Welcome to the new exotica, rubbed to a techno sheen. ‘Lost at Last’ loses
"Lost at Last"
itself in mediocrity
Lost at Last (Windham Hill)
Review by Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comNext Tuesday marks the national release by a "techno-tribal-dance band" with its origins on Maui. Led by the trio of guitarist Deva Priyo, singer Jaya Lakshmi and keyboard programmer Om, Lost at Last has made the successful transition of being first popular on the Valley Isle, then making a name for itself by touring throughout the western United States.
With its attempts in blending tribal world music with techno and ambient dance textures, it's no surprise LAL has found an audience with ravers, Deadheads and other like-spirited New Age hippies on Maui and elsewhere.
The CD is a good, at worst adequate, representation of the band's sound, but I suspect LAL's real strength lies in performance. Playing expansive outdoor music festivals or at the annual neo-tribal-anarchist gathering known as the Burning Man Festival held at the end of the month in the Black Rock desert of Nevada, Lost at Last delivers its trance-inducing vibe "decorated in their trademark fluorescent makeup and flowing white robes, (appearing) under black light as ephemeral spirits," as its publicity copy describes. Presentation is everything, especially if the band promises a life-changing experience.
But you're not going to find it here, although you can't fault LAL for trying. Two of the longer tracks, "Sufi Groove" and "Radhe Jaya Jaya," typify the group's taking traditional devotional music and "modifying and augmenting" it with rave dance flourishes. "Sufi Groove" probably blisses out ravers when done live, with its hammered dulcimer sounds punctuating the ambient feel (although Priyo's rock guitar solo is a bit out of place). "Radhe Jaya Jaya's" Valsnava prayer sung by Lakshmi is offset nicely by Priyo's electric sitar, all overlaid by Om's techno beats.
But on a track like "Mira," the techno bleeps sound superfluous on what could've been a pleasant Latin number without the "modification."
The rest of this new exotica has already been done by groups like Enigma and Savage Garden, and LAL doesn't necessarily improve on it. But you'll be taken on a quick worldwide tour of ethnic beats and sounds, whether they be American Indian, flamenco, Indian, Latin or Krishna chants. To these ears, it all sounds like "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none," earnestly performed but far from altering this particular reviewer's consciousness.
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