phenomeNEWS - This Month's Music Review

This Month's Music Review
by Greg Ozimek
music@wwnet.net

Welcome to your life!

Happy new year 2006!

No negative reviews?

“You don’t ever write negative reviews?”

“That’s right,” I said over lunch last week. And then, surprisingly, I was cornered to justify why.

“There’s so much good music out there, why spend time on recordings that aren’t really good?”

Blank stare. Silence. Then, “But your readers won’t know what not to buy.”

“Oh, they’ll know (I hope! There’s nothing like buying a CD and finding out you don’t like it).

“I review music that has the best ‘feelings,’ even music that is not the best technically but has such redeeming qualities that you want to listen to it again and again because it transports you to somewhere you want or like, to be.

“The music albums I review are also new recordings they might miss so I let them know about it very early in the new music’s life. There are over 100,000 new CDs produced every year and there has to be a filtering process for finding and picking new music to listen to.

“I review music that resonates with and from, your heart and soul in life supporting ways.

“I hope my reviews point everyone to new music, to new groups to explore and to a lifetime of great feelings.”

It all distills down to three words: Like attracts like; and when we buy music we listen to that music over and over and over and even the subtlest nuances become ingrained in our very being – resonating from the depths of our souls. Music, i.e., the sounds, words, impressions which make up the music, that doesn’t support our very Being, life and the positive growth of life support some other things that don’t nurture the delicate nature of life and, really, who wants that?!

My friend let up by saying, “Well, if you mention why you don’t write negative reviews, it’s OK then.”

Oh. OK!

If I ever needed a reminder of these tenants being true it came yesterday. I had the most amazing pleasure and experience listening to a double DVD album that (literally) someone had put together.

I have my copy and have to say it is not commercially available, it’s not in distribution. But I have my copy and wow! I mention it here to further illustrate how subtle feelings go a very long way to securing a life we want.

None of the four hours is in English, it’s all in Vedic Sanskrit (not just Sanskrit, but an even more ancient version of that language: Vedic Sanskrit – which goes back 6,000 plus years).

The soundtrack is chanting mainly by four skilled Vedic monks who have such a skill developed that their voices sound like chords instead of individual notes and then sometimes a distinct, new (or “other”) voice emerges in the sonic listening sphere (too cool).

Talk about being transported somewhere! The DVD is of pujas which are performed by an old spiritual guru who may be still alive and the Vedic pundits chanting (like) the lead vocals.

I wasn’t expecting anything as I sat through and listened to each puja, some were quite long, but the result was transforming and I can only relate it back to the experiences I had a few years ago when I was at the rear of Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor (University of Michigan) watching the Dalai Lama perform a (puja) ceremony to the Buddhist goddess Tara. I had no idea what he was doing with the beautiful, colorful scarfs and all of his monks up on stage, but I do know what I felt and saw and what I saw was more than what was physically on stage!

Each ancient Vedic puja to several different Vedic deities had similar effects.

When you have a choice of reviewing or playing music that makes you feel awesome, uplifts your spirit, makes your being smile and jump out and say “Yes!” or to review or play sounds that don’t... is there really a choice? Go for the gusto of course!

And what a way to start off a new year! Happy New Year 2006! There are days (OK, maybe months in your case) to go to your next birthday! and only 6 years to go to find out what happens on December 21, 2012! the day the Mayan calendar ends. Remember, as the prophet said, “... nah, live for today and don’t worry about tomorrow.”