Try Paradise

It's hard to tell who or what the wellspring of this album is, and, I might be wrong, but on the face of things it has the whiff of a label-led project. Combining Kashmiri santoor (dulcimer), fretless bass, Caribbean steel drums, various percussion instruments and the voice of Umadevi Nageswara Rao, Try Paradise is described as a trip to an ‘imaginary India.’ There's mention of ‘universal melodies’ and ‘Oriental fragrances,’ not an entirely unproblematic description

While nicely delivered by the musicians themselves, the overall effect of Try Paradise is a bit bland and superficial. Throughout most of the record, all three pitched instruments simply copy the vocal melody so that what could have been a very rich timbre instead feels rather thin. And it must be said that, while I don’t hate everything that the fretless bass does, here it does manage, yet again, to cheapen the overall effect. From the label that brought us Éthiopiques, I think we should expect better.