JULY 15, 1972

And together the 7 dwarves put their heads together and conjured up an idea on how to construct monumentally colossal and intricate architecture through sound. Working together like small bees, they managed to create an unparalleled string of albums by releasing musical pheromones in the air, seducing and enticing their fellow compatriots to take part in whatever honey-dripping invisible triangular cathedral of the day. And like all bees, the fruit of the labour - the meaning of it all - was to be(e) and fly and build and buzz along with the hive...

Throwing all reviewing manners out the window is probably the best way to go about writing about an album like this anyway...... Imagine a busy beehive trying to perform Tangerine Dream's Zeit inside a huge castle of reverberating iron. That's Taj Mahal Travellers for you! Or maybe a floating sand dune elliptically crashing into an electric signal....on repeat and in different octaves.

The 7 dwarves never go for the easy way out, or maybe they do because it's the only way they can work together? I honestly don't know, but it sure is a thrilling thing to witness. The music is free - completely improvised, as all their other records are. Slow drones that edge their way forth like a bare bellied Sleepy squishing on his stomach through jello and fine sand. Unreal wind instruments like wailing trumpets that sound so frail and longing, you could swear you were listening to a mother elephant mourning the passing of Dumbo and his little mouse friend. A bass tuba that raaaaaws on like a deep pulsating wall of blackness - foxtrotting through the night with the ominous and, at the same time, gentle electronics that have a way of sneaking up on you like shadows from a moving car - the city ninjas.

Over and under this fabulous structure, you get the violin sorcery. Yet another thing that moves in mysterious ways as the good Bono says, only here it moves entirely differently than what you'd expect such a nostalgic and classic instrument to do. It slithers, writhes, drones - creates elliptic circles of sound that never really sound like a violin. It's everything but actually, and come to think of it, the violin itself is probably the best advocate for all the dwarves playing. It deceives you....tricks you into thinking that it's something else. A wonderful kind of betrayal that flusters your senses and makes belief out of everything around it. All of this music is a sweet deceptive veil dropped softly and poignantly on your ears.

Take this out among the stars and watch the universe zoom in on you. Watch them dwarves build pyramid upon pyramid....drifting and floating on the cool winter night. They sparkle and shimmer in the moonlight and make you feel as if you're witnessing things you can't and at some future time will have immense difficulty in explaining to folks who don't believe in the magic power of music that builds structures out of air and can grab you by the throat and heart and soul all at once.

Share this TAJ-MAHAL TRAVELLERS review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Guldbamsen
• Report this review (#1136414)
• Buy TAJ-MAHAL TRAVELLERS music online with PA partners
• Show all TAJ-MAHAL TRAVELLERS MP3/Stream
• Go to TAJ-MAHAL TRAVELLERS page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to July 15, 1972 page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for TAJ-MAHAL TRAVELLERS related discussions