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"HiGH ▀ iNTELLiGeNCE tRoLLS"
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a r t i s t : Magic Carpet
t i t l e : st
d a t e : 1972
l a b e l : Magic Carpet MC1001
g e n r e : Folk
r l s. d a t e : April/2004
t r a c k s : 13
b i t r a t e : 192kbps
s i z e : 84,6 MB
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The official re-release of the Magic Carpet band's 1972
recording! "An exquisite blend of sitar (Clem Alford) female
vocals (Alisha Sufit) guitars (Jim Moyes and Alisha Sufit) and
Indian tabla drums (Keshav Sathe) - one of the very few early
examples of eastern progressive psychedelic folk." Caroline
International. The CD includes a 20 minute bonus track!!
Way back in the early seventies in London, three friends came
together to play some unusual music: Sitarist Clem Alford,
guitarist Jim Moyes and tabla player Keshav Sathe formed a
unique Anglo/ Indian fusion, calling themselves Sargam (the
name of a note in an Indian scale). They made one album under
the name 'Sagram', mispelt by the Windmill recording company
and inappropriately entitled Pop Explosion Sitar Style!This
album was released without the band's permission, the ludicrous
cover photograph bearing no relation to any band members or
anything about them. Featuring the guitar playing of Jim Moyes
as well as the sitar of Clem Alford, Pop Explosion Sitar Style!
is a beautifully played and distinctive acoustic album that
reflects many musical currents of the time - from Alexis Korner
to the Bauls of Bengal to Ravi Shankar. The complex rhythmic,
sensitive tabla playing of virtuoso Keshav Sathe underpins all
six instrumental tracks. We may at least be grateful to
Windmill for recording the music for posterity.
Soon Sargam were offered another LP recording deal by the
Mushroom Records label, with the proviso that they find a
singer. Having met her when they were both at Chelsea School of
Art, Jim Moyes contacted the singer Alisha Sufit. At that time
Alisha was living in Islington, London, singing and writing
songs for acoustic guitar and appalachian dulcimer. She sang in
street markets and in the London Underground by day, and did
gigs round the clubs and colleges by night. Jim Moyes invited
her to play and the four musicians soon renamed themselves
Magic Carpet, forming a unique Anglo-Indian musical
collaboration This was greatly facilitated by the fact that
Alisha was writing songs set mostly in open modal tunings on
the guitar (DADGAD etc.) making them instantly compatible with
the tuning of the sitar.
Alisha's comment: "The odd thing was that a friend had asked me
what sort of band I''d like to be in, a short while before
Jim's call. I said that I'd really like to play with sitar and
tabla, and then, hey presto, a few months later Jim rang me!"
The band recorded the Magic Carpet album in the winter of 1971
- 1972 on the Mushroom Records label (MR 20). They stayed
together for nearly a year, doing a few prestigious gigs - the
100 Club in London, Wavendon (Cleo Laine and John Dankworth's
venue), several festivals, Sounds of the Seventies radio etc.,
but they finally parted company in 1972. They thought no more
about the album until many years later.
Currently, the original Magic Carpet album has become highly
collectable, changing hands for upwards of ú120 UK sterling on
the collectors' market, unfortunately bootlegged at least once.
Magic Carpet Records have since officially re-released the
album on CD and limited edition vinyl (catalogue numbers
MC1001CD & MC1001LP). The LP re-release quickly sold out and
has become collectable in its own right, having been pressed
from the original tapes on excellent EMI heavy-weight vinyl.
There was a growing audience who really appreciated the Magic
Carpet sound and soon came the question would they be getting
back together? Was there any more Magic Carpet material hidden
in the cupboard? After a considerable gap, the four met up
again. Jim was no longer performing in public and Keshav had
decided to retire, but Clem and Alisha were still playing
professionally and it seemed like a natural step to do another
album, laughingly referred to as the "rush follow-up"! In 1996
they recorded the album Once Moor (subtitle Magic Carpet II)
released on the Magic Carpet Records label (catalogue numbers
MC1004CD MC1004LP).
Once Moor consists mostly of songs with some instrumental
tracks, the line-up being voice, guitar, sitar, tamboura and
tabla. The album was pressed on superb quality EMI heavy-weight
vinyl as well as on CD, with an exquisite full-length classical
raga as the bonus track for the latter. Both CD booklet and LP
sleeve contain all the lyrics plus original art work by Alisha.
With eerie serendipity, shortly before the release of Once Moor
, Alisha found a real 'Magic Carpet' (or maybe it found her))-
an Afghan rug with two flying horse ladies - that half-horse
half-woman image depicted on the front of the original Magic
Carpet LP cover. Check it out!
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01-The Magic Carpet [02:28]
02-The Phoenix [03:22]
03-Black Cat [04:05]
04-Alan's Christmas Card [03:22]
05-Harvest Song [03:41]
06-Do You Hear The World [03:01]
07-Father Time [04:22]
08-La La [02:42]
09-Peace Song [03:50]
10-Take Away Kesh [02:36]
11-High Street [03:37]
12-The Dream [03:56]
13-Raga (Bonus) [20:27]
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61:29 min
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