ROBERT MILES & TRILOK GURTU - Miles_Gurtu (2004) APE (image+.cue), lossless

This collaboration between electronic music whiz Robert Miles and percussionist Trilok Gurtu is its own curiosity piece. Full of lush, meandering soundscapes that employ everything from chilled-out jungle vistas to breakbeat and trip hop, from groove and creative jazz to the deep layering of traditional and popular Indian melodies from that country's classical, folk, and Bollywood traditions. Yet this set is hardly a mishmash: each of the record's 13 tracks are compositions as well as collaborations. Dynamics, textures, melodies, themes, and variations are all closely tailored for maximum effect. And while it feels much more like a Miles outing-- given the propensity of keyboards and samplers -- it is Gurtu's organic percussion that shoots through everything and provides a base form which all things grow into endless night stratosphere, and a territory of homecoming and eternal return. Musical changes reflect not so much frenetic mood swings as the undulating space where harmony, melody, nuance (as provided by everything from various keyboards and samplers and sounds, to strings to guitars to percussion instruments too numerous too mention) and rhythm compel each other toward interior spaces, where nothing is obvious, and more so than not where ideas are implied rather than stated blatantly, and where impression and expression entwine around one another in a loose, yet stunningly beautiful tension. This is a record of electronics and rhythm that can be listened to indefinitely: it offers startling moments and seductive paths through a garden of both unearthly sound and unwieldy sound. Moving, provocative, and strange.
(This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa')
Tracklist :
1    Golden Rust 4'47
Arranged By [String Arrangements] – Roberto Concina, Stephen Hussey
Bass – Paul Falloon
Double Bass – Jon Thorne
Drums – Trilok Gurtu
Electric Piano [Rhodes] – Mike Patto
Keyboards – Roberto Concina
Strings – Urban Soul Orchestra
2    Soul Driven 5'01
Bass – Paul Falloon
Drums – Trilok Gurtu
Electric Guitar – Nitin Sawhney
Keyboards – Roberto Concina
Synthesizer [Minimoog] – Mike Patto
3    Wearing Masks 2'02
Double Bass – Jon Thorne
Guitar [Nylon Guitar] – Nitin Sawhney
Keyboards – Roberto Concina
Percussion [Ambi Perc] – Trilok Gurtu
Synthesizer [Minimoog] – Mike Patto
4    Tragedy: Comedy 1'18
Double Bass – Jon Thorne
Guitar [Nylon Guitar] – Nitin Sawhney
Keyboards – Roberto Concina
Percussion [Ambi Perc] – Trilok Gurtu
5    Omen 1'51
Arranged By [String Arrangements] – Roberto Concina, Stephen Hussey
Double Bass – Jon Thorne
Electric Piano [Rhodes] – Mike Patto
Keyboards – Roberto Concina
Percussion [Ambi Perc] – Trilok Gurtu
Strings – Urban Soul Orchestra
6    Loom 5'21
Bass – Paul Falloon
Drums – Trilok Gurtu
Keyboards – Roberto Concina
Synthesizer [Minimoog] – Mike Patto
7    Languages Of Conscious Thought 2'11
Bass – Jon Thorne
Goblet Drum – Trilok Gurtu
Keyboards – Roberto Concina
Trumpet – Toshinori Kondo
8    Without A Doubt 2'17
Bass – Jon Thorne
Keyboards – Roberto Concina
Trumpet – Toshinori Kondo
9    Small World 3'56
Arranged By [String Arrangements] – Roberto Concina, Stephen Hussey
Double Bass – Jon Thorne
Keyboards – Roberto Concina
Programmed By – Roberto Concina
Strings – Urban Soul Orchestra
Synthesizer [Minimoog] – Mike Patto
Vocals – Trilok Gurtu
10    Small World (Reprise) 0'30
Cello – Adrian Bradbury
Electric Piano [Rhodes] – Mike Patto
11    Inductive 5'07
Double Bass – Jon Thorne
Drums – Trilok Gurtu
Keyboards – Roberto Concina
Synthesizer [Minimoog] – Mike Patto
12    The Big Picture 5'18
Double Bass – Jon Thorne
Drums – Trilok Gurtu
Electric Piano [Rhodes] – Mike Patto
Keyboards – Roberto Concina
Keyboards [Andromeda], Synthesizer [Minimoog] – Mike Patto
13    Xenon 2'08
Electric Piano [Rhodes], Keyboards [Andromeda], Synthesizer [Minimoog] – Mike Patto