 Korla Pandit Falling somewhere between belly-dancing and baseball game organ music, Korla Pandit is one of the true weirdos that ever recorded an album. In the 50s, he had his own TV show, staring seductively at the camera while playing his organ (*ahem*), never speaking, allowing bored housewives all over the country to masturbate in the most Orientalist manner they could imagine. On record, Pandit's music comes across as Tchaikovsky by way of the Addams Family. Odyssey collects two albums (Music of the Exotic East and Latin Holiday) very much in the "spooky" and "mysterious" vein of Ed Wood movies and Yma Sumac albums. It's the sort of music that seems to be consciously trying to hypnotize the listener, succeeding about as well as one of your cheesy uncles at a birthday party full of ten-year-olds (that is, not very successfully). Pandit plays organ only, using different voicings and percussive effects to create opium den mood music, that is, if Starbucks opened up a chain of opium dens. The track listing mixes Pandit originals (mainly from The Exotic East) and covers of tunes like "Miserlou" and "Besame Mucho." The seventy-two minute running time can be a bit overlong depending on your mood, but lounge music fans will love Odyssey and all of its classic Korla. Apparently Korla still performed up until his death, though his late-period sound introduced synthesizers into the act for more of an easy listening/new age sound. Fortunately, there's CD's like this one to preserve the pre-soap opera soap opera music of Korla Pandit in all its beturbaned glory. It's also amusing to think that this comes from the same record label that gave us Creedence Clearwater Revival, mainly because it's always amusing to think of Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Review by Wimpsom Turl |