Meditation. Contemplation. It’s the Eastern way.

Writing, mathematics, logic and philosophy seek to define the physical and spiritual world around us. The differences in these definitions of the physical world lie within culture. For example, one culture defines beauty a certain way, while another 10,000 miles away defines it as else.

This difference in definition is fundamental to classifying one culture from another. Just as beauty is “in the eye of the beholder,” so too is music. What one may consider musical, another may regard as dissonance (“Temples” by Cheb i Sabbah, layers of arguing drums and vaulted voices).

The definition of the Asian Massive Sound is presented thusly: Peoples from a subcontinent, invaded several times throughout the ages by outsiders, discover themselves anew within a re-designed culture. Stretching hundreds of miles from other lands, conduits of “exploration” plunge deep into the fabric of their country. People and culture are re-defined, schooled in the “proper” ways of living: to classify, organize, and define within the established and accepted practices of the ruling class. These definitions may be antithetical to the prior way of life, which makes it difficult for the individual to cope. The only way to survive is to re-define the self within and without the surrounding definitions (“Ab Ke Baras” by the MIDIval PunditZ, a sensual bass line that destroys your preconceptions and rebuilds them in its own image).

So, a backWash into the system begins: people spilling into the conquerors’s lands, settling, re-defining, applying the lessons learned so well. Everywhere the conqueror went, so to did the conquered. Since the Manifest Destiny of the West was so massive, so too was the re-designing of cultures conquered on a massive scale. (“Jah Has Kool Girl” from Karsh Kale, melding the sounds Asian with French, Arabic, Spanish and African).

Indians had become part of the British Raj, which ended 55 years ago today. They went everywhere the British went. Settling on every corner of the globe, thousands of miles away from their homeland yet retaining their culture. After generations of this lifestyle, that retention changed to incorporate the shared past of conqueror and conquered, finding a middle-ground between a culture ruled by meditation and contemplation and one ruled by definition and classification. (“Insaan” by Zakhm, agressive whiplash beats meet eastern melodies).

Traveling through ancient conduits of exploration, we reach back to the mother land.

Back to Source. This is the Massive.

This summer will be seeing even more compilations squeezed into the narrow “pan-asian” box, and this is one you may want to spend your hard-earned flow on since it features cuts and remixes that you won’t find elsewhere for at least ten months (give or take a week).

Opening with Banco de Gaia’s mix of Karsh’s “Distance,”Asian Travels 2 journeys on to deliver sublime hits such as the Mantra mix of Makyo’s classic “Devadasi” and the PunditZ’ “Aaja re,” along with exclusive tracks from Karsh Kale (a sweet downbeat version of “Deepest Blue”), Govinda and Jairamji.

This compilation marks the PundtZ’ US debut, with a full album to be released in September. Big Ups Gaurav and Tapan, it’s about time… and speaking of shouts, this comp is dedicated by the 6D crew to George Harrison….All in all, Asian Travels 2 may not be as groundbreaking as the original, but the it proves the art of Indotronic Vibology™ is as refined as ever.

…So, please, stop calling it a “concept.”