So, dude, I just got back from driving up Highway 1 and spent a week at the Esalen Hot Springs retreat. I just went through some intense detox, got all my auras treated and went on a complete internal cleansing. After the group Jaccuzi session, we went into the store and there was this music that really reached my inner Chakra. It was by this singer/songwriter named Francisco Pais. The songs had these deep words, man. Stuff like “You’re a compassionless neurological junky on a spiritual path.” Man, that just hit me right in my third eye, and made me dash for a Ben and Jerry’s. After smoking some great stuff, I just got really into stuff like where he sang “My Spirit..dwelling in with the story of my life.” And his chants and moans; he must have been to India! I can just feel it. This whole disc reminds me of that time I walked along hot coals and went back to when I was born. So enlightening. Hey, pass that vegan cheeseburger!
Then, this other group, Out to Lunch…wow! They just HAD to go to some Ashram, as their sounds are SO spiritual, you know, how we’re all not religious but spiritual. They’ve got these intense electronic programmings, and the team of David Levy/reeds, Josiah Woodson/tp-g-fl, Walter Fishbacher/key, Zack Lober/b and Jason Kruk/dr just get so INTO THEIR MUSIC , mixing sounds of West Africa, Kathmandu, Eastern Europe and Nepal, which reflects where they MUST have backpacked and met some really cool people who let them into their huts. The combinations of Western sounds with these so cool Eastern instruments is just so RADICAL that I just really hope they play this stuff at the next club I got to with all those wild chicks.
All joking aside-both Pais and Out to Lunch are adept at their instruments and are obviously sincere in their delivery. In fact, Pais has been nominated for a couple Grammyu’s for his work, and his chops on this disc show why. Both he and OTL obviously put a lot of time and effort in these releases, and are to be commended for that. The songs in themselves are actually enjoyable and melodically accessible, with some movements on “Raise” that gel and coalesce as well as any groove you’re gonna get. The point from the tongue in cheek commentary is that both of these discs are more directed for the Inn of the Seventh Ray and New Age enlightenment crowd than for anything else, and if that is your gig, then you will be more than happy here, as Pais’ earnestness and OTL’s playfulness are complemented by an Eastern Mysticism that permeates the attitude behind the music.
Product of Imagination Records
Mesa Blue Moon Records