Adda: Soam's Sattwik Mix: A Yoga Playlist

Soam's Sattwik Mix: A Yoga Playlist

We've been taking yoga classes from our local community college for a while and one of the big benefits has been the music that our instructor, Diane, plays during the sessions. She's always looking for new material, so I created a mix CD for her a little while back. It seemed to go down pretty well. Here's the tracklist:

Kelsang Chukie Tethong - Om Ma Nye Bhe Mae Hum. Album: Voice From Tara. This is a solo vocal track and showcases her amazing voice. A quiet start to the proceedings.
Kelsang Chukie Tethong - Avalokitesvara. Album: Voice From Tara. This time with a piano accompaniment. Very haunting.
DJ Real Eyez & Dishum Dishum - Down These (Cross) Rhodes. Nepotism! No seriously, I wanted to pick up things a notch while still maintaining a dreamy ambience. This seemed to fit the bill.
Kruder and Dorfmeister - Deep Shit Parts 1 and 2. Album: G Stone Book. This is the last track from the G-Stone album, a worthy introduction for you Kruder and Dorfmeister fans to the rest of their projects. The track itself combines a heavy electric piano riff with African chants. I wish they'd thought of a better title for the track though.
U. Srinivas and Michael Brooks - Dance. Album: Back To Mine (mixed by Talvin Singh). A mesmerizing track that starts off with a sinuous guitar line by Michael Brooks and builds to a fantastic percussive climax. This was used really well last year in a short play excerpt ("Maya") from a NAATA showcase of young Asian playwrights.
Bikram Ghosh - Little Krishna. Album: Rhythmscape: The New Sound of Melody and Rhythm. I wanted to continue the Indian percussion theme from the last track. Bikram Ghosh is big in Kolkata and he seemed to be partying all over town last time I was there. Good album, especially for Indian fusion lovers.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Mustt Mustt (Massive Attack remix). Album: Back To Mine (mixed by Talvin Singh). The original. This is one of the remix classics. It's hard to believe this track was created so long ago (1990), it still sounds so utterly contemporary.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Tracery (Nitin Sawhney remix). Album: Star Rise: Remixes. Several songs on the Star Rise album are out of this world but this is a personal favorite. Nitin Sawhney is never less than intense and the way he chooses to start the song with Urdu poetry and then segue into drum and bass with Nusrat's vocals on top is sheer heaven.
State of Bengal & Paban Das Baul - Kali. Album: Tana tani. Bengali jungle. The first time I heard this track (on KCRW), my jaw dropped. Here was someone doing Ramprasadi style devotional music over hard beats. Someone had reached into my head and stolen the sound I wanted to create!
State of Bengal & Paban Das Baul - Radha Krishna. Album: Tana tani. More on the devotional tip but slowing the pace down a little.
Wax Poetic - Flight In Dub (feat. U-Roy). Album: Nublu Sessions. Superbly produced, this is a standout track on a very good album by a band more famous for being Norah Jones' slumming outlet. They deserve more publicity in their own right.
Roots Manuva - Next Type of Motion. Album: Back to Mine (mixed by Groove Armada). A quiet, meditative hip hop track (there aren't very many of those!) to close out the set, this was the surprise hit of the playlist. A stripped down production, the standout here is the killer organ bass groove.