-30

International Music is a short album, just over 20 minutes long, with a blithe mixture of Indian music and psychedelic funk recorded in Calcutta during the late 1970s. “Hey, come on, you”, calls one of the men, “dance with me, come on!” The harmonium drones, funk percussion bops in through the door, a guitar chases its tail, and women and men chant in bobbing, enthusiastic voices: “Hare Rama, Hare Krishna, Hare Rama, Hare Krishna.” Love-ins for all. Milder things like the harmonium have survived the recording experience better than the harder instruments, the rock guitar, the percussion, so the effect is somewhat anaemic — the weaker mirror image of a performance that must have sounded forceful, live, three decades ago.

RATING 5 / 10