Back in my college days on the East Coast, I always had Talvin Singh’s compilation Anokha: Soundz of the Asian Underground playing in the background. It was one of those discs that heralded the arrival of the Asian sound into electronica and the greater mainstream music consciousness. Just think it would only be one year later that Madonna ended up worshipping “the guru’s lotus feet” on Ray of Light’s “Shanti/Ashtangi” produced by William Orbit. (On a digressive note, I recently realized that her VMA performance of “Shanti” – - was probably the first time any thing in Sanskrit was broadcasted on MTV. Unfortunately, though replete with bharata natyam dancers and projections of Hindu deities, the performance was vocally far from Ms. Ciccone’s best.)

In any case, more than a decade had passed since I originally chilled out to Mr. Singh’s fine selections brewing organic Chai in college housing when I ended up coming across the original clip for Mr. Singh’s “Jaan”. Directed by Mr. Rob Howard, “Jaan” feels likes a step back into a recent but far different time. (One more digression: is this how people feel when they look back at the sixties?) One thing for certain is that “Jaan” is certifiably one tripped out video: lots of soft-focus close ups of a statue of Buddha merging with Mr. Singh’s eyes, then long haired women in flowing fabrics, and finally feeding of farm animals. I think this would be a textbook example of what could be called an impressionistic non-narrative. Perhaps, knowledge of Hindi (I hope I’m not making a linguistic faux-pas) would help understand the context, but at least the vast intellectual storehosue of the Internet has left me with no answers.

Here is Mr. Singh’s in more recent times in a stunning tabla performance entitled “Devotion”. I can’t help but think that Hawai’i is in need of more tabla-injected dance parties.

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