East Indian influenced high end spoken word/psychedelia (?). Many songs feel straight Yemenese Classical with sitar and vocals but most are blended with western stylings, folk, lovely female vocals but predominant male spoken word/poetry overlaid throughout. This is the work of a serious composer, Paul Arnold (b.1933), bringing together a range of influences and talent that all made sense in the wild experiment that was the late 60’s. Doomed to obscurity, Modern Harmonic Records has once again out-did itself with a priceless dig, a gem for us. The spoken material is very heavy in spiritualism, social commentary, eastern/native philosophy, and is the only thing that belies the era this was made in. For fans of Sun Ra, George Harrison, Nusrat Ali Kahn, 50 Foot Hose. Check the take on Beatles’ “Cant Buy Me Love” (track 13).

1)* (3:37) organic tribal sorta like sun ra gone awry, female vocalizations 2) (2:59) a poem, story, read over minimal music 3) (2:21) middle eastern/Indian folk with female singing, SF references abound 4) (4:43) another poem, sitar appears and accompanies 5) (2:13) another Indian folk song 6) (1:01) another poem, about existence 7) (0:24) brief spoken only 8) (2:16) another female fold song, very percussion heavy, tribal 9) (4:14) sitar and table, tambura indian classical with some effects embellishments at start and end 10)* (3:23) starts with sitar but quickly shifts to a lilting jazz influenced piece with the woman singing and others, drums, denser 11) (7:42) tambora and female indian classical singing under the male poetry, talking about Americans, “the lost spirit of my country”, tabla appears later 12)* (2:17) spacey trippy jazzy with lots of percussion, almost wacky in the xylophone 13) (1:54) mostly just spoken, with some xylophone/vibes, “peace be with you, realization” 14)**** (1:56) commentary on love for money turns out to be a silly east indian take on the Beatles’ “Cant Buy Me Love”, awesome 15)* (2:55) lovely trippy simple psych folk with female vocals