"Shaktified EP 1" is Rara Avis' Six Degrees debut and to describe this EP track by track: "Medicine" is a seven-minute piece that begins with electric guitar solos giving way to synthesizer riffs. The whole track is full of trippy East Indian beats, with ethereal keyboards drifting in and out, alongside spoken word phrases based around the mantra "Music is my medicine".

1. Medicine (full length version)
2. Jumanic Rapture
3. Vibrasonik
4. Post Burn Syndrome
5. Yesterday

"Jumanic Rapture" is the same length and continues in the East Indian vein but without spoken word, though it's darker, with an undercurrent that's closer to rock and further away from psychedelic. A heavily reverbed chant persists throughout, mixing in and out with the wailing guitar.

"Vibrasonik" has an eventually dub influenced sound that threatens to go over the top, with admonitions including "you are now entering a world of vibrations" and "imagine a world without" alternately hate, love, and darkness. A little of this type of thing goes a long way, and for many this will not stand up to repeated listening. It also shoehorns a rapper into the middle of the eight-minute track. He combines the phrases "shaking your bones on the dance floor" with "may I remind you/you have the universe inside you." Thankfully "Vibrasonik" doesn't incorporate the rock guitar effects found in the previous songs, but instead makes minimal use of sarangi.

The six and a half minute "Post Burn Syndrome" has electric guitar throughout in a slow, echoed Hendrix mode. It is effectively combined with minimal Eastern beats, natural breakbeats and retro-flavored synth sounds.

"Yesterday" (not the Beatles tune) is totally different from the others, and is the best on the EP. Beautiful acoustic guitar and moderate percussion backs up field recordings of a woman with a Texas accent talking about Bush [as in President] and her family. A softly sung chant comes in at certain points and about halfway through, a male vocalist comes in with lyrics like "we all share the light of the same sun", simpler and more effective than many of the spoken word phrasings.

"Shaktified" is an absorbing listen overall, beginning to lose focus by the third track, but coming back with a strong ending.

~ Dave Howell

Add a Comment