Love Holding Love

Leave it to Wah!genius to take it
straight into the mainstream
where it's needed.
Yes it's all about Love,
what else is there to talk about really?
Wah! fans will NOT be dissapointed.

Wah has built her career on "spiritual" music for many years (what music ISN'T spiritual, we may ask?) I own several of her earlier CDs, and I have always liked her tendency toward reggae and calypso-inspired rhythms and accompaniments.

Music, I believe, is truly "spiritual" when it lives and breathes from within the human being from whom it flows and resonates within the listener. What music isn't spiritual? Well, in my opinion, music that is created by electronic drum and sampling technologies seems to lack the dynamic energy of music produced as the result of human contact with living, breathing musical instruments, and the true, electronically unaltered sound of the human voice.

I'm sorry to say that this CD, which is heavily electronic, does not seem to "breathe" at all. Rather, is is driven by repetitive electronic drum patterns and sampled instrumental sounds instead of real musical instruments played by real musicians. While this may cut down significantly on production costs, it also, I think, sacrifices much more in terms of musical integrity.

So, for a chant/dance experience, this CD might work; but for a moving and uplifting experience of the human spirit (with real drums played by a master drummer and beautiful vocals), I will listen to Shantala's "Live in Love" or any of Satkirin Kaur's or Snatam Kaur's many beautiful CDs.

I'm only familiar with Wah!'s work through her excellent violin accompaniments to Krishna Das' kirtan singing on his own albums, so I don't know whether this CD represents the nadir of her own work or just business as usual. Ms Wah! got her start in the kirtan business but obviously wants to shuck that low paying job to become a pop star. Driven by the monotonous beat of a drum machine she breathes out banal pop songs (every third word "love") interspersed with Indian chants to various gods and goddesses whom she apparently hopes to lure into bed. Good luck with that. This goes on for 14 tracks, not one of which shows any originality in arrangements or lyrics. The sound quality is quite good, which only makes the futility of the whole enterprise that much sadder.