a r t i s t : The Unseen Guest
t i t l e : Checkpoint
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : tuition
g e n r e : Folk
r l s. d a t e : Feb/2007
t r a c k s : 11
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 58,3 MB
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The Unseen Guest make music that is difficult to pin down.
Wedding traditional Indian instruments with Western
song-writing and guitar, and covering it with rich vocal
harmonies, they apply this basic idea to songs that come from
every end of the spectrum - sounding sometimes like a mix of
American folk blues and Carnatic music, sometimes like a
Parisian taking on Nick Drake, at others like Buena Vista by
way of Mumbai. They manage to incorporate Western music with
traditional Indian instruments in a way that makes it
genuinely new, avoiding patchouli-scented clich or Bollywood
bombast. The Unseen Guest came about when, Declan met Amith
while he was travelling through South India in 2002 with a $5
balsa-wood guitar. The two became friends and met again in
Mumbai where Amith was based, where they spent several weeks
jamming, busking and singing to anyone whod listen. Later in
the year, while Declan was still on the road, Amith sent him
an email, suggesting recording an album mixing Indian music
with Western. Declan, busy working at the bottom rung of the
Australian job ladder, was only too happy to accept. The
following year they met up again in Amiths hometown of Calicut
in Kerala, assembled a rotating cast of local musicians, and
set to work on recording their debut album. The result is Out
There', a self-produced album that belies the freewheeling
spirit it was made in, with a soul that shows its
international origins, and a natural sound that doesnt
sugar-coat the excellent live playing of its participants.
With a percussive throb that is provided by Indian musicians
playing everything from tablas, dholaks and mridangam, to
mandolins, harmonium, veena, and carnatic violin, topped with
the intricate guitars of Declan and Amith, the album melds
left-field Western music with Indian in a way that has never
been done before.
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01-Miracle Mile [04:52]
02-Place Your Bets [04:20]
03-Don't Let it Show [04:16]
04-Ancient Greek [04:16]
05-Love Song #10 [03:16]
06-Reduce it to A Kiss [02:16]
07-Black Hole [04:35]
08-Snowstorm [05:51]
09-The Whitest Lie [04:53]
10-Conga Line [03:10]
11-Everybody Knows [05:56]
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47:41 min