UK Mall 1 - Prophesy

The 15 tracks of 'Prophesy' display a highly interesting and diverse body of work, from a man with a real passion to produce something amazing.
From the uplifting opening 'sunset' Sawhney creates a wonderful soundscape through chilled out beats, guitar, Tabla drums and moving orchestral touches, it's an atmosphere followed equally by 'Nothing' string melodies conjure up amazing sci-fi vista's and rousing vocals create an ethereal world.
Acquired dreams is an early highlight and takes the tone to a deeper emotional level, moving oriental vocals and instrumentation help create a truly beautiful setting that paves the way for a swirling DnB laden orchestral outro.
'Nothing more' floats in next, and is just a simple acoustic take on track two, In a way it seems a little pointless as a song, but I'm sure Nitin has his reason's...
You won't be considering this track for long though, 'Moonrise' bounces in quickly and is
undoubtedly a masterpiece, This Spanish salsa creates a breathtaking mood accompanied by moving strings and heartfelt vocal work, If you don't understand the vocals (they are Spanish) it doesn't matter- this track is equally amazing whether you get them or not, and in a way makes it all the more haunting and mysterious.
The American street guru walks in next, a break from the moving melodies he provides a thinking point in his spoken word approach to 'technology in his modern world'
He actually provides some amazing insights despite his appearance as just being a 'bum off the street'.
The moving track 'the preacher' get's the melodies floating again, simple acoustic strumming and haunting vocal work creates quite an atmosphere.
Next is probably the best track on the album 'Breathing light' moving orchestral strings and deep piano grooves roll along with an energetic DnB beat, the ethereal flute patterns just add to the brilliance of this instrumental masterpiece, One of Nitin's finest productions.
Developed' is a track again on the spoken word tip , with an aboriginal perspective on the world and how they as a culture are treated ' music is a universal language, it doesn't hold any prejudice' as is said.
This is followed by the wonderful 'footsteps' simply a children's choir singing- simple, if anything, but creates an amazing worldy atmosphere.
'Walk away' brings the album back into deep and emotional territory, haunting piano and lyrical work touching on the previous track footsteps, light orchestral and middle eastern touches create a truly beautiful song.
The album now takes quite a dark leap with 'cold and intimate' electronic synths and moody strings accompany a rousing vocal performance.
Breaking the dark mood is the street guru again, he continues his interesting view on technology...
this lighter atmosphere is shattered again when Nitin takes a heavy back seat ride into some confronting hip-hop, distorted guitars, heavy beats and gritty lyrical work sung in a style reminiscent of the prodigy's 'diesel power' it creates the most disturbing track on the album.
The extreme nature is then washed away with another of the best tracks on the album, actually the album's title track 'Prophesy' a choir builds, and accompanied with giant percussive sounds and middle Eastern instrumentation get's faster and faster until it's a sweeping high octane worldy masterpiece.

and then it ends.

Nitin Sawhney has achieved a great feat here, pulling together culture, instrumentation and mood's from almost every musical genre, it's a breathtaking journey across the world that only he could pull off in such spectacular fashion.
as the dictionary states- Prophesy: 'to foretell or predict'
If you want to hear the emotion and mood of culture in the future, this album is the closest you will get to the truth.

No, what still grates and prevents me from loving every moment of the record is the new stuff. Whereas the theme of Beyond Skin (nuclear proliferation and the threat of an atomic apocalypse) was well presented by quotes interacting excellently with the mood-piece songs, the theme of this album (the evils of technology) holds together less well (how on earth did he record the album, then?) and we are stuck listening to Street Guru, parts 1 and -God help us!- 2, in which an anonymous New York cab driver witters on about the joys of multiculturalism and the hope that we don't rely on technology too much in a stream of vague platitudes. A further track, 'Developed', has a similar format with an Australian Aborigine but is hardly as objectionable because he doesn't labour his point as much.

These tracks get in the way and break up some of Nitin's finest playing and mixing to date. I would just urge him to stick to genuinely affecting modern music with a political edge and to stop lecturing me. Nonetheless, a great record.

