Music review: Ethnic meets electric in DJ Ravin’s Buddha-Bar XIV

With its characteristic repetitive beats always placing eargasm just out of reach, endless tracks, and songs that sound so much alike, the appeal of house music can be difficult to explain to people who are not lovers of the genre to begin with. But with the way famous DJs now choose to incorporate many other styles and genres of music such as rock, dubstep, and soul into the typical house music mix, the genre is no longer locked into that long-playing “sirang plaka” track that it has come to be stereotyped as.   In the case of Paris-based DJ Ravin, it is a potent mix of world music, soul, and electronica that keeps his listeners captivated. He spins this blend, which has come to be his signature, in the album “Buddha-Bar XIV”. It’s the latest installment in the eponymous bar’s extensive music collection. The album was launched in Buddha-Bar’s Manila branch last June, with DJ Ravin himself behind the decks, playing like a god at the center of the bar overlooking the dance floor. Patrons—which included everyone from expats to local models, and even a senior who danced like he was twenty years old—looked like they had lost themselves in the music. As with the albums that came before it, this new one contains two discs to satisfy both the lounge and the club aspects of the world-famous bar. The first disc, Dhimsa, contains 16 tracks whose downbeat tunes are fit for lulling listeners into a captivating trance. The second disc, Bhangra, contains 14 tracks with a quicker tempo and more energetic beats that will jolt the unsuspecting listener out of their relaxed state and in to a dancing frenzy. The heavy Indian influence in this album overrides its Turkish and Mediterranean flavors. This is evident from the get-go, with the first track on the first disc “Dari Lullaby,” opening slowly via a mystical keyboard solo and soaring vocals. As the pace quickens subtly in the following tracks, the Indian sound is sustained through the layering of a host of instruments including the flute, chimes and various other percussions, even the sitar. With its laidback feel, the tracks on the first disc sound much too spacey at times, but at its best, the songs are a tranquil, intoxicating, and sensual escape to another world. The second disc continues the Indian soul that underlies the compilation, but this time, the pace accelerates to a tempo that inspires tarantism. The intro on its first track, “Umma” grows like a sky turning gold at sunset—gradual but not plodding, and ultimately arresting. How the song unfolds is something of an awakening—the instrumental track is layered first with the echoes of playing children and running water, and then a male vocal solo, and then the percussions, so that by the end it becomes a dance-worthy tune that sets the bar for the tracks that follow. Some songs sound decidedly more like the usual house music, but even the slightest hint of a world music fusion takes the track to the next level, such as in “La Litanie des Saints,” where something that sounds like a violin solo a quarter of the way in jolts the song out of its monotony. Ultimately, while the album may still alienate those who are not familiar with the relatively obscure genre that is house music, Buddha-Bar XIV’s heady mix of the ethnic and electric makes for a sound that is certainly more appealing than your regular house track—one that is at once romantic and scientific, a perfect marriage of ancient charm and digital clarity. — DVM, GMA News