September 15, 2002

Surfing the universe

Combine the mastery of eastern music with an avant-garde electronic soul, the result is like Asian-American Karsh Kale’s Realize; a stellar, seamless sonic fabric with incredible cosmic depth.

Empty Hands starts off with a haunting bansri music that weaves its way through a sonorous web of technotronic-beat wizardry. What gives the track a metaphysical aura is the line in Urdu: khali haat aatay hain, khali haat jaatay hain. As the textures envelope the mind’s eye, an MC (presumably Kale) gives a brief message about the transience of life. In Distance, a Paul Oakenfold inspired-bass fluidly kicks off the tune in its journey to hyperspace. A female vocal lets loose over sanguine beats. Tour Guide has a hip-hop feel, ala Timbaland. But this is nothing like mainstream hip-hop, for your average rap clown cannot meld sarangi and warm, foreboding synth textures with such placid ease. Each tune has an individual signature, as the acoustic guitar intro that melts into morose sarangi strains on Home illustrates. When the subtle break-beats are flawlessly mixed in with the touch-and-go bass and atypical vocals, this searing bird of prey takes flight.

The sarangi and bansri playfully engage in a game of call and response in Satellite. A furious little tabla fights to be heard over the rigid drum machine on One Step Closer. Space and time become submerged in the ocean of unity, as ambient keyboards gently lift the veils of perception. Saajana makes great use of eastern folk percussion. As a voice starts singing in Urdu, one wonders how this aural wizard manages to transport the listener into the deserts of Rajhastan sitting in a New York studio. Mind-blowing! Longing is a calculated sensory attack of beats and logic. As the sitar and sarangi work to assuage your fear of a propulsive rhythm attack, a furious synth line is at work in the background, which swallows up the dreamy sounds and incorporates them into its bombast. A manic showdown of galactic noise takes place near the middle of this sprawling eight-minute number. Just as fast as it came, the sonic storm fades into a shapeless Zen.

Without fear of hyperbole, this is the best record we have heard all year. Anyone who is even slightly moved by abstract sounds should bolt to their nearest independent record store to pick up this ambient masterpiece. —Qasim AbdAllah Moini

Gutter, flower and dolls

Goo Goo Dolls is one of those bands that pop up to unexpectedly grab the music scene by the scruff of the neck. Their sound? Neither fish nor fowl, heavy or light, traditional or alternative. Their bandleader John Rzeznik (vocals, guitars) along with other band mates Robby Takac (bass, vocals) and Mike Milinin (percussion), recently launched their latest album Gutterflower which simply adds another chapter to their fast-growing legacy as one of contemporary music’s true visionaries.

Front man Rzeznik shows his versatile talent by writing the majority of songs himself while others are written by Robby Takac. The lilting, quirking, eminently listenable style of Goo Goo Dolls has made this album deliciously absorbable into the soul and has come to embody what may very well be one of the classic rags-to-riches tales of recent rock history.

With the group’s distinctive guitar alignment kicking each track into high gear, Rzeznik and his cohorts have constructed an air-tight collection of rockers that run the gamut from heart-breaking tracks like Think about me, You never know, Sympathy, Here is gone, to full-throttle metals like Big Machine, Smash, Up Up Up, What do you need, Tucked away and Truth is a whisper. All the songs seem like a journey of self-discovery. Now that the Dolls brigade has got a couple of huge albums and enormously popular tracks for the motion pictures like City of Angels, Batman and Robin and Twister, their album, Gutterflower represents one of the most diverse and challenging albums to hit the top of the charts. Anyone one who hears the album will instantly realize that this unusual looking, highly emotive band is a far cry from the predictable pop styling, one had grown to expect from any other so-called rock bands.

The Goo Goo Dolls’ highly divergent musical tastes are on full display in their latest disc where they rock hard. It’s a must buy for the alternative loving rock junkies! It’s not mundane. It’s razor-edged! It’s Goo Goo Dolls’ very own class! —Atif A. Khan