The 15 tracks of 'Prophesy' display a highly interesting and diverse body of work, from a man with a real passion to produce something amazing.
From the uplifting opening 'sunset' Sawhney creates a wonderful soundscape through chilled out beats, guitar, Tabla drums and moving orchestral touches, it's an atmosphere followed equally by 'Nothing' string melodies conjure up amazing sci-fi vista's and rousing vocals create an ethereal world.
Acquired dreams is an early highlight and takes the tone to a deeper emotional level, moving oriental vocals and instrumentation help create a truly beautiful setting that paves the way for a swirling DnB laden orchestral outro.
'Nothing more' floats in next, and is just a simple acoustic take on track two, In a way it seems a little pointless as a song, but I'm sure Nitin has his reason's...
You won't be considering this track for long though, 'Moonrise' bounces in quickly and is
undoubtedly a masterpiece, This Spanish salsa creates a breathtaking mood accompanied by moving strings and heartfelt vocal work, If you don't understand the vocals (they are Spanish) it doesn't matter- this track is equally amazing whether you get them or not, and in a way makes it all the more haunting and mysterious.
The American street guru walks in next, a break from the moving melodies he provides a thinking point in his spoken word approach to 'technology in his modern world'
He actually provides some amazing insights despite his appearance as just being a 'bum off the street'.
The moving track 'the preacher' get's the melodies floating again, simple acoustic strumming and haunting vocal work creates quite an atmosphere.
Next is probably the best track on the album 'Breathing light' moving orchestral strings and deep piano grooves roll along with an energetic DnB beat, the ethereal flute patterns just add to the brilliance of this instrumental masterpiece, One of Nitin's finest productions.
Developed' is a track again on the spoken word tip , with an aboriginal perspective on the world and how they as a culture are treated ' music is a universal language, it doesn't hold any prejudice' as is said.
This is followed by the wonderful 'footsteps' simply a children's choir singing- simple, if anything, but creates an amazing worldy atmosphere.
'Walk away' brings the album back into deep and emotional territory, haunting piano and lyrical work touching on the previous track footsteps, light orchestral and middle eastern touches create a truly beautiful song.
The album now takes quite a dark leap with 'cold and intimate' electronic synths and moody strings accompany a rousing vocal performance.
Breaking the dark mood is the street guru again, he continues his interesting view on technology...
this lighter atmosphere is shattered again when Nitin takes a heavy back seat ride into some confronting hip-hop, distorted guitars, heavy beats and gritty lyrical work sung in a style reminiscent of the prodigy's 'diesel power' it creates the most disturbing track on the album.
The extreme nature is then washed away with another of the best tracks on the album, actually the album's title track 'Prophesy' a choir builds, and accompanied with giant percussive sounds and middle Eastern instrumentation get's faster and faster until it's a sweeping high octane worldy masterpiece.

and then it ends.

Nitin Sawhney has achieved a great feat here, pulling together culture, instrumentation and mood's from almost every musical genre, it's a breathtaking journey across the world that only he could pull off in such spectacular fashion.
as the dictionary states- Prophesy: 'to foretell or predict'
If you want to hear the emotion and mood of culture in the future, this album is the closest you will get to the truth.

No, what still grates and prevents me from loving every moment of the record is the new stuff. Whereas the theme of Beyond Skin (nuclear proliferation and the threat of an atomic apocalypse) was well presented by quotes interacting excellently with the mood-piece songs, the theme of this album (the evils of technology) holds together less well (how on earth did he record the album, then?) and we are stuck listening to Street Guru, parts 1 and -God help us!- 2, in which an anonymous New York cab driver witters on about the joys of multiculturalism and the hope that we don't rely on technology too much in a stream of vague platitudes. A further track, 'Developed', has a similar format with an Australian Aborigine but is hardly as objectionable because he doesn't labour his point as much.

These tracks get in the way and break up some of Nitin's finest playing and mixing to date. I would just urge him to stick to genuinely affecting modern music with a political edge and to stop lecturing me. Nonetheless, a great record.