Sri Hari - One But Different

[mahoney]

Sri Hari - One But Different

 

Artist: Sri Hari

Title: One But Different

Label: The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

Date: 1997

 

Track listing:

 

01. 06'42" The Path of Yoga

02. 05'55" Damodarastaka

03. 07'21" Paramatma

04. 05'31" Jazz Maharaja

05. 08'16" Mata Bhumi

06. 08'08" Spread The Chanting

07. 04'27" Radhe Govinda

08. 08'54" Shivaranjani Raga

 

Review:

 

Sri Hari is a project from the great Ian Ion (more known from his work with

Frank E as KoxBox and Saiko-Pod). I´ve only got this cd for about 3 days, but

it has been spinning all since then, so I´ll give it a shot, it´s not a very

easy cd to review . To beginn with, this is a totally blissful journey with

a high relaxing. It also got a lot of spiritual messages, mainly through all

the voice-samples through the tracks. You can find them in every track, and

they are about yoga (in the great jazzy "The Path of Yoga"), about how it is

to go to work every day and pay the rent ("Jazz Maharaja") or simply just

hindu-singers (mostly often spiritual songs or speeches). But it´s much more

then the hindu part on this cd, they all got (except the last one) these

peaceful and veeeery relaxed totally beautiful and sunny (sometimes spacey)

melodies and effects. Mostly often you have a rather slow beat in the tracks,

or sometimes nice sunny (sometimes faster) drum'n'bass beats or !

some tribal drumming. It also got alot of funky and groovy eighties/early

ninethies synth-lines and beats, and sometimes a 303 jumps in for a short

shift . The work he have done with the singers is very nice, and there is in

all the tracks really beautiful parts of singers (the male-singer in "Radhe

Govinda" is just great) or just relaxed atmospheric voices. The tracks shifts

between being a beautiful tribute to life and moder earth and being totally

groovy music with funky beats and synth-lines. Many tracks just gives me the

feel of waking up on some sunny place, totally blissful. The production is

ofcourse excellent and beautiful, and track 6 ("Spread the Chanting") also

Frank E is involved. At many times you can feel the funky and groovy feel that

a lot of the Saiko-Pod and KoxBox (their album "The Great Unknown") tracks

got, so Ian seems to be a big part in thoose projects, and he seems to be one

of the best producers there is in the scene. The cd ends up with a praisi!

ng song to hinduism, alot of sitars, some drumming and a male!

singers singing about Hare Krishna. It accelerates but then fades out and ends

up the cd. All in all, excellent beautiful relaxation-music with a rare groove

and alot of influences such as drum'n'bass/garage beats, house- and

jazz-elements and alot of feel of the eightees. No bad tracks and Highly

recommended!

[Guest Skaha]

Sounds very cool but perhaps difficult to find? At any

rate it definitely adds depth to what little I know about the KoxBox/Saikopod

guys...thanks for the review!

[Guest Philip Xmen]

This CD is almost impossible to find. I only got a copy of it, and I love every

track off it. I respect the music just as much as I do respect Shpongle. This

is some of the best ambient/chill-out from a Psy-artist out there! 10/10

[DeathPosture]

This cd is sold on the pedestrian streets of larger Danish cities in charity of

some religious movement... Anyway, the music is ok I guess... Haven't

listened to it since '97 when my ex-girlfriend bought it for me from some

smoothtalking streetvendor!

[Guest Mindbender]

Well, Mahoney did a good job on the review, so I'll just say that I love this

as well. Check out the previous album as well, it is more goa (my first goa

CD). But to give you more on the background to this project: Sri Hari was made

to spread the Hare Krishna sect by making music that praises it. Saying that

Ian Ion is solely responsible for this is wrong as few Krishna monks have also

been deeply involved (maybe more on the ideation side?). Orange-dressed Hare

Krishnas in Northern Europe go around selling these CDs (for about 1/3 normal

price) but you can also get in a shop wiht luck. Great stuff, don't hesitate

buying if you see it.

[Guest psychedelix[at]gmx[dot]de]

one but different is definitely the best sri hari album.. my fav iss track 4 -

jazz maharaja ... great chill sounds ... sri hari albums and other

bahktivendata stuff (mathuresh etc.) is sold in the pedestrian area in munich

(germany) very frequently... they also sell books about enlightenment, yoga

and other krishna-related stuff ... anyway this is a great chill-out album...

[mahoney]

mindebender: about the sellsers, my friend who was the one who got his hands on

this record, a man stopped him in central Oslo and asked him if he was into

Techno. He got a bunch of cd´s, and he also bought a cd by Mathuresh (same

label). Quite lucky that he was stopped, if you think of that my friend was

dressed in black clothes and has a shaved head (?!?),

I´ve had these cd for some month(s) now, and I still think it´s great music,

but all these messages can be a little bit bothering sometimes, even if the

most of them makes sense..

[Guest Infinafta]

because Hare Krishna is a Hindu sect, Hinduism being the

main religion of India and India is where Goa is and early goa trance artists

experienced the psychedelic trance dance experience while searching for

spiritual enlightenment travelling there and partying around Goa.

(obviously ther is a lot more to that story, but that has

been discussed and described endlessly elsewhere on the Net eg.

http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/carts/contmusic/mh/goa.html) excuse the

pedantry, but your question begged for it.keep an open mind, a humble heart

and respect your roots.

[Guest clark_303]

I bought this because it said on the cover that it's produced by Ian Ion of

Koxbox and I'm glad I did. It has similar sounds and melodies to Koxbox,

especially the basslines are great Koxbox-style(reminds me of Dragon Tales

especially). The Hare Krishna chants are nice but on some songs, especially

the last ones, it gets a little annoying. But still, this is a great album

with original sounds, from chill-out to funky breakbeats. This is very

different from other albums I've heard too. -Clargoa

[Guest phonox[at]strangesound[dot]de]

there is nothing good to say about this album.

I bought on the street very cheap when it was new.

It's the music itself I don't like. There are too many stupid samples on it.

And there is no Heart in it.

I also think that it feels like a kind of scientology.

It is influenced by maturesh (who did track 1) whose albums aren't my

favourites also.

[Guest kurien[at]swbell[dot]net]

The music turned out by Sri Hari is uplifting and positive, and is a good

contrast to other musics out there, It might bring one extra person back to

their correct path by recognizing the sacred mantras.

 

Hare Krishna

[Guest dan[at]mummu[dot]com]

This is one of my two favorite artists I've "discovered" on the internet thanks

to mp3s

 

I admit, I absolutely fell in love with both this CD and the other one I found

by the same artists (Mystic Voyage). Normally, I hate trance and techno as I

find them very much over-produced. However, the spiritual melodies and voice

samples on this CD have provided me with many, many listening sessions

(probably hundreds of times over the last couple of years). Easily, this has

become one of my favorite CDs of all time.

 

I found this site because, yet again, I'm attempting to locate information on

the artist(s) behind this work. As someone who isn't normally into

trance/techno styles, I admit I wasn't aware of Koxbox or Ian Ion......but I

am now and will certainly be trying to find as much as possible. Hopefully

I'll find works that are as good or better than Rising Star.

 

If anyone has a URL or more information regarding this CD or related material,

please email me. Also, since I only have the mp3s and would very much like to

support this artist, send me a mail if you find where I can purchase these cds

(at the very least, I want the packaging ).

 

Thanks!

Dan